Sonic Superstars: A New 2D Sonic Game (Fall 2023)

Agreed. Also you've made me think of something. You know, some say this about Tee Lopes when they aren't a fan of his music. I didn't think it is fair in association with Mania. But if this is what he's doing in Superstars then it'll be a problem.

I like the Carnival Night proto themes. I could leave Ice Cap and Launch Base. The Bridge Island theme is extremely repetitive, essentially repeating the tune on higher notes, then shifting and doing the same with other tunes. It's almost a parody with how badly and egregiously it does it.

Carnival Night has a more complex melody that develops throughout the song. It's a far better composition. There are parts where it does repeat the melody (especially in Act 2 opening) but it's a lot less grating since it's not through the whole song.

I'd say the Sonic 4 compositions are far superior to anything we've heard from Superstars. Sky Fortress, for example, blows anything we've heard so far completely out of the water.

 

God I hate those fucking drums on that genesis style track. If it used the same instrument set as Bridge Island then it would be so much better.

Take the drum instrument away from Senoue. The whole Sonic 4 comparisons should have been dead in the water after Mania's excellent standard was set. Some tracks are rightfully giving SA1 vibes, others are feeling like S4 cutting room floor pickups.

 

I like the Mega Drive-like songs, but yeah, literally my only problem with that are the Sonic 1 drums snare. But like I said, even that somehow doesn't bother me in this music. Probably because the execution was made better in this song in particular?

This song also makes a good use of Sonic 1 / 2 drum snare:

Even tho' I prefer MUCH more the Sonic 3 / 3D Blast one.

 

People say that? Funny, I always perceived negative comments toward Lopes' music to be about his tendency towards complex melodies that aren't sing-along friendly. Like this:

But other than that, I would never call his music happy-peppy-samey major key sludge. He plays around with odd time signatures (Press Garden Act 1 is a 12/8!) and the melodies tend to be heavily syncopated, owing to the probable influence big band jazz has on his music. There are key changes (Steel Cortex comes to mind, unless I'm completely wrong about it), not to mention the instrumentation variations both within and across tunes.

He often sacrifices melody immediate readability for swing punch, which is most readily obvious in his reimaginations of classic Sonic tunes (link for comparison). And that's everything we haven't seen in Superstars so far, at least not enough for me to like it.

EDIT: I'm being totally unfair though: The songs we'd heard earlier are actually different, feature Lopes' sstyle more clearly and more pleasant than the last batch we got.

 

I haven't heard that criticism of him before. I obviously disagree too!

I have heard some people say that his music in Mania is samey. All upbeat and sounding like celebration pieces. Also complaining that his music all sounds the same in jazz style.

I don't really agree

 

Uffff. Just gonna chime in to say I am *not* on board with that old drum sound, again.

God damn, how many times do they have to be slapped around and told to stop doing bad things.

I don't want the Sonic 4 reminders. I don't want the cheap hack at nostalgia that's out of place.

Whatever "Unknown Genesis-style Track" is, it's a hard, hard pass from me on that particular instrument. I am really going to struggle to enjoy hearing that. Hope it's not something long lived.

The Bridge Island Act 1 track... isn't terrible. But the drum is still there, not quite identical but still there, triggering me. I'm just paranoid now about anything that sounds like that drum.

Jesus, I'm so apprehensive about this game's music now.

 

Yeah I'm tired of the Sonic 1 and 2 drumkit. It's not really egregious here because I think the song it's used in is actually pretty good, but there were other drums on the Genesis, guys. Nice that they're actually using Sonic instruments now instead of... not those. I'm really not sure why they're choosing to do it this way at all, though - why not just have it all be high-quality music? The music we've heard so far successfully emulates the feeling of classic Sonic to me, and even sounds FM-like in some instances. Why do we need actual 16-bit music?

Otherwise I think the music sounds.. fine. It'll probably do its job and have a few standout tunes, like the Nintendo Direct theme and that one casino-style sounding track heard in the online interview, but nothing incredible.

In additional news, Takashi Iizuka will be at Gamescom to perform an interview.

 

They could just use Sonic 3 & Knuckles' drumkit and call it a day.

 

Maybe the Sonic 4 sounding track is just a placeholder until they have something better ready? Maybe I'm just coping but I sincerely hope that's the case, because having a mish mash of music styles is a problem people had with the previous Classic Sonic release (Origins) and I'd imagine no one wants to go through that whiplash again.

 

I guess I'm not musically inclined enough to pick up on and get sick of the drums in question. Lucky me.

I'm liking the music well enough so far. I'm a little surprised opinions are as divided as they are, but I guess nostalgia-leaning Sonic music has had enough missteps for it to go on the red flag list.

 

For me, Sonic 3's drum aged way better than Sonic 1's.

 

It def aged better, it sounds more like an actual drum rather than like a clap. But if I were to guess they keep using the Sonic 1 and 2 one because they think it’s memorable. Like when I hear it, I think classic Sonic songs, even if I know that’s not a universal truth and that they use the sample cynically to trick me.

 

When I hear it (usually in rapid succession), my ears bleed.

 

The impression I got was that Jun Senoue would compose a new with some modern, cheapo synthesizer, it would sound nothing like music from the 1990s, and so he'd throw in the old drums to balance it out.

Except it doesn't balance anything - you just get whiny lead instruments and a single snare sample that sounds completely out of place. And if you knew nothing about the Mega Drive (or could barely remember what it sounded like), it does the job... right up until you go online and listen to Sonic 3. Or literally any decent Mega Drive game of the time.

 

Maybe Jun Senoue just forgot how the MD sounded. He is 53 after all.

 

Senoue was just never a music programmer, that was handled by someone else. Listen to his demos for 3D Blast before the music was programmed in the game. They sound like fucking shit. I think when he composes Genesis-style music he does it as if it's going to be programmed in the game like would be on the Genesis, without taking into account that he's not working on the Genesis.

 

Isn't the idea that Jun never actually programmed the songs into a game disproven? Gamehut guy only has them because SEGA wanted approval on the music from the project director before actually implementing it. I swear someone proved that Jun did it for himself somewhere.

 

They sound fine.

 

I definitely agree these probably aren't the final versions, as someone said earlier it sounds like there's some phase cancellation going on, and Bridge Island is mixed very differently. I don't hate the S2 drumkit, it just sounds kinda like it's being spammed, I'd like just a bit more variety bc Jun's stuff kind of starts to sound samey with the same snare fills in every song imo. The way it loops is also a little awkward imo. But I like how warm it sounds tbh, never really cared about it being "authentic" or "from hardware" but it's a really nice texture I'll admit. Kind of comforting almost.


Not really following the Tee Lopes or Jun discussion or whatever, but I always expect to see some armchair-music-theory stuff, made-up terms, or complete inaccuracies when these discussions happen. I don't really mind Tee's specific brand of Sonic-ness, it doesn't perfectly encapsulate the 16-bit era but it does a pretty good job of mimic-ing stuff like Sonic CD and Adventure/Advance. Even if it isn't perfect, it leans into a lot of the series' strongest qualities when it comes to music. Tbh I really like the direction he's taken in the recent Switch trailer, it's a bit different... but the rest of the game is a huge question mark for me.

Kinda just waiting to hear official rips of this stuff tbh, especially that title screen theme, which I actually REALLY like. I also kinda prefer this version of Bridge Island over the one we've heard in other footage, the other leads are a little more present. Just release some music already PLEEEEEAAAAAAASE the game comes out in 2 months

 

I haven't been following. With that said, caught a few seconds of Bridge Island Zone music on YouTube. Admittedly, nothing to write home about but I'm taking the wait and see approach. I'll hold any real analysis of the music for when it's released.