Sonic Frontiers debuts some open-world gameplay and puzzles

The Blue Blur of the Wild

Today, Sega and IGN premiered a big look at the gameplay of the next Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers. Across seven minutes it shows plenty of rolling around at the speed of sound, but also some strong influence from other open-world games.

Sonic Frontiers is set to be the next big game for Sonic, and it’s tackling the open-world genre. In today’s footage, it’s easy to see some influence from games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Alongside the literal tower that Sonic starts the clip out climbing, there are also big expanses to roam across. Plus, it seems like more than a few environmental puzzles are in store too.

At one point, Sonic runs circles around some flames to unlock a sort-of radar ping. In another, he’s walking across blocks in the correct order to light them up, without overlapping his trail. I think it’s fairly safe to say this is drawing on some modern open-world conventions.

Power up the Sonic Cycle

One thing we’ve yet to see is what’s tying all this together. Seeing Sonic run around in an open world is one thing, but I’m curious as to what the goals and structure of the game will be. Previous Sonic games usually fall into level-based formats with objectives and structure, but it seems like Sonic can just roam the open world for collectibles and puzzles in Sonic Frontiers.

This Sonic Frontiers gameplay is only a first look, though. There’s likely more info to come as IGN has Sonic Frontiers as their First feature for the month of June. Hopefully we get a little more info about what sort of enemies, characters, and goals we’re dealing with in the wide-open world of Sonic Frontiers soon.

Sonic Frontiers is aiming to launch this year on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.