Ah, Sonic. Everyone’s favourite speedy blue hedgehog is without a doubt one of gaming’s most iconic characters, and from those first outings on the SEGA Genesis doing what Nintendon’t (or Nintendidn’t, rather?) to his more recent adventures, it’s undeniable that his legacy is massive. Even if not all his 3D games are exactly works of art.
Up to now though, all the Sonic games, be it 2D or 3D, have all had one thing in common - they’ve all been linear. Send Sonic hurtling down a track as fast as his little legs can carry him, collect rings, stomp on enemies and eventually get to that big shiny goal ring at the end. However, the upcoming title Sonic Frontiers just got its first gameplay trailer, and things are looking very different.
Take a look at Sonic Frontiers’ gameplay trailer right here.
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That’s right - Frontiers is going to be our very first open-world-style Sonic game. Well, as reported by GameSpot, SEGA are dubbing it “open-zone”, which is certainly more in-keeping with the franchise. If you’d have asked me before seeing this if open-world could work in any fashion for our dear hedgehog, I’d frankly have had very little faith in the idea, but honestly? This genuinely looks incredible.
Even though the footage is only about 30 seconds long, there’s still so much to unpack here - we even see a short glimpse of what combat looks like, which also looks really different to any Sonic game that’s come before. Also, can we talk about the music? ‘Sonic’ and ‘peaceful piano’ would never have been two things that my brain would put together, but hey, I dig it.
There’s currently no release date for Sonic Frontiers, but it’s set to release sometime this year. With not-E3 season fast approaching (well, it’s practically upon us), hopefully we’ll be seeing even more of it soon.