Open world games almost always offer players some kind of mount that makes the world easier to travel on foot. Elden Ring features the trusty summoned steed Torrent, Horizon Forbidden West allows players to override nearby machines before mounting them, Zelda: Breath of the Wild's world map is littered with stables, and so on. Without conveniences like these, traveling across open-world games would be much more laborious. Nevertheless, Sonic Frontiers' open-zone world may not feature mounts, even if it does have huge maps. That's because Sonic Frontiers has the unique perk of the titular protagonist's incredible running speeds, which will almost certainly forgo the need for a steed.
Still, one wonders how Sonic Frontiers will allow players to manage Sonic's speed. Getting access to his top speeds would be great, but players won't necessarily want to run at the speed of sound all the time, or else they're bound to miss out on a lot of Sonic Frontiers' side content. Thankfully, Horizon Forbidden West may already provide Sonic Frontiers with a great blueprint for representing Sonic's running speed. As long as players can control how fast Sonic runs while getting a thrilling sensation out of his top speed, Sonic Frontiers' traversal will be solid.
Horizon Forbidden West's Sense of Speed
Like many open-world games with mounts, Horizon Forbidden West allows Aloy to manage the speed of her mounts; most of Forbidden West's rideable machines can walk, jog, or sprint to suit Aloy's needs. While that doesn't set Forbidden West apart, the aesthetic of a machine at full sprint does. When Aloy's machine is running at breakneck speed, players might notice the edges of their screen blurring around them, simulating the sensation of moving too fast to make out the nearby world. That light blur goes a long way to emphasize the running power of Forbidden West's machines.
It'd be great to see a similar movement system in Sonic Frontiers. Ideally, players will be able to toggle between Sonic's speeds like they might toggle a mount's speed in Breath of the Wild or Forbidden West, preventing the need to manually speed up and slow down as Sonic. Beyond that, when players just want to get from point A to point B, blurring the edges of the player's screen could give some valuable extra flair to Sonic's signature skill that makes traversal feel far more exciting. At the same time, some light blurring in the style of Forbidden West won't prevent players from noticing collectibles or wandering NPCs as they tear across the Starfall Islands.
Movement in Sonic Frontiers
Strictly speaking, Sonic Team hasn't shut down the idea of mounts in Sonic Frontiers, even though they seem unlikely, given Sonic's signature powers. It's entirely possible that the game will follow the mount trend by giving Sonic a mount native to the Starfall Islands or a familiar vehicle like Sonic Riders' hoverboards. Overall, though, it seems most likely that Sonic Frontiers will emphasize Sonic's speed, which means Sonic Team will need to both make Sonic's speed manageable and make movement feel unique without the help of mounts or other vehicles.
Horizon Forbidden West's motion blur is one good idea that Sonic Frontiers could easily borrow since Sonic hardly needs the help of a mount to generate that sensation in the player. Odds are good that the Starfall Islands will have some classic Sonic platforming tools like ramps and bounce pads to further enhance Sonic's mobility. Overall, combining classic Sonic mobility tools with mobility concepts from recent open-world games seems like a good way to craft Sonic Frontiers' travel experience. It'll definitely require some experimentation with the Sonic the Hedgehog formula, but then again, Sonic Frontiers already looks poised to try a lot of new things anyhow.
Sonic Frontiers releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
