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

It took me a second, but fuck you, you magnificent bastard

 

Afaik the bulk of Superstars' sales came with the holiday season price drop, Sega even said outright that launch sales were below expectations. And the game really ain't flawed enough to act like its some kind of all time lowpoint.

 

No numbers were officially given, but it is safe to assume that a majority of the sales were during the sales period. In the same briefing they revealed the game did not launch as strongly as anticipated. They stated that a majority of their marketing budget was being put towards the November-December anyways. The way I interpret it is that they were probably leaning on the name brand alone to carry the game, but quickly found out you don't launch Sonic on the same damn week as Spider-Man and Mario.

Slide in question

 

Didn't say it was an all time low point. I don't accept mediocrity under any circumstances and never will (fine is different than mediocre and this doesn't hit fine for me).

And multiple people here claimed it sold millions in the first week and was a massive success and I was responding to that because I never said it didn't sell well, just that I was happy far better games made by people who wanted to advance the industry and made games crafted with love did better.

Its not in me to enjoy products I consider to be subpar. Again I won't apologize for it.

 

Okay, but here's where you crossed a line in my opinion:

I think Superstars is spiffy and want more games like it, therefore I'm happy to see it doing well. The way you phrased this makes me feel like you're attacking me (not specifically ME, but people who feel the way I do) as someone who doesn't really care about Sonic.

Really, I feel like I'm in a similar position to the people who enjoyed Frontiers despite all of its rough edges. Superstars has its issues, but overall I thought it was a great foundation for what will hopefully be an ongoing series of Sonic games like this. Ohshima kept saying in interviews that he wished he had more time to work on it, and I hope him and the rest of the crew get another shot.

 

I didn't attack you and won't apologize for what I said.

I hope we continue to get Superstars quality games and the franchise stays at the same level of success it hovers at currently as its clear I'm in the minority amongst sonic fans here and most of you enjoy this game.

I have many forward thinking games to enjoy like Baldurs Gate 3, Mario Wonder, HI Fi Rush, Zelda TOTK, and Spidey 2 to enjoy instead so it doesn't bother me.

Cool?

 

I want Mania quality not Superstars quality.

 

i would also prefer mania quality, but also, all of your posts just feel super passive aggressive on this topic, Mana.

 

A game failing usually implies that the future ones will be worse, rather than better, since companies usually lower budgets and manpower for a franchise if a title does lower than expected.

If Superstars flopped, it wouldn't mean we'd have a masterpiece next game, it'd mean the next one would be either worse or simply nonexistent. So I think Superstars succeeding is a good thing in the end.

 

I can't believe any Sonic fan has ever accepted any Sonic game since S3K, we should've been boycotting SEGA for the last 30 years.

 

It could be just that I'm now old and jaded instead of just jaded like I was before, but I simply do not have the patience for "Make Sonic Great Again" discourse anymore. There was a time when Sonic was at the forefront of the industry, sure. There was a time when playing Sonic meant a particular way of looking at games that encompassed not just the mascot, but a whole range of other games and the habit of consuming them, arcade gaming, hardware an what gaming mean in your life etc. Many if not most of us were brught up under this paradigm. But this time is not coming back ever again. SEGA Sammy may not even want that position, and it is, and has always been, just a corporation like all the others.

"Forward-thinking games" are just the crown jewel of a soul-crushing industry that capitalizes on the aesthetic aspirations born out of the commodification of a basic human function -- playing -- and ties technological innovation to a positivist view of the evolution of games as language. It's a middlebrow illusion. The most forward-thinking games and advanced expressions of the language are probably in itch.io anyway.

Plus, if you agree with Moon Channel like I do, you should be aware at this point that we're essentially shilling for some sort of reputation laundering scheme favoring Sammy. Which basically doesn't matter on an individual level, but you know, it kinda sucks. So no one needs to apologize for wanting Sonic To Be Great Again. Just don't think it's anything special, either.

 

I wasn't trying to be passive aggressive. Just saying no one doubted it sold well, just to what degree it did. And I was happy that some games that came out around the same time that are already considered works of art did better.

And me saying this game doing so well and showing SEGA the floor of quality they can put out a game was a genuine concern I was hoping others would have, clearly I'm almost practically alone here.

I'm not going to keep yucking peoples yums in regard to this game. I didn't like it and voiced my criticisms and it's clear it didn't bother most people here.

So I gave a list of games I played last year that I felt were foward thinking works of art that I'd rather play instead because that's a better use of my time than trying to tell you why you shouldn't like a game you liked and want to see more of.

I'd like to be wrong and a Superstars sequel is a masterpiece on the level of 3nK or Mania (and again some of you already think it was so you'll be fine). Would love to be wrong though.

 

What are you even saying here? Do I need to read several pieces of socialist literature to understand this?

 

As someone who willingly bought Super Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars in the same week, can I admit Wonder was a better experience? Yeah sure, easy even. But I always feel like there's something everyone forgets during all of that, Wonder wasn't just "Another good 2D Mario after the last one".

Super Mario Wonder was the first unique, above-average 2D Mario released in over 17 Years



(And if we're talking great 2D Platformers exclusively released on Cosoles, it took them 33 years (World released in 1990).

So as far as I'm concerned as someone who bought Superstars Day 1 + Max Skin, I got New Super Sonic Bros. Something not outright exceptional such as 3&K or Mania, but something I felt more enjoyment than I suppose Sonic 2. Which just means I got an NSMB-tier game, which hey worked for over a decade.

Would I like something greater? Sure, but really just have a QoL Patch for Boss Checkpoints / Fixed-Bosses and the collective score of this game is gonna go up by a point.

But my point is that if Mario can last making average-2D Platformers that don't attempt to do anything...interesting for 17 years, I feel like I can give Sonic similarly leeway ONE time in my lifespan. Once.

 

yes

 

What, we aren't all PHD Graduates in Sonic Theory? Gotta catch up on your courses, Hammer Kirby.

 

A follow up to Superstars doesn't need a massive budget, it needs the right people working on it who just "get it".

 

I think time is more important in first place.

 

Let me guess you want Evening Star to work on the follow-up? I like Superstars but tbh a Mania follow-up with all original levels would've been better.

 

I, the arbiter of Sonic opinions, have declared Sonic Superstars a FAILURE because I didn’t like it.
Seriously why whenever a new game comes out in the series do people feel the need to do pretentious grand standing about how great their taste in games are. Did you like it yes or no and why then move on lol.