Get ready, Sonic fans – it’s time to keep the excitement of Sonic Frontiers going with new updates players will love. On Wednesday, March 22 at 5:00 p.m. PT / Thursday, March 23 at 1:00 a.m. CET, the first of three Sonic Frontiers content updates this year – the Sights, Sounds, and Speed update – will be released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Fans can try out new features such as a Photo Mode to capture memories of their adventures, new Challenge Modes to test their strength against mighty enemies, and the Jukebox to play their favorite Sonic Frontiers tunes around the Starfall Islands.
photo mode
To capture memories of your trip, open the pause menu to access photo mode, which will pause the game and display a freely movable camera to position the shot as desired. This mode may be inaccessible during certain parts of the game.
Whether you’re battling enemies, smashing rails, or performing awesome aerial tricks, you can capture Sonic in action across a variety of landscapes to create the perfect scene for your shot. You can also choose between seven visual filters to add sparkle to your photos.
If you need help, you can activate a grid to frame the perfect shot or reset the camera with the right analog stick to change the angle and mood of the shot.
New challenge modes
After completing the main story campaign, challenge modes are instantly playable via the title screen.
The new Cyber Space Challenge is a time attack mode where you will complete seven stages of each island (Kronos, Ares, Chaos) while competing against the clock.
Additionally, Sonic Frontiers now features Battle Rush, a timed battle mode where you quickly defeat multiple rounds of enemies, Guardians, and Titans in one go. Aim for the fastest clear weather and you could have a special surprise.
For more on how to master your game strategies and explore the Starfall Islands, check out the Sonic Frontiers: Speed Strats series on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube to become the frontier’s most fearsome force.
Jukebox
Play your favorite Sonic tunes in the Starfall Islands with the new Jukebox feature, which includes music from Sonic Frontiers and previous Sonic games, if you want a bit of nostalgia while you explore! Some of the tracks include:
- Sega Sound Team, Tomoya Ohtani, Merry Kirk-Holmes – I am the (Sound borders)
- Crush 40 – live and learn (Sound Adventure 2)
- Crush 40 – open your heart
- Sega Sound Team, Tomoya Ohtani – reach for the stars (Sonic Colors Ultimate), and much more.
You can listen to any of the 53 songs, 13 of which are instantly unlocked and playable as soon as the game is updated. Unlock the remaining 40 songs by collecting sound memories on each island, so keep an eye out for those orange musical notes.
To change the music on the island, press right on the directional pad or hold to open the song list. The Jukebox can also be disabled in the Options menu.
Please note that the Jukebox function may be inaccessible during certain parts of the game.
Two more updates to Sonic’s action-packed, open-area adventure are coming later this year and will include new features, challenges, playable characters and more. Details on the release schedule and content will be revealed at a later date.
Immersive – PlayStation 5
Like Sonic traversing the Starfall Islands, the PS5 “goes fast” into the future of gaming with its super-fast SSD that removes barriers to gameplay and creates fluid, dynamic experiences.
Hiroki Tokunaga, lead programmer for the Sonic team, talked a bit about the development of Sonic Frontiers on PS5 and how the team took advantage of the console’s hardware to create the vast open-area freedom that gives Sonic more room to run at speeds only the Blue Blur can deliver.
“Sonic Team has created and implemented an all-new texture streaming system in Open-Zone areas so players can race through vast and varied environments at incredibly high speeds. On PS5, the SSD could support high-speed streaming, so we were able to make the most of the texture streaming feature and track Sonic’s speed.
It was also crucial for the team to reduce wait times when transitioning scenes between Open-Zone, Cyber Space and other areas so that fans could spend more time exploring and s ‘immerse in the game. A lot of load processing happens during these transitions, so we’ve deployed compressed files, organized resources, and coordinated everything to maximize file input and output. The PS5’s fast SSD allowed us to drastically reduce wait times for smooth transitions between in-game scenes.“
– Hiroki Tokunaga, Lead Programmer, Sonic Team
Sonic Frontiers is now available on PS5 and PS4 consoles. To find out more, visit Play store or the official Sonic Frontiers website. Starting March 22, PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers will be able to play the Sonic Frontiers game trial at no additional cost.
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