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

I love how, no matter the continuity, Fang just can't catch a break from Amy and her hammer. Archie may be long gone, but it's touching that it still lives on through callbacks like that.

 

Oh, I actually did have something to add - that shot where Sonic is running down the hall and the light coming out of the window actually hits him? Chef's kiss, right there. Good god.

 

Wait. Did I miss something? There’s going to be an Apple Arcade version? Or just sarcasm?

 

By far the best quality 2D Sonic animation since the classic brand was revived. Absolutely loved it.

Definitely agree that it is weird that these are unvoiced, especially with Eggman obviously shouting stuff at fang and we get just...silence. Not even musical cues in time with the shouting or unintelligible babbling.

 

The stuff with Trip was cute and I'm really interested in the lore behind her, but more importantly...

Fang is an absolute goober and I love him.

 

Trip is adorable and Fang is so Fang man.

 

and when he’s laughing. The silence there is just….strange. I still laugh be the animation though 9,000/10

 

I agree that there could have been, I don't know, an angry trumpet on the soundtrack while Eggman was yelling. But I really don't want the classic characters talking. That's always been one of the biggest dividing lines between the classic and modern styles, and especially if modern is going all-in on epic plots and lore, I want classic to be as distinct as possible. And in this short especially, their actions communicate who they are with more charm than I think voiced dialogue would.

I would also die for Trip!

 

There is no actual news and I'm half joking due to my annoyance that SEGA is not adding more paid game options to Android specifically because of my obsession with Android devices built for games. Apple Arcade exclusives are pretty much the polar opposite of that.

 

I thought that was a joke about the new Samba de Amigo game having a story mode on the Android version.

 

It was a joke about its existence at all, really.

 

Lots being said about Fang and Trip (and they were great), but the stand out for me was Eggman. He was perfectly depicted in this. Expressive and embodied everything that's great about the character. The mute shouting didn't bother me at all tbh.

 

It's a little off topic for this thread, I was just using them as examples of why I don't think Ian is all that but sure we can get into it.

They do so sense!

Establishing two characters into canon via throwaway lines, one of which is very missable is stupid. Seeing small bumps in a hill and saying you bet some character would like them feels forced. Imagine Sonic saw a hole in the ground and the game stopped, moved the camera, lowered the music and Sonic said "this reminds me of when I lived with Sally and the gang in Knothole" and the game just moved on from there. As a casual fan who picks up the games here and there you're like what? As a hardcore fan you're like what the fuck sally is canon now? Ignoring how stilted it is it's just awful world building. They'll just look them up is not valid, I'm sorry. It's one thing to reward a player who's played a lot of the games it's another to impose that a fan of your game series google something.

Re: Cream
No one talks like that. Who the hell wonders aloud amongst friends if two other friends are going to be free to go on a picnic that ostensibly none of the characters on screen except her are attending? Especially given the context. Yes, we like Cream we want Cream but the line sucks from its placement to the line itself.

I'm aware I was being hyperbolic about the Knuckles moment. I thought it was funny. Despite beating the game two or three times and watching countless reviews I honestly cannot remember what Knuckles' arc was beyond "I should get out more" and "Sonic is my friend but I can't say that out loud". So I'll just assume you're right. That being said Angel Island Zone is just nature there's no architecture I can recall offhand until they get to Sky Sanctuary.

Any long running series or character will disregard previous characterizations occasionally. Especially if they aren't seen as primary and especially especially if they're massive contradictions to the primary incarnations. Tails was a great opportunity to do so. The attempt at continuity is laudable they don't do a whole lot with it. Tails basically goes remember when I sucked those few times? And Sonic shrugs it off. Why did he suck those times? What does it bring to his arc in this game? It adds to his self doubt on being able to operate without Sonic? Remember Sonic Adventure? Remember that arc being over? I sure do. The simple acknowledgement of it and the consequent brushing off of it is not strong writing it's just series housekeeping. If you're going to acknowledge it, use it, explain it, expand on it. They just don't. The only use of it is to once again retread the ground we covered 20 years ago.

References are not about too much or too little. There's 2 components at play:
1. Are you referencing material that rewards a players knowledge of previous games? If no, the reason better be amazing. Introducing spin-off characters into continuity via throwaway lines is confusing for all involved. No one who watches movies is expected to google the names of characters, if they're mentioned they've been set up or will be set up in at another point in any good movie. It's fine if Spider-Man 2 has some references to Spider-Man 1 it's less forgivable if it has a bunch of off-hand references to random issues that aren't properly introduced to the film. Knuckles does not just show up in the second Sonic movie we establish him, we get an introduction (I assume, I haven't seen it). No one mentions Charmy Bee off-hand unless there's a plan for him.
2. When Amy says Casino Park reminds of her Casinopolis, that's cute they're casinos that's actually something you'd say to your friends in a new place. When an entire game is full of these lines both optional and in mandatory cutscenes, I'm sitting there like okay I get it you read the wiki holy shit. When they feel crammed in and more awkward just to get the reference in? I'm checked out.

There's a difference between continuity and memberberries. S1-06 have continuity, not the best ever but the effort is there. Recently we get more memberberries.

What do Sonic fans want? All number of different things. Ask this forum you'll get 20 different detailed answers.

I want to restate this, I will take Ian "I read the wiki" Flynn over whatever that mess was for the last 10 years or so but I'm not going to pretend he's a great writer. He was doing great at Archie with his reboots but the guy dropped off for me. Sorry to disagree.

 

@ELS, I'll have to DM you since this is off-topic and my reply is huge.

I feel like pointing out that this isn't a serious thing by itself, I'm just skeptical because there are people who absolutely go too far with how they talk about Ian Flynn.

 

I thought it was pretty obvious that Trip is being used in some way by Eggman.

It seemed through the murals that either Trip's ancestors or a group of people related to Trip have some sort of valuable that Eggman and Fang want their hands on, and either Eggman forced Trip into working for him via blackmail of some sort or Eggman promised something to Trip that made her have to work for him. That could either be the safety of herself/family or something precious being given back to her.

I'm really interested about Trip's character, because we haven't seen someone like her in the series yet, as far as I know. I honestly appreciate her mask, as we have to guess how she feels through her action, not her expressions.
One thing I am worried about is that we haven't seen much story yet through the trailers, but I'm really hoping that they're just hiding it for us when the game comes out.

 

Spider-Man example is funny cause the movie did reference a lot of marvel things, like dr Strange for example, something that wasn't known at the time

But also, Across the Spider-verse just released a while ago, that movie has an absolute massive amount of references to, like, all of spiderman history going decades back, and guess what, people loved it all the same, praising it as one of the best spiderman works of all time, going as far as calling one of the best animation movies ever created period, references didn't decreases people's enjoyment one bit in general.

Also Spiderman's recent games do in fact have tons of references to comics as well, the costumes alone are full of it

But i guess this is way off-topic, it's not even about Sonic anymore lol

 

I think that the symbols and colors of the armored folks on the mural also represent the Chaos Emerald Powers from this game.

 

That was also making me think of something else:
Would that make Trip's species yet another who understood and utilized the emerald's powers? Where in the timeline would that take place? And how will they explain why Sonic and co. never utilized the Emerald Powers afterward?

 

They'll likely tie the emerald powers to some artifact on the island, and it will disappear at the end of the game.

...that's my guess, at-least.