Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming

Sonic Frontiers is basically Breath of the Wild with hedgehogs

DeAngelo Epps
By

After a very cryptic original teaser trailer, we finally got a good look at the new mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game titled Sonic Frontiers. The game seems to be taking the blue hedgehog in a different direction than the recent boost formula games and 2D/3D hybrids, as it sports a new open-world style ripped straight from Breath of the Wild that fans will be able to experience in 2022.

Sonic Frontiers - Announce Trailer

Sonic Frontiers was originally revealed in a Sonic Central stream by Sega in May, giving us a small look at what’s to come. This initial trailer started tons of rumors and theories, one being an alleged leak that the game would go open world, taking notes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Recommended Videos

Now that we’ve gotten our first look, it’s clear the leak was on the nose. The world shows some very obvious inspiration from BOTW, and even includes tons of Shieikah Tower-like structures around the map.

The Game Awards also featured the debut trailer for Sonic’s next big-screen adventure, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Stars Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey introduced the trailer, which gave us a closer look at Tails and a very Sonic 3-esque Knuckles, rocking the old attitude he brought with him in his initial appearance. The film seems to be taking many cues from a mix of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.

Sonic Frontiers comes to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S next yearin time for the holidays. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hits theaters on April 8.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
DeAngelo Epps
DeAngelo Epps
De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…
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.

Read more
The best Sonic fan games
Sonic stares at an open world in Sonic Frontiers.

Sonic was once the biggest rival Mario ever faced. The blue blur certainly gave the plumber a run for his money in the 8- and 16-bit days of gaming and was arguably winning in terms of mass popularity for a brief moment in time. Sonic was the cool, hip, more "adult" type of character with a very '90s attitude that resonated with a large portion of the western gaming audience. He was even the very first video game character to ever get his own balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Needless to say, Sonic was looking to run away with the title of the face of gaming. That was until the 16-bit days ended, and the shift to 3D began.

Unlike his contemporaries, Sonic wasn't -- and arguably still isn't -- able to find a comfortable footing in the 3D space. Rather than revert back to what made his first couple of games so good, Sega kept pushing 3D titles, even after they left the console business. Sonic's reputation quickly spiraled, but his popularity remains arguably as strong as ever. Fan works involving the blue hedgehog have flooded the internet for years, with the most impressive being Sonic fan games. Most give old-school fans more and new takes on what they loved about the old 2D games, but others showed that Sonic really can work in 3D, along with all sorts of other experimental titles we'd never see Team Sonic make officially. If you miss the days when Sonic was at his top speed, here are the best Sonic fan games that can give you the thrill his official games can't.

Read more
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

Read more