New Hands-On Impressions Reflect Positively on 'Sonic Frontiers'; Stating No Plans For Delay
Things are starting to look up for Sonic Frontiers. Though initially, fans were calling for the game to be delayed, press impressions of the game as displayed at Summer Game Fest last week are mostly positive. Fan reaction is starting to turn around as well, with it being confirmed that what was shown before was an earlier build. There are still negative impressions in both areas, however, as some are still hesitant about the game. Needless to say, this entry is already shaping up to be an interesting one for the blue hedgehog.
Sonic Frontiers was featured prominently on the show floor of Summer Game Fest. Participants were able to sign up for hour slots to play the demo. Martin Robinson of Eurogamer was one of them, and though he says the game still looks unpolished, it "plays an awful lot better than it looks." Marcus Stewart of Game Informer walked away with "clearer expectations and some glimmers of hope."
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While this feedback may seem a bit lukewarm, it is a breath of fresh air compared to the overwhelmingly negative perception the week before. Nicholas Serpa from Nintendo Everything calls Frontiers "the smartest 3D Sonic title in a while, one that rewards player curiosity more than any other previous entry." Many outlets are praising the game for its sense of speed, combat, the environment Sonic runs around in, as well as the boss fight featured in the demo. Even fans are starting to come around. Fadel on Twitter expressed his excitement for the game in the following tweet:
However, there are still those that are not entirely won over. Morgan Park of PC Gamer said that the game is as it looks, but it is “the most fascinating kind of bad Sonic has ever been.” Though Park liked the overall sense of speed in the open world, they did not like the “distractions” placed in the world such as rails and springs. Park also criticizes the motion blur, the haphazard placement of the obstacles, and the Xbox button prompts in the tutorial that did not match the PlayStation controller they were using. Despite this, Park still remained interested in how the game is going to turn out.
There are currently no plans to delay Sonic Frontiers. Iizuka states that the response to the playtesting has been positive and that the initial negative reaction was due to players not understanding the game:
“We do realise everyone is just kind of reacting to the videos that they saw, and because they don’t understand what this new gameplay is they’re kind of comparing it to other games that they already know. So we do see a lot of people saying, ‘oh, it’s kind of like this, it’s kind of like that, but it’s not like this, it’s not like that’.”
The game, according to Iizuka, is unlike anything that has come before. While it might be similar to other open-world games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Iizuka states that the “new game system itself is something that doesn’t really exist in any other comparable titles.” The upcoming title is most certainly a huge departure from the previous 3D Sonic titles, and it seems like this might be a promising new direction for the blue blur. Iizuka states that the game is very much near completion. For those who are worried about the title, this may not be the best news to hear, but it seems that the mostly positive response from the showroom floor may have quelled some fears. Only time will tell how the game will look and play come Holiday 2022.
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