Sonic Frontiers trailer takes centre stage at The Game Awards 2021

Get ready to visit Starfall Islands!

Sonic Frontiers was shown off at The Game Awards 2021, giving us a look at the "open zone-inspired" game that will be released next year for current-gen and last-gen systems.

Sonic Frontiers' debut trailer provides us a taste of what to expect from Sonic's forthcoming adventure, which will be his first since 2017's Sonic Forces. You'll be racing across the Starfall Islands to stop Dr. Eggman once more, this time whipping through a range of lush-looking landscapes with the kind of pace we've always longed to see the series achieve in the 3D age.

We revealed in May that a new Sonic game would be released in 2022, and this appears to be the title that was first previewed in the Sonic Central Stream. Sonic Frontiers is being developed by Sonic Team, with director Morio Kishimoto (of Sonic Forces and Sonic Colors) and producer Sachiko Kawamura in charge of the project (who served as art director of Sonic Forces and Sonic Generations). Ian Flynn, who authored the Sonic the Hedgehog series for Archie Comics for over a decade, will write an original tale for the future game.

It isn't yet clear how truly open this "open-zone realm" is going to be, but Takashi Iizuka, creative officer at Sonic Team USA, says: "Sonic Frontiers is a huge leap forward for the franchise, delivering an evolved gameplay experience that can be enjoyed by longtime Sonic fans and action-adventure enthusiasts alike."

"With the effort of the talented developers at Sonic Team Japan, we’ve created an all-new style of gameplay experience for Sonic the Hedgehog, where players will be able to explore lush and expansive landscapes with Sonic’s signature speed and abilities."

Sonic Frontiers is due to release "late 2022", for current and last-gen platforms.

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