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

Being a war general did a number on his back so he can't glide or climb as well as he used to. Canon btw

 

I finally played the later levels, and holy halibut does the difficulty escalate quickly. Golden Capital was fun at first, but that boss battle against the pig was frustrating the first couple times because (1) that little turd starts the fight by sucking up all your rings and (2) it's not obvious how/when you get your opening to attack, especially when it plants bombs. I found myself shouting "OH BOB SAGET!" so many times, my cousins are starting to think I have tourettes.

Overall, it's still the best $60 I've ever spent since I bought Halo Reach back in 2010.

I also had the strangest sense of deja vu playing through Golden Capital:

 

This hasn't happened yet at this point in Superstars...

 

The exhaustion was so bad that through some timey wimey diemensioney shenanigans from phantom ruby or whatever McGuffin, that negative energy transferred back in time and affected him so now every appearance of classic knuckles will be nerfed, also canon btw

 

His glide is worse and his climbing seems glitched but he’s easily the best character. I am going to advocate for him. He has the same jump height and speed as every other character so that makes it easier to reach higher paths. For beginners, he’s better than Sonic and Amy. My wife and son had a hard time getting used to Amy and Sonic but made it further in the game with Knuckles and even collected chaos emeralds all the way up to Pinball Carnival with each using single player. My wife never was good at Classic Sonic games and my son is 6 lol. Yes, some of Knuckles abilities are nerfed but the buff on his jump height made him easier to use more than all of the characters. In that clown boss fight all I have to do is bounce his glide off the bumpers and he’s able to hit him easily without taking damage. If you study the game’s physics with Knuckles, it’s not bad at all. Super Knuckles is freaking overpowered too. In my first playthrough I beat egg man’s final boss with Knuckles air punch. I was able to get 3 hits in a row without getting close to the boss. I don’t understand why so many people dislike this Knuckles. He’s more overpowered than S3&K and Mania. If reach a certain height in stages, you can still glide over a whole stage to the boss. In s3&k and Mania his jump height is lower, his bosses are harder and he probably moved slower than the rest of the characters. But I agree in Frontiers he is bad but even in that game the Infinite glide is overpowered.

 

Its because landing after a glide gets him stuck in a really long animation, which has got me killed a lot from trying to glide over hazards and having to land on a platform that ends up falling into a death pit. And there's issues with his climbing controls too, have to angle the stick straight up or straight down, any kind of diagonal input and he won't climb at all.

The other characters don't suffer from stuff like that, so they feel way better to play as a result.

 

You guys play 2D games with analog sticks?

I see where stescoedw is coming from, but I do think Knuckles has lost more than he's gained. His kit had a lot of useful tricks that gave him hidden depth. But now there's no bouncing into a high glide off of badniks or monitors, no variable glide speed, and (as with Mania) no spin dashing out of the skidding/landing animation... still, I do see why he might be an easier/less complicated option than Sonic or Amy.

But then you've got Tails, who is by far the best he's ever been in Superstars. His flight is faster and more controllable, he can rack up hits on lots of bosses with the top of his hitbox, and he can do the Sonic Adventure thing where you can drop altitude quickly. (also his animation when he transitions from flying to swimming is just PERFECT)

Knuckles is still okay, but I wish he'd gotten a similar refinement, or at least been as capable as he was in S3&K.

 

Yeah I didn’t mention Tails lol bc he’s the most overpowered but the casual user does not know how use his flight without falling to their death. You have to be somewhat skilled at the game.

Sonic, Tails and Amy also lost the ability to bounce high off of enemies too. That’s a gameplay issue not a Knuckles specific issue. I noticed with the glide you sometimes have to wait until he reaches his top jump height otherwise he’ll fly the opposite direction. You can no longer travel your way up a wall by spamming the glide button up the wall but if you just use the regular climb and go really high up you can skip large portions of the level by gliding over it. Speed Jungle Act 1 is a perfect example of this.

 

And I thought the physics were accurate to the Mega Drive titles... smh.

 

The thing is, they pretty much are just lifted wholesale from the RetroEngine (which isn't perfect but we all know it's pretty accurate) EXCEPT for Knuckles' gliding physics and high bounce. It's extremely weird. I'll also add I didn't even know about the climbing issues because I defaulted to the d-pad.

 

His jump being standard doesn't make up for the fact that he doesn't feel as good as he use to. Knuckles had a fun flow to his gimmick, and it's gone now.

 

Also if you use the red emerald power you can gain height to a higher platform and just glide over a whole stage. I forgot about that one. Then in the egg factory act 2 he can glide over the disappearing platforms. If you don’t see Knuckles is overpowered, I do not know I guess people just have their personal preferences. Like I said, they broke some things but made others better. When you get used to the new things they made better, you’ll realize how easy the stages are with him. Most people are more inclined to choose Sonic over him anyway but I’ve always chose Knux as my go to.

 

I don't think anyone is making an argument about him not being overpowered bro. Your entire point of view is Knuckles is good because you don't have to play the game. Some of us actually want to play the game.

 

If we’re using a feature Sega added to the game that’s still playing it. People always experiment with features to beat the levels. It may not necessarily be your way. Just because you do not play it like the traditional classics, does not mean you are not playing the game. The main goal is to beat the game. Isn’t that why we playthrough Mania or S3&K multiple times? I like playing as Sonic too because it’s a different perspective of experiencing the game.

 

The argument is whether he's fun to play as, which is admittedly subjective but, you have to admit most people probably wanted Knuckles to play like well...Knuckles.

 

I personally have just never liked playing as knuckles so in superstars i didnt even process the lack of glide acceleration. It makes a difference i suppose but ive always felt that he was too slow/clunky for me to enjoy as much as sonic, especially in a post mania world with the dropdash

 

i think the bigger issue here is that the developers just copied the gameplay mechanics of mania and didn't bother iterating on them to improve them.
except they did! tails can descend faster from flying by holding down. that's it

 

Knuckles has always been m my go-to in previous games, but the seemingly minor inaccuracies in his functionality in Superstars have a major impact in the long run.

I'll be honest, I wasn't even aware that he could spindash when landing from a glide cancel in S3K. That's something I learned from feedback regarding Mania, which similarly lacked the ability. However, Mania still had variable gliding speed, glide bouncing and I think it had a shorter animation post-glide too. Even if I'm wrong about that last part, the other factors created a significantly smoother experience than what we have in Superstars. Playing as Knuckles has never felt so stop-start before. There are so many times in Superstars where gliding is basically a death sentence (or is at least guaranteed to make to take damage) because of the end lag and extra weight when falling from a glide-cancel. And annoyingly, I think we're getting into really hyper-specific territory regarding the inaccuracies here, so I don't expect them to be fixed in either a patch or a sequel.

The addition of the drop dash for Sonic will never not be a genius one though, and I'm pleased that Superstars implemented it correctly. It makes Sonic's gameplay faster than everyone else's without making any adjustments to base stats or requiring the finesse of the insta-shield (which they could have had too, I guess). At least I have a reason to play as Sonic in Superstars.

 

I wish this game had some better lighting. Exaggerating the shading of stuff in the foreground would help a lot, especially when it comes to presenting bosses in the background and making it clear they can't be hit at all.

 

This is the funniest track in the game