Parents' Guide to

Sonic Frontiers

Game Nintendo Switch , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PlayStation 5 , PlayStation 4 , Windows 2022
Sonic the Hedgehog glides along a rail under the title "SONIC FRONTIERS"

Common Sense Media Review

Claire Crossman By Claire Crossman , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 10+

Open-world version of franchise is speedy and eye-catching.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 10+?

Any Positive Content?

  • :59
  • Sonic walks on grass in the rain in front of two statues.
  • Sonic runs through a field next to a giant ladybug.
  • Sonic glides down a rail, which is wrapped around a cliff.

Parent and Kid Reviews

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age 10+

Based on 4 parent reviews

Bsns N.
Bsns N. Adult
May 19, 2024
age 10+

Hm

There is no sex in game its a game for all ages well some parts can be scary at times the titans may look scary for younger players there is difficulty you can choose from it's beginner freindly if you chose the easy difficulty but if you wanna challenge yourself and try to unlock the hardest difficulty
Ivan D.
Ivan D. Adult
December 29, 2022
age 8+

It's great for kids and adults

Sonic Frontiers Is the Breath of Fresh air That the Franchise Needed! The Story is Amazing, gameplay is Smooth, Graphics Are Insane for a sonic the hedgehog game. Its Open-zone Fun. *5 Massive Starfall Islands. Open Worlds Are amazing. Its Fantastic. If You Are a Hardcore Sonic Fan Like me, You will Adore this, If You have not played a sonic game before you will love it! The Story Goes As follows. Eggman Make And A.I. Called SAGE. Eggman Tries To Steal Ancient Technology But Gets Sucked Into "Cyberspace". Sonic,Tails And Amy Go To Kronos Island In Hope Of Finding The Chaos Emeralds. But Also get sucked into cyberspace. Sonic Arrives in Green Hill But.. Different. You will Instantly Realize that The Controls Are Silky smooth. But If You don't Like Them you can change them in the settings. Afterwards you get Droped in the Open-Zone With the Only context being. "Find the Chaos Emeralds Destroy the Titans, Break the Walls Between Dimensions." After You Leave the Tutorial Area, You Find Amy In A Weird Cage. You Give her hearts And She is Kinda saved not really. She is In Between The Cyberspace and The Real world. The only way to save Amy,Tails And Knuckles Is To Destroy The Titans And Find The Chaos Emeralds. The Story is Amazing. Filled with references and Character development. Gameplay is Good in The open zone but in Cyberspace...Not So Much. The Cyberspace Worlds Are Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sacturary, And The New One, A City. They are all mixed. good ones and bad ones. The Open-Zone However Is Fun. Filled With Many Things. Like Missions. If You Do Side Quests The World will Open Up With More Rails Springs Loops And More. and The Map Will Also open Up. Sonic Feels Like sonic again The rest of the cast also. No More "BALDY MC NOSEHAIR!" Or "SONIC HELP ME!''. It Feels like more of the Characters We Saw in unleashed And Black Knight. No More 2010's Stories. Its Back to being Serious. The Music Is awesome. Very good. the Super Sonic Fights Are Spectacular. Go Into This Game Without Spoilers. Its Worth It. No CGI Although The Trailers Had some cg. Play on hard mode for a secret ending. Overall its a 9.6/10. I 100% ed It Because It Left me wanting More..
See all 4 parent reviews

What's It About?

In the first open-world playstyle of the Sonic franchise, SONIC FRONTIERS brings a more advanced aesthetic to the table. Almost all major Sonic characters are featured, as Sonic fights to protect them. When Dr. Eggman attempts to steal "the Ancient's" secrets, he creates and is sucked into a vortex. Sonic, Tails, and Amy follow suit, and find themselves stuck in "Cyber Space." Sonic is tasked with finding the bridge between Cyber Space and his own world, in order to restore peace to the area. By defeating enemies in the slightly melancholy and slower-paced open-world, Sonic gains "gears" which allow him to return to Cyber Space and play an upbeat, high-speed level. While waiting for a level to load, players can train a certain skill on the loading screen. Sonic returns to the regular world at the end of each level, to learn new skills from a skill tree. Splicing classic-style levels with open-world exploration, Frontiers combines two popular playstyles into one new edition.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (14 ):

If you or your kids think you know what this franchise is all about, get ready for a wake-up call! Sonic Frontiers is a huge step forward for the Sonic series, and the result is a gorgeous game with realistic environments and mechanics. Jumping between levels and open-world content helps the player refresh their focus, avoiding a situation where they become bored or "used to" content. Taking a moment in between these hyper-fast speed rounds to relax, explore the environment, and build your skill tree is a welcome dynamic that previous Sonic games lacked. Utilizing this time to improve your skillset (a required feature) will almost certainly make players more comfortable with moving forward into further gameplay, instead of becoming overwhelmed. In this way, Frontiers provides a fantastic balance of clear direction and player independence – there's no hand-holding here, but you won't find yourself needing it, either. There are few negatives to this game, but a noteworthy problem is a storyline that's lacking in detail and context. This is disappointing for an open-world game, and there are moments of confusion where the player may find themselves looking for more context.

But overall, Frontiers is a fantastic combination of the core Sonic attributes (grab the rings, bounce off of the bad guys) and a vast open world with tasks, rewards, and enemies galore. For fans of the Sonic franchise, this is most likely a welcome edition, although it is unlikely to fully replace the classic level-style that is well known and loved. Instead, Frontiers gives fans old and new a chance to see how flexible Sonic is as a character and a concept by soaring in basically any format: handheld, console, desktop, open-world, chapters, levels – you name it, and Sonic does it well.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the different types of violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Sonic Frontiers affected by the amount of cartoonish violence? Is it better or worse than if a game features more realistic violence?

  • Is Sonic a "good guy" because he wants to protect his friends, even though he fights others in order to do so? Is it ever okay to use violence to make things better?

Game Details

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