If there's one way in which the Sonic The Hedgehog series has been consistent over the years, it's soundtracks. From the very first Sonic game all the way to Sonic Frontiers, you'd need just one hand to count the amount of games with bad music — and really, the bad music just should be forgotten. So what better to acknowledge and celebrate Sonic's (generally) superb musical library, than by adding an in-game radio?
Thanks to the "Sights, Sounds, and Speed" DLC in Sonic Frontiers, we now have exactly that.
Spanning songs released from 1993 all the way up into 2022, the Jukebox feature allows you to play a plethora of the series' most recognizable tunes. The game gives you 13 already loaded into the Jukebox, while the remaining 40 are hidden across the five islands. Fret not, however, as they're easily located and there's a bit of fun in traveling around to see which of your favorite songs are included with the DLC. Even better, the hidden songs are placed with attention to detail, and each island has unlockable music that's thematic in nature.
For instance, one of the hidden songs on the volcanic Chaos Island is Red Mountain from the titular stage in Sonic Adventure, which was quite similar conceptually. Generally speaking, Sonic Team grabs about two to five songs from just about every mainline Sonic game. Although, it is a bit disappointing that the DLC doesn't include any songs from Sonic 1, Sonic 2, or Shadow The Hedgehog, I appreciate how the chosen songs aren't just some greatest hits compilation — there are less popular gems scattered in the Jukebox, including Frog Forest from Sonic Heroes, Mystic Ruins from Sonic Adventure, and Palmtree Panic from Sonic CD's Japanese soundtrack.
The Jukebox functions identically to the game's default music, in that it plays during every moment besides boss battles, miniboss battles, and any cutscenes with dialogue or special event music. Otherwise, it plays nonstop and only pauses if you access the game's menu or map mode. It even plays during the game's new Photo mode. This allows you to use your favorite songs as background music while you line things up for a cool picture and slap a dramatic movie-screen filter on top of it. Musical photography isn't the type of gameplay we know Sonic for (Sonic Shuffle fever dreams aside), but I'll be darned if I didn't still have a blast.
Praises aside, the Jukebox feature does fall short in some prominent ways. The most noticeable flaw is that the music restarts if you die. While this is also true with the game's default music, it's much less notable there because the default soundtrack is heavily ambient in the open world segments. The original exploration songs have smooth compositions that make pausing and restarting non-jarring. Jukebox songs, on the other hand, are loud and fast-paced in nature, and in the original games where they featured they never restarted. Having the theme song of Sonic Heroes start over right as it gets to your favorite part feels like a glaringly obvious design flaw, and it's strange that there's no option to have the music keep playing.
Another issue is that some of the song choices make for a choppy listening experience. While Sonic Team tried to include every song's full version, the problem is that many of vocal-less songs' full versions are just endless loops. Picks that were originally created for singular stages (like Red Mountain, Mystic Ruins, Dry Lagon, Seaside Hill, and many more) sound like they're being interrupted when the next song comes on rather than smoothly mixing into one another.
It's also safe to say that the Jukebox doesn't take full advantage of the vast musical library that the Sonic series has built up. Aside from the previously mentioned games, some of the series' best music comes from the huge amount of non-mainline games, like Sonic Riders, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, and Sonic R to name a few. It's hard to shake the feeling that the song choices are a bit restrictive when the game selection isn't particularly broad.
Conceptually, the Jukebox is a godsend for Sonic enthusiasts and a warm introduction to the older games for newer fans. It definitely needs to be included as a default moving forward, and here's to hoping that some of the kinks are ironed out next time around. For the time being though, I'll happily enjoy blasting Ocean Palace while I do some photography — even if it'll always catch me off guard when the song changes prematurely.