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

I think It's pretty funny how "Fang the Sniper" and "Fang the Hunter" are two sepparate aliases. Like, I know Sonic characters have a history of using the dumbest disguises ever made, but who's he trying to fool just by changing a single word that comes after his first name?

 

My head just instantly pictured it being like when a 1st gen Pokémon game would glitch out and play the Pokémon cries inbetween lots of noise

 

You're giving the inhabitants of Sonic's world too much credit

 

Could be 2 different characters, Jet the Hawk exists already after all, obviously different from Jet the Jerboa

 

The people of Sonic's world thought Shadow was Sonic so they would absolutely be fooled by a name change

 

Might also be more of a job description. Instead of just being a mercenary he's a treasure hunter for hire now.

 

He was never really a mercenary, was he? Pretty sure he was always a treasure hunter. Sniper didn’t make any sense as a title, it just sounded cool.

 

I'm just glad that he exists again.

 

Yeah, for all the late 2000s memes about "Sonic's shitty friends", I always liked the diverse cast from the 90s and was sad to see not all the characters translate.

The issue was always poor gameplay design, not the existence of other characters themselves. The only thing I still don't understand is WHY some characters don't show up in the modern era still (since I don't even think they're split "worlds" anymore), but oh well.

 

If he hadn't appeared in Mania I doubt Fang would have ever been included in another Sonic game. His positive reception (and maybe also the Triple Trouble 16-bit fangame) must have been a big influence in Sonic Team/Arzest bringing him back for Superstars.

 

It’s literally just a branding divide at this point. Classic is confirmed to be the past once again, SEGA just feels the need to keep the currently classic exclusive characters that way for branding, which I kind of get, but I feel like modern setting stories would be made that much more exciting with the possibility of them showing up.

 

I mean, I don't think it's that crucial either. Modern games clearly deliberately want to introduce new characters, which... itself is not a bad thing. I just find the execution of them to be lacking sometimes, but that's such a case by case thing it doesn't really matter.

Either way, we're back to game characters from all eras being acknowledged in some capacity every so often, so I'm at peace with it.

 

I think the implication with that one is that it was never actually something he went by and Eggman got the current name wrong.

 

I don't think it's saying that those are names he calls himself or that Eggman or anyone else got his name wrong, the different titles are just names he's collected over the years as a notorious figure. The website says it's due to him being wanted by the authorities, he's a notorious bounty hunter and presumably a rolling stone. I honestly just interpreted it as different people referring to him by numerous different names. That also explains the localization thing better because different people may have mistaken him for different animals, some people may just refer to him as a sniper, etc.

 

Watched this video recently:



The game seems to be shaping up well! I was nervous about the music and overall vibes of the game, but it really seems to have that new Jack swing style audio that evokes the classics and Mania better than I expected.

If they get the level design right in this, it could possibly eclipse Mania, imo. I don't think it will, but I think it will definitely at least be the more successful game. More kids are interested in 3D visuals than pixel art, sadly, so it has more appeal. And kids do like classic Sonic: I'm a teacher, and I see kids wearing classic Sonic merch all the time. It's great that this and Frontiers can exist in such close proximity to each other so we have some choice for what type of Sonic we want to play.

Feeling super optimistic! I'm anticipating some jank and weirdness here and there (aren't there rumblings of a 30 minute level somewhere???), but I think itll be a fun time.

 

I'm not sure I like the phrasing of "cannot fail" -- the game is obviously going to sell and review perfectly fine even if it's not amazing, but that's just a dangerous sentence to apply to any Sonic game.

Regardless, yeah! I think what I like so much about this game is that it seems to be efficient. It has its best foot forward on fulfilling a consistent direction and identity, and it looks like its going to succeed spectacularly at those specific things. People --including me-- complain about the art direction, but I'm guessing this wasn't made with huge amounts of time or money. And in that sense, it could be creating a precedent for smaller Sonic game production that would be incredible to the series. The roundup of Advance and Rush games in the 2000s kept a lot of Sonic fans afloat while Sonic Team was shitting it up, and I think the absence of that is a huge part of why people hate the 2010s decade right now. You could say "well Shadow sucks but at least there's Rush" before, but trying to say "well at least there's Colors DS" just doesn't hit as hard, especially as DIMPS got less consistent with Sonic 4 and Gens/Lost World 3D, and Sanzaru...well, Fire and Ice is *okay,* but saddled with all of the baggage of Boom.

I'm not predicting Arzest will become the go-to alternative developer for Sonic or anything (frankly in 2017 I thought Tax/Stealth/Pagodawest would be), but they're setting a great blueprint for whoever does to follow.

 

You raise a good point. I had never noticed how two-Sonics had basically always been the brand strategy in one way or another. First 16-bit Sonic and 8-bit Sonic; then, Console Sonic and Handheld Sonic (or even Sonic Team Sonic and DIMPS Sonic if you want); now, Modern and Classic. I hope this goes on.

 

Do you finally understand Izuka's 2 worlds vision?

 

I mean, sort of, but I'm thinking more in terms of "big crazy ambitious Sonic" vs "reliable reasonable-budget Sonic". The phrase "I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less" has been going around a lot, and while I don't necessarily need Sonic games to be shorter than SA2 or something (and I want game devs to be paid better either way), I think that Sonic will survive best when it has a reliable model for making games with a reasonable scope. A lot of the worst Sonic games happened because of overambition, and while people love to claim Sonic isn't getting the budget it needs, production disasters are just as often more expensive than good games. Superstars is exemplary of that.

 

"the [animal]" is their last name it's like saying John Smith and John Hus are obviously two different people.