Sonic Frontiers Is The First Sonic Game I Want To Play Since Dreamcast

Allow me to save everyone some time. I’m not going to tell you the size of Sonic’s shoes in Sonic Frontiers. I can’t tell you Amy’s relationship status – I don’t even know who she is besides being the cute pink one. And I’m certainly not an expert on Sonic games.

But I can tell you that Sonic Frontiers is the first entry in the series I’ve been looking forward to since the Dreamcast.  

As a reference, when I first got excited about playing a 3D Sonic title, it was at the Dreamcast kiosk near my target. To be honest, I was excited to see the Sonic Adventure demo’s orca leaping over the track. 

Fast forward 20 years, and I’m sitting in a behind-closed-doors Gamescom appointment to play Sonic Frontiers for the first time. While I’m not a fan of the series, I’ve always liked the concept of the games. I enjoy modern music. I love to go fast. I also like Green Hill Zone. 

The second zone, Ares Island is where I begin my hands-on sessions. It’s a giant desert with stone ruins and rollercoaster-like tracks scattered across the massive dunes. In some areas floating platforms rise into the air. These are the many obstacles populating the open zones of Frontiers, designed to test Sonic’s traversal and combat abilities. Sonic is a pleasure to control. His air dash is a great way to link together multiple traversal combinations to reach distant platforms. I also love the blurred objects that appear in front of me as I go by. Most importantly, I am in complete control of my surroundings.

What makes Sonic unique? Why is this so exciting? It has a lot to do with Frontiers’ new approach to levels – open zones. Brian Shea also sparked interest in me with his. excellent cover story. 

One of my main gripes with past releases is that Sonic’s speed often made it hard to see what’s ahead. I appreciate Frontiers’s more extensive, open-level designs because it’s easy to see obstacles in advance and adequately maneuver around them. Also, there’s always a curiosity on the horizon I want to explore. While I am zooming through the desert I notice a hidden installation in the distance. It is there, and I race to it. Suddenly, I realize this isn’t a building or another common challenge – this is an enormous boss I’ve awakened.

I am hit with huge discs when the mechanical being launches them at me. After doing a quick dodge, I leap onto the rings and begin grinding them. A trail of sparks follow my feet as I skate around the ring’s circumference, eventually transforming the rail to pure white. Next, I move to the next, higher ring. Then I repeat the procedure again. 

Sonic eventually lands on a higher, much larger set of rails protecting the boss’s vulnerable center. The giant machine starts firing lasers and turns the pathway ahead into a trap. This marks the beginning of an incredibly cool – and tense – experience requiring plenty of jumps, dodges, and rail switches.

Dance music begins to whirl in my ears as I speed around the perimeter – jumping, dodging, and switching rails as I slowly lower the monolith’s defenses. I finally activate every ring and the defense system crashes, leaving the robot’s core wide open for a flurry of attacks. 

As I pummel the boss’ life bar down to zero I begin to have a creeping suspicion that perhaps I’ve made a grave mistake. Maybe Sonic games are good, actually, and I’ve missed out on decades of fun. With little time left in my demo, I sequester my doubts and race off into the sands – there’s a lot to discover in Sonic Frontiers, and I’m just getting started.