Sonic Frontiers Thread - PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC

My only issue with IGN's Sonic reviews in particular has been the one for Unleashed, where it was very clear going by their XBOX profile that the reviewer didn't even make it halfway through. We certainly have our moments, but giving us all shit collectively the second your video review starts isn't a great way to keep us out of the comments section. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then again, these days, I guess you get more money the more comments and views you have, so perhaps this fellow knows exactly what he's doing.

The biggest issue I can say I've ever had with a Sonic review in general was GameTrailers' review for Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. They dragged it because "you have to hold forward on the analog stick the entire race," which, uh, if they had given it more than 30 seconds of their time they would have noticed the boards accelerate on their own, like in Kirby Air Ride.

Oh well. Finally pre-ordered it on Series X. I've changed jobs since the last major Sonic game, so I can't start at midnight and play until 4 or 5AM like I used to. I'm going to take a nap after work Monday, and try my luck.

 

Ya this game comes out like rightttt when I’m moving. I’ll have some time to play it but I also have to work, definitely won’t be able to binge it, at least not immediately. But I’m very much looking forward to playing it. I’m getting it on Steam. Most Sonic games run very well on my PC I’m hoping this is no exception.

 

The wait is truly agonizing. I don't think I've felt this many different emotions with a video game ever before. Sonic Mania was close, but I had faith that game was going to knock our socks off the entire time, with no doubts. Frontiers is not the same. What a rollercoaster.

The game was gifted to me on Steam, after I already pre-ordered the game on PS5. So I plan to download the game on PC, get a feel for the controls and such in the intro, and then go out and grab my pre-order with my friend when she's available. The next week is gonna suuuuck.

 

Sonic Adventure got a pretty good review from them 23 years ago. Even in a joking review of the fanbase they can’t be bothered to get things right

 

I think they're referring to the SA:DX review (which was incredibly scathing), but they just got the date wrong.

 

Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder!

I would've brought up the Unleashed review but that's just me. I'm pretty sure this game will score well though, everyone (who has played it) is gushing about it.

 

This is hilarious, but he also kinda just sounds salty lol. For years IGN seemed to hate literally anything Sonic-related, obviously individuals don't speak for the whole org but it wasn't just "one guy on a podcast 7 years ago". If you want to build a reputable brand you need to build a reputable brand, your audience (/the folks whose impressions and attention help fund your org) will criticize you if they so choose. But this clip is officially comedy gold lmao, can't wait for it to become a copypasta.

Don't get me wrong though... I'm becoming sick of the Sonic keyboard warriors more and more each day - both the negative folks and the positive folks. (although news outlets should be able to cope, lol - it's their job) I just hate the polarization on Twitter and YT comments and everything, it's like you can't talk about anything constructively, which IMO is part of the fun part of being a fan of things. Even football (the pigskin one) fans bond over shitting on their favorite team if they screw up. I legit saw a post the other day where someone said they didn't like the way Sonic's eyes have changed with each design. They weren't angry or telling SEGA to kys, they were just innocently saying they thought Sonic's eyes were becoming too flat and didn't arch into his muzzle anymore, which they claimed looked less expressive. The replies were all outraged Sonic fans screaming and kicking because someone had a thoughtful take on the character's design, which was worded extremely innocently and somehow just escaped its target demographic. I've been incredibly positive toward this game and am literally dying to just play it already, but I've been chewed out for criticizing incredibly minor details lol. I think sometimes we forget that games are fun! And they should bring you joy! And it they don't it's probably not good for us.

 

Going off the precedent with the comics, the prologue animation may release tomorrow. Anyone got any hopes, expectations or predictions for it?

Personally, I'm thinking we're gonna start with a monologue reminiscent of the one at the start of Knuckles' story in Adventure.

 

Oh my god that was so fucking stupid. Stuff like that is why I'm starting to get sick of the "sonic fans complain about anything" rhetoric as if that's a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with INNOCENTLY MAKING AN OBSERVATION about something you don't like. It was so unaggressive too, it was literally just "I don't like this and here's why" and people blew it way out of proportion. You literally can't talk about anything now, positive or negative, without terminally online defensive weirdos getting on your case.

 

How do you guys see this game doing sales wise? I think if it reviews well it might end up being a sleeper hit and selling 5+ million copies especially with the movie earlier this year and the Prime show still on people's minds.

I hope it does well if it's good, I'm really looking forward to a new Sonic game that the mainstream public enjoys.

 

Honestly such an extreme lack of nuance is a phenomenon exemplified by Twitter more than anywhere else. Things can get pretty heated here but I personally feel like there’s generally attempts for people to understand where others are coming from. I don’t think Frontiers being good will kill discourse anymore than anything else does in that ecosystem, or anymore than it will if it ends up crashing and burning (given that Forces still gets plenty of knee jerk hate in that environment).

 

This is how I feel about like, Sonic having blue arms. No, it's not a dealbreaker, it's not something I would ever boycott Sega over, GameStop employees shouldn't be getting maced. I'm still not a fan of it just because for one, giving him flesh-colored arms was a conscious artistic choice (to distinguish his arms from the rest of his body if they're at his side), whereas people arguing in favor of the blue arms often make it out like it was a mistake that needed correction. For two it always reads to me as like, a calling card of bad bootleg merchandise so seeing him with blue arms in the movie or in Sonic Boom or whatever always leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

I hardly ever bring this up because who fucking cares, but also like you said, people are ready to jump on you and assume the worst over the most innocuous comment possible and it's just easier not to deal with it.

 

May be one of the best selling Sonic games under Sonic 1 and 2.

 

I hope it sells well.
I just want more good Sonic games, and possibly an Adventure 3 somewhere down the road....

Crash proved that it's possible to do a great numbered sequel so... Yeah.

 

Speaking of Crash 4, I love how cyberspace brings over a similar mission/gem system. If you’re skilled enough you can get all the missions done in one run, rather than say SA2 that had “beat the level” “get 100 rings” and “beat the level fast” as their own separate missions forcing needless repetition

 

You actually get an extra key for beating all missions too. I wonder if you need to complete them all in one run to get it. The Red Rings make me think no, but they also look like they're less "out of the way" in this game.

Ideally, you can beat the level with an S rank, get a lot of rings, and all of the Red Rings in one playthrough, which would relieve the shortness of the levels for me.

 

The IGN clip is cringe-inducing. They had multiple key editors on a podcast saying Sonic never had good games. You can't just joke that off as not a big deal. If anything it didn't get enough criticism at the time. Just an embarrassing attempt at courting controversy.

What's annoying about the Sonic fandom is they tend to conflate all of IGN's activity into one. Acting as if the fairly innocuous Sonic Unleashed review is the same as the podcast for example. So Sonic fans are definitely annoying no question.

But that said, I think it's embarrassing for IGN to act as if that podcast isn't anything but a humiliation. Bringing it up as "lol Sonic fans are so whiny they complain about this podcast from years ago" is just pathetic frankly.

 

I'm certain the movies are going to do a lot for this game sales-wise. There's people talking about buying this game that haven't played Sonic since the Adventure games. This is anecdotal, but I even have a few IRL friends who are interested in getting this game. This is probably going to reach a much larger audience than previous Sonic games.

 

One of my friends that literally never played are actually interested in playing Frontiers so yeah, I think this game is going to make some numbers.

Sonic Frontiers is probably gonna make a lot of people going into this franchise.

 

Not entirely surprised to see a resounding IGN backlash, both at Sonic and at Sonic fans. You can make a pretty good bet that like Lost World, whoever gets put in charge of the review is going to have a different opinion of the previews and interviews up to that point, usually a very contrasting one.

I am expecting some backlash net-wide one way or another. If IGN rates it good people will think they've lost their minds or some internal revolt occurred. If they rate it bad, it'll be "IGN always throws Sonic under the bus".