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

Playing a level backwards is done pretty well in the Wario Land games.

 

Wow, really? It wasn't the best level in the game and it fell victim to a few highly specific moments of cheap crush-deaths, but damn I thought it was a seriously cool idea. You played the entire level in reverse. Everything that was destroyed and broken was getting fixed as you went by. I think it played pretty well on the whole, and the concept was super cool.

 

I think it falls victim to vague pacing. There's a lot of do-or-die moments where going too slow can get you killed, but there's other moments where trying to go fast will get you killed too, and you don't have a completely reliable way of telling which happens when.

 

This is how we know Mania is a True Classic Sonic Game™. It gives us spiritual successors to the iconic Miiverse Sonic 1 post.

 

Eh, fair. The moments that put the pressure on you to go fast are good for a final level and befitting of the difficulty curve. I think you can tell when those moments are coming. But it's the cheap hits and deaths that come from being ahead of the game that drag it down, yes. It feels unpolished. They got the groundwork down but didn't playtest and refine the layouts nearly enough to buff out rough edges.

That's a general problem with Superstars honestly. It's overall very unrefined and amateurish, like it needed several extra drafts.

And just fuck Trip's version of the stage. Her entire campaign is a nightmare, but EF2 takes it to a new level entirely. It's almost entirely spike traps and unrelenting Egg Robos places with absolutely no rhyme or reason. Abysmal.

 

You mean there are other Wario Land games than the fourth entry that do it?

 

Technically in VB Wario Land, to go back and collect missed treasures, you have to play the game backwards as all levels are connected by an elevator. So like, if you're on level 5, and you missed a treasure on level 2, you have to go backwards from level 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to find it. It's a *really* bad system and probably the worst thing about VB Wario Land.

 

That sounds like a total mess and it's a prime example of the worst kind of backtracking in games. But it's still very different to a what Superstars does. What makes it "an awful gimmick for a level", as you said previously? Superstars doesn't have you backtracking. It makes an all new level out of it.

 

I don't think I would mind so many of the hazards if the camera would let me actually see anything.

 

Sonic Origins Mirror mode would like a word because Origins did it before Sonic Superstars.

 

Playing a level backwards =/= playing a level in reverse, and the difference matters because no amount of screen space or telegraphed challenges would save you from a badnik popping in existence where you just happen to be. I got hit by missiles just coming back to existence many times, and sometimes wouldn't even be able to figure out what happened.

Still I liked the concept: platforms that come into the level in front of you now become a pretty difficult and clever challenge because they'll start disappearing right from where you stand. Pretty cool.

I don't think Egg Fortress Act 1 is a good level though so it's kind of a waste.

 

I know it was meant as a joke.
I also like the concept in Sonic Superstars. It's really interesting although the level itself is a bit unfair especially with the boss at the end. Every time you die you have to replay the whole boss fight.

 

Oh I wasn't referring to your post specifically but to the whole discussion-- though your post does illustrate there should be nothing really wrong with just playing left to right ibstead of right to left and Origins did do it before

 

Mirror Mode in Origins was low key the best new feature of that collection. Just like in racing games where a mirror mode is virtually standard, it adds an extra layer of content to a game. The same but different. Trip's story should have been presented in mirror mode to give it an edge other than asset spam.

I don't think that anyone has said that playing from right to left is an issue though, just that backtracking (i.e. doing the same thing again) is unfun. In my opinion however and the reason that doesn't hold up with EFZ2 is because that level actually plays differently backwards and forwards, and all of obstacles and platforming elements are still active which is usually not the case with backtracking. It's also not a case of tediously doing the exact same thing that you just did.

This is the problem. EFZ1's layout is blighted by the lifts and anti-gravity rooms that kind of just suck as gimmicks. Forwards or backwards they don't actually change and remain as pretty naff gimmicks.

 

The concept of EFZ2 is good but it is marred by two main problems.

1. As @Palas said, EFZ1 is a lame level.

2. The clever backwards gimmick makes no sense.

What does Eggman use to make the level go backwards? Does he have a time altering machine? Why's he never used it before? Is Sonic going back in time? If so why does he fight Eggman at the end (the beginning of the level) in an EggRobo? Does Eggman reverse time but he himself is outside of time and is able to ambush Sonic at the end? Why did Eggman need to reverse time in the first place? Could he not just have prepared the Egg Robo in EFZ1? Was he unprepared and needed to use the time travel machine to get his Egg Robo operational?

It reminds me of the ending of Braid. But Braid's actually good and makes sense.

 

Oh God this bothers me so much too. Aesthetically and storywise, Egg Fortress brings nothing new to the table. It's just a straight rehash of Death Egg and every other one of Eggman's space stations. And it comes out of nowhere in the story. The Death Egg in S2 was novel at the time, and in S3 it was all part of the continuing narrative, so that was great. But Superstars' barely existant plot centred on Trip, the North Star Islands, the Black Dragon and apparently those giant animals too. The Emerald Powers appeared in the mural but served nothing in the plot.

Why did Eggman build a space station this time? Why and how has he also got a machine to literally make time flow backwards?

Thinking about it now, Press Factory and Golden Capital should have been the climax of the game. Change up the level order so that they come at the end and replace Egg Fortress with something contextually relevant.

 

The game's story was so dumb and bland I didn't even think about the fact he built a space station again...

Actually building upon what @BlueBlood said, I feel like Press Factory was supposed to be a climactic high point in the story. Act 2 is really menacing. I get Lava Reef Act 3 vibes.The boss has a special intro and uses a semi unique theme. But it serves...no purpose in the story?

Superstars is like a Greatest Hits album because it has no context running through. Except it would be like a Bonnie Tyler Greatest Hits album but instead of every song being Total Eclipse it would be some non Jim Steinman bore best. Still sung well and musically fine, but dull and generic. Actually I guess it would be that with 2 minute advert breaks at the end of every song.

 

List of Nebulous Eggman Space Platforms:

1. Last Utopia Zone (Pocket Adventure)

2. X-Zone (Sonic Advance)

3. Egg Utopia (Sonic Advance 2)

4. XX (Sonic Advance 2)

4. Dead Line (Sonic Rush)

5. F-Zone (Sonic Rush)

6. Meteor Base (Sonic Rivals)

7. E.G.G. Station (Sonic 4)

8. Egg Base (Sonic Superstars)

It's just a thing he does. Frankly I was shocked to learn there wasn't one somewhere in the Game Gear games.

 

I just thought it lazy that Egg Fortress act 1 didn’t have a boss when all the other main levels did.

 

I guess Atomic Destroyer from Triple Trouble doesn't count because we know what it's built for?