The first gameplay of Sonic Frontiers reveals its open world

We got our first real look at the gameplay in Sega’s next mainline 3D Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers, On Wednesday. A new seven-minute video reveals the island setting and its open world, as well as how Sonic will navigate it. The video features Sonic running fast (shocker), sliding on rails, scaling huge monuments, and using a new game mechanic that includes a light trail. The new footage comes exclusively courtesy of IGN.

The entire video takes place on an island with lush and sprawling grassy plains. Sonic runs around and uses bumpers to propel him through the air; He is also shown riding rails and using some bubble-like objects to chain a series of jumps. There are also special glowing walls that he can jump off and run up.

The most notable departure from previous Sonic games is a new mechanic that allows Sonic to orbit objects with a trail of light to interact with them. In the footage, he uses it to put out some torches and solve a puzzle.

True to the core premise of the series, it looks like you can move around the world quickly. Throughout the video, we see Sonic using a combination of all his traversal skills to scale a giant tower and move across the island. (Though seemingly nothing happens when Sonic finally reaches the top of this magnificent tower.) Sonic traverses an entire island to arrive at what appears to be an inverted floating pyramid in a matter of minutes.

The overworld design and puzzles look a bit disappointing. For starters, the rails in the sky just look like lines in the distance, not so faintly reminiscent of the vast natural wilderness and built-up landmarks we’ve seen in previous open-world games The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or elden ring. As Sonic ran, seemingly important monuments like a giant floating platform in the frame would appear out of nowhere at certain points. In addition, the video featured a simple push plate puzzle and another puzzle where you only have to rotate a statue to open a door.

It’s just a preview video, so there’s likely to be a lot more to see in the coming months. Sonic Frontiers will be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.