Sonic Frontiers gameplay footage shows off Sonic’s new moves

By Cristina Alexander May 31, 2022

Sega seems to be kicking off Summer Games Fest pretty early by giving us a first look at the gameplay for its highly anticipated Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers.

Sega tweeted the latest teaser trailer as an IGN First exclusive on Tuesday, and it shows Sonic sprinting through the lush fields of Starfall Island, running on a cybernetic hamster wheel to send some sort of signal, grinding rails around skyscraper ruins, and kicking enemies around like Deku in My Hero Academia. Alongside the gameplay, we also get a look at the new Sonic Frontiers logo, which sports a blue eye for the “o” in the fragmented latter word.

Enjoy this small preview of Sonic Frontiers, and tune in all June long for the @IGN First cover story for more world-exclusive reveals! pic.twitter.com/iZhaFtSwio

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) May 31, 2022

The trailer brings back the blue mystical trail emitting behind Sonic, which was first seen in the teaser trailer from last year and appears to be a new gameplay element. When Sonic runs a circle around a geometric rune-like enemy, the blue circle acts as a barrier that subdues the enemy before Sonic attacks it.

Speaking of which, the Blue Blur has now incorporated kicking attacks to his repertoire, which is a rarity that was only seen in cutscenes from past Sonic games or in other media like Sonic X. And not only is Sonic kicking the native enemies and robot bosses forward, but he appears to be kicking them in upward spins as well.

The gameplay trailer is the first in a series of Sonic Frontiers content that IGN will reveal throughout the month of June, which just happens to be Sonic’s birthday month. More information about its gameplay will be revealed tomorrow.

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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

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.

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.