Sonic’s not-E3 showing was underwhelming

Sega’s ‘Sonic Central’ had very little in the way of worthwhile reveals

As part of the mid-year game reveal season, Sega hosted ‘Sonic Central’, a look into upcoming projects in 2022. Now, without trying to sound entitled, I’m questioning why Sega even bothered with this event.

Sitting at only 10 minutes, the showcase mainly went through things we already knew about. Sonic Origins got a new trailer showing off some of the new modes and features. Then, we saw a Roblox game, some updates for the mobile game, and a teaser for Shadow appearing in the blue blur’s upcoming Netflix show.

After this came a reminder of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie’s home release, some merchandise, and a tour of the hedgehog’s symphonic orchestra that performed last year. We then saw some new Sonic costumes coming to Fall Guys.

The show ended on teasers for Sonic Frontiers, with an animated prologue coming later this year and some new gameplay. The animated sneak peek we got was one shot of Knuckles next to the master emerald, and there was about 30 seconds of new gameplay for Frontiers.

All-in-all, I’m left wondering why these “announcements” weren’t just relegated to Twitter posts. I get wanting to be part of the ‘Not-E3’ season, but this whole event feels very last-minute. It showed a lot that we already knew about and literal glimpses of new things that might actually be interesting. With that, it left very little to chew on and really did not justify its presence.

Sonic Frontiers

What certainly didn’t help was that IGN got to do the main gameplay reveal of Frontiers last Wednesday, June 1st. With how hotly anticipated Frontiers has been, it would have been an absolute benefit to this Sonic Central to have a full gameplay reveal. Instead, at the same time as the showcase, Sega let IGN upload a longer hands-on impressions video.

Although, this gameplay leaves something to be desired, too. Each gameplay video shows some pretty horrendous pop-in, with some structures appearing before the player’s very eyes far closer than they reasonably should. On top of that is the issue that Sonic and these structures really stick out against the landscapes. Sonic’s cartoonish artstyle clashes with the realistic world around him and it all makes for a really incongruent aesthetic.

In their first hands-on impressions video, IGN clarified that this was an early build of the game. Hopefully, this means that there’s still time for Sonic Team to improve the visuals. However, Sega will release the game at the end of this year and this is all they’re showing off, so my skepticism is pretty high.

Overall, it’s a mystery as to why Sega went forward with this showcase. If they had anything close to release it would have made sense. But, given that most things shown off are months away yet, there’s no reason this show couldn’t have been pushed back a few weeks or, preferrably, not done at all.

What did you think of Sonic Central? Was there anything from it that you’re looking forward to? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Also, don’t forget to join our Discord to chat with us about all things gaming and entertainment!