Growing up I was a Nintendo kid, my cousin had a Sega Mega Drive and it was when visiting there, that I got my first taste of Sonic. Over the years, each time a Sonic game has come out, be it Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Mania or any other game, none seemed to click with me. With Sonic Frontiers, I had hoped that this would be the game that made me understand Sonic and I can say now, that I have no idea what was going on.

The story of Sonic Frontiers is as fragmented as the world Sonic visits, it starts out with Dr Eggman doing something to an ancient monolith. Sadly something goes wrong and he is sucked into it, while Sonic, Tails and Amy are flying towards a source of Chaos energy. On route they are sucked into a vortex and when Sonic comes too, he is in a place that is latter confirmed to be Cyber Space and as he does, he ran for the exit. Breaking out, he finds himself on an unknown island, where large and seemingly ancient ruins and towers dot the landscape, but beyond that a voice calls out to him. His escape from Cyber Space was not something that was thought possible, so the voice has advised that Sonic is the key. From here the story is delivered when you start to interact with a version of Amy, or after you trigger enough boss enemies, but I won’t say any more as the story is something you will want to uncover for yourself.

The problem with it though, is that everything is so fragmented at the beginning, that there is nothing that connects one conversation to the next. There was a conversation with Amy that felt like the second part in a multi-part story and I had no idea what the first one was. The same issue popped up when Sage, the being that tells you to leave, tried explaining something and that explanation was missing things. There are also conversations that don’t feel directly connected to the events that are happening around Sonic. I am sure that long time Sonic fans may be able to overlook the weird story structure here, but as for myself, I found it weird. Thankfully by the time I hit the second island, things did start to make more sense, you just have to stick with it.

The gameplay is perhaps one of the biggest departures for the series, as its neither a 2d sidescroller or a 3d levels, everything takes place in massive locations. The locations go with a theme, grassy hills, then a desert and so on and each has unique features that make them worth exploring as much as you can. What each location has similar to each other are the ruins, both those that transport you to Cyber Space and those that help tell the story. Each time you land on a new island, you will have to assemble the map for it again, much like towers in most open world games. These map markers are easy to spot but activating them will have you completely a different task each time. Some of these challenges will have you pressing a series of buttons in sequence, others will have you run to press a button before a timer runs out. Filling in the map should be the priority in each location, because it not only helps you learn where things are, when it comes to tracking things down later.

When you are not filling in the map you are free to run around all the parts you can access but be warned there are enemies roaming the world. Some of them are basic, one or two good hits will take them down, some of them are very dangerous. While you don’t have to engage in combat with each enemy you come across, taking them down rewards you with skill shards, gears, keys and more. That is the core loop of the game, you have to collect gears to unlock the portals into Cyber Space, each one requires a different amount to do so. In Cyber Space you are given a more traditional Sonic experience, with objectives to complete in order to earn keys, to unlock vaults. If you get one objective complete, you can retry the stage to get more or all and while some of them are fairly easy, some will test the most devout Sonic fan.

Vaults are scattered around maps and each contains a Chaos Emerald, something which Sonic needs to collect in order to face off against the island boss. Each vault will have a set number of keys needed to unlock, which encourages you to venture back into Cyber Space to collect more or tackle more enemies in the hopes they drop keys. I mentioned before that some of the enemies are quite dangerous and that is because they are usually massive and very dangerous. Some of them can be tackled on the ground, but some will have you running up their sides to reach the top. Even the boss fights vary in their approach, thankfully Sonic has a few new moves to help even the score, mostly thanks to Cyloop. This attack lets you race around and draw a pattern with energy behind you and any enemy that is within the circle once you close it, takes serious damage.

There is a skill tree system here that you can level up as you would like, but the more important skills come from rescuing the Koco around the place and collecting the red and blue seeds. The red and blue seeds will increase your attack power and defence respectively and with 99 levels, there is a lot of growth to undertake. The Koco are less helpful at first, but they quickly become something you will want to find and return to the Elder Koco, as for each group you return he will upgrade your speed or ring carrying potential. At first you will like do what I did and focus all on speed, but the rings are far more important when you go Super Sonic, so a balance is important. All in all, the gameplay feels familiar, the dashing and auto-targeting bounces, but there is enough variety here to help you feel like it’s all new.

Where things fall apart though is with the games presentation and not in the way you might think. Each location is teeming with life, be it trees or waterfalls, there is plenty going on and there is always something around the corner in each. The problem is that all the rails, bounce pads and everything else that Sonic can interact with, pops in all over the place and its not part of the game, it just doesn’t render things fast enough. There were countless times that I would be running around, only to have a bounce pad appear right in front of me, sending me skyward or worse, a dash pad that sent me in a different direction. The second island being a desert is mostly devoid of nature and the pop in on these elements is even worse and that is not the most infuriating part. As the game refuses to load in elements until you get closer, you can see collectables in the sky, but the game won’t load in a path or potential path to them, until you get closer and that is assuming you are in the right area. These elements don’t impact the boss fights, thankfully, so don’t worry there, but given that this is a game all about going fast and the game can’t keep up, its not a good look. Just for note, I played the game on a PlayStation 5.

If we don’t focus on that and instead look at the worlds, there is a lot to see and enjoy. The islands as I said earlier are wonderfully done, but it is the Cyber Space portion that steals the show, from modern looking locations to classic Green Hill Zone, there is a lot going on. These locations are brimming with detail and sometime stopping to check it all out is worth it, even if it costs you time. The characters themselves are detailed and fun, though movie fans maybe let down that some don’t look like those versions. The cutscenes are short and sadly boarded by dark bands at the top and bottom, which removes some of the charm the rest of the game has. The enemy design from Sage to Squid and beyond all look great, there is an eerie familiarness to them, but also not. Some of them are basic and those are usually the one hit enemies, but there are some fun ones later on that look incredible.

On the sound side of things the game offers a mix of orchestral music and some songs and each fits in well. The songs with words tend to pop up during big battles and key moments, where as the rest of the music plays elsewhere. The actual music does something similar to Breath of the Wild, in that it doesn’t play constantly, letting you just enjoy the sounds of the islands, but when it does kick in, it sounds great. Another aspect that sounds great is the voice work but given that the actors have been doing these roles for years, that does not surprise me.

Sonic Frontiers is an interesting game, it offers large and expansive lands to explore and very focused and familiar levels. Combat is fast, if basic and while the camera does have its issues, it still delivers something new for the series. Where the game falls apart is its story, specifically in how its delivered, with things being drip fed and not in any understandable way. Sonic fans may appreciate this new approach, but those coming in for the first time, will be confused. The games inability to render the worlds fast enough is a major issue, as the entire point of the game is to go fast and having to slow down so it can catch up is the exact opposite of that. If you are a long time Sonic fan you will no doubt enjoy the experience, but if you are on the fence about the series, this is unlikely to change your mind. At the end of the day, I had good times with this and frustrating times and sadly the latter was more frequent, so maybe wait for a sale on this one.