Sonic Frontiers Review: What is Titanic Troubles?

By Jivika On Nov 7, 2022

Sonic Frontiers is a severely misguided game that stifles good ideas with questionable narrative, technical, and gameplay design choices, even though it isn’t completely broken like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) or Sonic Boom. By taking a wild swing with a game that attempts to compete with open-world games rather than focusing on the strengths of more recent titles like Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania, or more established successes like the Sonic Adventure series, Sonic Team continues to show that it is unsure of what to do with the blue blur.

This year, I’ve reviewed a number of terrible games, but none have left me feeling as perplexed as Sonic Frontiers. Its jerky gameplay makes for a forgettable Sonic instalment, poor design results in an average open-world game, and subpar visuals even prevent it from being considered a great current-gen showpiece. Throughout Sonic Frontiers’ 20-hour length, I couldn’t help but look utterly bewildered, and I imagine you will too. It’s not impossible to play; it’s just unpleasant.

Table of Contents

Story Stumbles

The narrative of Sonic Frontiers is where the game’s many issues begin. The Chaos Emeralds on the Starfall Islands draw Sonic, Amy, and Tails there. When they get there, Sonic is knocked out and his friends (Knuckles included) are sent into a digital dimension by an unknown force. From there, Sonic explores the island and learns that his friends are imprisoned in Cyberspace and that an unstoppable force that destroyed an alien civilization might soon reappear. As Sonic explores the world, a mysterious digital girl named Sage who has an unexpected connection to Eggman taunts him.

I get the impression that Sonic Frontiers is trying to be a serious, mature game (Roger Craig Smith portrays Sonic with a deeper voice here). Sonic Frontiers is immediately apparent as a game about dying and moving on early in the narrative. Characters often ponder matters such as love, death, and whether they have accomplished enough in their lives. The game’s closing shot attempts to break your heart as depressing music plays over flashbacks to cutscenes you had just watched hours earlier. Like Sonic Forces, it’s difficult to take any of it seriously unless you’re familiar with the rich lore of the franchise.

I was constantly baffled or giggling uncontrollably at how seriously the game was trying to take itself with each new dialogue scene. As the plot progresses, it loses all sense, and the only reason it will likely continue to exist is because YouTube compilations of its silliest moments have gone viral (it’s as if someone made a game specifically for Dunkey). Once more, the story of a Sonic game attempts to elevate the animated series to a serious level while falling flat. Sonic Team has never found success with that strategy, so it’s not surprising that it fails in this situation.

Don’t Slow Down

Sonic Frontiers makes you collect an astounding amount of collectibles. This isn’t inherently problematic, since running around to get most of them is fun. It’s so easy to forget what each one actually does that collecting them can feel mindless. The forced perspective sections are jarring, especially when there’s a collectible you’re unable to reach because of the forced perspective.

Sonic Brawl

Since most battles in Sonic Frontiers can be completed by pressing the attack button, the combat can feel similarly mundane. Although you have access to a large number of combos and moves, there isn’t much of a reason to diverge from the standard attacks that dispatch of bosses and common enemies.

Sonic’s Cyloop move, which involves circling enemies to stun them, is the most effective way to use his swift movement in battle and is satisfying to use.

This also applies to the Titan boss fights at the tip of each island. These are amazing to look at, and the music has a lot of ’00s vibes, which should please fans of Sonic Adventure 2, but they rely too much on quick time event button presses. By the time I engaged in the final battle, I was operating largely automatically. A battle this epic in scope merits your undivided attention.

Titanic Troubles

Sonic Frontiers’ combat is simple, and many of the animations just don’t look good. Combat’s enjoyable with basic enemies and miniboss Guardians, but it does not fair as well during Super Sonic fights with the Titan bosses. If you don’t upgrade Sonic’s coin-carrying capacity and grind coins with Cyloops before you fight bosses, you’ll likely struggle to beat them.

Tying off all of those gripes, presentation is a problem here too. The camera often can’t handle the scale of these fights and will lose track of Super Sonic or aim in an unhelpful direction. Some boss animations feel borderline unfinished too. In particular, the third boss spins around in quick circles that look like a character model being dragged around by an invisible hand. These both indicate another problem with Sonic Frontiers: it’s just not a good-looking game.

Conclusion

Sonic Frontiers is a game that stifles good ideas with questionable narrative, technical, and gameplay design choices. Its jerky gameplay makes for a forgettable Sonic instalment, poor design results in an average open-world game. Subpar visuals prevent it from being considered a great current-gen showpiece. Sonic Frontiers makes you collect an astounding amount of collectibles. The story of a Sonic game attempts to elevate the animated series to a serious level while falling flat.

The forced perspective sections are jarring, especially when there’s a collectible you’re unable to reach because of the forced perspective. Sonic Frontiers’ combat is simple, and many of the animations just don’t look good. Some boss animations feel borderline unfinished too. If you don’t upgrade Sonic’s coin-carrying capacity and grind coins with Cyloops before you fight bosses, you’ll likely struggle to beat them.