Sonic Frontiers Reviews
Bloated world design doesn't take away from the thrilling high of zooming through a landscape at mach speeds, nailing a good time on a platforming challenge or catching a comically large fish in Big's fishing minigame. There's just not much else to hang onto here. Sorry, Sonic fans: your malaise continues.
Whatever this game is, it should provide a solid framework for the developers at Sonic Team to take and improve upon in the next Sonic game, whatever that may be.
The open-world adventure is brilliant in terms of input and response at the expense of any discernible logic
Sonic Frontiers is so frustrating because it was so close to greatness. Despite the story weirdness, I did genuinely enjoy Kronos Island. The mechanics and feeling of speed were great, the levels were fantastic (this carries across the whole game), and the boss fight was absolutely incredible. But then you fly off to Ares Island, something shoots you scattering the Chaos Emeralds, and you crash land realizing that you have to do everything you just did all over again. It’s at that exact point the game falls apart and it never recovers because it pulls this nonsense two more times.
Sonic Frontiers may not be the most polished from SEGA’s most popular series, but it carries itself respectfully into a new generation with hopes that we may see Sonic return with a promising escapade that may be more flourished than what had been promised here.
What Sonic Frontiers has in potential in everything it introduces to the long-standing franchise is immediately lost in the way it’s all executed. Poor environments and a less-than-stellar gameplay loop derail the entire experience to a crawl.
The game has oodles of vision and ambition but not enough polish to make it truly inviting, especially when released into a stacked calendar.
Sonic Frontiers is a fascinating move into open world for the Sonic franchise. It's frequently flawed, and doesn't always match the heights of Sonic's best games. But the fact that it occasionally does reach those highs, while offering a totally new experience, is pretty impressive, and leaves Sonic Team with a strong foundation to improve upon.
Messy, overcomplicated and slow to start, but fun once it picks up speed.
Sonic Frontiers could have been a great chance to bring fresh ideas and mechanics into Sonic (open) world, but, unfortunately, the result it's an unbalanced experience. The open world is quite shallow and empty, while technicallywise the game is unpolished. Anyway, the frantic Sonic experience is still there and the classic stages are blessed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sonic Frontiers is a bold new move for our favourite hedgehog. The open worlds give a sense of freedom and there is a lot to do. Unfortunately the most of it is the mandatory collecting of a lot of stuff to progress through the game. The controls feel good, but at higher speeds they won't always work and the camera is a total disaster. This makes the game way less enjoyable than it should be.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Open world Sonic should have happened a long time ago. One can only hope that they decide to give it another shot. Should that ever happen, we can just hope that they learn their lessons making this one. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a new Sonic game or are interested in a light single player experience, you could do worse than Sonic Frontiers. You could probably do better, but you could definitely do worse too.
SEGA has decided to give the series a bold swerve, veering toward today's top genres, but without betraying the spirit that has distinguished it since its early days. Although with a very problematic technical compartment, the title manages to entertain and engage, thanks to the freedom granted and the spectacular staging in the most concussive sections. Hopefully, this path taken by the Japanese software house will allow the blue hedgehog to hurtle toward a bright future. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sonic Frontiers is a flawed but fun title that introduces some new ideas that could bring the Blue Blur back to the spotlight, namely the open world and combat, that are satisfying enough and might be expanded in future titles where they can be fully realized.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Sonic Frontiers is without a doubt a step forward for the series, the "Open Zone" style direction can be polished, expanded and bring future good games, as well as the game's attempt to bring a tighter and well-written plot is very welcome. However, for every step the title takes in the right direction, there are elements that impede its brilliance, such as the Cyberspace sections and the level design inconsistent in quality. The bottom line is a feeling that we're playing a proof of concept for a great future game rather than an already fully creatively conceived product.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Sonic Frontiers could serve as the exciting basis for future Sonic titles. It has some definite issues, but Frontiers does a lot more right than it does wrong. I’m very excited to see the future of Sonic the Hedgehog, as Frontiers could be the first step towards a new era of the blue blur.
Despite a very rough start and many technical issues is Sonic Frontiers a game that we thoroughly enjoyed. It may very well be an odd form of Stockholm syndrome, being enchanted by the cringe-worthy voice acting, the absurd story, all mixed with some of the best gameplay flow the sonic games ever had in the third dimension. As soon as some of the big boss battles hit, the game shows that it’s much more than just a cheap imitation of Breath of the Wild. A full recommendation however isn’t possible with the technical state the game released in. A few patches are desperately needed for fix some of the glitches and underwhelming textures and animations.
Review in German | Read full review
Sonic Frontiers is a fascinating game, mostly because of how little it actually feels like the rest of the series. The game’s marketing has called it an “evolution” of the Sonic formula, and that’s certainly accurate, but it’s still hampered by some growing pains. Sublime exploration and intuitive mechanics constantly clash with Sonic Frontiers’ insistence on introducing mandatory mini-games and one-off gimmicks, many of which simply aren’t engaging.
Sonic Frontiers will be unable to return Sonic to the videogame Olympus, but it's not like it needs to. After all, the hedgehog has already transcended as a cultural icon in other fields of entertainment. What it does do is restore dignity to a franchise that went from the top to embarrassment. It's refreshing to try a Sonic that evokes the best moments of Sonic Adventure to remind us that SEGA's hedgehog is a gaming icon for a reason.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, while Sonic Frontiers has its fair share of issues, I can honestly and confidently say that it is the best Sonic game I've played and one that provides a ton of fun throughout.