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

Asuming Jun isn't doing the cat synths again, and he isn't limited by restrictions like he was with Origins, there's an opportunity for him to just make pure fusion. Maybe I'm being a touch optimistic, but I hope they just try something different. Maybe it won't be good, who knows, but hopefully it's something different.


Edit to avoid double post:

Wait... since we're on the subject of placeholders, does anyone think the jumping sound effect in the trailer sounds different compared to the one in the demo footage? It's easiest to hear at 1:05 in the trailer, but does that sound different to anyone else?

 

I'm on the Unpopular Sonic Opinions territory here, but I don't mind most of Sonic 4 OST.
I remember hating one or two (I think that snow level was terrible), but most of them I think it's fine. Not great, nowhere near as good as any of the classic OSTs, but fine.
I hate Forces' OST much much more.

 

Meanwhile, I hate Sonic 4 but love Forces music. Chemical Plant classic *chef kiss*

 

Ohtani was behind Forces, he definitely knows his way around a synth

Though Frontiers is a better realization of his talents in that regard.

 

It was Iizuka. I made a typo. Here I am complaining about misinformation and I made a mistake in that very post. This is why it’s important to call stuff out but to also understand that sometimes folks are making an honest mistake with wording or mistyping.

As for whether Superstar has the seeds of what Taxman and Stealth would have done… I dunno. it’s very possible that superstar has lots of ideas iizuka proposed to tax/stealth in late 2018/2019. Iizuka mentioned that he’s wanted 4 player Sonic co-op for a long time. On the other hand, the majority of the ideas could have been created by Ohshima in 2020.

I feel the same as you Astro. I really hope that Stealth gets to make a new pixel art Sonic someday. After the superstar announcement I re-played Sonic Megamix and I was thought, “huh, there really is potential for the modern movesets in 2d.” This made me realize that I would love to see stealth/Headcanon make a spiritual successor to the Sonic Advance games. Imagine a future with more 2.5D Classic Sonic games by Ohshima and 2D Modern Sonic games by stealth. That’d be a win-win.

Regardless, I wish stealth the best with his future endeavors: whether it’s with sonic or original properties.

 

huh. I find it interesting that Senoue is back because he wasn't on the Frontiers OST at all, so I had thought maybe he had retired.

If Ohtani's on board though, there's going to be some major bangers on that OST. Frontiers' OST goes so hard that I've convinced some friends to pick up the game just by playing some tracks during our weekly music swaps.

 

Apparently the IGN and Gamestop videos have different mixes of the new boss music. The first mix sounds very Sonic 4. The second has a heavier emphasis on guitar and I kinda like it: https://twitter.com/itsdakiii/status/1667738052746178561?s=46&t=S0_YkQ8TRA2Bk54XvKgWfw

 

Someone needs to break Jun's knees for obsessively using that God damn drum sample.

 

The more I think about it, the more I imagine that the co-op will be the next major blowout for the game and that it'll be a very notable thing in how it affects play. Seeing high-speed winding pathways makes me wonder how they'll be accommodated without undermining players who aren't leading. It could be something basic like restricting certain passages, but I suspect we might see the camera pan back, a screen-splitting mechanism for when things get too separated, or something else. I feel almost sure that there'll be a 'bubbling' equivalent to help players stick to each other, but I think that opportunities for patch deviation like tunnels will cause frustration if player one gets a degree of priority that completely prevents other players from engaging actively. This combined with the faster pace of a Sonic game means that it's hard for me to imagine that they've gone for solutions that aren't particularly thoughtful of the unique nature of classic Sonic level design and its effects on a party keeping together.

 

Both episodes of Sonic 4 have really good compositions underneath. Just listen to this Splash Hill melody remix by Tee and Jun.

It's just the horrid instrumentation that kills them. The only reason hearing Jun Senoue's name scares me is fear of the dying cats, if we get confirmation that he's not going that route then I'll get excited for this OST since he really is an excellent composer.

 

I generally hate that co-op game design trend of forcing all the players to huddle together constantly and it sounds especially godawful for Sonic. Really hope there's splitscreen especially because these levels don't look particularly accommodating for four players all moving together at once. And even besides that, what would happen if say Sonic was in the lead and then rolled down a hill that goes off-camera to the right? Would the camera just have to awkwardly stop him mid-roll? What if the player in the back then moves left? Does the camera have to crush Sonic now? Or maybe it could do the equally unfun thing and force Sonic to float around in a bubble for a bit. Point is if we're stuck with a shared camera I'm dismissing the multiplayer lol.

 

https://nintendoeverything.com/sonic-superstars-reveals-first-switch-specific-screenshots/

First look at the Switch version.

 

I doubt it will happen given the "sound like a classic game" line, but I think this would be a perfect game for Jun's guitar work. Particularly the lighter, jazz fusion sound of stuff like Ocean Palace.

 

Depending on how far along things are, I hope we get a hint to how they're going about it all soon.

Surprisingly a tad ugly. Usually the difference in texture quality/density of assets isn't this evident/jarring I don't think, at least for ST internal games, as they seem to have a tendency to lower the quality of a variety of things in balance with one another. Here, the IQ and resolution overall seems to be relatively high, but the aforementioned things and the lack of blur for the background are pretty distinct. You can see it with screenshot 3 in particular when you compare to the trailer.

 

Even the "dying cats" if done right, can sound good, like this:


Not saying I want synth to sound like this tho'. I still like soundtrack to sound more like Sonic CD / Sonic 3D Blast Saturn ver.

 

God it really is wild what proper instrumentation does for some of the Sonic 4 tracks

the official Tee Lopes collab where Jun actually gets to play Spash Hill on an instrument he knows how to use sounds like a long lost Adventure era track

 

A couple months ago I was thinking how great it would be to find a good cover/remix of every song in the sonic 4 soundtrack. Compositionally the tracks are there. In terms of instrumentation and production… nope. Are any of y’all aware of covers or remixes of S4 tracks that are on par with tee loopes and jun’s splash hill melody?

 

There’s Turret 3471’s Sonic 4 Genesis project, who actually aims to make the ost more faithful to the Megadrive soundchip, so not exactly modern instrumentation…but it sounds great!
A couple of rough spots here and there, but otherwise I highly recommend it.