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

It's clearly Sonic Riders 4.

 

Not even sure how it became an argument in the first place. I simply said "people don't consider Superstars Mania 2 because of art style alone" and this was somehow offensive. Whatever.

 

Honestly, Sonic Adventure could reasonably be Sonic 4. Sonic Unleashed or 06 could reasonably be Sonic Adventure 3.
There's just a reason they aren't though, that's because those games have their own identity in spite of being part of the Sonic series.
Sonic 1, 2 and 3 are all very similar concepts with very similar execution. Sonic Mania is similar, but is it's own game instead of "Sonic 4" because it's more about revisiting those past locations and re-treading the story as a sort of celebration of Sonic.
Sonic Superstars isn't intending to do what Sonic Mania did. It definitely exists because of its success, but it's more like a return to form that does it's own thing. New gimmicks, new design, new aesthetics. If there was an *actual* Sonic Mania 2 it would probably be much closer to Mania 1 in style and execution.

I think art style is a relevant point to why it's no Mania 2 as well. When SADX was made, they ported over models and made new textures in an attempt to make the style match up more closely to Sonic Adventure 2, probably in an effort to make the games a bit more in line with each other so they'd look less disconnected.

If a Superstars 2 existed, it would be like Superstars 1. Not like any other Sonic entry.

 

Wow

How did we go from "this is basically everything I ever hoped for" to "this isn't a real sequel to (insert Sonic game here), it's too different and I don't like it"?

I'm all for friendly debates but I've never seen this forum's opinions swing so drastically on a game in such a short amount of time before lmao. It almost sounds like everyone's upset it's even coming out.

 

I don't think equalling disagreeing with something with being offended by it is really healthy but who am I to judge!

Anyway,

Agreed. I'll always be a proponent of characters standing out because of whatever they cannot do when compared to Sonic, forcing them to use their exclusive abilities. But in Superstars it 100% makes sense to make them all consistent because of co-op -- and even if it didn't have co-op, I guess if you're not going to have their stories be sequential in any way and if they're going to traverse the exact same levels and routes, choosing a character over another shouldn't really bring you headaches (which is why I think it works in Advance too).

Which reminds me: we are getting character-exclusive missions and levels. I'd like to know a little more about that.

 

New key art has seemingly leaked through the Xbox version of the game.

Eggman doing Sonic's SA1 pose just proves that this is the true Adventure 3.

 

Superstars is, truly, Sonic 4 as I've imagined it

 

Hey, I'm not mad about anything, I think it's hilarious XD

That aside, you can read the last few pages and see numerous people bickering amongst themselves that this isn't Mania 2, among others, so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

 

Point is, nobody ever said they don't like Superstars because it isn't a sequel because it is too different. Different ≠ worse.

 

I still think the game looks good. I've consistently viewed it as a 7/10 game and think it probably will be enjoyable. I'm going to get it for sure and will almost certainly enjoy it a lot more than any Sonic game in the last decade other than Mania.

However, I dunno, I'm just not that excited for it honestly. Don't really know why. It looks perfectly fine, it's just not really wowing me. I guess my standards have just been raised. Ten years ago I probably would have been really hyped.

It would be really twatty to say Mania has just dramatically raised my standards and I think that is true to a certain extent. But I think platformers in general have had a great renaissance lately.

 

Except people literally have. Multiple people have expressed disappointment we're getting this instead of Mania 2. Moving on...

I can understand this. I've also felt a strange apathy regarding this game. I'm super crazy hyped for it, don't get me wrong, but idk. I feel like I have been more excited for games before- it's such a strange dichotomy.

 

It’s not Sonic Mania 2 which I never wanted anyway. It’s like a classic version of Sonic Advance 1 which is still a solid 9/10. Sonic 4 is disrespectful. Looks like Sonic Team wants to make it more obvious Knuckles is equal to Sonic by increasing his jump height! Thank you! No more people will be complaining about his jump height. I never saw it as a weakness. It was a way of them keeping the game from being too easy. He already had the ability to climb and glide. He was supposed be the hard mode. This is why every boss in S3&K was a better version of Sonic’s bosses.

 

Re: knuckles' jump height, after people claiming based on video footage that the Physics Were Wrong before being proven otherwise both via devs and by people who actually got to play the game, I'm not so sure that Knuckles' jump height is changed and will reserve judgement until I actually get my hands on the game.

 

Watching some Gamescom footage and I think the game looks good! Physics act as they should, the level design seems solid, and I really love the visual style. It reminds me of the Retro Studios Donkey Kong Country games, which is always a good thing.

The only thing that sticks out to me as a potential negative is that it looks pretty dang easy, but then again, Sonic games are rarely hard, so that doesn't surprise me, and I'm optimistic it'll have a ton of replay value.

 

I wouldnt be surprised if they intentionally made this easy for beginners and kids to jump into. They're pushing the brand harder than ever now that the movies have been a success.

 

The classic games range from ridiculously easy to kinda easy, so I’m not expecting this one to break any new grounds :p

 

The difficulty in these games have always come from improving your performance to achieve better score/time. I don't know why people keep thinking these games need to be super punishing in order to be difficult when the entire design philosophy is to allow you to be reckless. + - Unless you're playing Sonic 2.  

 

Unless if you are super rich, it's impossible to import anything in certain countries.

 

True. It always really, really bugs me when products like this get such limited releases. And when it comes to importing, you'll be paying for the game, the overpriced limited edition bonuses, the middle-man service and all the international shipping costs. But that's just the way it is, unfortunately.