New footage gives us a first look into the combat of Sonic Frontiers

pcinvasion.com:

This past Wednesday, IGN posted the first extended look at Sonic Frontiers’ gameplay. Unsurprisingly, this video has left fans quite polarized. Although the basic act of moving around the open world looked fun, the footage showed a distracting number of rough edges. Sonic’s animations looked stiff and awkward, objects and environmental assets popped in regularly, and the floating grind rails placed above the realistic environment appeared haphazard and out of place. It didn’t help that the footage removed the game’s HUD elements and consisted entirely of Sonic aimlessly roaming around, leaving fans with little idea as to what the core gameplay loop entails. IGN said that it had more Sonic Frontiers information to reveal, however, and it did just that with today’s combat showcase.

On a surface level, Sonic Frontiers’ combat certainly looks flashy, as it involves Sonic zipping towards enemies while dishing out rapid punches and kicks. The combat animations still appear stiff, and the systems at play do not seem especially complex, but it looks like battering enemies will provide some decent dopamine for a little while.

IGN’s demonstration also showcases a few cinematic super attacks that Sonic can pull off, which include a zig-zag dash, a spinning tornado attack, and a series of rapid kicks that produce a flurry of energy blasts. Some of these attacks do look pretty neat, particularly the rapid kicks, but the way the camera jerks around during these moves feels incredibly unnatural. The zig-zagging dash exposes this problem the most, as the camera instantly snaps to focus solely on Sonic, who has warped incredibly far away from the enemy. This jarring shift in perspective almost completely obscures the view of the action.