Little by little, Sonic Team has started to reveal how Sonic Frontiers plans to innovate on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. When the game got its first proper reveal, Sonic Team's main point of discussion was its open-zone design, which will seemingly allow players partial freedom to run around an open environment without granting complete access to a single, seamless overworld. Now, Sonic Team has started dropping hints about other crucial departments of the game's design. In a recent interview, creative officer Takashi Iizuka provided some minor hints on the combat and exploration mechanics that Sonic fans can expect out of Sonic Frontiers.
According to Iizuka, Sonic Frontiers will feature dexterous new fighting styles for Sonic, and exploration will naturally make good use of Sonic's speed. While Iizuka declined to go into detail about Sonic Frontiers' combat, hinting at Sonic's dexterity as a core feature might actually shed some valuable light. It sounds like Sonic Frontiers will lean into Sonic's super speed in new ways, focusing on new forms of mobility for Sonic that will allow players to run circles around enemies and strike with precision in new ways. Combat details may be unclear, but the principle of focusing on Sonic's agility is solid.
Innovating on Sonic Combat
A lot of Sonic the Hedgehog games share fairly similar combat, focusing on Sonic Spin Dashing into enemies and ricocheting between targets. That core concept has worked for decades, but its frequent repetition also shows that it's hard to innovate on Sonic combat. Unlikely many other famous platformers, Sonic doesn't have many iconic weapons or power-ups that he interacts with on a regular basis aside from the Chaos Emeralds. Games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Black Knight have tried adding new elements to Sonic's fighting style, but so far, nothing his stuck. The only truly consistent element is Sonic's speed.
Sonic Team naturally wants Sonic Frontiers' combat to feel fresh, so it's unsurprising to hear that it's trying new things in that department. However, from the sounds of things, Sonic Team is trying to find new ways to use Sonic's signature ability, rather than focusing on wholly new forms of attack exclusive to Sonic Frontiers. Focusing on speed in this way could be great for the future of the franchise. So many Sonic games have tried to improve combat by changing Sonic's skillset, but Sonic Frontiers may do the opposite, leaning into super speed in search of uncharted territory. Creative new attacks based on dexterity and speed could actually carry over into future Sonic games while making Sonic Frontiers stand out from Sonic the Hedgehog's past.
Reinforcing Sonic's Core Concept
Dexterous combat will also be invaluable in differentiating Sonic Frontiers from its competitors. Because it's also shifting towards open world design, Sonic Frontiers is naturally drawing comparisons to Breath of the Wild, but Sonic Frontiers' combat may be drastically different from its competitor in The Legend of Zelda. Link may wield a broader arsenal of weapons now, but he can't keep up with Sonic's uncanny nimbleness and speed. Combat that forgoes new weapons in favor of new dodging techniques, precision strikes, movement skills, and abilities that impact Sonic's environment, all while moving at the speed of sound, will make Sonic Frontiers much harder to compare to other games.
By focusing on a protagonist who races toward the end of every level, Sonic the Hedgehog platformers have always offered a unique experience. Even as the franchise has moved toward action-adventure and 3D design, that speed has allowed Sonic Team to create games with fun, satisfying movement. From the sound of things, in spite of how Sonic's nimbleness has been used in previous games, Sonic Frontiers will push to find new ways to integrate that speed into combat. That push would really help Sonic Frontiers become a step forward for the franchise.
Sonic Frontiers releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
