Sonic Frontiers is the latest game in Sega's venerable Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as well as its most-recent 3D entry. An open-world title meant to directly deal with some of the criticisms of previous Sonic games, Sonic Frontiers was rewarded for these ambitions with a positive reception among fans and critics. Unfortunately, that isn't being extended to its post-release downloadable content.

The fittingly-named "Final Horizon" DLC is the last batch of content being added to Sonic Frontiers, and it's also incredibly difficult. This challenge isn't being seen by most fans as natural, with many becoming frustrated at how hard it is. The disdain is sadly sullying what was heretofore a high-point in the somewhat contentious series.

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Sonic Frontiers Was One of the Best-Received Sonic Games In Years

As mentioned, Sonic Frontiers was a surprisingly well-received game, especially what had come beforehand. Throughout the early 1990s, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was one of the biggest and best video game properties, rivaling Nintendo's popular Mario titles. Unfortunately, his jump into the third dimension was nearly as well received as other franchise technology and gameplay transitions such as Nintendo's Super Mario 64.

To be fair, both Sonic Adventure and its sequel Sonic Adventure 2 were positively received, though many saw them as not being quite as good as the classic 2D titles. As the series' quality trundled downhill following the Sega Dreamcast titles, Sonic gained a reputation as a poor-quality series, with the speedy prince becoming a platformer pauper. Newer 2D side-scrolling games and retro pixel video games such as Sonic Mania were bright spots during this era, with Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors also showing the potential of 3D games.

Sadly, the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog and even more criticized Shadow the Hedgehog were still seen as major stains in the property's history. The later quality of Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces is matched only by how reviled and controversial the failed Sonic Boom spinoff series was. Thankfully, Sonic Frontiers helped fix some of the issues with these games, namely in the gameplay and story department. Even that's been ruined by the reception toward the newest DLC, however.

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The Newest Sonic Frontiers DLC Is the Game's Hardest Challenge

The Final Horizon DLC in Sonic Frontiers answers a request that many fans had made for the main game, with Sonic's friends Knuckles, Tails, and Amy now being playable. There are also several new challenges, some of which gamers are noting as extremely difficult. This includes a tower that has to be scaled with perfect precision and platforming skill, which isn't made any simpler by the fact that the camera is particularly persnickety in this mode. Likewise, there are no checkpoints in this tower, with players having to start from zero if they fail at any point. Worst of all, changing the difficulty setting to Easy has no effect, with some remarking that it seems to actually make things even more frustrating.

Many fans believe that this newfound gameplay-related toil is due to Sega and Sonic Team taking the wrong lessons to heart concerning how the base game was received. Among the criticisms of Sonic Frontiers, one was that the game was simply too easy. This is something shared between it and even more well-received titles such as Sonic Colors, which were seen by some as an attempt to shift the series and pitch it more toward younger gamers. Thus, the old-school challenges of Sonic Mania stood out to those unused to the older games, but Frontiers sadly went far too far in the opposite direction. It's possible that this was so that fans of all skill levels would be able to enjoy the story, but that's now nearly impossible given the most recent DLC.

These new modes and levels have to be completed to unlock the game's "true" good ending. With some gamers driven to give up on the game, most will only experience its actual ending through videos online. It's definitely a case of inflated opposition, and it doesn't help that the series' old criticism of bad, floaty controls has returned. The new characters feel untested and clunky, lacking the same level of attention as Sonic's gameplay. This gives the impression that the DLC was rushed to be ready for the game's one-year anniversary, though it's actually a few weeks early for that date. Nevertheless, said lack of polish is something that fans who disliked the older 3D Sonic games are all too familiar with, and it doesn't bode well for the franchise's future.

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The Future of Sonic Games Post-Frontiers

The next game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series is the upcoming Sonic Superstars, which is the exact opposite of Sonic Frontiers. Instead of a 3D open-world adventure, it's a throwback to the series' classic 2D platformers, albeit without the retro pixel graphics. Given how timeless these sorts of Sonic games are and the general excitement for the title, it's likely that Sonic Superstars may further the idea that the speedy blue hedgehog fits better in the second dimension than the third. This argument is only strengthened by Sonic Frontiers merely getting decent reviews before its now lambasted DLC.

Currently, it's unknown when the next 3D Sonic game will come out. After all, Frontiers released a total of five years after the fairly disliked Sonic Forces. The former at least gave a good foundation for future games to be built on, but those follow-ups may take years. Hopefully, Sega tries to fix the right issues with the next 3D entry in the series, namely giving it as much polish as possible. Otherwise, gamers may be in for another adventure with Sonic that's far too difficult and not nearly good enough.

Sonic Frontiers is now available for Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.