Could Sonic Frontiers Finally Solve Sega’s ‘Sonic Problem’?

Sonic has perpetually been Sonic’s ‘problem child’. The studio doesn’t ever really seem like they know what to do with the blue hedgehog- which is seen especially when you look at his more recent outings. Sonic Forces (released in 2017) was widely panned for its basic gameplay, dull story and disappointing return of fan favourite villains for what amounts to nothing in the end. The biggest criticism, however, is the ‘boost’ formula that Sega clings to like a helpless addict. Barring Lost World, every 3D Sonic outing since 2008 has used the ‘boost’ gameplay. This generally consists of holding forward and occasionally moving left or right. While there are some tweaks along the way, this has been pretty much is for the last 14 years. As it’s gone on, it’s gotten more stale and disliked. When there’s nothing else to the formula, and the story has definitely not been pulling its weight, a lot of people have written off the franchise at this point.

But it’s not just the more recent Sonic games that have been, well, below average to say the least. The infamous ‘Sonic 06’,as it’s been pegged as by fans, was what a lot of people (especially Sonic fans) saw as the one of the worst games ever made. When it released, Sonic 06 was a buggy mess with a story that was… let’s just say it missed the mark- by a lot. This was really the downfall of the series, which has led to this entry (which is an objectively poor game) being now deemed actually okay compared to newer games in the series. Needless to say, most 3D sonic games have been disappointing and just bad. Really, there’s no other word for it. But wait- what about Sonic: Mania. This 2D outing was loved as a return to form for the blue hedgehog. Two small problems though- this was not part of the 3D generic boost formula, and it wasn’t made by Sega. It was published by them, but made by fans of the original trilogy of releases from the 90s. In the grand scheme of talking about Sega’s handling of Sonic, this is unfortunately not something that can be taken into account.

So, this doesn’t exactly look hopeful for Sonic: Frontiers does it? Despite this, there have been growing hopes that perhaps this entry will break the curse that has haunted the franchise for over a decade. Yesterday, Gamescom 2022 opening night showcased a new trailer for Sonic: Frontiers, and it looks fine enough. At least there’s no weird human love interest this time around. The trailer mainly focused around an evil futuristic looking AI-esque being who can’t be hurt by Sonic’s attacks. We are lacking context, so it remains to be seen if the story is anything noteworthy. As for the gameplay, the team have noted that this is to be an ‘open-zone’ game as opposed to open world. Really, this seems to mean that each open world section is split up into smaller bite-size bits. This isn’t a bad thing- especially for a Sonic game, as otherwise the player would just be able to run from one end of the map to the other in a matter of seconds.

Its world seems to be going for a Breath of the Wild aesthetic and theme with very little music and huge, empty plains just begging to be explored. The issue here is that the way Sonic plays probably won’t work very well in this setting. Sonic is all about speed and cinematic moments- something a world like this could provide but it’s emptiness will likely lack what made the latest Zelda entry special. There are random rails to grind on that will certainly add elevation to Sonic’s movement but they don’t really fit with the world that is being shown. This could change as we are shown more diverse elements of these ‘open zones’ (since we’ve only really seen the classic but dull grassy plains so far), but I’m sceptical on a lot of things with this game. The story looks lacklustre, the ‘innovation’ seems like it may be surface level, and the way Sonic moves looks no different to the boost formula so many have grown to dislike. It’s not looking too great for Sonic’s newest outing.

Of course, as with any game, we’ll just have to wait until we get our hands on the newest Sonic adventure. We can hope that the trend of poor Sega-directed outings in the franchise will be broken. However, given the amount of chances they’ve had, I’m not going to hold my breath. Sonic Frontiers is confirmed for a November 8 2022 release date- just a day before God of War: Ragnarök…