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

Nah, the game usually gives you rings and there's no game overs.

It's just really tedious to repeat the hard bosses when they take so long to become vulnerable and frequently involve bottomless pits and/or your rings getting easily out of reach.

 

One thing I'll have to hand it to the game (and to @Sneekie and probably @HEDGESMFG) is that levels are generally well thought out and do leave you longing for more. You'll see a big ring out of reach and wonder how you get there, or yu'll just play normally and find out you could have gotten a reward if you just sspindashed a second before, and now it's lost. It's a good feeling that makes the many paths actually valuable and exploration, meaningful.

Not all of them, I should say (out of spite). Bridge Island Act 2, Speed Jungle as a whole, Lagoon City as a whole and Pinball Carnival Act 1 didn't strike me like that. But it does do that and it's pretty cool t feel like the levels are daring me to reach this or that object.

Also yeah @Shaddy the guy I felt the same abut Lagoon City. There's something about it that reminds me of the 8-bit games. Also something about it that makes the water look so warm. It's a very cozy level, and probably the one with the best atmosphere so far.

 

Actually, looking at Aqua Lake Zone from Sonic 2 8-bit...

Oh it's kind of the exact same, huh. Slow-moving bubble sequences and everything.

 

So I paid $70 to pre-order the digital deluxe edition but yet I don't see the digital art book nor do I see the mini digital soundtrack.

 

I'd just like to add that some of the bosses have less obvious ways to hit them and speed up the fights. Of course, there's the emerald powers (which are probably why the designs are a bit weird, as some of them are designed to be options for the fight), but other tricks exist too (like the Super Sonic trick shown in the launch trailer for Bridge Island Boss).

I suspect there are more tricks to beating these bosses faster that we haven't yet discovered. There are more tricks I notice in later bosses, but it would be a big spoiler to discuss them.

I don't wanna say 'gitgud', but it really does look like there's an element to that here, which if true, does feel a bit like playing s3k for the first time again, despite them not being quite as cheeseable. The fact that we can switch between all characters between acts also seems like a way to alleviate some of this frustration too, as our options for tackling most bosses in the main campaign increase a lot. Of course, that element doesn't resemble the classics at all, where we are used to one saveslot per character.

I also don't like the lack of a Sonic and Tails buddy option outside of mandatory co-op, but it's obvious the latter is why it ended up this way.

 

Man, somehow, Sonic Superstars feel more a sequence of Sonic Triple-Trouble than Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

 

The game is out so I can give my two cents in more detail.

The game starts hot with really fun levels and amazing music. The Physics are pretty close to the original and other than Knuckles who got nerfed hard it plays great. Amy is a great addition to the roster and chances are you gonna play as her in the later levels. Speaking of which the later levels are trash. They become excersises in patience with long annoying bosses, bad gimmicks, Dimps tier level design. While the good are really good the bad kinda put it down. The game is still fun and the extra character is definitely interesting but it's story mode is excruciatingly hard. That being said I feel $60 is a bit high and this feel more like a $40 game.

 

Had to contact Sega about the art book and original soundtrack. I'm not paying $14 when I already have everything except those two which I'm supposed to had gotten.‍♀️

 

Every complaint about this game is so minor and stupid. You can hardly tell some of the things these people are complaining about. Some of it might even be user error. I saw a complaint about Knuckles glide being slow but it seems fine to me. The weird part is it did look slow on his game, but not in mine.

 

I think it matters very little whether the boss fights can be sped up with tricks. What I personally dislike about this approach isn't that the fights are slow. It's that it's a process of "figuring it out", about finding out some hidden technicality that allows you to hit the bosses out of the prescribed timeframe. It's usually something about using an emerald power, skipping a phase altogether or shooting a badnik or a projectile back to them. But that's boring. I don't want to figure things out. Tim Rogers once said he sometimes wishes bosses in certain kinds of games had an "I get it" button -- and that's what's going on here. Besides figuring the boss out, there might not be much else to them, just figuring it out more so it can go down faster.

But if they were like traditional Sonic bosses, there'd be an element of transgression which I think this game sorely needs.

Cheesing bosses is more than hitting Eggman a few times: it's putting yourself at risk for that. It's thinking, "hey, what if I try to chain one more hit here?" and get hit for it. It's approaching bosses as a matter of tempo instead of a matter of rationality. It's about getting really good at seizing one opportunity to hit the boss as much as possible and even leaving with the sensation that you're just too good, that maybe there was a "right" way to beat the boss and you cheated. Most bosses I've seen so far have cool attacks, patterns and designs, but would've benefitted massively from allowing the player to screw up.

 

I feel like the issue with this logic is that in reality there is almost 0 risk 99% of the time. Getting hit in a boss doesn't really matter in the slightest since you can just pick your rings back up, so there's no incentive to not damage boost. The risk element is only really there if you only have like 5 rings which isn't super common unless you already died to the boss

 

This is what I was talking about. I bought the digital deluxe, but the DLC in my library only lists the artbook/soundtrack and the LEGO skins, but not the "extra content pack" that is also supposed to be part of the digital deluxe purchase. I also don't want to pay an extra $15 for DLC I already paid for.

 

Trust me, keep playing.

 

Bro, I played the whole thing. The bosses get worse, but all the stages are good the whole way through. The game does not fundamentally become a different thing at some point, which is basically the only thing they said could wreck it for them. What are you trying to get at?

 

Bro...how can you say this... and then immediately follow it up with

Most of the people making that specific complaint are just parroting Werster's rant. They're not wrong though. Load up S3&K right now and glide with Knuckles. You constantly build up speed as you glide. That isn't present in Superstars. Werster is no chump when it comes to Sonic either.

I'm not advocating the low score or agreeing with saying the game is bad, but some critiques are valid and they can't be hand waved with "user error" or "skill issue".

 

Nah that's for us. I guarantee you people who are not in Sonic Retro generally will have like 5 rings and will die to the boss if they try to damage boost, especially if it's their first time and they don't know the boss' attacks. I would know: I just died to Gold Capital Act 1's boss because I was reckless. You do put yourself in an awkward situation if you wait too much to figure it out, though, because staying still is the worst thing you can do in any Sonic boss. It's a trick that only works once, sure, but in reality there is a lot of risk unless you already know the boss' patterns, which is only possible if you've died to it before (and in which case you will have only 3-6 rings)

 

So I just made it yo Stage 6. First impressions are that I enjoy it. Its not on the level of Mania. But it's good. Very enjoyable. Best game from SEGA since Generations (not including Mania).

 

I'm gonna be the unpopular one and say I don't understand the complaints about the bosses. They're the best bosses in Sonic since 1993.

 

I love the ideas of the bosses and even how they're designed, but at the end of the game, they are far too long, exacerbated by no checkpoints. Every boss can have their hits cut in half and be just as good.

 

GameExplain video comparing graphics/performance of PS5 and Switch versions.



This actually looks fairly competent. Definitely some missing visual effects and lower-quality textures there, in addition to the overall lower resolution. But based on some of the preview footage/screenshots and some initial playthroughs/impressions I was expecting significantly worse. Seems to be about the level of TSR on Switch.