Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Sonic games since I grew up playing them, and some of my earliest gaming memories are of playing my friends’ Sega Mega Drive and a side scrolling sonic, so when I was given the choice to review Sonic Frontiers, I jumped at the chance. But was my excitement just from the nostalgia I have for the game, or was it justified? What’s it like? Grab your running shoes, smooth back your quills and prepare for speed as we review Sonic Frontiers on Nintendo Switch 2.
The game begins with Sonic, Tails and Amy still searching for Chaos Emeralds, but they are interrupted by Dr Robotnic who is up to his usual shenanigans, taking on too much power for his nefarious deeds, which leaves Sonic separated from his friends and stranded on the Starfall Islands. Sonic Frontiers begins like any regular Sonic game, running through the Green Hill Zone, towards an unknown location, collecting rings, taking out bad guys and learning the basic mechanics. As someone who has dabbled in Sonic’s adventures since I was a little kid, touching on various versions of Sonic’s 2D and 3D adventures throughout the years, I thought I had a fair handle on the basic mechanics of Sonic, so I was expecting a fairly linear game of quick action mechanics and the satisfying clink of rings earned. What I wasn’t expecting was the level ending with an open world map to explore and skill tree levelling mechanic.
With calming music, more muted, realistic grass and ambient rain, the open world of Kronos Island really reminded me of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, although not as crisp. You quickly learn the mechanics of attacks and moving around the world still has a touch of the nostalgic Sonic we are used to, with rails to grind, bounce platforms to ricochet off and rings to collect. I probably spent a good 30 minutes just making my way to the portal because I was having fun going back to the beginning to try the different routes. Opening my first portal and moving into the digital dimension, I was immediately thrown back to Devil May Cry 5, which I recently reviewed, and the void-type practice arena. Well trained by DMC5, I knew to spend a decent amount of time in here learning what I could of the moves. Turns out this feature would initiate automatically every time you load and can be toggled on and off in your options menu, which was valuable later on in the game after many loading screens. Feeling like this was a bit of a departure from the Sonic I was used to, I was starting to worry, until I was able to open my first portal and was immediately thrown back into classic Sonic, speed running through a level, collecting rings, dodging spikes, grinding rails and trying to beat out the clock. Doing these tasks awards you keys that help you unlock Chaos Emeralds. Once you have finished the portal, you are returned safely to the open world and back to wandering around to progress the story. Throughout the islands, you will find little rock-looking characters called Koco’s, collecting these and returning them to the Elder Koco allows you to increase Sonic’s ring capacity or speed. It seems that we’re in some sort of Digital world. Each time Sonic semi-unlocks a friend, he seems to absorb some of the digital “bug” and you are meant to scour the level, unlocking keys for portals or that level’s item type to progress the storyline.
Taking on standard enemies is fairly easy with a tap of the Y button. Guardians, however, were a little more difficult; you have to plan your attacks and try to get out of the way of their strikes. I got a real kick out of it the first time I was knocked back, and I dropped all my rings… I was less amused by the third time I had to go pick them up again. But persistence pays, and I was finally rewarded with a Portal Gear and the gate unlocking.
Boss fights are interesting, they range from mini bosses you need to take out throughout the Island, just to get a key, right up to ginormous, take up the entire screen-sized bosses where you are required to utilise your wall runs to move up their gargantuan-sized limbs, dodging barriers and timing things just right to hit your Y button on time. Some of the mechanics are really dynamic and will have you running up the tail of a flying sting ray-esk type boss, multitasking, staying on its tail, dodging the same barriers to get to its head and trying to get into position to be able to just start the attack. As you level up, you will unlock new abilities that will have you doing air tricks, stomps, kicks, rushes, homeshots and slashes.
Moving around the map is entertaining, and there’s plenty to do, although I found it was all too easy to get distracted by shiny objects. The icons for each point give you a clue about whether you are racing against the clock to reach a certain point, performing an activity, performing a semi time trial, or just having to run in a circle doing a Cyloop to get the unlock and open more of your map, but after a while, they are much of a muchness, and you are just repeating similar actions. Eventually, though I did get a feel for the game and all the icons seemed to start making sense, I learned to add points to my map to get around. The story started progressing with Sage, the main antogonist often watching you from the shadows, trying to understand why Sonic did the things he did. However, she kept alluding to impending doom, hinting at a much deeper narrative to come.
There were also some odd bits, though. At one stage, I was following the storyline and found myself locked in a circular gully with Giganto, one of the largest bosses I’d seen to date. I wasn’t planning to fight him, but I couldn’t actually leave until I did. Some cool things came about because of it, though, like going Super Sonic! It was a bit of fun, but at the same time, the fight was rather frustrating. When you were struck, the camera angles would lock to face Sonic, meaning that sometimes you would fly forward straight into another attack. Another frustration was that getting completely knocked down meant you had to restart, moving in a circle around the gully, just picking up coins to be able to take a few hits. Mounting Giganto was also made frustrating with odd camera angles. The camera would shift as Giganto moved, which would cause me to run into a barrier and fall, or I’d run into a speed portal, which would fling me off into nowhere. I would have been completely ok with those challenges if it hadn’t been for the frustrating camera angles. However persistance pays and beating Giganto unlocked Ares Island.
With 5 Islands in total, this becomes the core gameplay loop. Points of interest around the map are opened with timed pattern recognition, speed runs, orb collection, mob battles and more boss battles. These give you the item of the level to progress the story, or keys and cogs to unlock portals, etc. Collecting keys from the portals unlocks gems, and collecting all the gems eventually opens the boss fight of the Island, where you can mount the boss to get the last gem to go super sonic. Roaming around the maps was fun, and the storyline is engaging, but the boss fights are rage-inducing. The level of challenge involved in them had me reflecting on how games used to be like this all the time, and finally beating those bosses gave me the same sense of satisfaction. There’s plenty of content here, and by the time I had unlocked the 3rd Island out of 5 islands, I was almost 17 hours in.
When it comes to Frontiers on Switch 2, the graphics are a real mixed bag. Sometimes beautiful and pause-worthy, and at other times they were pixellated and rough, and the level of pop in still feels like the Switch 1 version of the game, and overall it feels like a boosted Switch 1 version rather than a full-gen upgrade. Along with this, there were quite a few areas and levels that had movement difficulties, like a locked camera, which became a source of frustration. And at some stages, the alignment didn’t match up Sonic would be carrying a large item above his head, and there would be a huge gap between his hands and the item. Other times, there would be 3D assets that would almost go outside of their limit, flashing up on your screen without appearing. I will say, at times, this appeared to be a design choice, but at other times it seemed like a genuine mistake. Portals have really engaging mechanics and scenery ranging from classic Sonic grass and side scrolling, to sci-fi, to Industrial, to the Marble Zone, each bringing its own unique vibe.
The performance on my playthrough was fairly smooth, but there were a few times Sonic was too quick that the camera would show bad angles, and you couldn’t see what was coming next. Along with this, the controls would randomly go uncontrollable, and Sonic would be flinging himself off the edge of the cliff. Some of these moments were very reminiscent of Mario 64 when you’d fall off levels, and his legs would fly up in a blocky pattern, and the map would disappear into nothing.
For my Hedgehogs, looking into accessibility options, there aren’t many to list, but you can modify your difficulties and speeds. As always, I recommend further research to find out if Sonic Frontiers suits your needs.
At just under $80 AUD, Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition is a bit on the expensive side, and having no upgrade path available feels like it punishes those loyal to the brand who bought the first iteration, because they had to pay full price to get an improved version of the game when the Switch 1 version had so many issues. Despite the issues around the upgrade, there is a lot of gameplay here in Sonic Frontiers. Levels are huge and sprawling, and deliver a sense of wonder and speed. When it’s fun, it’s really fun, but when it’s frustrating, it can be downright infuriating. Still, Sonic Frontiers is a game that can be incredibly easy to love. The Switch 2 version is undoubtedly the best way to experience it on Nintendo hardware, as it fixes many of the technical shortcomings, but the extra cost for returning players might leave a bit of a sting.
So what’s it like? Sonic Frontiers is like Sonic crossed with a budget version of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.
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