How Sonic's Speed Should Factor into Sonic Frontiers' Gameplay

gamerant.com:

Sonic Frontiers was announced a year ago with a rather vague teaser trailer. Fans would have to wait until months later to see their first glimpse of what the game would truly be like, and the reveal may have been worth the wait. Sonic Frontiers was shown at The Game Awards to be what Sega has been calling the first «open-zone» Sonic game, which takes inspiration from open world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, Sega has yet to reveal proper gameplay for the title.

This has left fans wondering just what kind of experience they'll be in for with the next Sonic game. While there are some core facets that make the franchise what it is, fans have come to expect a variety of different gameplay styles from the blue blur. Sega has also emphasized that the open-zone nature of Frontiers may be carried to future titles, which has made players question just how Sonic's famous speed will play into how the game works.

Sega is Hoping for High Review Scores for Sonic Frontiers

One potential approach that Sonic Team could take toward Frontiers' gameplay is to take notes directly from the success of Sonic Unleashed. Unleashed was most famous for being the first game to feature the «Boost» mechanic that would be carried onwards to games such as Sonic Generations, Colors, and Forces. This let players use rings to fill up a gauge that would allow fans to press a button to have Sonic run at breakneck speeds.

How the Boost-driven gameplay could be applied to an open world-like setting would require the game to be completely in 3D. However, that isn't new ground as Sonic Unleashed would give fans some open spaces to quickly pick paths to explore during its «daytime» stages that would serve as a blueprint for «open zones»