This has left fans wondering just what kind of experience they’ll be in for with the next Sonic game. While there are some core facets that make the franchise what it is, fans have come to expect a variety of different gameplay styles from the blue blur. Sega has also emphasized that the open-zone nature of Frontiers may be carried to future titles, which has made players question just how Sonic’s famous speed will play into how the game works.
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Sonic Frontiers’ Fast-Paced Gameplay
One potential approach that Sonic Team could take toward Frontiers’ gameplay is to take notes directly from the success of Sonic Unleashed. Unleashed was most famous for being the first game to feature the “Boost” mechanic that would be carried onwards to games such as Sonic Generations, Colors, and Forces. This let players use rings to fill up a gauge that would allow fans to press a button to have Sonic run at breakneck speeds.
How the Boost-driven gameplay could be applied to an open world-like setting would require the game to be completely in 3D. However, that isn’t new ground as Sonic Unleashed would give fans some open spaces to quickly pick paths to explore during its “daytime” stages that would serve as a blueprint for “open zones” almost perfectly. For any diehard Sonic Unleashed fan, a game like this may seem like a dream. However, Sonic Frontiers shouldn’t be afraid to take it slow, either.
How Sonic Frontiers Can Benefit From Slower Gameplay
While some fans may enjoy the idea of a Sonic game featuring the same fast-paced gameplay as Sonic Unleashed, not all Sonic games need to be that fast to be enjoyable. There’s one title in Sonic’s history that makes this point rather clear on its own, and that was Sonic Lost World. Lost World saw Sonic traverse across the Lost Hex at a much slower rate than previous releases, but it more than made up for it by giving players tons of space to explore on every level.
In exchange for Unleashed’s Boost speeds, players were given a run button that - while slower - offered tight and comfortable controls. Players could run anywhere at a pace that could be switched on a dime to avoid stage hazards. The run button also doubled as a parkour button when players got near walls and ledges in the natural environment, which opened up just where fans could take Sonic immensely. This could handle a big concern with Frontiers in that it’s possible that making Sonic run too fast will lead to players running out of space very quickly in a way that sacrifices some speed for control and exploration to save on space.
However, there’s no reason why Sonic Frontiers can’t allow these gameplay styles to meet in the middle. The location the next Sonic game has been said to focus on is the Starfall Islands, which have been described to feature many different biomes. Sonic Team could easily focus on Lost World-esque parkour and speed on land, whereas when players want to move to a different island or zone, they could run across the water surrounding the islands in a high-speed segment similar to Unleashed.
While this concept may sound great for some Sonic fans, it’s purely speculation due to the lack of gameplay footage available. Players will need to wait and see just how Sonic’s speed is used in the next game in future updates. Luckily, Sega has stated that Sonic Frontiers news is coming soon, so hopefully, fans won’t have to wait much longer to understand just what this “open-zone” game has in store.
Sonic Frontiers is set to launch in holiday 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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