Publishers these days have pretty questionable ideas of what constitutes ‘definitive’, but this really takes the biscuit. After several leaks, Sonic Frontiers - Definitive Edition is out now on Switch 2, but what it actually offers doesn’t justify its name. You’ve got the base game, the ‘Final Horizon’ expansion, and a bunch of other bits and bobs – basically everything that was already provided for free on other platforms. Oh, and there’s no Upgrade Pack. Great start.

Let’s kick off with the positive: this absolutely looks and performs better than the Switch 1 version. So that means it looks pretty great, right? No. Frontiers on Switch 2 is still plagued by atrocious pop-in, including the foliage on the ground, larger trees dotted around the environment, and even entire platforms necessary for completing puzzles. It’s not as bad as Switch 1, but it’s still bad. Capcom, Square Enix, and others have demonstrated just how great games can look this platform, but Sega has gone in the opposite direction; Frontiers on Switch 2 often looks terrible.

By default, the new release is set to Performance Mode, which targets 60fps and thankfully hits it more consistently than not. The drawback is that it’s visually very blurry, which is exacerbated further by the horrible pop-in. Quality Mode makes everything a bit more pleasing on the eye, but the frame rate drop to 30 doesn’t feel like a worthwhile concession.

To add insult to injury, the initial load into the game world on Switch 2 is actually longer: I timed it at 12.28 seconds on Switch 2 and just 8.59 seconds on Switch 1. Come on.

It doesn’t help that Frontiers is set in some of the most sinfully dull environments imaginable. I weep at the missed potential of an ‘open-zone’ Sonic game set in worlds that actually look like they belong – Emerald Coast, Studiopolis, and yes, even Green Hill Zone. Instead, it feels like the developers just googled ‘rural landscape’.

Gameplay remains unchanged, which means you’ll spend a good chunk of time jumping on grind rails and springs to commence an automatic sequence in which you race across a short gauntlet to obtain a collectible. Brief jaunts in Cyberspace levels — which often just reuse stage designs from prior games — offer a welcome change of pace, but they’re not a patch on those found in Shadow Generations.

It’s astonishing just how much Frontiers borrows from other games, too. Gigantic, hulking boss characters require you to climb up their bodies to reach their weak points, just like Shadow of the Colossus, while every world is littered with Koroks Kocos to collect in exchange for greater ring capacity or higher speed.

So what are you getting with Sonic Frontiers - Definitive Edition? Considering all of the 'new' content is free for all players anyway, better performance and slightly improved visuals are your lot. This could have — no, should have — been a free upgrade, or at the most a reasonably priced upgrade. That Sega is asking for full price is a joke.

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