Sonic the Hedgehog's 2022 has been a runaway success. With a second Hollywood movie, the successful open zone conversion that was Sonic Frontiers, and the Netflix show Sonic Prime, there's a lot for Blue Blur lovers to enjoy right now. 2023 is also looking bright, with Sonic Frontiers updates adding polish and new features releasing throughout the year. Sonic Prime is also prepped to get its second batch of episodes at some point during this year. It may take a while to get the next big Sonic the Hedgehog game, but fans will be occupied in the meantime.
There's no telling where the franchise will go from here, though more open games like Sonic Frontiers seem to be Sonic Team's intent. After the back and forth that was Sonic's output in the 2010s, it's good to finally land in an era of Sonic that has most fans pleased. There's even a bit of synergy between the Sonic movie and Sonic Frontiers, as the game adopts the movie's electric effects for its full-power boosting. It would be great to see Sonic Prime also interact with the games, especially since it practically shares a game's format already.
Sonic Prime's Format Lends Itself to Game Form
Some fans will still have a sour taste in their mouths from the mediocre Sonic Boom. While the show adaptation helped fans warm up to the game's writing in retrospect, nothing could save the game from feeling underwhelming or downright broken in every other aspect. Nowadays, a game adapting another Sonic show is more likely to be developed by Sonic Team itself than any of the studios that handled Boom. That would help a Sonic Prime game feel more like a Sonic title than Sonic Boom did, and would back up its claims of being canon.
In Sonic Prime, Sonic travels between different themed Shatterspaces that interpret his shattered home reality in different ways. The varied aesthetics parallel how different zones look in many Sonic games, and the show's many fight scenes could be extrapolated to regular platforming levels. It wouldn't need to be any more than a standard 3D Sonic title where Sonic collects shards of the shattered Paradox Prism, although there's room for more stand-out features. Copying Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's portal grappling, or using modern hardware to quickly transition between different worlds mid-level, could be major selling points.
Sonic Prime Could Blend Different Approaches to Sonic Games
Sonic Prime is the perfect opportunity to bring back a Sonic Adventure format. Whether that means other playable characters besides Sonic depends on the game's scope, but it does mean that a central hub could be in place. New Yoke City is the perfect miniature open world for Sonic to run around in between stages, mirroring what its role seems to be in the show itself. With a setup like this, the story would be able to focus on major recurring characters while one-off Shatterspaces are adapted into visually and mechanically-varied levels.
This setup hones in on what makes Sonic Prime so interesting, that being the different interpretations of the main cast. Fans could spend more time with radical new characters and takes on Sonic's friends like Nine, or experience interesting twists on old fights like Rusty Rose taking up Metal Sonic's role. Chances to hear or see more out of them in a video game would be great, and Sonic could join the fun by unlocking accessories based on his own hypothetical alternate selves. The conversion from cartoon to game works so naturally that it's surprising that Sega hasn't done more with Sonic Prime yet. Hopefully, after the show and Sonic Frontiers' support are both done, work can begin on bringing Sonic Prime's many cool ideas to players' fingertips.
Sonic Prime is now available to watch on Netflix.