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The #DelaySonicFrontiers topic has been trending on Twitter for a while this week, after many Sonic fans expressed their frustration with the first videos showing the game in action.
This month, Sega partnered with IGN to unveil a first look at the upcoming open-world Sonic game. So far, a 7-minute open-world video has been published and another video dedicated to the combat system.
Apparently, these shots received a significant amount of criticism from the most active fans of the series. At the time of IGN’s publication, the gameplay premiere had nearly 50,000 “dislikes” on YouTube (compared to 72,000 “likes”), while action footage received 19,000 and 35,000 respectively.
Fan criticisms of Frontiers include what they call “stiff” animation, a sparse game world, and a perceived lack of character dynamics.
I am one of the biggest Sonic fans on planet Earth… [но] I didn’t like this game. Based on this video, I’m worried about Sonic Frontiers. I was so excited, I’ve been waiting for this for five years and I’m not happy. If Sonic stays like this for the next ten years, then we’re in trouble.
Some fans are urging Sega to release a demo of Frontiers so fans can provide feedback that could be used in development. Sega has already had a similar precedent in the past: the original design of the hedgehog movie was completely redesigned after poor reception in the trailers.
However, commenting on the proposals, Sven Joskelin, founder of fan site Sonic Stadium and director of global publishing at IGN, said he’s not as optimistic that Sega will be able to address the main fan issues with Frontiers.
DelaySonicFrontiers won’t work because for me the main issue is the concept and gameplay of the game; delaying to fix bugs and add content won’t help solve this problem. It looks like SonicFrontiers wants to be a hyper-realistic, combat-oriented Sonic game taken from the movies. And that’s fine if that’s the goal. It’s just not the Sonic game I was hoping for in 2022.
