Sprint from Tucson to Vegas in This Sonic Frontiers Desert Bus Mod

Itching for an eight hour expansion to Sonic Frontiers? Did you look at Ares and think "Well, this has too many points of interest?" Do you just want to enjoy walking the highway without any pesky G.U.N. trucks on your tail? Then there's finally a mod for you: Desert Bus Frontiers.

Created by modder Weezley, Desert Bus Frontiers replaces Cyberspace stage 1-1 with a strip of road spanning a featureless desert simulating the travel time between Tuscon, Arizona and Los Vegas, Nevada. Across subsequent updates, the mod even steers you juuuuustly slightly off-center so you can't completely zone out or rubber-band your controller.

For those unfamiliar, Desert Bus is an infamous mini-game from the cancelled SEGA CD title Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. Smoke and Mirrors was mostly a collection of jokes and tricks to play on your friends, but Desert Bus was presented as a simulator that actually reflects a practical real world experience: driving a bus on a straight road for 360 miles in real time. For nearly 20 years, the game has taken on the identity of a marathon challenge and charity centerpiece, most notably the annual Desert Bus for Hope charity marathon.

If you want to preserve the Desert Bus spirit, you can keep Sonic at a leisurely pace for the full eight hours, but as Weezley notes, you can actually make it in about three by using the boost.

However, as a caution, the ridiculous size of the level does create some erratic graphical effects that would be risky for those sensitive to flashing lights or colors. When I tested the mod myself, there was a black polygon spanning the entire width of the horizon constantly flickering. Amusingly, Sonic himself also seemed to be dealing with some nasty floating point issues too.

If you want to check it out, you can find the mod on its Game Banana page.