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

I liked most of the bosses, but I was worried they were going to make it tough to replay too. But actually, I'm pretty impressed at how many of them can be mitigated once you've got emerald powers. Obviously you can use super forms to cheese them, but Bullet, Avatar, and the Extra attacks can often help you get a shot or two in when you're not "supposed" to. It's nice!

Other than that, I've just been doing Time Attack mode, which works just like Sonic Mania: Same signpost, same reset ability, no emerald powers, no bosses. And the more I play them, the more blown away I am by how well-designed and varied these stages are. I don't think I'm going to wind up liking it more than Mania, but I can definitely say there are things about it I like more than Mania.

 

I'm currently on the

Spoiler

True Final Boss, and by god these final bosses have been far and away the absolute worst Sonic boss fights... I've been trying to figure out how to go about the meteors he shoots directly at you, and while I can hit one, the next one doesn't get targeted, and I eventually just run out of rings. Let's not even get into Fang's repeated one hit kill boss fights.

This has genuinely dragged down what I thought was a great game to a game I'm not sure I'll pick up again because screw these boss fights entirely.

 

Spoiler

Super Trip fucking sucks

 

I'm refraining from getting Superstars until Black Friday, but everything I've seen from it paints it as a serviceable enough game, particularly for those who are into Classic Sonic in particular.

But "serviceable" isn't going to compete with Mario, ever. It's only really a big deal though if you have higher expectations for Sonic however.

We've seen what Sonic can do when put into the right hands just six years ago, but unfortunately Sonic Team just aren't capable of delivering at that level for whatever reason.

Given this is Arzest we're dealing with, a 7.5 is honestly remarkable but that's still just barely reaching the bar, while Nintendo hopped over the bar and then some.

 

The difference between a game with no deadline with 1st party budget and a 3rd party budget that have to release at a reasonable schedule i guess.

Although the big difference is this is the first great 2D mario game in like 20 years while Sonic already got good-great 2D games in that timeframe with the exception of few.

Anyway i have beat both Wonder and Superstars, i have really enjoyed both for different reasons.
Wonder for finally breaking the repeatedness of NSMB series and actually delivering different varied stages for once, making actually feeling like a main 3D Mario game with the amount of different ideas it throws out at ya, also the last level was really dope and amazing
And Superstars for experimenting a lot with different ideas like zones structure , progression, new gimmicks and making use of 3D space, and of course new stages themes, the last level is cool as hell

Both franchises released refreshing new takes for their 2D series and i am happy to experience both on the same week.

 

I've recorded some HD 60fps gameplay of me exploring the game's first three levels. I took them at a slower than normal pace to show off secrets, extra paths, and all that junk.

 

Bullet feels suuuuuper centralizing so far.

I think you may be missing something in the Speed Jungle Act 2 boss. Don't wanna spoil it if anyone hasn't gotten there but it didn't take that long iirc, I was only annoyed by the animations taking forever.

 

Only small nitpicks so far after playing it for an hour or so — and I'm still only at Speed Jungle Act 2! I feel like Sonic Superstars is missing the minimalist pause screen, maybe even a photo mode, to catch a break during a level and admire its graphics. Also, for the Special Stages, I think I would have preferred something like the Pull Stars from Super Mario Galaxy. Would that have been asking too much? Lol Anyway, Sonic Superstars > Frontiers. I'd be amazed, if something similar could work for the Adventure series. Sonic Superstars is a good time so far. And yes, I too think it shares some similarities with Sonic CD. There are times when I wish he had the Super Peel Out or Insta-Shield.

 

Finished the main story, minus one Emerald.

What can I say for my first playthrough, IMO when it's good, it's Sonic Advance 1 good. When it's bad, it's Sonic 4 bad.

I dunno.......maybe it'll grow on me. No way it touches the classics or Mania though.

 

So apparently it's not about platform, but if you've completed the game or not: "You need to have the game completed for them to work, i tried on PS4 and it worked but didn't when i tried on a non complete save file"
Which kind of defeats the purpose? Unless you really want the sound test.

 

Finished the first playthrough. Liked it way more than I thought I would. I didn't even mind the graphics which were a huge sticking point for me before release.

For people having trouble on the bosses, use your emerald powers. The game is pretty unforgiving but super doable.

OST is half-lame though. First time I've been disappointed by a soundtrack. There's a reason Speed Jungle and Pinball Carnival were the promotional tracks lol.

Had a smile on my face the whole time/10. I may prefer it to Mania but that could just be because it feels like something new rather than being creatively constrained like Taxman et al. were.

 

I just finished it. Going to post full thoughts soon. I enjoyed it despite how horrible the bosses were. But honestly a bit sticker for me is how ugly this game is. It is hideous aesthetically.

That said there are many highlights. Plenty of the levels are fun. I like all the characters, especially Amy. She plays far better here than she did in Origins.

I hope they make another game like this. It is very flawed and has many problems. But it is a step in the right direction.

 

Frankly Superstars should be a good 20 points lower.

 

I think Superstars is a solid 6/10. As opposed to Frontiers as 4/10.

 

4.6 hours in, currently stuck on the (presumably "Bad Ending") final boss. The Special Stages suck, and the bosses are tedious (including and especially the one I'm currently at). Honestly have not enjoyed my time with this.

 

I quite frankly can't comprehend this. Superstars gets three or four good zones with questionable bosses before devolving into dreck with bullshit bosses and cheap level design. The Emerald Power system is either superfluous, clunky or forced at any given moment and the game just doesn't know when to end, dragging on and on in both levels and bosses.

I'd say the cracks truly begin to show with Pinball Carnival Act 2. The level is filled with do or die moments that you simply won't overcome on a blind playthrough, and the boss is perhaps one of the guiltiest in the game of awful pacing and being untouchable for long periods of time. From here, Lagoon City and Sand Sanctuary are flavours of middling to alright, but from Press Factory onwards it's a steep decline. + - Shoutouts to PFZ2 for having the Sandopolis Ghosts on insta-death crack.   Even on a second playthrough, the later levels are taking between 7 and 9 minutes and the level design is either mind numbingly dull and labyrinthine (Golden Capital) or filled with pot shots and every disuasion possible from trying to keep speed (Cyber Station, Egg Fortress).

And then there's the endgame. Not only does the final zone suffer from cheap level design and being an overly long marathon, the final boss is exhausting, exacerbated by a baffling lack of checkpoints between phases and very little margin for error that means you can die fairly easily even with rings, particularly on the final phase.

In amongst this are the Emerald Powers. Straight up, if it's not Bullet, Avatar or maybe Vine when Bullet is spent, it's not worth using. Time should be phenomenal for shredding boss encounters, but in practice it just means slowing down already labourious animations. Vision could've at least been used to provide additional platforms for safe footing or the opportunity to hit the bosses when not usually possible. Extra, at least with Sonic + - and Trip   just isn't even worth considering, same with Water outside of a single fight. Further, the three powers that are remotely useful are one and done in boss fights due to the lack of checkpoints and replenishment, and you don't get nearly as much mileage as you ought to be able to out of them due to, again, the massive amounts of invincibility and time wasting animation these fuckers have. You'd be lucky to get more than two hits in most times.

I've been stuck on the final boss + - for Trip's story   for about three hours now. I've completely mastered the first phase in ways I'm not sure the designers even intended. Meanwhile the second phase ups the insta-death bullshit and it seems that, every time I make an inch more progress, the boss pulls out some new attack that throws me into a bottomless pit and sends me right back to the beginning of the fight, fittering away my patience as I'm forced to repeat interactions I can already do on autopilot.

It's honestly making me wish for Sonic 4. For all of that game's faults (of which there are many, don't get me wrong), the levels at least have a sense of flow to them and the games are mercifully short with far fewer gotchas. Frontiers can be janky as fuck, but at least it isn't actively hostile until you go into Final Horizon, and even that can be much more easily cheesed.

With regards to review scores, it's amazing what is being overlooked just because the physics are on point (which they really are, I give that to the team unreservedly, bar a few niche interactions). Superstars becomes an abjectly miserable time after the first hour or two and, when taken with the Mega Drive games, CD and Mania, it without a doubt sits right at the bottom of the pile, where the pile is a podium for the other four games held up by a mountain of steaming refuse.

 

Its probably normal given what people are fans of here, but I've noticed that some of us are willing to overlook a lot of the flaws of these games if they cater to a specific part of our tastes. This holds true for Frontiers and Superstars.

 

Crazy how polarizing this game can be. Criticisms involving frustration with the difficulty and bosses remind me of the reaction to the Final Horizon.

My opinion is the same as then regarding Superstars, as in, I can see how such a thing can ruin the game for people, and there are certain parts that are actual bullshit, no lie, but nah, I enjoyed this game pretty much all the way through. In terms of the level design being cheap, I never once felt that. The levels themselves are fun to go through (Golden Capital is the lower end and that's just bland and boring), and most of the bosses are good to tolerable, but the final bosses, they're way too much.

EDIT: Apropos nothing, the idea of the main game being very solid but the additional content being infuriating reminds me a lot of Crash 4.

Superstars being at the bottom of the classics or miserable is definitely not at all my experience. It's in the upper half of the classics to me, above 1, 2, and CD, and while I'd say the highs are up there, Superstars lacks the polish and consistency to be better than 3&K or Mania.

I hope Sonic Team in general learns the value of checkpoints, though, because god mothafucking damn

 

Seriously the last level was such a hype moment for me, it made me so giddy in a way that the rest of the game didn't, i also happen to really love + - Pizza Tower and this level was basically a version of those escape segments that were inspired by Wario Land , but also when the signpost reversed and i realized what was going on   , such a cool moment

Regarding final boss, maybe i was overprepared by what i heard, but i only really died once at the 2nd phase, when it brought me back to beginning, i was more like "oh, so we are really doing this thing huh", made more focused and was able to clear phase 1 way faster this time and then finish the boss probably, fun times

Overall i didn't minds bosses here as i thought i would be, Didn't play the + - Trip's story mode   yet tho, so we shall see

 

I love that part too but I think it could've did a little bit more with it, like a stronger aesthetic change. On one hand, I was like "oh this is a really cool idea, damn, I like how you can see it coming through some of the level design", on the other hand, I was also like " + - oh, okay, they were saving resources with this, alright   "