New Sonic Frontiers trailer shows off a series first – combat that’s actually fun
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The positive buzz surrounding Sonic Frontiers continues with the release of the latest gameplay trailer, demonstrating battles and upgrades.
Coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch on November 8, Sonic Frontiers will not be a simple sprint from A to B across the Starfall Islands. Sonic will have plenty of alien enemies to deal with along the way. Thankfully, the game’s latest trailer shows that our boy is ready to take on them with a new and improved arsenal of attacks and abilities.
Better yet, the new additions look really fun to use. The trailer shows off moves like the improved homing attack and drop dash, alongside brand new additions like Phantom Rush, with Sonic leaving afterimages of himself as he dazzles enemies with a flurry of punches and kicks. Then there’s the Sonic Boom. A cheeky reference, but also an attack where Sonic fires a series of curved projectiles that would make Street Fighter 6’s Guile blush.
After the disastrous early reveal, each trailer has done a little bit to restore Sonic Frontier’s image. As a long time Sonic fan, I’m actually won over to this game and think it could be quite good.
Fight riddles
So fighting in Sonic Frontiers looks like it doesn’t suck. But why is that so bad? Well, simply because combat is something that Sonic games have rarely, if ever, done well.
Shadow the Hedgehog completely missed the mark with its unwieldy (and terribly edgy) focus on gun-based combat. Sonic and the Black Knight, a game that in my opinion is quite underrated, was let down by its insistence on Wii motion-based swordplay. Sonic Unleashed came close with its Werehog combat sections and an almost fighting game-esque moveset, but it felt sluggish and undercooked to play.
Sonic Frontiers represents a turning point in that it’s the first time I’ve seen combat in a Sonic game and thought, ‘Yeah, that looks really good’. Obviously, we won’t really know what these new abilities and their upgrades feel like until we get our hands on the game. But compared to even the relatively recent Sonic Forces, Frontiers looks decidedly more polished overall.