Sonic Frontiers is getting a free update this week, including new modes

By Cristina Alexander March 20, 2023

Sonic Frontiers will receive its first of three planned updates on Wednesday, March 22. The free DLC — dubbed Sights, Sound, and Speed — has a load of new features, including Photo Mode, Jukebox, and new challenge modes.

Sega previously detailed its plans to support Sonic Frontiers in the long term last November, but it didn’t share a timeline for when the updates were coming. Now that first wave is finally here, giving the game it’s first significant update since it launched last year.

Photo Mode can be accessed from the pause menu and brings up a camera for you to move freely while gameplay is paused. Pause the game at just the right moment and let your photography skills run wild by zooming in, zooming out, tilting the camera any which way, and applying filters.

The Jukebox feature allows fans to play songs not just from Sonic Frontiers, but also from other games in the Sonic series while running around the Starfall Islands. The list of tracks includes classics such as Live and Learn from Sonic Adventure 2. An aura of music notes will surround Sonic while songs play. There are 53 songs available in total, with only 13 available at first. The remaining 40 songs are unlocked by collecting Sound Memories on each island.

After completing the main story, players will unlock two new challenge modes from the title screen: Cyber Space Challenge and Battle Rush. The Cyber Space Challenge is a time-attack challenge where players race against the clock to beat multiple Cyber Space stages in a row. Battle Rush is a timed-battle mode where the goal is defeat multiple robots, Guardians and Titans in one sitting (and you won’t have to worry about losing your rings when fighting the Titans).

Sonic Frontiers’ Sights, Sound, and Speed update launches on March 22. The game is now available on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…

Gaming

Sonic Frontiers beginner’s guide: 5 tips and tricks to get started

Sonic looks surprised in a Sonic Frontiers trailer.

Grab your chili dogs and start blasting some Crush 40 because Sonic is back in action in his latest 3D adventure. When Sonic Frontiers was originally shown off, many people classified it as a Breath of the Wild-like game due to it being set in a massive open world. In some ways, that comparison is correct, but approaching this game like it's another Zelda title will only trip you up. While it doesn't reinvent any individual mechanic, Sonic Frontiers puts its own spin (dash) on many open-world tropes.

Fans of Sonic games - either 2D, 3D, or both -- will be in for some major surprises when starting Sonic Frontiers. The open world, or open-zone as Sonic Team has classified it, is easy enough to understand, but all the new mechanics and systems can be overwhelming and confusing when put together. Before you break out into a sprint across this new adventure with the blue blur, here are some important tips and tricks to get started in Sonic Frontiers.

Gaming

Here are Sonic Frontiers’ frame rates on every platform, including Switch

Sonic grinding a rail.

Sonic Frontiers will officially release to the public tomorrow, and Sega has formally revealed the game's frame rates for both the current-gen and last-gen console versions.

Digital Trends reached out to Sega after some miscommunication around the game's frame rates during our preview period. On Monday, the company confirmed the correct frame rates for each console/platform, as well as the performance specs that come with them, so that you can determine which speed is right for you.

Gaming

After playing 6 hours of Sonic Frontiers, I’m sold on the ‘open zone’ pivot

Sonic grinding a rail away from the arched laser.

Sonic Frontiers has come a long way since the rough build we saw during the summer, when Sega fully lifted the lid on the mysterious project. When my time came to play a new build of it last week, one that would showcase significantly more content than we've seen up to this point, I was expecting that the "open zone" game would be extremely different from what we have seen over the last few months. Sure enough, Sonic Team seems to have polished the game up since then with cleaner graphics and a faster framerate -- not to mention fewer rails cluttering the skyline.

Sonic Frontiers - Story Trailer