First Sonic Frontiers gameplay clip shows high-speed combat, grinding, and a radar wheel

At the beginning of this year, Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka said that Sonic Frontiers will bring Sonic “to the next level” with “new combat styles.” Now that we’ve finally seen the game in action, Iizuka’s words are ringing true. What we’ve seen so far includes fresh, fast-moving combat, the usual rail grinding, and a very Sonic-appropriate form of radar.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account shared a “small preview of Sonic Frontiers,” a brief gameplay clip that sets the tone of the adventure. It begins with a shot of Sonic running through a forest — a teaser we’ve seen before. He then exits the forest and starts running across a huge open field, stopping at some sort of large, blue wheel. Running on this, making it spin in place like an oversized hamster wheel, sends out a pulse of energy that drops a waypoint nearby. Many open-world games have towers that players can climb and observe from, filling out their map. This ‘radar wheel’ appears to serve a similar purpose for Frontiers, marking objectives and points of interest.

Sonic is then shown fighting a few different enemies with radically different designs. One looks like a cluster of grapes, while another is a massive, walking tower. Sonic battles them with a variety of attacks, including a long-range homing slam, a whirlwind that whips around the whole enemy, and a handful of quick blows to the top of the walking tower, which eventually destroys it. Along the way, he does some classic rail grinding and picks up a few rings. Have a look:

It’s awesome to see the game in action, and the tweet promises “more reveals all June long.” Sonic Frontiers doesn’t have an official release date at this time, but one leaked in PlayStation Database at the end of 2021, claiming November 15 as the launch. At the very least, we know that the current Sonic voice cast is returning for the new game.