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119-591: 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

238-454: A Sonic game without platforming elements. This presented the challenge of balancing platforming with exploration; Sonic Team's solution was to have the world open up as a reward for completing challenges. The developers wanted to ensure that players could choose between combat and platforming and would not be forced to fight enemies, so they included various methods to collect items outside platforming and combat, such as puzzles. The 2020 Sonic

357-599: A true 3D platformer is a French computer game called Alpha Waves , created by Christophe de Dinechin and published by Infogrames in 1990 for the Atari ST , Amiga , and IBM PC compatibles . Bug! , released in 1995 for the Saturn , has a more conservative approach. It allows players to move in all directions, but it does not allow movement along more than one axis at once; the player can move orthogonally but not diagonally. Its characters were pre-rendered sprites, much like

476-454: A "cooperative back and forth". Given the nonlinear approach, Flynn found pacing the story was "the biggest question" and "had to be massaged and revised as the game's structure took shape". Kishimoto did the Japanese localization using Flynn's script as a base, making changes to suit the Japanese market. Tomoya Ohtani was the lead composer and sound director for Frontiers . In accordance with

595-488: A "running/jumping/climbing game" while developing it. Miyamoto commonly used the term "athletic game" to refer to Donkey Kong and later games in the genre, such as Super Mario Bros. (1985). Donkey Kong spawned other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal, a novel genre that did not match the style of games that came before it, leaving journalists and writers to offer their own terms. Computer and Video Games magazine, among others, referred to

714-448: A 1980 arcade release by Universal , is sometimes credited as the first platformer. Another precursor to the genre from 1980 was Nichibutsu 's Crazy Climber , in which the player character scales vertically scrolling skyscrapers. The unreleased 1979 Intellivision game Hard Hat has a similar concept. Donkey Kong , an arcade video game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981,

833-401: A 2D plane are called 2.5D , as they are a blend of 2D and 3D. The first platformers to simulate a 3D perspective and moving camera emerged in the early-mid-1980s. An early example of this was Konami 's Antarctic Adventure , where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. Originally released in 1983 for

952-417: A 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure , for its Dreamcast console. It used a hub structure like Super Mario 64 , but its levels were more linear, fast-paced, and action-oriented. Minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game , sometimes called a subgame or microgame ) is a short game often contained within another video game . A minigame contains different gameplay elements and

1071-428: A Battle Rush mode where Sonic fights an island's enemies back to back, a Cyber Space Challenge mode where Sonic completes an island's Cyber Space levels back to back, a photo mode, and a jukebox that plays various music from Sonic's history obtained through "Sound Memories". The second update, "Sonic's Birthday Bash", includes several quality of life updates and birthday cosmetic items, as well as New Koco used to increase

1190-462: A balance between open-ended and guided exploration. Another platform-adventure released that year, Pony Canyon 's Super Pitfall , was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design. That same year Jaleco released Esper Boukentai , a sequel to Psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps to navigate the vertically oriented levels. Telenet Japan also released its own take on

1309-481: A bouncing car that jumps on various platforms such as buildings, clouds, and hills. Jump Bug offered a glimpse of what was to come, with uneven, suspended platforms, levels that scroll horizontally (and in one section, vertically), and differently themed sections, such as a city, the interior of a large pyramid, and underwater. Irem's 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol combines jumping over obstacles and shooting attackers. A month later, Taito released Jungle King ,

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1428-525: A brief burst of episodic platformers where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase. The abundance of platformers for 16-bit consoles continued late into the generation, with successful games such as Vectorman (1995), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), but the release of new hardware caused players' attention to move away from 2D genres. The Saturn , PlayStation , and Nintendo 64 nevertheless featured

1547-416: A censored version of one of the four ending themes, "Vandalize", which also appears on their tenth studio album Luxury Disease , albeit being the uncensored version. The other three ending themes are "Dear Father", "One Way Dream" and "I'm with you – Vocal ver.", performed by Quinn Barnitt, Nathan Sharp and Gaby Borro respectively, the latter of which also only appears in "Another Story". Additional music for

1666-527: A common term for the genre by 1989, popularized by its usage in the United Kingdom press. Examples include referring to the " Super Mario mould" (such as Kato-chan & Ken-chan ) as platform games, and calling Strider a "platform and ladders" game. The genre originated in the early 1980s. Levels in early platform games were confined to a single screen, viewed in profile, and based on climbing between platforms rather than jumping. Space Panic ,

1785-450: A forward-scrolling effect similar to Sega's 1985 third-person rail shooter Space Harrier . 3-D WorldRunner was an early forward-scrolling pseudo-3D third-person platform-action game where players were free to move in any forward-scrolling direction and could leap over obstacles and chasms. It was notable for being one of the first stereoscopic 3-D games . Square released its sequel, JJ , later that year. The earliest example of

1904-605: A high quality of animation. The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles . It inspired Commander Keen , released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics. Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, including Duke Nukem , Duke Nukem II , Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software . These fueled

2023-454: 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 "fishing tokens" based on catch quality. The tokens can then be redeemed for items and collectibles. Collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds allows

2142-636: A mutual familial bond. 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

2261-559: A named character—Mario, which became a mascot of the company. The term platform game gained traction in the late 1980s, as did the alternate form platformer . During their peak of popularity, platformers were estimated to comprise between a quarter and a third of all console games. By 2006, the genre had experienced a decline in sales, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998. In spite of this, platformers are still being commercially released every year, including some which have sold millions of copies. A platformer requires

2380-411: A new "true" final boss, a revamped version of the End, allowing Super Sonic to access cyber energy powers, such as Perfect Parry, but save slots from "Another Story" are separate from save slots from the main game. Completing this mode unlocks a sort of "true ending" that expands upon the existing story. Six years after defeating Infinite, Doctor Eggman travels to the abandoned Starfall Islands to steal

2499-466: A number 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

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2618-623: A number of successful 2D platformers. The 2D Rayman was a big success on 32-bit consoles. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 helped revitalize interest in Capcom 's Mega Man character . Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revitalized its series and established a new foundation for later Castlevania games. Oddworld and Heart of Darkness kept the subgenre born from Prince of Persia alive. The difficulties of adapting platformer gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing

2737-466: A shift in design. Later 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie , Spyro the Dragon , and Donkey Kong 64 borrowed its format, and the "collect-a-thon" genre began to form. In order to make this free-roaming model work, developers had to program dynamic, intelligent cameras. A free camera made it harder for players to judge the height and distance of platforms, making jumping puzzles more difficult. Some of

2856-406: A side-scrolling action game some platform elements: jumping between vines, jumping or running beneath bouncing boulders. It was quickly re-released as Jungle Hunt because of similarities to Tarzan . The 1982 Apple II game Track Attack includes a scrolling platform level where the character runs and leaps along the top of a moving train. The character is little more than a stick figure , but

2975-715: A teenager with a rebellious personality to appeal to gamers who saw the previous generation of consoles as being for kids. The character's speed showed off the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, which had a CPU clock speed approximately double that of the Super NES. Sonic 's perceived rebellious attitude became a model for game mascots. Other companies attempted to duplicate Sega's success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms with attitude. These often were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quips. A second generation of platformers for computers appeared alongside

3094-469: Is in a vector game called Major Havoc , which comprises a number of mini-games, including a simple platformer. One of the first raster -based platformers to scroll fluidly in all directions in this manner is 1985's Legend of Kage . In 1985, Enix released the action-adventure platformer Brain Breaker . The following year saw the release of Nintendo's Metroid , which was critically acclaimed for

3213-464: Is less humorous and does not make the player's goal obvious, instead challenging them to figure out how to solve problems themselves. Whereas Flynn had pitched his previous Sonic stories himself, Sega dictated Frontiers 's premise and which characters Flynn was allowed to use. Flynn considered it "a dream come true" to write a major Sonic game, and he was able to present ideas for using more characters to Sonic Team. Kishimoto said this created

3332-498: Is often smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Some video games consist entirely of minigames which tie into an overall theme, such as Olympic Decathlon (1980). Minigames can also be used to represent a specific experience, such as hacking , lock picking , or scanning an area, that ties into a larger game. Some games are made up of many minigames strung together into one video game, such as Nintendo 's WarioWare series (which are called microgames in

3451-450: The Legend of Zelda series. Kishimoto prefers to describe Frontiers as "open zone" to "open world" as it refers specifically to a freely explorable field in a Sonic game, as to a broader term that can apply to any type of game. In designing Frontiers , Sonic Team drew upon their experiences developing the hub worlds of Sonic Adventure and repeatedly tested how fast Sonic could race through

3570-611: The Atari 2600 , with 256 horizontally connected screens, became one of the best-selling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle was released on the ColecoVision that same year, adding uneven terrain and scrolling pans between static screens. Manic Miner (1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984) continued this style of multi-screen levels on home computers . Wanted: Monty Mole won

3689-675: The MSX computer, it was subsequently ported to various platforms the following year, including an arcade video game version, NES , and ColecoVision . 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forward-scrolling platformer Antarctic Adventure called Penguin Adventure , which was designed by Hideo Kojima . It included more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, RPG elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings . In early 1987, Square released 3-D WorldRunner , designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nasir Gebelli . Using

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3808-516: The Master System with Alex Kidd in Miracle World . It has horizontal and vertical scrolling levels, the ability to punch enemies and obstacles, and shops for the player to buy power-ups and vehicles. Another Sega series that began that same year is Wonder Boy . The original Wonder Boy in 1986 was inspired more by Pac-Land than Super Mario Bros. , with skateboarding segments that gave

3927-675: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for the genre. It was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and sold over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records . Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platformers as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles. Sega attempted to emulate this success with their Alex Kidd series, which started in 1986 on

4046-515: The Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , and Xbox Series X/S . Sega unveiled a teaser trailer, featuring Sonic running through a forest, at the end of a 30th-anniversary livestream on May 27, 2021. The title was not announced, but the trailer metadata and a Sega press release included the title Sonic Rangers . Iizuka later said that he felt the game was teased prematurely, but believed it necessary given that it

4165-450: The Sega arcade game Congo Bongo (1983) adds a third dimension via isometric graphics . Another popular game of that period, Pitfall! (1982), allows moving left and right through series of non-scrolling screens, expanding the play area. Nintendo 's flagship Super Mario Bros. (1985) was a defining game for the nascent genre, with horizontally scrolling levels and the player controlling

4284-539: The hashtag #DelaySonicFrontiers briefly trended on Twitter . Iizuka said that Sonic Team expected early reactions to be polarized, as he felt the early footage would not give fans a good idea of what to expect. According to the review aggregate website Metacritic , the PlayStation 4 version and Windows version of Sonic Frontiers received "generally favorable reviews", while other console versions received "mixed or average reviews". Video Games Chronicle felt that

4403-533: The virtual camera , it had to be constrained to stop it from clipping through the environment. In 1994, a small developer called Exact released a game for the X68000 computer called Geograph Seal , which was a 3D first-person shooter game with platforming. Players piloted a frog-like mech that could jump and then double-jump or triple-jump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings. In addition to shooting, jumping on enemies

4522-408: 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

4641-681: The Echidna — who are trapped in Cyber Space. 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

4760-460: The Enchanted Castle , which was only modestly successful. That same year, Capcom released Strider in arcades, which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence partners, such as a droid, tiger, and hawk, to help fight enemies. Another Sega release in 1989 was Shadow Dancer , which is a game that also included an AI partner: a dog who followed

4879-518: 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

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4998-411: 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 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

5117-456: The End. Afterwards, Sonic reunites with his newly freed friends, while Eggman and Sage happily return home as a family. After completing Sonic Forces , we were brainstorming on what to do next. We realized there's little room for evolution with a traditional 3D Sonic game. We'd only be able to make something that fans have seen before. That's why, at the very start, we discussed as a team how to change this linear style of gameplay. Following

5236-404: 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

5355-512: The Hedgehog (1991) and Sonic Adventure (1998) set templates used by later games. Forces received criticism for its short length and level design, so its director, Morio Kishimoto, concluded that the team's method of designing levels originating from Sonic Unleashed (2008) would no longer satisfy fans. Sonic Team ultimately determined that the series' traditional linear design contained "little room for evolution" and felt it could not progress in this direction. In particular, Takashi Iizuka ,

5474-573: The Hedgehog feature film influenced the development; Kishimoto requested that Sonic Team incorporate Easter eggs referencing it and based the combat on the film's depiction of Sonic. With the Cyber Space levels, Kishimoto wanted Sonic to "once again... stand amongst the other 'stage-clear' action games" that he enjoyed, like the Sega Genesis -era Sonic games and the Super Mario , Donkey Kong , and Kirby series. Ian Flynn , who wrote Sonic

5593-514: 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

5712-561: The Hedgehog comics published by Archie Comics and IDW Publishing and episodes of the Sonic Boom TV series, wrote the script. Iizuka asked Flynn to write Frontiers after reading his work on the IDW comics. He felt Flynn understood the Sonic cast and would bring "a great improvement to the characters' emotions and dialogue". Iizuka noted that the story differs from previous Sonic games in that it

5831-472: The Hedgehog into 3D. Their project, titled Sonic Xtreme , was to have featured a radically different approach for the series, with an exaggerated fisheye camera and multidirectional gameplay reminiscent of Bug! . Due in part to conflicts with Sega Enterprises in Japan and a rushed schedule, the game never made it to market. In the 1990s, platforming games started to shift from pseudo-3D to "true 3D," which gave

5950-570: 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

6069-470: The Wild. Shacknews described the soundtrack as "phenomenal", with the boss battle music being a standout. Sonic Frontiers was well received by Sonic fans. The Washington Post wrote that many enjoyed its controls, emphasis on freedom, story, references to prior Sonic games, and soundtrack. Sonic Frontiers set the record for the largest number of concurrent players for a Sonic game on Steam, surpassing

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6188-519: The acrobatics evoke the movement that games such as Prince of Persia would feature. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (1983) put a recognizable character from American comic strips into side-scrolling, jumping gameplay similar to Moon Patrol . The same year, Snokie for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers added uneven terrain to a scrolling platformer. Based on the Saturday morning cartoon rather than

6307-415: The basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest -heavy games. Another Capcom platformer that year was Bionic Commando , which popularized a grappling hook mechanic that has since appeared in dozens of games, including Earthworm Jim and Tomb Raider . Scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as Super Mario Land , and

6426-429: The battles against faceless robotic enemies detracted from the fast-paced platforming gameplay. Video Games Chronicles praised the game as the most "visually and aurally impressive" Sonic game to date, and Shacknews described the visuals of Frontiers as "stunning". IGN and VentureBeat pointed out issues with technical limitations causing large objects to pop into view , disrupting immersion and diminishing

6545-427: The benefit of digital communication "accelerated" other aspects of development. The designers focused on transitioning Sonic's speed and abilities to an open-world design while remaining true to previous games, and opted for a mysterious tone to reflect Sonic exploring an unfamiliar landscape. Iizuka felt Sonic 's essence as a 3D action game separated Frontiers from adventure and role-playing games such as

6664-526: The boost gauge, New Game +, Action Chain Challenges, and the return of the Spin Dash. The third and final major update for the game, "The Final Horizon", released September 28, 2023, includes Tails, Knuckles and Amy as additional playable characters, and an overhaul of the game's climax and new challenges. Some retailers sold copies of Sonic Frontiers before the street date , and the Nintendo Switch version

6783-481: The concept by combining it with the gameplay. He thought it would allow for more freedom and diverse gameplay. Kishimoto returned to direct Frontiers , while Sonic Unleashed (2008), Generations (2011), and Forces art director Sachiko Kawamura produced it. Frontiers ' development lasted five years, longer than previous Sonic games' development cycles. Iizuka attributed the length partly to Frontiers not building on previous Sonic gameplay. Determining

6902-535: The console as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, along with Super Mario World , while Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis . Sonic showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware: large stages that scrolled in all directions, curved hills, loops, and a physics system allowing players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. Sega characterized Sonic as

7021-403: The controls had been tightened up, but still occasionally had issues. Destructoid praised the amount of control the player has over Sonic, allowing them to go anywhere they can see. Game Informer wrote that Sonic controls "remarkably well" in the open environment. Nintendo Life found the controls "hit-and-miss", and Push Square remarked that the game occasionally took control away from

7140-421: The criteria of a platformer, and was billed as an action adventure . It used true 3D characters and set pieces, but its environments were rendered using a rigid engine similar to the one used by Wolfenstein 3D , in that it could only render square, flat corridors, rather than suspended platforms that could be jumped between. Sega had tasked their American studio, Sega Technical Institute , with bringing Sonic

7259-419: The earlier Clockwork Knight . The game plays very similarly to 2D platformers, but lets players walk up walls and on ceilings. In 1995, Delphine Software released a 3D sequel to their 2D platformer Flashback . Entitled Fade to Black , it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2D platformer series into 3D. While it retained the puzzle-oriented level design style and step-based control, it did not meet

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7378-417: The first Final Fantasy (1987), in which a 15 puzzle in the form of an Easter egg can be uncovered by entering a specific sequence of inputs while piloting a ship. It was added into the game by programmer Nasir Gebelli despite it not being part of Squaresoft 's original game design. The PocketStation for PlayStation and VMU for Dreamcast accessories allowed the user to download minigames from

7497-521: The first award for Best Platform game in 1984 from Crash magazine. Later that same year, Epyx released Impossible Mission , and Parker Brothers released Montezuma's Revenge , which further expanded on the exploration aspect. The first platformer to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became popular. Jump Bug is a platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei/Coreland and released to arcades in 1981, only five months after Donkey Kong . Players control

7616-530: The foreground and background, and the camera panning and curving around corners. Meanwhile, Pandemonium and Klonoa brought the 2.5D style to the PlayStation . In a break from the past, the Nintendo 64 had the fewest side scrolling platformers with only four; Yoshi's Story , Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , Goemon's Great Adventure , and Mischief Makers —and most met with a tepid response from critics at

7735-464: The game a greater sense of speed than other platformers at the time, while its sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster Land added action-adventure and role-playing elements. Wonder Boy in turn inspired games such as Adventure Island , Dynastic Hero , Popful Mail , and Shantae . One of the first platformers to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the on-screen character's movement

7854-508: The game offered DLC in collaboration with VTuber Inugami Korone, available by pre-ordering the game. Additional information serving as a prelude to Frontiers was sold as pre-release promotional material, titled Sonic Frontiers Prologue . These included an eight-page comic, Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Convergence , released in October 2022, and an accompanying animated short, Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence , released on November 1. The comic

7973-420: The game was written by Kenichi Tokoi, Takahito Eguchi , Rintaro Soma, Kenji Mizuno, Kanon Oguni, and Hiroshi Kawaguchi , with additional vocals from Japanese singer YURI and Japanese-American singer Seann Bowe. The soundtrack album, Stillness & Motion , was released on December 7, 2022. It features 150 tracks spanning 6 hours and 37 minutes, making it the longest in the series. The soundtrack album debuted in

8092-414: The game's direction required trial-and-error, and development restarted from scratch at one point. Sonic Team began holding external playtesting during Frontiers ' development. The COVID-19 pandemic began during production, requiring Sonic Team to shift to remote work for the first time in its history. Iizuka noted that this made it difficult for developers to "get a sense of the big picture", but

8211-498: The gameplay from its precursor but traded the frog-like mech for a cartoony rabbit mech called Robbit. The title was successful enough to get two sequels and is remembered for being the first 3D platformer on a console. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer said Jumping Flash was perhaps "one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platformer in the following decade." It holds the record of "First platform videogame in true 3D" according to Guinness World Records . Another early 3D platformer

8330-419: The genre are walking, running, jumping, attacking, and climbing. Jumping is central to the genre, though there are exceptions such as Nintendo 's Popeye and Data East 's BurgerTime , both from 1982. In some games, such as Donkey Kong , the trajectory of a jump is fixed, while in others it can be altered mid-air. Falling may cause damage or death. Many platformers contain environmental obstacles which kill

8449-465: The genre as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games. "Climbing games" was used in Steve Bloom's 1982 book Video Invaders and 1983 magazines Electronic Games (US)—which ran a cover feature called "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games"—and TV Gamer (UK). Bloom defined "climbing games" as titles where the player "must climb from the bottom of the screen to the top while avoiding and/or destroying

8568-452: The genre continued to maintain its popularity, with many games released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear systems. By the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched, platformers were the most popular genre in console gaming. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a system, featuring a mascot character. In 1989, Sega released Alex Kidd in

8687-412: The genre. A modern variant of the platform game, especially significant on mobile platforms, is the endless runner , where the main character is always moving forward and the player must dodge or jump to avoid falling or hitting obstacles. Various names were used in the years following the release of the first established game in the genre, Donkey Kong (1981). Shigeru Miyamoto originally called it

8806-482: The head of the development team and the producer of the Sonic series, felt 3D Sonic games were not giving players enough freedom and constrained them to linear paths. The idea to make an open-world Sonic game came from Kishimoto, who enjoyed watching the evolution of the platform genre's world map concept since it was popularized by Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1988. Some Sonic games, such as Sonic Adventure , featured world maps, but Kishimoto felt his idea evolved

8925-421: The islands with him, now wishing to make a difference in their lives after their new experience. Meanwhile, Eggman uses the island's technology to revive Sage. "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

9044-454: The levels were open and had objectives. Completing objectives earned the player stars, and stars were used to unlock more levels. This approach allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for exploration, but it meant less jumping and more action-adventure . Even so, a handful of boss levels offered more traditional platforming. Until then there was no settled way to make 3D platformers, but Super Mario 64 inspired

9163-489: The maze game, Namco's 1984 Pac-Land is a bidirectional, horizontally-scrolling, arcade video game with walking, running, jumping, springboards, power-ups , and a series of unique levels. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani described the game as "the pioneer of action games with horizontally running background." According to Iwatani, Shigeru Miyamoto described Pac-Land as an influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. . Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. , released for

9282-405: The more linear 3D platformers like Tork: Prehistoric Punk and Wario World used scripted cameras that limited player control. Games with more open environments like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie used intelligent cameras that followed the player's movements. Still, when the view was obstructed or not facing what the player needed to see, these intelligent cameras needed to be adjusted by

9401-526: The new wave of consoles. In the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga was a strong gaming platform with its custom video hardware and sound hardware . The Atari ST was solidly supported as well. Games like Shadow of the Beast and Turrican showed that computer platformers could rival their console contemporaries. Prince of Persia , originally a late release for the 8-bit Apple II in 1989, featured

9520-506: The obstacles and foes you invariably meet along the way." Under this definition, he listed Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong , and despite the top down perspective, Frogger (1981) as climbing games. In a December 1982 Creative Computing review of the Apple II game Beer Run , the reviewer used a different term: "I'm going to call this a ladder game, as in the 'ladder genre,' which includes Apple Panic and Donkey Kong ." That label

9639-449: The official newsletter before January 31, 2023, gave players a free DLC code to unlock Sonic's Soap shoes from Sonic Adventure 2 (2001). Frontiers received a free DLC pack on November 14, 2022, that included additional cosmetics inspired by Capcom's Monster Hunter series as well as a cooking minigame. Several content updates were announced shortly before The Game Awards 2022 . The first, titled "Sights, Sounds, and Speed", included

9758-437: The open world to determine how large it needed to be. Iizuka said the largest challenge was ensuring that fast-paced exploration would be fun. Sonic Team chose not to raise the difficulty level as the game progresses since the open world would provide plenty of content. Sonic Team decided to prioritize combat to a greater extent, but despite the shift to open-world design, Sonic Team determined that Frontiers did not feel like

9877-493: The open world, players can complete challenges, fight robotic enemies, and access "Cyber Space" levels inspired by previous Sonic games. 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 titles, as Sonic Adventure had done in 1998. Sonic Team settled on an open-ended design and focused on adapting Sonic's abilities to an open world. Frontiers

9996-481: 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 time attack , collecting rings, and collecting five red rings; completing each objective rewards players with

10115-503: 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

10234-408: The overall polish of the game. The soundtrack received positive responses. Push Square stated that Frontiers may have "the best soundtrack in the series", praising its lo-fi and rock themes. Writing for Game Informer , Brian Shea praised the music and felt that it contributed to some memorable moments in the game. GameSpot described the music as calming and solemn, comparing it to Breath of

10353-408: The platform-action game, Valis , which contained anime -style cut scenes . In 1987, Capcom 's Mega Man introduced non-linear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they complete levels. This was a stark contrast to both linear games like Super Mario Bros. and open-world games like Metroid . GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of Mega Man as

10472-549: The player around and aid in battle. In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bonk's Adventure , with a protagonist positioned as NEC 's mascot. The following year, Takeru's Cocoron , a late platformer for the Famicom allowed players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, along with the eagerly anticipated Super Mario World . The following year, Nintendo released

10591-405: The player more control over the character and the camera. To render a 3D environment from any angle the user chose, the graphics hardware had to be sufficiently powerful, and the art and rendering model of the game had to be viewable from every angle. The improvement in graphics technology allowed publishers to make such games but introduced several new issues. For example, if the player could control

10710-481: The player to maneuver their character across platforms to reach a goal while confronting enemies and avoiding obstacles along the way. These games are either presented from the side view, using two-dimensional movement, or in 3D with the camera placed either behind the main character or in isometric perspective . Typical platforming gameplay tends to be very dynamic and challenges a player's reflexes, timing, and dexterity with controls. The most common movement options in

10829-462: 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, prior to battling Supreme reveals a "secret" final boss fight with the End and a post-credits scene . The game does not feature postgame content, as it resets

10948-498: The player's character upon contact, such as lava pits or bottomless chasms. The player may be able to collect items and power-ups and give the main character new abilities for overcoming adversities. Most games of this genre consist of multiple levels of increasing difficulty that may be interleaved by boss encounters, where the character has to defeat a particularly dangerous enemy to progress. Simple logical puzzles to resolve and skill trials to overcome are other common elements in

11067-563: The player's save file to just before obtaining the final Chaos Emerald, but defeating the End unlocks a boss rush mode called Battle Rush, a Cyber Space Challenge mode, and an Arcade Mode for Cyber Space stages. It also unlocks New Game + , which resets player's save file but carries over a player's stats (except for when played on Extreme difficulty), essentially allowing the story to be replayed. The "Final Horizon" update adds "Another Story", which adds Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as playable characters, each with their own skill sets. It also includes

11186-1043: The player. In the 1990s, RPGs , first-person shooters , and more complex action-adventure games captured significant market share. Even so, the platformer thrived. Tomb Raider became one of the bestselling series on the PlayStation , along with Insomniac Games ' Spyro and Naughty Dog 's Crash Bandicoot , one of the few 3D games to stick with linear levels. Moreover, many of the Nintendo 64 's bestsellers were first- and second-party platformers like Super Mario 64 , Banjo-Kazooie , and Donkey Kong 64 . On Windows and Mac , Pangea Software 's Bugdom series and BioWare 's MDK2 proved successful. Several developers who found success with 3D platformers began experimenting with titles that, despite their cartoon art style, were aimed at adults. Examples include Rare 's Conker's Bad Fur Day , Crystal Dynamics 's Gex: Deep Cover Gecko and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , and Shiny Entertainment 's Messiah . In 1998, Sega produced

11305-494: The player. The combat received mixed reviews. Digital Trends and Game Informer described the combat as enjoyable, with Game Informer describing it as "comprehensive". However, Digital Trends criticized its presentation in major boss fights. GameSpot felt the combat was simplistic while providing a diverse range of enemy variety. IGN criticized the combat in Frontiers for being repetitive and unengaging, explaining that

11424-468: The prior Titan battle themes: "Undefeatable" (Giganto), "Break Through It All" (Wyvern), "Find Your Flame" (Knight), with vocalist and producer Tyler Smyth of DangerKids featured on the third track. "Another Story" exclusively includes both an orchestral version of "I'm Here" and a heavier remix called "I'm Here – Revisited", with re-recorded vocals by Quinn, both of which play in the revamped The End battle. Japanese rock band One Ok Rock wrote and performed

11543-406: The record held by Sonic Mania . The Nintendo Switch version of Sonic Frontiers was the fourth best-selling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 26,067 physical copies being sold. The PlayStation 5 version was the seventh best-selling retail game in the country throughout the same week, selling 11,111 physical copies. The PlayStation 4 version sold 9,098 physical copies and

11662-443: The release of Sonic Forces (2017), Sonic Team began exploring approaches for its next Sonic the Hedgehog game. In addition to celebrating the series' upcoming 30th anniversary, the developers sought to define what a modern Sonic game should be and solidify the series' direction for the next decade. Iizuka felt the series needed to take an innovative direction that would lay the foundation for future games, similar to how Sonic

11781-428: 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. Meanwhile, she and Eggman form

11900-457: 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

12019-594: The series), Universal 's Video Action , David Whittaker's Lazy Jones and the mobile game Phone Story . Some similar games specifically developed for multiplayer are considered party games , such as the Itadaki Street series by Square Enix and Nintendo's Mario Party series. In party games, minigames usually involve performing an activity faster or collecting more of a specified item than other players to win; some may be entirely luck. The Final Fantasy series includes minigames in every entry, since

12138-435: The series. It was a commercial success, selling 3.5 million copies by May 2023. 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

12257-421: 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

12376-486: The time. Despite this, Yoshi's Story sold over a million copies in the US, and Mischief Makers rode high on the charts in the months following its release. The term 3D platformer usually refers to games with gameplay in three dimensions and polygonal 3D graphics. Games that have 3D gameplay but 2D graphics are usually included under the umbrella of isometric platformers , while those that have 3D graphics but gameplay on

12495-449: The tone, the Frontiers soundtrack is less upbeat and is "focused more on helping to create a mysterious feeling surrounding the islands". Ohtani composed the main theme, "I'm Here", with vocals and lyrics by Merry Kirk-Holmes of To Octavia. The song plays during the battle against Supreme, with the vocal track playing in its second phase. Sleeping with Sirens vocalist Kellin Quinn appears on

12614-612: The top 10 for the US Spotify chart a week after it was released. An additional soundtrack album titled Paths Revisited , consisting of 46 tracks, was released on October 2, 2023 digitally, four days after the release of the game's third major update. A physical version released on November 15, 2023. Sega originally planned to release Sonic Frontiers in 2021 to coincide with the franchise's 30th anniversary but delayed it by 1 year for quality control . Frontiers finished development on October 22, 2022, and released on November 8, 2022, for

12733-437: The video game industry internationally. The following year, Donkey Kong received a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. and later Mario Bros. , a platformer with two-player cooperative play . It laid the groundwork for other two-player cooperative games such as Fairyland Story and Bubble Bobble . Beginning in 1982, transitional games emerged with non-scrolling levels spanning multiple screens. David Crane's Pitfall! for

12852-455: The visual flash of 3D with traditional 2D side scrolling gameplay. These games are often referred to as 2.5D. The first such game was Saturn launch title , Clockwork Knight (1994). The game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, but retained 2D gameplay and used pre-rendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country . Its sequel improved upon its design, featuring some 3D effects such as hopping between

12971-413: Was Floating Runner , developed by a Japanese company called Xing and released for PlayStation in early 1996, before the release of Super Mario 64 . Floating Runner uses D-pad controls and a behind-the-character camera perspective. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64 , which is a game that set the standard for 3D platformers. It let the player explore 3D environments with greater freedom than

13090-497: Was a primary way to attack. This was the first true 3D platform-action game with free-roaming environments, but it was never ported to another platform or released outside Japan, so it remains relatively unknown in the West. The following year, Exact released their follow-up to Geograph Seal . An early title for Sony's new PlayStation console, Jumping Flash! , released in April 1995, kept

13209-554: Was also used by Video Games Player magazine in 1983 when it named the Coleco port of Donkey Kong "Ladder Game of the Year". Another term used in the late 1980s to 1990s was "character action games", in reference to games such as Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Bubsy . It was also applied more generally to side-scrolling video games , including run and gun video games such as Gunstar Heroes . Platform game became

13328-480: Was announced in December 2021. Sonic Frontiers was released for the Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , and Xbox Series X/S on November 8, 2022. The game received mixed reviews from critics, with praise given to the visuals, story, and soundtrack but criticism for some technical issues; the controls and combat also divided critics. The game was received more favorably by fans of

13447-416: Was drawn by Evan Stanley, an artist and writer on IDW's Sonic comic series , while animation was directed by Tyson Hesse ; both were written by Flynn. Sonic Frontiers sold in physical and digital versions, offering in-game items as pre-order bonuses, as well as a Digital Deluxe edition, which includes additional items, a digital artbook and a mini digital soundtrack covering Kronos Island. Signing up for

13566-521: Was found in any previous game in the genre. With this in mind, Nintendo put an analog control stick on its Nintendo 64 controller, a feature that had not been seen since the Vectrex but which has since become standard. The analog stick provided the fine precision needed with a free perspective. In most 2D platformers, the player finished a level by following a path to a certain point, but in Super Mario 64 ,

13685-586: Was nominated in the Players' Voice category at The Game Awards 2022 . At the 2023 Japan Game Awards , it was one of eleven titles to receive an "Award for Excellence". Platform game The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game Space Panic , which has ladders but not jumping. Donkey Kong , released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". Donkey Kong inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as Miner 2049er (1982) and Kangaroo (1982), while

13804-562: Was the eighth best-selling retail game of the week in Japan, totaling 46,276 copies and outselling God of War Ragnarök . In the United States, Sonic Frontiers was the fourth best-selling game of November overall. On December 12, 2022, Sega announced that Frontiers had sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, and would later announce that worldwide sales had surpassed 3.2 million copies in March 2023, and 3.5 million by May 2023. Sonic Frontiers

13923-418: Was the first game to allow players to jump over obstacles and gaps. It is widely considered to be the first platformer. It introduced Mario under the name Jumpman. Donkey Kong was ported to many consoles and computers at the time, notably as the system-selling pack-in game for ColecoVision , and also a handheld version from Coleco in 1982. The game helped cement Nintendo's position as an important name in

14042-526: Was the series's 30th anniversary and that Sonic Team had not announced a game since Forces . Sega trademarked the name Sonic Frontiers in November 2021 and announced it the following month at the Game Awards 2021 in December. Sega collaborated with video game news website IGN to promote Frontiers throughout June 2022. A trailer featured during the opening night of Gamescom on August 23, 2022. In Japan,

14161-417: Was uploaded online. The composer, Tomoya Ohtani, said he was saddened by the leaks and urged players to not spoil the game. Nintendo Life characterized early Frontiers gameplay footage as divisive. Kotaku felt the game looked fine but derivative and bland, lacking the series' unique identity, and Polygon and Nintendo Life found the open world desolate. Some fans demanded the game be delayed, and

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