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

Sonic Superstars Preview: Exclusive Look At Every Emerald Power

E: Actually here's just the full GameInformer issue.

 

For those who don't or can't read the article:

• Avatar (Blue Emerald) - summon clones to attack enemies
• Bullet (Red Emerald) - blast yourself in a specific direction
• Water (Cyan Emerald) - turn into water, go up waterfalls, swim
• Ivy (Green Emerald) - grow vines that you and your allies can jump on
• Vision (Purple Emerald) - see invisible items and platforms
• Slow (Yellow Emerald) - slow down time
• Extra (White Emerald) - character-specific ability. Sonic gets the Homing Attack, Amy can Hammer Throw, Knuckles can Punch, and Tails can Tornado Spin
• Super (all Emeralds) - turn Super

Even when you have all the Emeralds, you can choose which Emerald Power you want.

 

That doesn't look like how they work to me though? They look like literal mid-air boosters that throw you in a certain direction, and they may even put you through a predetermined path that doesn't follow the game's physics rules at all, like an invisible tube. That's how that one quarter-pipe that glows works. Pretty automated, really, and my least favorite Bridge Island gimmick so far from what it looks like, exactly because there doesn't seem to be any control over the environment involved.

Would like to be proven wrong though.

 

To be honest, whenever I read about those emerald powers, I struggle to get aroused and feel like I really can't be arsed with them.

 

Wow, this issue has. A lot of information to process.

Three new zones revealed, multiple bosses described, two character-exclusive levels, all of the Emerald Powers, a helping of non-Zone content like a hub world, and tons of developer insight.

I'm going to say if you're really excited for this game, consider not reading this. Wait for YouTube videos or other smaller articles and stuff to showcase it, because this is a lot of text to read that gives out a lot about the game.

For me personally? This just amplified my hype tenfold. This game can't come soon enough. Please SEGA feed me.

 

>Yellow Emerald
>Slows down time...

Hmm...


Edit: Okay, in case the reference isn't dead obvious...

 

I read that and thought things I shouldn't have thought

The internet has rotted my brain :/

 

So the list of stages we know the names of so far:

Bridge Island Zone
Speed Jungle Zone
Sky Temple Zone
Pinball Carnival Zone
Lagoon City Zone
Sand Sanctuary Zone
Press Factory Zone

 

According to the file name of one of the images, one of the zones is called Golden Capital.

https://twitter.com/TailsChannel/status/1683928909715320832

Spoiler: Golden Capital Zone

 

And that one interview said there were 12 zones meaning we know the names of 08/12 so that's 2/3rd of them now.

 

Reminds me of Golden Gate from Sonic XG.

This game is hitting all the right notes for me.

 

Here's the cliffnotes of the Game Informer article.

Spoiler: Development

• As stated before, Superstars came into fruition during a drinking party. Ohshima had been interested in making a Classic Sonic game for a while.

• He kept up with the franchise since he left. He has a "strong appreciation" for games like Colors, Mania, and Frontiers. His favorite game is Generations, and is what helped inspired him to work on Superstars.

• Arzest is the primary developer, but Sonic Team is heavily involved in oversight. Employees from the US traveled to Japan to help development.

• Development is going well, Ohshima enjoys working with Sonic Team, though he "hints" that the development cycle is "shorter than expected".

• As stated before, Iizuka and the Mania Team tossed ideas around for a new game but it never took off. The ideas Iizuka had then are used in Superstars.

• The programming was done entirely by scratch by Arzest. Game Informer contacted Evening Star for more but they didn't get a response.

Spoiler: Gameplay

• Game Informer didn't get to play the co-op or other multiplayer.
• Games feels just like the classics, more so than Sonic 4 and even Classic Generations and Forces.
• Exploration is a big part of the level design.
• Speed Jungle Zone has an "Act Sonic", where Fang harasses you throughout the level. More challenging than the regular Speed Jungle levels.
• Hub world similar to Generations. There's a shop where you trade medals for custom parts for head, body, arms, legs, accessories, colo, pattern, and an undisclosed "prototype" option. Iizuka is coy about if there's customization. There is also LEGO Sonic and Eggman skins.
• Sky Temple Zone, a new zone inspired by Sky Sanctuary. It has a Breakaway-type minigame. The zone took nine minutes to beat but there is only one Act. The zone transistions to a dark and stormy atmosphere.
• Pinball Carnival Zone, a new zone. Act 2 is a haunted, ghost theme, with a boss similar to Metropolis Zone's boss.
• Lagoon City, an underwater ruins zone. Act 2 is almost fully underwater. Like Speed Jungle, there's an Amy-specific "Episode Amy" zone where first you break through fruits and robots before finding Trip. You carry Trip throughout the level, unable to use Amy's hammer.
• Boss battles are some of Game Informer's favorite, some of them get difficult.
• Sand Sanctuary Zone, which is similar to Sandopolis Zone.
• The next level is Press Factory Zone, but Game Informer's time was up before they played it.

 

I bet the emerald powers were Iizuka's idea, the absolute sausage!

Place your bets now! The massive golden pig boss that Knuckles is going up against will be called "piggy bank".

 

Reading about the zones is what's got me excited the most. That's all I want, new levels to obsess and roam about. I've spent countless hours just exploring Sandopolis which is my favorite level in the trilogy because of how big it is.

 

Woah, I really liked the look of this stage, has a lot of Sonic Advance vibes:

Spoiler

 

The levels in about half of those screenshots just look bland to me. I guess the development cycle wasn't long enough for them to make them all look as interesting as they could, but here's hoping these were just the least interesting places they took screenshots of and the game is generally better.

 

There seems to be more going on in the backgrounds of the old 8-bit Manky System games.

 

Shouldn't this have been saved for New Sonic the Hedgehog 2?

Didn't think we'd see such a deep dive for Super Stars. Hopefully they won't give too much away before launch.

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I don't suppose the image of Knuckles in the cyber/virtual themed stage has the Zone name in its filename too? I know we've seen that one before in trailers, but as far as I'm aware it doesn't seem to match up to any of the eight Zones we now have names for.

 

So the emerald powers are the gems from Sonic '06.

Sure, why not?