Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is a 2022 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Its story follows Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, who after falling into a wormhole are left stranded in an artificial dimension of the Starfall Islands known as Cyber Space. Sonic escapes the dimension and sets off on a mission to rescue his trapped allies by defeating the islands' "Titans". Combining traditional Sonic the Hedgehog series elements with an open world structure, the gameplay of Frontiers sees the player controlling Sonic through the islands in order to collect the Chaos Emeralds, which are necessary to defeat the Titans. This is accomplished by completing various challenges strewn throughout that test the player through platforming, puzzle solving or combat encounters. Following the release of Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Team began exploring approaches for its next game. Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team, wanted Frontiers to be a model for future Sonic titles, as Sonic Adventure (1998) had done. Sonic Team settled on an open-ended design and focused on adapting Sonic's abilities to an open world. Frontiers was announced in December 2021 and released on November 8, 2022. A Nintendo Switch 2 port, with a subtitle Definitive Edition, followed in June 23, 2026, in celebration of the franchise's 35th anniversary. The game was generally positively received among critics, who praised its visuals, story and soundtrack, but criticized its technical issues that gave the impression of a lack of polish. Reception of the controls and combat in Frontiers was mixed, with the latter being lauded by some for its comprehensiveness and critiqued by others for a sense of repetition and feeling of under-engagement. The game was received more favorably by fans of the series. It was a commercial success, selling five million copies as of 2026.