Since Sega introduced the blue hedgehog to the world in the early 90s, Sonic the Hedgehog has managed to be one of the most recognizable and iconic characters in gaming. Gamers have enjoyed plenty of Sonic The Hedgehog games for decades, though many gamers have complained that more contemporary releases from the franchises have not matched the quality and creativity of earlier titles. Fortunately, the franchise has had a bit of a renaissance in recent years, in part thanks to the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, and Sega has been capitalizing on this with new Sonic releases, including Sonic Frontiers which is scheduled to release in late 2022.
Sonic Frontiers is an ambitious game that will feature the series' first open-world, though the game will still have plenty of the traditional platforming fun that Sonic fans have grown accustomed to. Although the game is still a few months away from release, gamers have gotten a peek at it through gameplay reveals. However, the reception to it mirrors the kind of reception Sonic's design first got when the movie was revealed.
The Case of 'Ugly Sonic'
The idea of a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie had been bounced around in Hollywood for a while, but it never became reality until Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to distribute a Sonic film. Designing a Sonic that looks natural in a live-action setting is not an easy task, however. Hence, using CGI, the production team decided that Sonic should have blue fur instead of being smooth and that he should be more human-like. As inspiration, they looked to the teddy-bear Ted from the Ted films, because he can blend in quite well into a live-action world.
When Sonic was revealed, the design was met with ridicule from the internet, with many describing it as a grotesque butchering of the beloved character. The criticism grew to such a loud swell, especially from ardent Sonic fans, that the director, Jeff Fowler, took to Twitter to apologize and promise that Sonic's design would be improved. It took an estimated $5 million addition to the budget and a release date delay, but the redesign was achieved much to the approval of movie-goers who managed to make the film one of the most successful video-game-based films ever.
Is Sonic Frontiers the New 'Ugly Sonic'?
In June 2022, Sega revealed gameplay footage of Sonic Frontiers via IGN. Gamers got to see that Sonic Frontiers will contain many classic Sonic elements including gold rings, boost pads, rails, springs, and loops to speed around. However, the open world (or "open-zone" as Sega calls it) gives Sonic much greater freedom of movement and more opportunities to explore. It is evident that Sega intends to up the scale of everything to provide the biggest Sonic experience yet.
Despite the ambitiousness of Sonic Frontiers, it has only managed to attract a lukewarm to negative reception thus far. After a hands-on preview, IGN claimed "there’s a lot of distracting pop-in, there’s a fair amount of bugs still left to be squashed, and the big boss fights could do with some tweaking," while Polygon has described the open world as "strangely empty." Sonic fans have also been displeased with early reveals of Sonic Frontiers, leading to the #DelaySonicFrontiers hashtag trending on Twitter.
Although 'Ugly Sonic' did not appeal to the public at first, with a little extra work, moviemakers were able to redesign Sonic and deliver a movie that rejuvenated interest in the Sonic IP. Sonic Frontiers may not be getting good reception right now, but the Sonic the Hedgehog movie proves that it is still possible for the developers to go back to the drawing board, take all the criticism into account, and produce something that gamers will love.
Sonic Frontiers is scheduled to launch in late 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
