Sonic Frontiers is getting a free update this week, including new modes

By Cristina Alexander Published March 20, 2023

Sonic Frontiers will receive its first of three planned updates on Wednesday, March 22. The free DLC — dubbed Sights, Sound, and Speed — has a load of new features, including Photo Mode, Jukebox, and new challenge modes.

Sega previously detailed its plans to support Sonic Frontiers in the long term last November, but it didn’t share a timeline for when the updates were coming. Now that first wave is finally here, giving the game it’s first significant update since it launched last year.

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Photo Mode can be accessed from the pause menu and brings up a camera for you to move freely while gameplay is paused. Pause the game at just the right moment and let your photography skills run wild by zooming in, zooming out, tilting the camera any which way, and applying filters.

The Jukebox feature allows fans to play songs not just from Sonic Frontiers, but also from other games in the Sonic series while running around the Starfall Islands. The list of tracks includes classics such as Live and Learn from Sonic Adventure 2. An aura of music notes will surround Sonic while songs play. There are 53 songs available in total, with only 13 available at first. The remaining 40 songs are unlocked by collecting Sound Memories on each island.

After completing the main story, players will unlock two new challenge modes from the title screen: Cyber Space Challenge and Battle Rush. The Cyber Space Challenge is a time-attack challenge where players race against the clock to beat multiple Cyber Space stages in a row. Battle Rush is a timed-battle mode where the goal is defeat multiple robots, Guardians and Titans in one sitting (and you won’t have to worry about losing your rings when fighting the Titans).

Sonic Frontiers’ Sights, Sound, and Speed update launches on March 22. The game is now available on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

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Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…

Gaming

Sonic Superstars found great new ways to freshen up the classic 2D formula

Sonic runs through a level in Sonic Superstars

Sonic Superstars is the latest in a long line of 2D Sonic titles, and it’s doing what it needs to stand out. Co-op, Emerald Powers, and a set of all-new levels are not just great back-of-the-box features for a game like this -- they also make this a Sonic game that feels a bit different than all of the other 2D Sonic titles that have come before it. And after going hands-on with Sonic Superstars at Summer Game Fest Play Days, I can say this evolution is promising.
Sonic Superstars - Announce Trailer
Although I didn’t get to try co-op, I saw how the different playable characters could change the game experience, how Emerald Powers enabled Sega to go bigger and bolder with level design, and how this game’s boss fights are already some of the best in the series. If Sega can deliver on all of its promises with Sonic Superstars, this could be the greatest advancement of the 2D Sonic formula in a long time.
More than Mania
In 2018, Sonic Mania perfected the classic 2D Sonic formula with its excellent level design, silky-smooth controls, and boatloads of callbacks and fan service that only served to enhance the experience. It’s hard to do better than almost perfect, so my feeling has been that if Sonic were ever to return to 2D outside of a direct Mania follow-up, its developers would have to go for something that looks and feels a bit different. That’s why I’m glad to see that series publisher Sega and Fantasian and Balan Wonderworld co-developer Arzest made some bold creative decisions with Sonic Superstars.
At its core, Sonic Superstars uses the same level-based platforming formula as most 2D Sonic games, so it’s not reinventing the wheel in that aspect. Thankfully, running and jumping feel great, thanks to excellent momentum-based gameplay that rewards skilled play with exhilarating speed. The first significant difference is how much Sonic Superstars emphasizes its distinct playable characters. Right now, we know that you’ll be able to play Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. During my time with the game, I only had a chance to try Knuckles and Sonic.

Each character has distinct abilities and a slightly different game feel. Sonic’s faster and can Drop Dash to get a massive speed boost, while Knuckles can glide and climb over vast expanses of levels. In the final release, I could see myself playing each level four times to see how the experience varies from character to character.
While Sonic has had multiple players before, Emerald Powers feel wholly original to this game. Emerald Powers are special abilities that will allow Sonic and his friends to interact with levels in different ways after they collect a Chaos Emerald. In the four stages that I played, I could use the Water Emerald Power to climb up waterfalls as any character. That’s a relatively straightforward interaction, but it highlighted these stages’ solid level design. The best Sonic levels are big, multilayered affairs where players have lots of opportunities to go fast, but also must deal with unique stage gimmicks.
The four Sonic Superstars stages I tried fit that formula and felt like they had a bit more verticality than the series’ pixel-based 2D titles. Emerald Powers enhanced how much I could explore, and in turn, I was typically rewarded with coins, a medal, or a new elevated path to progress on. The routes these Emerald Powers can open up then pair well with each character’s unique abilities. I managed to make my way up to a point where I could glide over a lot of a level with Knuckles, gained enough speed to clear certain obstacles as Sonic, and came away happy that the game enabled me to do that as both characters.

Gaming

Sonic Frontiers is getting new playable characters and story content next year

Sonic in his fighting stance in the latest Sonic Frontiers trailer.

Sega revealed the roadmap of all the new content that's coming to Sonic Frontiers in 2023. The company shared a graphic on the official Sonic Twitter account on Wednesday, showing three separate updates that will come with new features, modes, character skins, and other exciting new content throughout the year.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1598000246772023296

Gaming

Even while moving forward, Sonic Frontiers never forgets the series’ past

Sonic and Knuckles (Cyber Space form) on Ares Island in Sonic Frontiers.

Throughout my nearly 20 hours of playing through Sonic Frontiers, running through Starfall Islands, and getting to the bottom of Sonic's friends getting stuck in digital purgatory, I kept getting blasts from the past. The newly released adventure is filled with wonderful callbacks to previous games, both in terms of gameplay and story canon. It may be a brand new "open-zone" game, but it beautifully blends modern open-zone gameplay mechanics with classic side-scrolling ones. Some of the previous Sonic titles have sort of done that before, including Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Forces, but Frontiers stands out in how respectfully it treats the rest of the series.

What stuck out to me the most during my playthrough is how Sega uses the game to reflect on some of the best (and worst) moments in the Sonic series in some cutscenes. Despite marking the beginning of a new era for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Blue Blur's latest outing never forgot to honor where he and his friends have been in the last 31 years (or how long they’ve actually been together and fighting Dr. Eggman canonically since time passes differently in their world).
The wheel comes full circle
All the references that Sonic Frontiers made to previous installments are thanks to writer Ian Flynn's wealth of lore knowledge that spans back decades. Flynn famously wrote the Blue Blur's comics at Archie and IDW (the latter's comics start after the events of Forces, after all), with each mention being what he terms a Flynn-ism. Case in point, the game makes several references to the Knuckles’ history in the series, including Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.