Recent reviews by SketchyTodd

The best Sonic game that has ever been released. Both games will take you about 6-7 hours to beat in total but completing both can take you anywhere from 20-30 hours. Sonic Generations is already amazing but Shadow Generations makes the OG feel like it was tacked on just to give people a better deal. The movement and flow of Shadow's levels are insanely smooth and the bosses are super fun to try perfecting. Literally couldn't be better even if they tried.

Edit: Only issues I found are from the Sonic Generations port. Buggy reflections, broken Sky Sanctuary, you can still buy lives in the shop despite the game getting rid of them, etc.

Still a great game and way better then the old Generations PC port.

In short, Sonic Frontiers is a flawed but amazing experience. Like most Sonic games, it has it's fair share of issues but instead the majority of those issues being flaws on a fundamental level, most of Frontiers' issues stem from subtle performance hiccups and a lackluster endgame. Other then that, Frontiers is one of the best Sonic games I have ever played, featuring a solid gameplay structure, amazing boss fights, and a great soundtrack. The game left me wanting more and I don't mean that in a bad way!

Overall, I'd give Sonic Frontiers a solid 8/10!


Starting with the bad stuff, the obvious place to start is the performance. The game runs beautifully and never once frame dropped or crashed on me, however, the pop-in is extremely annoying. There was no attempt to mask it (like a fade-in effect or something) and sometimes objects don't appear until you're right on top of them. Truth be told it was never an issue during a casual playthrough for me but the more you play it the more you notice it.
The achievements for Frontiers are pathetic. The time it takes to 100% the game is laughable and that's because the lack of achievements in some instances is questionable. There is no achievement for completing all of the missions in all of the cyberspace levels. There is no achievement for getting all of the in-game collectibles. There is a lack of achievements for combat outside of the main bosses, only having one achievement that requires a specific action to be completed 50 times (If you want to easily beat the Combo Crackerjack achievement just bounce off the arena against Sumo and don't follow up. Instead, wait for an opportunity to do it again). It did hurt knowing that there isn't much to do for 100% completion unless you want to self-impose a 200% challenge where you collect everything.
The end of the game is pretty weak. To summarize it without spoilers, the last 2 islands are underwhelming and the secret final boss you get from beating the game on hard mode is baffling and I honestly wish the game didn't have it at all. The game starts to drag a bit near the end of the third island but ultimately wraps up before it becomes detrimental to the experience.
While I don't hate the cyberspace levels (I'll explain further in the positives), in a pre-release interview Takashi Izuka said that those portions of the games were included because they believed some people didn't want entirely new gameplay. That alone made me furious. Everyone that has kept up with the series had begun to loath the boost formula and the linear design. The boost gameplay peaked with Sonic Generations back in 2011 and that's where it should've stayed. I hope going forward, Sonic Team tries to do new exciting things as opposed to holding on to old things that worked years ago as a make-shift crutch.

Sonic is really fun to control. You can customize him anyway you want and while most people just cranked the sliders to max it's still a cool option. Unless you're on rails, momentum is a bit limited but is still fun to mess with. Sonic's range of moves is a huge step up from Sonic Forces and while most additions are great, the drop dash was surprisingly pathetic. You would mainly want to use it in the cyberspace levels to gain speed on slopes more efficiently but it reacts super weird and isn't worth using. I don't want them to get rid of it since using it in the open zones to chain together movement options is a treat.
The Cyberspace levels, while pretty lame on their own, became way more enjoyable once you realize that Sonic can cancel a homing attack by boosting to gain an insane amount of momentum. Whether intentional or not, it takes the cyberspace levels from being a negative to becoming a positive. It's so fun to break the levels and makes you feel really cool despite the fact you're most likely a grown man playing a Sonic game.
The boss fights are easily the highlight of the game. I don't know how the series that is infamous for having the worst boss fights in gaming managed to make some of the best bosses in platforming history but they made some truly memorable fights.
The combat, while not anything special, makes me extremely optimistic for how they could improve it. It's a solid foundation, I just think they need less attack options and more movement options or skill boosts on the skill tree and it's perfect! While it can be a little button-mashy, it's not super tedious and can be quite fun if you learn how to effectively string together moves!
The music is very interesting, containing a variety of tracks that all sound great (outside of a few cyberspace levels). The boss music made my jaw drop and the open zone tracks are lovely. EDM isn't my favorite genre but I'll admit that some of the cyberspace tracks were pretty good but most were bad.
The story isn't award-winning but Ian Flynn has been writing these characters for over a decade and it shows. I legitimately couldn't stop smiling whenever Sonic and Knuckles interacted and the story actually kept me invested. I'm so glad that Ken Pontac and Warren Graff are gone because after dealing with their awful and cheap writing for over a decade, I don't know if I could've handled another atrocious script. Flynn thankfully delivers, although he can get a bit obsessed with throwing in too many references.
The freedom in the game is extremely refreshing. There is multiple ways you can progress through that game and that freedom actually makes me forgive a lot of glaring problems because if I don't want to do something, I simply don't have to.

After being disappointed with Lost World, upset with Sonic Boom, and bent over with Sonic Forces, the fact that Sonic Frontiers ended up being decent meant the world to me. It showed me that Sonic Team was still capable of good things after a decade of fumbling. I'm honestly shocked the game was worth the 60 USD price tag and them some, especially since the modding scene has already cracked the game wide open. If you enjoy platformers, do yourself a favor and pick this one up!

Sorry if there are a lot of typos!

Funny monkey game is fun.