Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is an ambitious open-world adventure that mostly succeeds at mixing up the Sonic formula, even when some of its ideas fall flat.

Sonic Frontiers marks a bold new direction for the series, meshing traditional Sonic action with an open-ended approach to progression and exploration across its semi-open world.

Despite the joys offered, Sonic Frontiers is a hot mess of a reinvention that can't commit to its new direction.

Messy, overcomplicated and slow to start, but fun once it picks up speed.

It’s unfortunate to see a Sonic game that tries, and often succeeds, in retreading past foundations and applying them to a different setting. But the highs of fighting the Titans or playing remakes of classic levels can’t justify the frustrations that constantly put stops along the way.

Sonic Frontiers features the kind of lightweight yet engaging storytelling that should easily enrapture fans young and old – though I'd hate to be a child forced to play through some of the abysmal platforming featured throughout. Was taking Sonic open world an ambitious endeavor? Yes. Did it pay off? Absolutely not.

Though it’s rough around the edges, Sonic Frontiers is the best 3D Sonic game in years.

The open-world adventure is brilliant in terms of input and response at the expense of any discernible logic

It may have had a mixed reception earlier this year, but Sonic Frontiers' final form is a brilliantly refreshing adventure that gives the series a much-needed shake-up. The occasional control and camera 'quirks' still pop their head up, but they appear far less frequently than Sonic fans will be used to, making for a much less frustrating experience overall. We would absolutely welcome more of this.

Probably the best Sonic has been for a while, with open zones that make for scrappy fun and incredible frustration in your hunt for the Chaos Emeralds.