Hérissons sans frontières

So, Sonic Frontiers, then.

Yes, against all tradition, I am writing a video game review for a reasonably current release. I have a PS5 and little else on my wish list! So, as a consequence, games that have not yet missed the boat.

This is a modern 3D Sonic game and, again against all tradition, it is pretty playable! It borrows conceptually from Sonic Adventure in that there is a "hub world" and smaller linear "levels", but the levels are vastly shorter and there's a lot more to do in the hub world. The "levels" are basically side challenges, kinda-sorta necessary to progress in the main game. Mostly necessary. You'd have a job doing the whole game without doing a single "level" (and, yeah, it's probably necessary to at least do one in the tutorial stage), but honestly it may be possible. See, the level challenges give you "keys" you need to collect to unlock progress, and these same keys sometimes drop randomly from chests and enemies in the hub world. So, if you really plugged at it, you could skip the levels.

And, honestly, I'd be tempted! The levels don't do much for me. They're fine, they're mostly fine. There are some very occasional frustrating bits. Precision jumping can be tricky, partly because it really likes forward momentum but also because occasionally the camera wants to be in a different direction, which is compounded by some odd route-magnetism which is presumably supposed to aid with the high speed track runs. The 2.5D levels are broadly more successful but still have weird glitches on occasion.

The other thing you can skip is the mini-bosses! The world in strewn with powerful enemies who, in theory, you need to beat them to get gears to unlock the levels. But again, these gears drop at random elsewhere! And this is a good thing because wow, these bosses are variable difficulty, ranging from a few paltry punches to an elaborate series of hoops and rings or timed attacks in a whirlwind. The sand shark is a lot of fun. But even the fun bosses take an inordinate amount of time for the reward, a single gear, which can drop from a crate or random small enemy.

But the hub world is a lot of fun, running around obstacle courses collecting tokens and solving puzzles. The big area-end bosses are suitably epic. Even the levels are often enjoyable. And the whole thing is very pretty.

Although - speaking of graphics - there's a weirdly low draw distance. The scenery is all magnificent, but the props, the blocks and springs and stunt panels, they jump into existence at a couple hundred metres distance. Which for a PS5 game is wild. I'm assuming it's because this is a multi platform title? I came here straight from the remastered Spider-Man games, which are largely perfection in controls, camera, and graphics, and it's genuinely shocking to see on this powerhouse console.

So, I dunno. It's definitely fun! I've spent hours moving fast and will very likely spend more, because it's diverting and has that constant just-one-more appeal. But I dunno, if this had been a purchase rather than a gift, I'd probably be a little p'd off about dropping AAA money on something that's just not quite top tier.

Which is of course part of why I generally don't but stuff on launch.