2022 could well be shaping up to be the year of Sonic the Hedgehog. Alongside the excellent live action movie sequel – seriously, we’ve watched it about twenty times in the last two weeks and I haven’t gone completely insane – there’s the forthcoming Sonic Frontiers, an open-world Sonic game that’s looking all sorts of amazing. As part of IGN First, the first teaser trailer has dropped to give us some more to drool over.
While some people have said it’s like Sonic of the Wild – come on folks, there’s more than one fantasy open world game out there – I’m getting some Xenoblade Chronicles vibes from the trailer, with the futuristic elements and their neon blue tinge mingling with the grassy plains. That might also help to allay any fears people might have of picking up the Nintendo Switch version, with the Xenoblade Chronicles games pushing the system to its limits with their expansive maps. I suppose Breath of the Wild counts too.
The trailer’s music is similarly Xenoblade-esque, so all it needs now is some British voice actors with local dialects and it’ll be well on its way to being amazing. It looks as though Robotnik – or Eggman if you prefer – has been up to his old tricks, and there’s a bunch of large mechanical enemies for Sonic to bounce on, with his trademark lock-on attack making a return. Sega and Sonic Team have done a lot of work recently to rehabilitate the blue blur after a batch of decidedly inconsistent games, so here’s hoping that this is the one to truly challenge that Italian plumber for his spot atop the 3D platformer leaderboard. It already looks like Sonic Frontiers actually has Sonic going fast in a 3D space, a feat that we’ve waited decades for.
Besides Nintendo Switch, Sonic Frontiers is set to release on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, and the humble Xbox One.
