Sonic Frontiers (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.4.1 Update + All DLCs

Sonic Frontiers is a 2022 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. As Sonic, the player explores the Starfall Islands to collect the Chaos Emeralds, after Sonic and his friends are separated when falling through a wormhole. Frontiers integrates traditional Sonic the Hedgehog elements—such as platforming, rings, and grind rails—into the series’ first open world. While exploring the open world, players can complete challenges, fight robotic enemies, and access “Cyber Space” levels inspired by previous Sonic games. Experience the adrenaline rush of high-speed, open-zone platforming as you zoom across the sprawling landscape of the five colossal Starfall Islands. Unleash your inner adventurer, harness the power of the Ancients, and engage in epic battles to thwart the mysterious new adversaries. Get ready to witness the evolution of Sonic games!

GAMEPLAY

Sonic Frontiers is a 3D platformer and action-adventure game. As Sonic, the player explores the Starfall Islands (which consist of various biomes including flowery fields, forests, ancient ruins, and deserts) to collect the Chaos Emeralds and investigate the islands’ relationship to them. Sonic retains his abilities from previous Sonic the Hedgehog games: he runs at high speeds, collects rings, grinds on rails, and homes in on enemies to attack. The player can double jump, sidestep, drop dash, and boost if Sonic has enough energy. New abilities include combat attacks, running alongside walls, and using the Cyloop to create a circle of light around objects and interact with them.

The Cyloop can perform different tasks by drawing certain shapes — for example, drawing an infinity symbol or an 8 will allow Sonic to boost indefinitely for a short time. Sonic also gains the ability to temporarily boost indefinitely upon collecting the maximum number of rings. The player can customize the controls and adjust the game’s difficulty along with Sonic’s speed, turning acceleration, and sensitivity, among other things. As they progress, they can also upgrade Sonic’s speed, attack, defense, ring capacity, and boost gauge. The Starfall Islands act as the series’s first open world, which writers compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The world retains traditional Sonic elements, such as springs, boost pads, and grind rails.

The player explores the islands as they solve puzzles, such as orienting statues and speedrunning, to reveal parts of the map and obtain items. One of Sonic’s objectives is to rescue three of his friends — Miles “Tails” Prower, Amy Rose, and Knuckles the Echidna — who are trapped in cyberspace. Tails and Amy initially accompany Sonic in his investigation, while Knuckles was transported there earlier from the ruins above Angel Island. This is accomplished by obtaining various collectibles found in the open world. Collectibles include Kocos, which upgrade Sonic’s speed and ring capacity, New Kocos, which are larger and upgrade Sonic’s boost gauge, Red Seeds of Power and Blue Seeds of Defense, which upgrade Sonic’s attack strength and damage reduction respectively, Sound Memories, which allow new songs to be added to the Jukebox, and Memory Tokens, which are used to trigger cutscenes and conversations with Sonic’s friends when they receive them.

These either progress the story’s plot (occasionally via minigames) or expand their relationships with Sonic by requesting the player to complete side quests. Sonic’s friends project themselves as holograms in the real world while trapped, allowing them to interact with and advise Sonic. Action Chain Challenges, which also appear in the open zone, require the player to complete actions and increase their score. Getting an S-rank on all of them allows the player to utilize Sonic’s Spin Dash. The player battles robots throughout the islands, all in various forms; Sonic can dodge and parry attacks and use the Cyloop to make enemies easier to strike. Defeating enemies grants the player experience points that allow the player to purchase additional moves and abilities in combat and the open world. Alongside regular, small enemies, the player battles large “Guardian” bosses.

Defeating a Guardian rewards the player with portal gears that, when placed in a portal, allow them to enter Cyber Space. Each of the 30 Cyber Space levels, which shift between third-person and side-scrolling perspectives, contains three optional objectives, including a time attack, collecting rings, and collecting five red rings; completing each objective rewards players with a key required to collect a Chaos Emerald. Big the Cat makes an appearance as a host for a fishing minigame which is included in set areas of the maps.

Where Sonic can exchange purple coins found in the overworld to catch fish and other objects that net him a “fishing token” based on catch quality. The tokens can then be redeemed for items and collectibles. Collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds allows the player to transform into Super Sonic, which is required to battle and defeat the game’s major bosses, the Titans. Completing every island-mapping challenge and side story on each island and maxing out Sonic’s stats (except for boost), or having the game’s difficulty set to Hard or Extreme, before battling Supreme reveals a “secret” final boss fight with The End and a post-credits scene.

PLOT

Doctor Eggman travels to the abandoned Starfall Islands to steal the technological secrets created by the Ancients, creatures related to Chaos. When he uploads his artificial intelligence unit, Sage, into a portal, several robotic defense units are summoned. Detecting a threat signature, Sage ceases hijacking the portal and initiates a protection protocol, dragging Eggman into an artificial dimension called Cyber Space. Sonic, Tails, and Amy investigate activity that has drawn the Chaos Emeralds to the islands, but their plane is sucked into a wormhole to Cyber Space. Sonic escapes to the islands in the real world, where a disembodied voice tasks him with finding the emeralds and destroying the island’s robotic Titans to remove the boundary between the real and digital worlds.

Believing this will save his friends – including Knuckles, who was transported there while exploring the ruins above Angel Island – Sonic releases their digital forms from cages created by Sage, who works to free Eggman from Cyber Space; destroying the cages causes Sonic’s body to become increasingly corrupted. Sage cautions Sonic to leave, influencing the islands’ mechanical guardians and Titans to attack him, but grows to sympathize with him while observing his interactions with his friends, and forms a mutual familial bond with Eggman. Through visions of the local Koco, Sonic, and his friends learn the history of the Ancients, who are revealed to be an extraterrestrial race whose planet was destroyed by The End, an all-powerful entity.

The Ancients used the Chaos Emeralds to escape and were drawn to the Master Emerald on Earth, but The End followed and started to wipe out their new civilization. The Titans were built to seal The End within Cyber Space, with the Ancients’ essences remaining within the Koco, which become inert once Sonic and his friends help them fulfill their final desires in life. After destroying three of the Titans and disabling the towers that maintain the spatial boundary, Sonic succumbs to his corruption and is trapped between dimensions. Released along with his friends and Eggman, Sonic’s guide reveals itself to be The End, which attacks Earth using the last Titan, Supreme.

Sonic’s friends purge the corruption from him by sacrificing their physical forms, while Sage and a reluctant Eggman help him collect the scattered Chaos Emeralds, allowing him to defeat Supreme. When The End flees into space, Sage uses Supreme to assist Sonic against The End’s true form, sacrificing herself to destroy it. Sonic’s friends are restored and leave the islands with him, now wishing to make a difference in their lives after their new experience, while Eggman stays behind and revives Sage using the island’s technology.

ANOTHER STORY

“Another Story” is an alternate climax featured in the game’s “Final Horizon” update. Following his friends’ sacrifice, Sonic accepts a proposal from Sage to restore them along with his cyber corruption, which he may convert into greater power to use against The End. Returning to their holographic forms, Sonic’s friends retrieve the Chaos Emeralds while he undergoes trials overseen by the souls of the Titans’ pilots and the Ancients’ leader, Master King. After Sonic receives the Ancients’ blessings and is cured of his corruption, Master King grants him temporary control over the cyber energy, which Sonic combines with his super form to destroy Supreme and The End. Afterward, Sonic reunites with his newly freed friends, while Eggman and Sage happily return home as a family.