Sonic Frontiers was originally supposed to launch in 2021

By Otto Kratky January 3, 2022

The next entry in the Sonic franchise, Sonic Frontiers, was originally planned to release in 2021 according to a Sega investor Q&A. As spotted by Sonicstadium, Sonic Frontiers, which is currently slated for a holiday 2022 launch, was delayed “to further brush up the quality.”

“Not only for this title, but during the development phase, we have been steadily conducting analysis to improve the quality of the title before release, such as introducing game testing based on external evaluations, and I have a feeling that it will become a good game and have high expectations for it,” reads a response from Sega in the Q&A.

This isn’t the first time a Sonic game has been delayed to make sure it lives up to expectations; 2016’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice was delayed for the same reason.

Sonic Frontiers is also poised to take the franchise in a drastic new direction. The game, which hasn’t had a gameplay reveal yet, appears to be open world, drawing inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The Sega investor Q&A also touched on other parts of Sega’s business strategy going into 2022, including the company’s interest in NFTs. While the company hasn’t committed to anything just yet, Sega is currently trying out “various experiments and we have already started many different studies and considerations but nothing is decided at this point regards P2E (play-to-earn).” Sega even acknowledged that while other studios have announced plans to integrate NFTs into their games, users have shown “negative reactions at this point.” S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World recently pivoted away from NFTs, ending all plans to put them into the upcoming game quickly after announcing their integration due to fan backlash.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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Sonic Frontiers is getting new playable characters and story content next year

Sonic in his fighting stance in the latest Sonic Frontiers trailer.

Sega revealed the roadmap of all the new content that's coming to Sonic Frontiers in 2023. The company shared a graphic on the official Sonic Twitter account on Wednesday, showing three separate updates that will come with new features, modes, character skins, and other exciting new content throughout the year.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1598000246772023296

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Even while moving forward, Sonic Frontiers never forgets the series’ past

Sonic and Knuckles (Cyber Space form) on Ares Island in Sonic Frontiers.

Throughout my nearly 20 hours of playing through Sonic Frontiers, running through Starfall Islands, and getting to the bottom of Sonic's friends getting stuck in digital purgatory, I kept getting blasts from the past. The newly released adventure is filled with wonderful callbacks to previous games, both in terms of gameplay and story canon. It may be a brand new "open-zone" game, but it beautifully blends modern open-zone gameplay mechanics with classic side-scrolling ones. Some of the previous Sonic titles have sort of done that before, including Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Forces, but Frontiers stands out in how respectfully it treats the rest of the series.

What stuck out to me the most during my playthrough is how Sega uses the game to reflect on some of the best (and worst) moments in the Sonic series in some cutscenes. Despite marking the beginning of a new era for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Blue Blur's latest outing never forgot to honor where he and his friends have been in the last 31 years (or how long they’ve actually been together and fighting Dr. Eggman canonically since time passes differently in their world).
The wheel comes full circle
All the references that Sonic Frontiers made to previous installments are thanks to writer Ian Flynn's wealth of lore knowledge that spans back decades. Flynn famously wrote the Blue Blur's comics at Archie and IDW (the latter's comics start after the events of Forces, after all), with each mention being what he terms a Flynn-ism. Case in point, the game makes several references to the Knuckles’ history in the series, including Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.

Gaming

The best skills in Sonic Frontiers

sonic frontiers release date

Sonic has tried his hand at many genres over his career. He's obviously most well-known for his 2D and 3D high-speed platforming but has also starred in racers, sports games, fighters, and even pinball games. Sonic Frontiers is another 3D adventure, but with a heavier emphasis on RPG mechanics than ever before. Not only will you be leveling up Sonic's stats, including his speed, but you will also unlock new abilities via a skill tree.

The skill tree itself in Sonic Frontiers is not too complex. You have a starting point and two main branches, but the number of skill points each skill costs goes up exponentially. This makes selecting what skill to get first far more important since you likely won't get your next one for quite a while if you don't like it. Rather than pick a dud, here are the best skills to unlock in Sonic Frontiers.