Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is a 3D platformer and action-adventure game. The player, as Sonic, explores the Starfall Islands, which comprise various biomes including flowery fields, forests, ancient ruins, and deserts. The story begins when Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose are sucked through wormholes and Sonic is lost on a mysterious island, separated from Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. An artificial intelligence guides the player as they seek to collect the Chaos Emeralds and find Sonic's friends.

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 using their gamepad's shoulder buttons, drop dash, and boost with the right trigger if they have 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 will allow Sonic to boost indefinitely for a short time. Sonic also has the ability to boost much faster upon collecting 400 rings, gaining a blue aura reminiscent of his counterpart from the Sonic the Hedgehog film series. The player can customize the controls and adjust Sonic's speed, turning, acceleration, and resistance, and can upgrade Sonic's speed, attacks, defense, and ring capacity as they progress.

The Starfall Islands act as the series' first open world, it retains traditional Sonic elements, such as springs, boost pads, and grind rails. The player explores the islands as they scale towers in platforming challenges to reveal parts of the map, and solve puzzles, including orienting statues and speedrunning, to collect items. Collectibles include Kocos, which upgrade Sonic's moveset, and Memory Tokens, which are used to rescue Sonic's friends. The main quest takes 20–30 hours to finish, while finding all collectibles takes as much as 60 hours.

The player battles robots throughout the islands, led by mysterious new character Sage; 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 them to purchase additional abilities. Alongside regular, small enemies, the player battles large bosses that they must scale to attack. Bosses provide the player with pieces of a portal that, when assembled, allow them to enter "Cyber Space"—short, linear levels similar to those from previous Sonic games. The linear levels, which shift between third-person and side-scrolling perspectives, contain multiple goals, including time attack and collecting red rings, and reward players with a key required to collect a Chaos Emerald. Some feature unique challenges, such as a fishing minigame hosted by Big the Cat. Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds allows the player to transform into Super Sonic, who is required to defeat certain bosses.