Sonic Frontiers

[axel]

Had a chance to play this today on Switch.... keep in mind this is a pre-release version so there maybe a patch coming that changes things... but for now this is how it plays:

It starts off with a cut scene that's just a movie file being played back, so you can see what looks like MPEG compression as well as other odd artifacts that look like a Bayer filter. Then it put me in some kind of Green Hill tutorial level, where every couple of seconds messages pop up, like it will remind you to press B to jump. Wow, I would never have figured that out on my own. Finally I got to the main area, Kronos Island, but I made the mistake of going up to a tower so it put me into this training area which is just a white background and a list of button combos at the bottom of the screen. Thankfully you can exit that by pressing -, but then it sent me back to the tutorial section for some unknown reason. Anyway finally I get back to where I can walk around and it's still popping up messages every few seconds, telling me to pick up items or something. I wasn't really paying attention, I just wanted to explore.

I realize the Switch is getting a bit long in the tooth so my expectations for the graphics were not that great, but Sonic Frontiers sometimes looks like a high res Saturn game. Polygons pop in at very close range and the game uses dithering everywhere, the dithering patterns are huge and remind me of the options in MS Paint from 30 years ago. Get up near the leaves and you'll see what I mean. I'm guessing the Switch was not the target hardware here.

On the plus side - the controls are decent, although they take some getting used to, and I like the music I've heard so far. You can tell they were inspired by Breath of the Wild, the "boost" gauge in the middle of the screen is just like Link's stamina meter and there's robot enemies called Guardians that drop gears when defeated. Framerate is usually pretty solid although it did dip a bit in busier areas. Performance seemed fairly similar whether docked or handheld although it's so zoomed out most of the time I find it much easier to play on the TV.

Anyway it's late here but I'll probably pick it up again tomorrow, despite the rough edges it's not the worst game I've ever seen. I mean, at least it autosaves, so it's better than NieR:Automata. The Internet is going to tear it apart for the graphical issues though.

[Leynos]

Sonic lost favor with me years ago but I feel every Sonic game people say "it's not the worst thing ever" aside from Boom. It just looks like another mediocre game. ST has not had a clue what to do in a decade. Plus I feel the open-world fever is starting to die down.

[axel]

Sonic lost favor with me years ago but I feel every Sonic game people say "it's not the worst thing ever" aside from Boom. It just looks like another mediocre game. ST has not had a clue what to do in a decade. Plus I feel the open-world fever is starting to die down.

Right. I'll never understand why Sega didn't better protect their #1 IP. Calling the games mediocre is being charitable. But, if it's done properly, I feel like this is the best time for an open world Sonic. Consoles (other than maybe the Switch) are finally at the point where you can have big open worlds that a character could traverse quickly without pausing to load in new areas.

Speaking of the Switch though, this is the first console I can recall where the later games actually look worse than the early ones. Mario Odyssey for example looks way better than Sonic Frontiers. Bayonetta 3 has the same issue where it uses Saturn-style meshes instead of alpha layers, which was not the case with Bayonetta 1 or 2. It feels like developers may have been expecting a Switch Pro to be here already and instead have to dial way back on the effects to get modern games to run at 30 fps. I look forward to trying the PC version as I expect that should fix most of the issues.

[stu]

Sounds like pop in is considered a "feature" on this game since it apparently happens with the PS5 version too. Also the sense of speed is pretty poor apparently.
Another feature sounds like pointless mini quests and combat. Seems like IGN and Gamespot gave it a 7. Meh.

[axel]

Sounds like pop in is considered a "feature" on this game since it apparently happens with the PS5 version too. Also the sense of speed is pretty poor apparently.
Another feature sounds like pointless mini quests and combat. Seems like IGN and Gamespot gave it a 7. Meh.

Oh, wow. I saw that IGN video. To have that much pop-in on a PS5 game is just embarrassing. On that hardware I don't understand why it can't just render stuff in low poly mode, instead of occluding it altogether.

Anyway there's already a patch for the Switch version, so everyone who plays it at launch will have that. I tried it myself, I can't really tell what's changed other than maybe the framerate is a bit smoother but I didn't record footage to compare. The game is actually pretty fun, it is just ugly on the Switch. People who can look beyond the visual problems will enjoy it.

[BonusKun]

So yeah. This game is actually pretty good.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

All I want out of a 3D Sonic game is to basically just look like the art of the original Sonic game covers come to life. I like the look of that world, which is how I think Mobius should look. Sonic Adventure was amazing bitd when it came out, loved the beach and the whale etc, but I don't really like Sonic games taking place in realistic earth looking locations.

Frontiers, the gameplay doesn't look bad (altho man I kind of hate when in Sonic games he has to grind for 60 miles on a stupid roller coaster rail, jumping back & forth on rails etc, bleghh)but in the little bit of video on it that I've seen I don't like the look of the bland dark island area that he's on. It looks almost depressing.

I did see a few 2D gameplay areas that thankfully look like old school Garden Hill Zone looking environments, however the actual gameplay in these areas didn't look very good.

I'll probably pick this up at some point on Switch if I can get it during a sale or something. Anyway I hope it's a better game than what my initial impressions have lead me to believe about it. I'm a Sonic fan so hoping for the best.

[Baloo]

This game looks like trash based on the videogamedunkey video. More Big the Cat fishing, Sonic glitching out and running off of ledges, bad boss fights, cringey dialogue and characters. The entire series is responsible for furry madness and should be ended and replaced with endless Sonic Mania sequels.

[WarmSignal]

I've not played it. That presentation just doesn't work well for Sonic, and doesn't really entice me much. I imagine it's probably more fun than what it looks like. When it comes to modern Sonic, I was more a fan of Colors / Generations / and the very underrated Lost World. Forces isn't near as bad as what folks droned on about. But I think graphically and presentation wise, Frontiers has dropped the ball a bit. For those reasons I'm in no hurry to grab it.

[Leynos]

My friend got it on Xbox and hated it. Complained nonstop. I ignored the game but decided to watch some LPs of it and while I have no idea if it handles well or not. Thematically and the visuals clashed badly with Sonic's cartoon model. Those old UE4 fan tech demos with Mario or Sonic is what it looked like. Game does not look good. I feel like a broken record every new Sonic game.

[axel]

In a way it's funny. The Sega Genesis was constantly criticized for not having enough color palettes, yet the Sonic games showcased what could be done in the right hands. Many of the zones look just as colorful as any SNES game. Today, three decades later, on hardware several orders of magnitude more powerful.... they chose to go with this drab, depressing presentation. I don't get it. Why not just make the open world look like Emerald Hill in 3D?

[gamevet]

I know I could just Google it, but who developed the game?

*Edit* What's left of Sonic Team.

[NeoVamp]

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[WarmSignal]

Well, I picked up Frontiers because it was $30, so I'm invested now.

Sonic gets a really bad rap these days, and I've kinda just realized it's mostly due to the autistic middle-aged fandom that follows the series lore. Just try to watch one of those 30 minute videos about "Why Sonic Forces is Bad" and you'll begin to understand. It's just autism. There was really nothing much wrong with Forces, other than it was kinda phoned in, maybe a bit on the average side. But these guys go on-and-on like it's Big Rigs level broken. I can't stand that crap. The game is fine. Who cares about story and characters in a Sonic game? I never did. The shape of the character models, the color being overly bright, the lack of diverse branching pathways, Sonic doesn't blink and tap his foot.... WHO. CARES. It's a kid friendly side-scrolling platform game. Holy freakin' crap. Sonic fanboys are insufferable.

I think most the rest of the gaming populous, just sort of sees Sonic games as meh, or average, while the "true Sonic fans" just rip them shreds every time. To me it's just another action platforming game, adjust your expectations accordingly.

[gamevet]

Asrock released a Z790 motherboard with a Sonic theme, to celebrate the release of this game. It's pretty cool!


https://www.newegg.com/p/13-162-101