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Sonic Prime has certainly had an…interesting media cycle since Netflix accidentally announced it early nearly two years ago. That seems set to continue with how its first episode will debut: within the Sonic Roblox game, Sonic Simulator.
The episode will premiere within the game at 10AM EST/7AM PST on December 10, in what’s been coined a “Global Virtual Premiere Event.” This announcement came via Netflix’s Twitter account.
SEGA has announced that Sonic Frontiers will be receiving a whole smorgasbord of new free DLC and story-based content throughout 2023, with a roadmap covering a laundry list of material from small features like photo mode to full-blown playable character arcs.
Via Sonic Twitter
The content will be broken up into three distinct updates, with the first two focusing on additional quality-of-life upgrades to the core Sonic Frontiers experience. Update 1 will consist of a Juke Box and Photo Mode features, with additional Challenge modes for seasoned players. Update 2 will celebrate Sonic’s birthday somehow, introduce new Koco creatures and add an intriguing ‘Open Zone Challenge’ feature.
It’s Content Update 3 that we’re very excited about though – this will apparently feature new playable characters as well as a new story to build upon the events of the core Sonic Frontiers game. We’re assuming this means that Tails, Knuckles and Amy will get their own playable experiences and challenges, but additional story elements are more than welcome too given the ending was one of the weaker elements of the game (per our Sonic Stadium review here).
Best of all, as already mentioned, all of this upcoming content will be free for existing players. To kick things off for the holiday season, SEGA will also be releasing a special free DLC costume pack on December 21st, with the blue blur donning a Christmas suit to rock while busting heads in Cyberspace.
Via Sonic Twitter
Seeing this level of post-release support for a Sonic the Hedgehog game is unheard of; SEGA has previously only dabbled with tiny morsels of DLC in the past, with the most significant being additional ‘Hard mode’ stage variants for Sonic 2006 and challenges for Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Forces offered Super Sonic and Episode Shadow DLC, but this roadmap for Frontiers seems to take things much further than any game before it.
We’re very excited to see what the future holds for the Starfall Islands – if you’ve not already played Sonic Frontiers and want to know what the deal is all about, check out our definitive review right here.
It isn’t available on all platforms yet, but Sonic Frontiers is in the middle of receiving its first major patch update. There’s no new content, but there is a large number of bug fixes and performance improvements.
Continue reading SEGA’s Rolling Out A Sonic Frontiers Patch UpdateSonic Frontiers has smashed series sales records in Japan, with today’s Famitsu charts reporting that the blue blur’s latest adventure has racked up a total of 46,276 unit sales across all platforms. It’s the highest a Sonic game has ever sold in its opening week since Sonic Adventure 2’s original release on the Dreamcast.
Continue reading Japan Charts: Sonic Frontiers Becomes Fastest-Selling Mainline Game in 20 YearsSonic Frontiers’ Monster Hunter DLC pack will be the first of several free downloadable content packs for the game. This news comes via a German language press release from PLAION, the PR firm that works for SEGA Europe, which confirmed that these DLC releases will continue into 2023.
The exact nature of these content updates have not been clarified, but the Japanese version of the game has already received downloadable content that includes a collaboration with Hololive Vtuber Inugami Korone and an emote animation that lets Sonic pretend to play football with the Koco.
You can find the full press release here.
Just a week after the release of Sonic Frontiers, SEGA’s looking to hire new developers to work on future games in the franchise.
SEGA of Japan’s Twitter account made the announcement yesterday, saying it was “looking for people to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog series,” before linking to a job listing.
Whether this is an expansion of existing development capability, or filling in existing positions, is currently unknown.
via Twitter
Digital Foundry, the internet’s prominent game graphics and performance testing site, recently went hands on with every major console version of Sonic Frontiers, including the Switch and each major hardware step of the Playstation 4/5 and Xbox X/S/One.
Continue reading Digital Foundry Tests the Performance of EVERY Version of Sonic FrontiersThe Monster Hunter DLC for Sonic Frontiers is now available across all platforms! The DLC is free, and contains the Rathalos and Felyne Rathalos armor, as well as a meat cooking mini game. The mini game can be accessed via Big the Cat’s fishing spots.
Check out some video footage below:
Boy, it seems like people were really eager to play Sonic Frontiers! The game has reportedly smashed the record for most concurrent players for a Sonic the Hedgehog game on PC platform Steam.
Continue reading Sonic Frontiers Smashes Series Record for Concurrent Players on SteamThey say that a work of art tends to be a reflection of the thoughts and feelings of the artist who made it. If that’s the case, then Sonic Team has been a studio seemingly crushed with anxiety for the last five years, because Sonic Frontiers is a game uncharacteristically drenched in melancholy, introspection and sadness.
From the wistful empty fields and abandoned temples of Kronos Island, to the hauntingly isolationist undertones of the soundtrack and even the narratives driving Sonic and his friends (no spoilers here, don’t worry), there’s something strangely unsettling about the vibe of Sonic Frontiers.
Continue reading TSS REVIEW: Sonic FrontiersWith Sonic Frontiers’ release inching ever closer, SEGA has yet another sampling of the OST, this time highlighting Ares Island, and an interview with the man behind this and many other modern Sonic soundtracks.
Continue reading SEGA Releases Ares Island Studio Recording and Tomoya Ohtani Interview VideosAfter much anticipation, today marks the release of Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence, a Knuckles-focused animated short announced during the most recent Sonic Central presentation.
The short focuses on Knuckles in an introspective moment as he contemplates his own isolation. With surprising directness, the story ties itself to the events of Sonic Adventure, as well as the precursor civilizations that exist on the fringes of Sonic lore. For Sonic continuity buffs, the short certainly suggest that the tendrils of the Starfall Islands have a very wide, very old reach.
As with Sonic Frontiers proper, the short was written by Ian Flynn with consulting from Evan Stanley, with the animation itself handled once again by Tyson Hesse and Powerhouse Animation Studio. Dave Mitchell returns as Knuckles, though with significantly more nuanced dialog than in his prior performance in Team Sonic Racing. And to round out the veritable who’s who of official Sonic projects, Tee Lopes composed the short’s original music.
Divergence gives a much heartier taste of Sonic Frontiers’ story than Prologue: Convergence and plays into the tone that Frontiers on the whole has established. This isn’t pure goofball Knucklehead, but the short strikes a balance of not being overly serious either. It builds itself upon the existing Sonic world, both classic and modern, while seeding Frontiers’ own mysteries.
The second part of the official Sonic Frontiers prologue has dropped, leaving fans with the perfect cliffhanger to excite them ahead of the release of the latest Sonic video game on November 8.
Continue reading Read the Conclusion of the Sonic Frontiers: Convergence ComicClosing out their pre-release coverage of Frontiers, IGN returns this morning with one additional preview of the game’s PC version, including details on general game progression, the “Memory Tokens” to collect, Cyber Space level motifs, and some fresh footage of the game’s third island.
Continue reading IGN Offers “Final Preview” of Sonic Frontiers and a New IslandThe director of the upcoming Sonic Frontiers has announced on Twitter that the game has officially gone gold, with development now completed across all platforms.
Continue reading Kishimoto Confirms Sonic Frontiers Development Has Been CompletedThe age-old tradition of Sonic the Hedgehog game promotional cars has come back with a vengeance this year, as SEGA Japan revealed this customised Audi R8 Coupe V10 – and it’s going to go on sale later this year for some $300k USD.
Continue reading SEGA and Audi Are Selling This One-of-a-Kind Sonic Frontiers Racing CarSonic Frontiers will be getting a special vinyl soundtrack release in December, with pre-orders going live this weekend. Titled Sonic Frontiers: The Music of Starfall Islands, the soundtrack will come in both 2LP and 4LP limited edition box sets.
Continue reading Data Discs Announces Sonic Frontiers 2LP and 4LP Vinyl SoundtrackSonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka has revealed that he would be open to third-party collaborations with other developers to create spinoff titles to bridge the gap between mainline Sonic game releases.
Continue reading Iizuka Open to Working With Third Parties to Reboot Sonic Spinoff Game DevelopmentIt only got announced last week, but already the first part of the official Sonic Frontiers prologue comic, Convergence, has been published. You can read it right here to get a sense of the journey that Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman take that leads to their situation at the start of the Sonic Frontiers video game.
Continue reading Read the First Chapter of the Sonic Frontiers: Convergence ComicSEGA has just announced a brand new digital comic that will be released to promote the upcoming release of Sonic Frontiers. Titled ‘Sonic Frontiers: Convergence’, the two-part comic series will begin this coming Tuesday, with the official Sonic channel revealing the ‘book’s cover art today.
Continue reading Two-Part Sonic Frontiers Prologue Comic, ‘Convergence’, Releasing Digitally Next WeekAfter multiple iterations of Sonic collaborations hitting the Monster Hunter series, the reverse finally has finally happened.
Continue reading Free Monster Hunter DLC Hits Sonic Frontiers in NovemberSonic Channel has revealed that Wavemaster will be releasing a Sonic Frontiers original soundtrack, titled “Stillness & Motion.” The massive 6-disc set will include 150 songs from the game and a 40-page insert book with commentary. The physical CD was only announced for Japan; however, the digital album will be available internationally on major music services. Both will release December 8 (or December 7 according to the official Japanese Sonic Twitter account).
The blog post notes that the game’s main theme “I’m Here,” composed by series mainstay Tomoya Ohtani and written/performed by Merry Kirk-Holmes (To Octavia), will be included on the album, though the game’s other theme “Vandalize” by ONE OK ROCK was not explicitly mentioned (if it does not make it to the album, it’s otherwise available on the band’s new album “Luxury Disease”). The post estimates the price to launch at 8,000 yen (a little over $55 USD at time of writing).
From what we’ve heard so far, Frontiers’ melancholy tone is backed by subdued and atmospheric overworld music, while cyberspace stages such as Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Sky Sanctuary invoke a style similar to that of Sonic Forces, complete with vocal elements. Sonic Frontiers is scheduled to release November 8, when we can finally stop relying on off-screen demo audio and enjoy the game’s music properly.
Thanks to Dodger24848 and MyEcho for the news tip!
As encouragement to get people to sign up for the Sonic Frontiers newsletter, SEGA is offering an unusual treat: Sonic’s grinding shoes from Sonic Adventure 2.
By subscribing to the game’s newsletter by January 31, 2023, you’ll receive an e-mail after the game’s release to redeem for the in-game shoes. Like Forces and Colors: Ultimate, Sonic Frontiers is expected to offer cosmetics for your character, including some as part of the game’s Digital Deluxe Edition, and Japan exclusive promo cosmetics in collaboration with vTuber Inugami Korone.
While fans online have been ecstatic over this announcement, I feel like it was a real missed opportunity to include the OVA outfit, the Mii kigurumi outfits from the Olympic games, or, perhaps the best Sonic cosmetic SEGA has ever released…
Thanks to Dodger24848 for the news tip!
While long-prior tradition once dictated that thou shalt fight the biggest boss at the end of the game as Super Sonic, Sonic Frontiers is once again shaking things up. As we reported last week, the latest TGS trailer teased Titan battles, pitting Sonic against towering bosses. In an interview with IGN Japan, director Morio Kishimoto confirms that these fights do require transforming into Super Sonic.
“Up until now, in Sonic games, Super Sonic would only appear against the last boss. Imagine if the first boss in Sonic Frontiers is as strong as those bosses,”
The TGS trailer shows Sonic scaling the massive enemy in order to take the Chaos Emerald housed on its head, using all seven to transform, and then flying towards the enemy. While no combat is shown, IGN notes that the Super Sonic fights have their own moveset separate from the standard traversal and combat mechanics.
The franchise has taken different approaches to Super Sonic from Sonic Colors onward, some games requiring the seven emeralds to fight a final boss as Super Saiyan Sonic, others using that form as a reward for completing extra challenges, and even Sonic Forces offering him as free DLC. It’s interesting to see Frontiers’ take as adding further variety to the game’s combat encounters, bucking yet further modern Sonic trends.
Thanks to SSF1991 for the tip!
Sonic Frontiers represents the biggest shake-up of the Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise for over twenty years. So naturally, there has been a lot of apprehension from fans about the project since its announcement – especially as Sonic Team has built up a reputation of switching focus with each of its mainline titles since 2001.
Everybody is desperate to finally get a series of Sonic titles that establish (and maintain) a consistent visual, gameplay and narrative design. Will Sonic Frontiers be the start of a brand new branch/generation of Sonic games? Sonic Team has gone on record to say that is their intention. After playing a brief demo of the game at Gamescom last month, I’m cautiously optimistic enough to agree. With some reservations.
Continue reading TSS PREVIEW: Sonic Frontiers Impressions – Cautiously One Ok Rock-timisticSonic Frontiers’ director, Morio Kishimoto, has revealed in a Tokyo Game Show interview a secret goal of Sonic Team’s when developing the game – to restore the studio’s reputation and place it at the top of the gaming development world.
Continue reading Kishimoto Hopes Sonic Frontiers Will Take Sonic Team to the Top of the Gaming IndustryThis strange alter-ego of Sonic the Hedgehog is still pretty much an enigma since his appearance in Sonic and the Secret Rings, but this week Darkspine Sonic will be available as an unlockable playable character for a limited time in SEGA HARDlight’s Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.
Continue reading Darkspine Sonic Event Now Running in Sonic Forces MobileWe knew he was going to appear at some point in the game, but SEGA has gone ahead and revealed Super Sonic in this latest Sonic Frontiers trailer. The video was released this morning to coincide with the Tokyo Game Show event in Japan, and features some cool new footage. Check it out below.
Continue reading Sonic Frontiers TGS 2022 Trailer Reveals Super Sonic GameplayWith SAGE in full swing, it’s nice to be able to play an original work from a developer of several Sonic fan games who has gone on to succeed with their own creation. Felipe Daneluz is well known in the Sonic community for his fan game “Sonic Before The Sequel” among others. But his gaming career really took off with 2017’s “Spark the Electric Jester”.
Continue reading TSS Review: Spark The Electric Jester 3In the September 13th, 2022 Nintendo Direct, Sonic Frontiers (seemingly the Switch version) made an 8-second appearance… but only in the Japanese version for some reason. I’ve taken the liberty of cropping and uploading the clip by itself onto YouTube for your easy viewing pleasure above.
Also, it was never shared here, but Nintendo actually uploaded some screenshots of the Switch version on their various eShop pages earlier (such as on the NA page). I’ve placed them below:
We also have a comparison between the Switch version (on the left) and the higher-end version (on the right):
How are you finding the Switch version to be turning out so far? Let us know if the comments below.
Via Nintendo’s Japanese Nintendo Direct website.
SEGA has launched an album on Spotify (and no doubt, other music streaming services) for Sonic Frontiers. At present, only two tracks are available to listen to – a short version of theme track ‘I’m Here’, and a five-minute long track featuring the theme of Starfall Islands. Give it a listen below.
Continue reading Listen to Sonic Frontiers’ Starfall Islands Theme on Spotify Right NowSince Sonic Frontiers’ first public demo at Gamescom, fans on the show floor have been able to share and capture a lot more than anyone could have expected. Despite SEGA’s time-limited preview, one cunning player managed to reveal a gameplay feature tied to Big the Cat’s appearance in the game.
Of course, it’s a fishing minigame.
Continue reading Yes, You Can Go Fishing With Big in Sonic FrontiersEven though he’s way more popular in the West, Sonic the Hedgehog games continue to see exclusive special editions in SEGA’s home country, Japan. Sonic Frontiers will be no different, with a limited release of the upcoming game coming complete with an art book and a Koco charm toy.
Continue reading Japanese Special Edition of Sonic Frontiers Comes With Art Book, Koco CharmIf you’re reading this, chances are you know that Sonic has a long, storied history in fan games. So much so, that the Sonic community has managed to keep an online event devoted to them – the Sonic Amateur Game Expo, or “SAGE” – going for more than two decades. That event, which is currently ongoing as of this review’s publication, has played host to some absolute bangers over the decades.
Continue reading TSS Fan Game Review: Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit is a TriumphJust a day after SEGA revealed the ending theme to Sonic Frontiers (performed by the popular J-Rock band One Ok Rock), we now have news of the upcoming game’s main theme too.
Continue reading “I’m Here” – The Main Theme of Sonic Frontiers RevealedMusic has famously always been a high point for Sonic, with even the worst games often having solid soundtracks. As more of Sonic Frontiers has been revealed, SEGA has been stingy with the music, often even removing it from game play videos, leaving fans with only the odd taste from a trailer or clip. That is, until today.
SEGA has finally revealed a full track from the game, ”Vandalize” by the Japanese rock band One Ok Rock. While SEGA only posted a one-minute tease on the Sonic twitter, One Ok Rock has posted both the Japanese and English versions of the song on Youtube.
Some have already noted that the Japanese version of the song drops an f-bomb. This appears to have been replaced with ”freaking” in the English version. So no, this doesn’t mean Sonic Frontiers is going to get a T or M rating or anything.
Check out both versions of the song below:
The band also did an interview, which as translated into English by SEGA Asia. Nothing newsworthy is said, but you can still check it out below:
