Sonic Frontiers - More Footage (Freerun, Battle, Puzzle)

Sonic Frontiers: more footage and some screenshots

Sonic Frontiers: more footage and some screenshots

13 June 2022

This holiday season, the latest game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series will be released on Nintendo Switch: Sonic Frontiers. Developed by Sonic Team, this game is radically different from past 3D Sonic games, foregoing the usual linear levels and instead offering an “Open Zone” experience à la The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

An experience like never before, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high velocity open-zone freedom. Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands – landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more!

Earlier this month, SEGA shared some footage via IGN, and the game was even playable at Summer Game Fest last week. And today, the company has shared some more footage for the game for you to check out.

We get to see 3 of the key gameplay elements of Sonic Frontiers, namely:

• Freerunning
• Battles
• Puzzles

Here’s the footage:

EDIT:

damn it...sonic belden ring

Could use some polishing.

Still, looks more fun than Starfield.

If they get the flow and momentum right, I could see this game getting an 8.

4/10 looking game. My god the combat looks brain dead.

The combat system looks promising. It looks like an improvement over previous Sonic games (more strategy rather than one-hit kills), and better than the brainless trash combat in most other open-world AAA games (e.g. GTA, Witcher, Ubisoft and Bethesda games).

Sega's footage also looks faster-paced than IGN's footage, which looked really slow. The traversal looks more fun than in the earlier footage (reminds me of the PS1 classic Jumping Flash).

But still, there's something missing from the world, which looks and sounds dull and lifeless compared to previous linear Sonic games. I've heard there's linear levels which you unlock, so I'm hoping the linear levels look and sound better.

Seems like there's some momentum in places, but overall it's still relying on the boost mechanics of the 3D Sonic games, and less on the momentum mechanics of 2D Sonic.

The open world has that realistic boring look to it. I mean make it more cartoony like an actual Sonic game.

@girlusocrazy: When you talked about "realism" in Super Mario Odyssey, you are referring to the Cascade Kingdom (which is not the first Kingdom that Mario visited, but actually the second)?

What the hell are these enemies??

Rocks? ROCKS?!?!

@girlusocrazy: I agree 💯 enemies are horrible. Colors are flat. I'm thinking flop.

That looks awful. Getting serious Sonic ‘06 vibes. The combat looks so tedious. The puzzles look like a joke. The camera is janky and unyielding. The art design is a mess. The world looks boring. Nevertheless, some of the gameplay segments looked fun. But like… all they need to do is just take the 3D sections from Generations and up the spectacle. Why did they look at Zelda and say “Yup, we need THAT”? Why do they keep f***ing up 3D Sonic?!?!

It looks really slow though. Why put Sonic in it?

The inconsistency is weird. The more 3D the Sonic game the slower he becomes. We see a movie or a cut scene of him blazing around and then we get games where he looks like he's going for a jog.

I'm reserving judgement on it... I really want this to be good.

Doesnt seem that much slower than say... Sonic Adventure 2, which is generally considered the best of the 3d sonic games. Sonic went too fast in later 3d games, and this really came at the expense of hte platforming. This is if anything, more of a return to roots.

Maybe, but when I play as Sonic, I just have an expectation of speed. So for me it's just weird.

That's what the modern 3D Sonic "boost" games are about (since Sonic Unleached). But before Unleached, that's not exactly what Sonic was about. The OG trilogy and Adventure games were about platforming and exploration, first and foremost. The speed was a reward, not the be-all and end-all of the Sonic experience.

They need to cancel this game.

If they went open world, why not an open world Green Hills?!?! Something with color and style. This world looks boring and generic. Sonic has always been big on style!

This game is depressing…

In speaking of "realism," what do you think of the T-Rex appearing in the Cascade Kingdom? In the cartoony world of Super Mario, its appearance seems out of place just like some gamers said about Solid Snake appearing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl more than a decade ago.

Oh great, they put in tower climbing which will probably be a feature to unlock more of the map or to complete some other side quest. Yay, just what we all wanted. And not at all copying Assasshole's Creed or BOTW. Don't forget to scatter collectables around the map too while you're at it.

The problem with most open world games is they are boring and generic. Often the base map is procedurally generated after inputting some variables like max and minimum terrain height, noise, etc. Then place assets and points of interest around that in lieu of creating an interesting, fleshed out environment. And like I said in my post above a lot of the content in this game, as is the case in every open world game, is much of it will be a scavenger hunt, tower climb, or something we've already seen implemented in dozens of open world games.

The very nature of open world games to me has become stale and boring. Especially when nobody really ever does anything different with them.

When I was young, I loved Sonic 1-Knuckles. Sonic wasnt much faster than Mario, in fact, the european version of Sonic was arguably running slower than Mario (due to a technical issue). The emphasis, was generally on platforming.

Me too. In fact, I thought Sonic was better when the games focused on Platforming over speed, that is why I am cautiously hopeful for this game. I am hoping it is a return to form where Sonic focuses on Clever platforming. In fact, from what I hear, this game has subzones (Shrines in BotW, Linear Segments in Odyssey), which are built on linearity and more dedicated platforming.

This might be the worst upcoming title that is currently announced. It doesn't look like game. This thing looks like an engine demo for a game that was supposed to come out in 2007. No way this is getting more than a 5/10.

I dunno looks way better than starfield ;)

At least this game seems to be trying something new. Starfield just looks to mash TES with Fallout without much care or thought.

What you just said is everything Sonic needs to get away from.

"Up the spectacle"? That would just mean keeping in line with Unleashed, Colours, Generations etc. Sonic needs to go back to his roots of actual platforming and not everything being an on rails speed fest.

It's like people don't know, or forget, Sonic was an excellent platformer with many methodical platforming sections.

People love Bethesda style games, and you can clearly see this from their sales. This Sonic game looks so bad that it doesn't look like an actual video game a dev would be charging money for. You know what this thing reminds me off of? A god damn demo that came on a disc from the 2006 Official Xbox Magazine😂Everything shown looks downright pathetic. "Looks bad" is simply not enough to describe what i am seeing.

I really nope this new Sonic game launches around the time the Netflix Sonic Prime releases as I can see it riding the hype train with Netflix.

Like @hrt_rulz01 said, I too want this to be good as I'm still a Sonic fanboy.

We have games such as the Callisto Protocol and then we have this thing. Damn some developers are clueless af.

People love Justin Bieber songs and Kpop, and you can clearly see this from their sales.

Doesnt mean they are any good. Or have much in the way of artistic merit. This game has a lot of potential if it is ironed out. And some parts of that looked legit entertaining. Even the ubisoft towers werent so bad since they were built on the game's platforming.

@Maroxad: What the hell is a Bieber? Must be one of those gen z popstars?

Nobody cares what an 11y girl likes. Bieber and a style of a game is a bad analogy. This Sonic title looks like the worse we've seen from a 3D Sonic title, and that says a lot.

Nobody cares what RPG fans like. They wouldn't know what depth and challenge meant even if it hit them in the face.

I would argue the platforming here looks really good for a 3D Sonic Game. Slowing down sonic to Adventure levels was a brilliant move.

lol wut? If you don't care what people want, and release some random crap (Metroid Dread being a perfect example), nobody will care about your game. Instead, Starfield will do as well as Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

The game looks like an early 360 title. Don't know where you're seeing anything approaching "really good" anything.

Metroid Dread is the best selling entry in the franchise. Try again.

Just because it doesnt sell as well as Skyrim doesnt mean it sold poorly. I would rather have a game with actual mechanical depth over another mediocre RPG that has a skill ceiling buried underground. Sales be damned.

As for this game. I dont know if it will be good just yet. But If they are willing to tap into what people loved about Sonic Adventure. I think the 3D sonic games could actually be well liked again. But even if it ends up mediocre, it will still be better than the garbage that is starfield.

I'm baffled how anyone could argue open-world games from the likes of Bethesda or Ubisoft have better gameplay mechanics than what we've seen so far in Sonic Frontiers... Open-world traversal and combat mechanics in Bethesda/Ubisoft games are a bore-fest. But here, the open-world traversal actually looks fun (lots of boosting, jumping and wizzing around) and the combat actually looks like it has some depth (enemy encounters require some strategy). The only real issue with the mechanics is the lack of momentum physics, but that hasn't really been a thing in 3D Sonic for over 20 years. Also, we haven't yet seen the unlocked linear levels, which are apparently similar to previous 3D Sonic games.

The main issue with Sonic Frontiers is not the gameplay (it's been getting some positive feedback in the last day or two). The main issue is clearly the art direction. It's basically the Ugly Sonic backlash all over again. The problem with the original planned Sonic movie was not the writing, but the art direction which tried to make Sonic look realistic. Likewise, the problem with Sonic Frontiers is not the gameplay, but the art direction which makes the world look and sound a bit too realistic.

Also...

J-pop > K-pop

Combat in Bethesda games means shooting or bashing the enemy over until they fall, use stimpacks/potions/healing spells if your HP goes low.

In this combat looks a bit more involved, rough as it may be, it does look significantly more technical than what Ubisoft or Bethesda do. Open World Traversal looks really good. After how braindead open world traversal is in most open world games, this is really refreshing.

I wont argue that. K-Pop is trash, and the artists are horribly mistreated.

My question is, this is clearly the first world. I wonder how the remaining worlds will look like. Normally, sonic games tend to really ramp up the platforming in later stages.

Best entry in the franchise when Nintendo isn't making any for 10 years? Impressive. Last time a real Metroid came out, gaming was tiny compared to what it is now.

Then you should stay far away from Bethesda titles. But then again, when a game offers depth (ER), you moan about it being the shittiest game you've played lol. In reality, what you're asking for is a game with a NINTENDO logo on the box. If it doesn't have it, its a shit game.

And this is not about the "if it turns out mediocre", but how mediocre it'll be. My best guess is that the mediocrity will be at a stage 3, which is a 5/10.

It is funny seeing people oversimplify the gameplay of one game to justify another, when the same over simplification can be applied the same game.😂

Lol, the last RPG to offer depth was Crusader Kings 3. Elden Ring was more on the execution side over player expression. It lacks mechanics, combos, limits you to a single skill per weapon, and most weapons are so poorly balanced most people just end up spamming one or 2 attacks over and over. Especially strength builds.

But you would know this if you actually played good action games.

Elden Ring offered everything, but its still a shit game for you because its not a Nintendo exclusive. Like imagine asking combos in a Fromsoft title, when you know damn well its not about combos. What's next? You're gonna ask rocket launchers in a Forza game? Your critisim of the game is getting worse by the day, and to be perfectly honest with you, i am worried.

Yeah... that is totally why I defended Halo Infinite and just praised a PC exclusive (Crusader Kings 3).

I am asking for good combat, that is all. And this thread concerns Sonic, so why dont you bring up that game somewhere else? I would like to forget that game ever existed. Just like I try to do with every other massive disappointment.

This sonic game has better combat than a lot of open world games. Instead of just spamming homing attack, players need to do a variety of things. And looks to have much better combat than Starfield too, which admittedly isnt saying a lot. Still not good, but the platforming looks fun.

All Souls titles have a very good combat system. The earlier ones felt more clunky, obviously, but still better than the majority of what rpg's offer. You praise Zelda, but it has the most simplistic of the combat systems. So much so its as if it was a mobile game.

I don't know what you're on about, but the combat shown in Sonic Frontiers is as bad as i've seen a game having. I don't even want to believe that you're praising this garbage. No way.

I am saying that the combat looks good in comparison to the likes of Ubisoft or Bethesda crap. It is fairly meh in the grand scheme.

It is almost like you are expecting a Sonic game to play like a Sonic game. How ridiculous of you.😋