Sonic Frontiers

A high-speed open-zone Sonic outing whose freedom to roam and explore quickly curdles into empty grassy expanses, invisible walls, and clumsy platforming where you trip on stairs and get stuck. Combat is button-mashy and unclear, temples feel copy-pasted, and the open world reads more sparse than liberating despite the promise of running wherever you like.

Sonic Team has found a formula that could work in future games, but this is not there yet. It's an ambitious proof of concept with terrible technical performance, bland visuals, and half-baked level design.

A pleasantly surprising open-world Sonic that is more fun than expected, feeling like a promising prototype of a great formula. Running around and tackling obstacle courses is genuinely thrilling and the soundtrack slaps, but it is held back by janky combat and bosses, rough visuals, terrible pop-in, and stilted dialogue. Refined further, it could become something special.

A genuine return to form for the franchise that feels like a Sonic Adventure 3, blending large open-world hubs with classic fast cyberspace levels and Super Mario Odyssey-style design freedom. Standout strengths are an exceptional soundtrack, a more serious and improved story, satisfying platforming-focused exploration, flexible combat, and a tight, impactful skill tree. Weaknesses are minor: noticeable pop-in, floating rails that bother some players, and a default 4K mode that should be 60fps.

A genuine mixed bag where the open-world format finally softens Sonic's punishing linearity, since falling off just lands you somewhere new. The core collect-a-thon gameplay and some combat ideas can be fun, but the world feels incoherent with grind rails randomly sprinkled about, the upgrade tree is pointless, and mandatory minigames plus frustrating time-limited giant boss fights spoil the momentum. Sonic Team still doesn't know when to quit while ahead.

Sonic Frontiers: Mixed open-world Sonic — bold but uneven combat.

An ambitious and enjoyable improvement for the series with fresh open-world design, though sloppy boss battles and familiar mechanics prevent it from reaching true greatness.

I think they basically figured out 3D Sonic though. And I think that a lot of people are gonna play it and like it.