Some feature unique challenges, such as a fishing minigame hosted by Big the Cat. The linear levels, which shift between third-person and side-scrolling perspectives, contain multiple goals, including time attack and collecting red rings, and reward players with a key required to collect a Chaos Emerald. Bosses provide the player with pieces of a portal that, when assembled, allow them to enter "Cyber Space"-short, linear levels similar to those from previous Sonic games. Alongside regular, small enemies, the player battles large bosses that they must scale to attack. Defeating enemies grants the player experience points that allow them to purchase additional abilities.
The player battles robots lead by the mysterious new villain Sage throughout the islands Sonic can dodge and parry attacks and use the Cyloop to make enemies easier to strike. The main quest takes 20–30 hours to finish, while finding all collectibles takes as much as 60 hours.
Collectibles include Kocos, which upgrade Sonic's moveset, and Memory Tokens, which are used to rescue Sonic's friends. The player explores the islands as they scale towers in platforming challenges to reveal parts of the map, and solve puzzles, including orienting statues and speedrunning, to collect items. The open world retains traditional Sonic elements, such as springs, boost pads, and grind rails. The Starfall Islands act as the series' first open world, which writers compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017). The player can customize the controls and adjust Sonic's speed, turning, acceleration, and resistance, and can upgrade Sonic's speed, attacks, defense, and ring capacity as they progress. New abilities include combat attacks, running alongside walls, and using the Cyloop to create a circle of light around objects and interact with them. The player can double jump, sidestep using their gamepad's shoulder buttons, and boost with the right trigger if they have enough energy. Sonic retains his abilities from previous Sonic the Hedgehog games: he runs at high speeds, collects rings, grinds on rails, and homes in on enemies to attack. An artificial intelligence guides the player as they seek to collect the Chaos Emeralds and find Sonic's friends. The story begins when Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose are sucked through a wormhole and Sonic is lost on a mysterious island, separated from Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. The player, as Sonic, explores the Starfall Islands, which comprise various biomes including flowery fields, forests, ancient ruins, and deserts. Sonic Frontiers is a 3D platformer and action-adventure game. Sonic engages in combat with robots in the open world.
Frontiers is scheduled for release on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 8, 2022. Sonic Team settled on an open-ended design and focused on adapting Sonic's abilities to an open world. Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka wanted Frontiers to set a new template for Sonic games to follow, similar to Sonic Adventure (1998). Frontiers integrates platforming and traditional Sonic elements-such as rings and grind rails-into the series' first open world, where the player solves puzzles to collect items and fights robot enemies.ĭevelopment began after the release of Sonic Forces (2017).
As Sonic the Hedgehog, the player explores the mysterious Starfall Islands to collect the Chaos Emeralds after Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Amy Rose separate when falling through a wormhole. Sonic Frontiers is an upcoming platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega.