One fan of Sonic Frontiers took inspiration from the 16-bit Genesis games of the past, recreating one of its animated cutscenes in a pixelated style. This animation was done using the first Sonic game's sprites and reanimating them to fit the original cutscene. The fan posted their short animation to YouTube, where it quickly garnered some positive feedback.
Sonic Frontiers recently launched this month worldwide, being the first 3D mainline Sonic game since 2017's Sonic Forces. Despite the critical reception being more mixed, fans have been ecstatic about its release, praising the open world, speed, along with character acting and animations. Fans have noted this is likely some of the best character-based storytelling and animation that conveys the blue blur, especially in the cutscenes.
One cutscene in particular that players have praised is after Sonic gets a Chaos Emerald, where he performs a fun little dance before twirling around and smiling at the camera. This scene usually plays after completing a Quest in Sonic Frontiers, often revolving around one of Sonic's friends and their story with a Koco. This cutscene was then recreated by Angeomm31 on YouTube, who reanimated it using sprites from the first Sonic the Hedgehog game.
Despite the sprites being on a 2D plane, the animation fluidly expresses Sonic's movements as if they were in a 3D space. It's also evident that some of the sprites were custom-made in order to achieve this effect, along with being able to show Sonic's impressive dance moves. Smaller details can be seen such as how Sonic's quills react after he jumps to the animation recreating the same camera angles as the original scene from Sonic Frontiers before having Sonic smile after he obtains a Chaos Emerald.
Fans had praised the retro Sonic animated demake, many noting how they were able to convey the same movements in a 2D sprite animation when comparing it to the original 3D. Angeomm31 is an experienced sprite animator who regularly posts to YouTube and has their own animated fan series known as Sonic the Hedgehog: Virtual Adventure in the works that has at least eight episodes posted online.
With Sonic Frontiers' current success, there are bound to be more sprite demakes and tributes to be made about this game soon. It's likely that there are fans trying to translate what the Sage and the Titans found throughout the game would look like in a pixelated 16-bit style.
Sonic Frontiers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
