First Sonic Frontiers footage has both Okami and Halo vibes

pcgamer.com:

Sonic fans can get a bit of a bad press for the community's crazier moments, but honestly, being a Sonic fan can be a hard old life. Sonic 2 was a big game for me when I was a kid and so my adult life has largely been spent getting excited about Sonic games that look awesome but turn out to be terrible (hello, Sonic Unleashed). Sonic Team has been in the business of breaking hearts for decades, but I can't help it: I'm excited again.

The trailer makes this look like a dream Sonic game. The aesthetic is gorgeous, green fields stretching off into the distance and bordered by the bluest of skies, while the open world's topography reminds me of nothing so much as early Halo—something probably only enhanced by the whole ring theme. The combat looks a bit button-mashy but that probably suits a Sonic game where you're zipping around a vast landscape and bashing through enemies.

IGN has the first big chunk of gameplay footage, a seven-minute video showing Sonic navigating the vast landscape. The footage here begins with a gigantic vertical ascent that shows the truly impressive scale of the world, and as you'd expect it's dotted with classic Sonic elements like bumpers, speed pads and loop-the-loops. Sonic's constantly in motion and can easily run up all but the most sheer vertical structures, and it's nice to see a little Wind Waker nod here—as he dashes along, seagulls pop in and out of the frame above him. You'd think Sonic would be faster than a bird, but whatever.

There are some hints in this first glimpse about how Sonic Team is trying to make an open world that will work with the character. There's a clip of Sonic running on a hamster wheel-style ring that appears to be regenerating or doing something to the landscape,