‘Sonic Frontiers’ will bring back Big the Cat and his fishing minigame

The fishing minigame is seeing its first debut in over 20 years since 1998’s Sonic Adventure. The news came via Game Informer’s exclusive cover story for the game, and was spotted by Twitter user “regularpanties” (via PCGamesN).

Sonic Frontiers via Game Informer: IT’S BIG HOLY FUCK pic.twitter.com/3DV9fSOdDO

— Pan-hime – Le Neko Arc supersonique (@regularpanties) June 29, 2022

The story mentions that Big the Cat was spotted via one of the game’s Cyber Space portals, which transport Sonic to a smaller linear stage separate from the sprawling open zones. As fans know, Big the Cat was who players controlled during one of Sonic Adventure’s campaigns which had the large purple feline partaking in fishing.

Fishing in Frontiers awards the player with tokens, which “can buy various items like Portal Gear fragments, voice diaries, Vault Keys, or even the sequence items like Amy’s heart collectibles”. It’s noted that players need to cough up some purple coins that can be found in the world for Big if they want to fish more.

While there’s no set release date for Sonic Frontiers, the game is slated for a 2022 release across all platforms. In NME’s preview for the game, it’s noted to be “clumsy, but filled with ideas.”

The preview closes with the sentiment: “I left the demo wanting to play more and see what the world and story have on offer. The concept and ambition are there — time will tell if the mechanics receive enough polish to make this a must-play in the franchise.”

Recently, executive producer on Sonic Frontiers Takahashi Iiuzuka stated that the game is the “next step for the next ten years” of the franchise. “We hope that fans believe in us and that they enjoy what we’re showing them. We’re looking forward to when they get to play it and really understand what it’s about.”

In other news, Sonic And The Fallen Star is a complete 2D fan game inspired by Sonic Mania.