Sonic Frontiers (Xbox One/SX)

Der kleine blaue Igel ist zurück und findet sich in Sonic Frontiers nun endlich in dem lang erwarteten 3D Open World Erlebnis aus. Befreit eure Freunde aus dem Cyberspace und deckt das Geheimnis hinter der seltsamen antiken Technologie auf, die Dr. Eggmann freigesetzt hat. Tobt euch an vielen sonictypische Elementen in der dritten Dimension aus, helft den Bewohnern der mysteriösen Inseln und schlägt die Gegner zurück, die sich euch dabei in den Weg stellen

Alle Zeichen standen auf Katastrophe, aber Sonic Frontiers überrascht: Die offene Welt ist das Highlight und der Spaßbringer dieses endlich mal wieder guten 3D-Sonic.

With a revelatory open world to zip around and entertaining boss battles alongside the more traditional Cyber Space levels, Sonic Frontiers is the best that Sega’s hedgehog has been for years.

There’s a lot I’d like to see improved upon in a Sonic Frontiers sequel (which they should absolutely do), but I had fun playing around with the open world format, and just skipping some of the more boring stuff that I didn’t want to do. If you haven’t given up on Sonic yet, you’ll find a lot to love as you wade through some of the muck.

I'm fully on board with this new direction, though. Sonic Adventure set the template for the last 24 years of 3D Sonic games, and I'm hopeful Frontiers will do the same for the next generation. It has its flaws, and there's definite room for improvement, but the spiky mascot is finally moving in the right direction.

Though it’s rough around the edges, Sonic Frontiers is the best 3D Sonic game in years. This first attempt at the open-zone concept is an admirable effort, and I can’t wait to see how Sonic Team iterates on this formula in future entries, but it’s obvious this is not the formula’s final form. For now, Sonic Frontiers stands as a solid first foray into a brave new world for Sega’s speedy mascot.

The game sticks the landing in many ways that matter, but these flaws are hard to ignore as its runtime carries on and you start bumping up against them more often. Sonic Frontiers falls short of a home run, but is still a successful step in the right direction from a studio that has demonstrably stumbled trying to do so before.