Game News Sonic Frontiers: Traditional levels like Green Hill Zone return!
Published on 06/28/2022 at 21:47
Since Sonic Frontiers returned to the front of the stage at the beginning of June on the occasion of the Summer Game Fest, the game from SEGA has not ceased to be talked about. Moreover, today, the title made the show during the Nintendo Direct and even took the opportunity to unveil a nice surprise: there will not be just one open world.
Green Hill Return Zone?
Today, we understand better the words of Morio Kishimoto, the director of Sonic Frontierswhen he asserts that his production is not an open world, but a game holding an Open Zone. Indeed, as you can see by watching the brand new trailer unveiled during the Nintendo conference, Sonic is not locked in Starfall Islands, this gigantic green map that offers players to solve puzzles or face gigantic bosses, he can also travel to traditional levels. The Open Zone of Sonic Frontiers is indeed an evolution of the World Map published for the first time in 1988 in Super Mario Bros. 3or more recently in Yoshi’s Woolly World or Sackboy : A Big Adventure.
Platformers made up of levels often have a World Map. Our Open Area is the World Map, but we’ve made it playable. A playable World Map that includes level elements has never really been done before, so we had to come up with a new name. And what is commonly called “World” in other platform games is called “Zone” in Sonic games. So we took this name and we combined it with this idea of openness, of a free world. That’s what Open Zone is all about. Morio Kishimoto, director of Sonic Frontiers
From Starfall Islands therefore – which is not just a simple open-world, but also a World Map – it is possible to directly access so-called “classic” levels by passing through portals. These levels pay homage to the iconic levels of the old opuses of the saga since we can for example tread the lands of Green Hill Zone (which will appeal to fans), but that’s not all. New proposals will also be there, since it will be possible to travel at full speed through a gigantic airport.
Towards a more traditional experience?
According to SEGA, these new levels take up everything that made the success of the Sonic games of the past, since they should be seen as “traditional, fast-paced, action-packed platformers”. Once in one of these tables, the player will therefore have to complete various objectives and obtain safe keys to return to the main island of the game, namely Starfall Islands.
As a reminder, Sonic Frontiers is expected for the end of the year on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.