Sonic Frontiers DLC Dropping Today, Headlining Slate of Sonic Announcements

In a livestreamed Sonic Central presentation, Sega revealed that the next wave of free DLC for Sonic Frontiers will be releasing later today, along with some other Sonic-related announcements.

The livestream, and the update itself, are themed around “Sonic’s birthday,” as the first Sonic the Hedgehog game released 32 years ago today on June 23, 1991.

Keeping with this theme, the gameplay shown from the new Sonic Frontiers content shows the game thoroughly decked out with celebratory decorations, including party costumes for Sonic and the Koco, floating presents and balloons, ribbon-wrapped platforms and grind rails, and even a snazzy recolored UI.

In terms of distinct new content, the trailer for the DLC delineates it as “new challenges, new modes, new collectable Koco, new game+.” The “new challenges” are not made specifically clear, but based on gameplay footage shown, it looks like this might include island-wide time attack; i.e., time attack including the game’s open-zone sections and not just the linear cyberspace levels. While there were a couple different “new moves” shown, the clear headliner is the return of the spin dash, making its first appearance in a 3D Sonic game since 2013’s Sonic Lost World, as had been teased months prior. Its implementation does seem similar to its appearance in Sonic Lost World, with a greater emphasis on sheer speed rather than its more momentum-based physics in the Sonic Adventure games, though this will obviously be made clear once the update is released.

The “new collectable Koco” appear to be sporting a wide variety of cute hats and other accessories. Eagle-eyed fans might be able to spot some cheeky references with some of these, such as one Koco wearing Sonic’s sword Caliburn from Sonic and the Black Knight. And as for “new game+,” it’s unclear whether there will be any changes to the game other than the ability to retain upgrades from a previous playthrough.

Sonic Frontiers is not the only game getting new content today. The livestream also announced new skins for the officially-licensed Roblox game Sonic Speed Simulator, as well as the addition of Super Silver to mobile games Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces, both also releasing today.

For announcements further down the line, the livestream announced new episodes of the TV series Sonic Prime coming to Netflix next month, shared some more info about the upcoming Sonic Superstars, showed off a variety of upcoming merchandise including new LEGO sets, and confirmed that the world tour of the live Sonic Symphony concert series will start this September.