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

We're so back Boomheads

 

I've been seeing similar crazy work with Pokemon BDSP, another game that runs in Unity. For some reason (I straight up don't understand why, because Sinnoh as a region sucks don't @ me), someone has been putting every single existing Pokemon in the game, better attack effects etc..

 

Superstars isn't a huge hit on Steam because it isn't targeting a clear audience. Mania targeted the classic fans to an exceptional extent. Frontiers has been so successful because it targeted the 'serious' Sonic fans and won them over in a way which Forces failed to do. Superstars is doing its own mid quality things and I'd say its Steam performance is reflective.

The big surprise is how All Stars Racing Transformed performed so well. What an incredible game.

 

I'm surprised this got past Nintendo's QA testing. Having glitches is one thing, but having glitches tied to a system wide function surely has go against Nintendo's QA rules.

 

Nintendo won't have QA tested this. There are inummerable games released on systems these days and the ecosystem manager can't feasibly test every single one. While the bug reflects badly on Superstars, it isn't disastrous and there are going to be plenty of far lower quality, more broken games on the Switch and other consoles that do the bare minimum to meet the company's T&Cs. Mania itself had a home menu related bug back in the day where the game would keep running even when suspended, so it's definitely on the publisher/developer side to sort that stuff out, if they so choose to.

 

Ah ok thanks for letting me know. I'm not very knowledgeable on these things as I'm not a game dev myself. Do you mean Nintendo doesn't do any QA testing at all? How do they make sure games follow the T&Cs then? Or do you they just make sure the game doesn't break your Switch and that's pretty much it?

 

Not too much of a surprise. Kart racers weren't too common back then, especially one with online functionality (The first ASR only had online...on the Mac version). That and it appealed to SEGA fans not just Sonic fans. TSR was a mistake.

Masterful play SEGA

 

Hot take: It's a push and pull between the game and the game it's compared against:
Sonic Frontiers gives BotW fans something that BotW can't give them -> success
Sonic Superstars doesn't give Super Mario Bros. Wonder fans something that Super Mario Bros. Wonder can't give -> failure

I'm exaggerating, but not much.

 

I’m just providing my brief rundown of Superstars, because why not...

With the first few glimpses of the game I was hopeful, but the more I saw, the more disappointed I became. I did buy the game anyway, because I want to support Classic Sonic – but I was so displeased that I actually returned it to Walmart and exchanged it for Mario Wonder, and I’m happy I did. The breakdown:

Pros:

Physics – Accurate. Yay, they did it.

Character design - I actually see some promise here. There was definitely more “classic” style which I greatly appreciate, such as the look of Robotnik’s mechs, and the character designs. The return of varied baniks was also great!

Cons:

Music – I absolutely cannot comprehend why they keep using the poor sound-fonts from Sonic 4. That music was universally panned, and yet somehow the message has still not been received by Sega. There were a few good tracks, probably done by Lopes, but it is bewildering why the game doesn't have a unified soundscape and why a professional entertainment company seems to lack a basic understanding of music theory. The music is critical to a good Sonic game, and bad music puts a damper on the ENTIRE experience.

Level Aesthetic – Pretty poor overall, barring a few exceptions. The quality was entirely inconsistent. The backgrounds were often inexplicably baron. Rather than emulating the modular appearance of the classics, they use more organic forms with a lot of “flood brush” textures and designs. It’s a generic look, and not similar to the Classics at all, which is a MASSIVE downgrade from the signature aesthetic of 30 years ago. They really aren’t striving for anything impressive and it’s obvious. This could be a generic game from 2005 – who would know the difference?

Level design – Generally boring, inconsistent, and seemingly thrown together. Just monotonous and not fun.

Boss mechanics – some interesting ideas, but otherwise boring and unpolished (for example, missiles that just “appear” out of nothing). No ability to rush them, and drawn out.

Emeralds – the “powers” aren’t well integrated and tend to only be of use in very specific situations. Some were very half-baked also, and you could tell they simply ran out of ideas (I’m looking at you vine).

Level tropes – What can you say, it’s literally just the exact same themes over and over again. Sure they put a little twist on it, but how is this still so lame? Play Mario Wonder for 5 minutes and it is overflowing with unique stylistic choices. Why is it so difficult for Sega to expand beyond: beach, jungle, carnival, desert, grey factory. Why doesn’t Sega see the value in inspiring locations? No doubt they have designers whom went to university in pursuit of their artistic passions, so who’s mandate is stifling them? This is yet another area of Sonic which was synonymous with the series and inspiring – but for some inexplicable reason has been neutered. Think about it… if Sega makes another Classic Sonic game we all already know EXACTLY what the level tropes will be… beach, snow, amusement park, factory, etc. Why??

Glitches: aplenty

Conclusion: I’m sure I’m missing all sorts of other disappointments. But ultimately, this game doesn’t even deserve the 7/10 it’s been getting. It’s 2023, this is a full-price game, and you can get much better for your money. I literally felt robbed and returned the game in protest despite my desire to support Classic. It feels like a cell phone game… They have the physics correct. They have the character designs correct. But in every other respect, it is only Classic Sonic in name only. It entirely fails to achieve the greatness of it’s namesake.

I’ll admit it, I feel so incredibly jaded. I’m SO frustrated with MYSELF! What sort of mental disease does it require for me to remain invested and hold out hope that somehow this series will get the attention and love that it requires? Classic Sonic has an essence that is irreducible, yet you would never know that if you picked up the game today because time and again they fail to capitalize on its hallmarks.

To analogize, it’s like Classic Sonic is coke, in a world of Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Orange Fanta, Grape Crush, Root Beer, etc. But it’s as though they simply cannot get the recipe correct. Sega sells you the can of coke, it looks like you remember it, but then you pour it out and it’s flat, it’s not as dark as it used to be, it smells different, the taste is off with a bad aftertaste. You read the ingredients and sure enough, they are messing with the formula. They use corn syrup instead of sugar, they use synthetics instead of extracts, and they add ingredients in and take some out for no discernable reason. For some reason, they keep putting black licorice in it despite everyone telling them to stop! Meanwhile, the number of us who experienced the original are diminishing in size, and new customers are picking it up and saying “Hey this poor imitation is acceptable!”. Well, maybe to these people it is acceptable, but it isn’t the irreducible refined product it used to be, it’s a cheap imitation. And worst of all, it’s SO ASTOUNDINGLY GLARINGLY OBVIOUS WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE, AND THEY SEEM ENTRIRELY FIXABLE! YET IT’S BEEN THIRTY YEARS AND THEY HAVE ONLY JUST NOW GOT THE PHYSICS CORRECT AND I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE THEY WON’T MESS THAT UP ON THE NEXT ENTRY!!!

 

I mean they had an issue like this in the Switch version of BOTW for a while, though they did eventually patch it out.

 

This is pretty pretentious honestly. Plenty of us that grew us playing the Genesis games like Superstars. You are fine to not like it, but a video game is more complex than a simple product like Coke. What makes up good level design in a classic Sonic game is more subjective than the recipe of a drink which is objective and easy to prove.

 

It's not pretentious when they are obvious flaws in this game like Dash-pads in the long loop-de-loops or mid-air dash-pads, which are unnecessary. This game is designed for casuals, not hardcore Classic fans.

 

There's the smug condensation that we Classic fans are known for!

But really, yeah. I am a hardcore Classic Sonic fan. I think this game is badass. It's been almost a month and I'm still playing it every day. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and there are still criticisms I'd hold against it. But everywhere it counts, it hit right for me.

 

Yeah we are definitely not getting anymore classic games because of all the negative feedback. I’m not experiencing some of what you guys are. I play the game everyday and really think the some of the negativity is overstated.

 

I don't think they spent all that time copying the retro engine just to waste it on one game. They have pretty accurate megadrive physics implemented in unity, it's gonna be easier to find a dev team that knows unity than a more proprietary engine. Hardlight could potentially use it, with Dream Team Sega seems to be letting them do more than endless runners. I could totally see them becoming the new dimps.

Sega do make some stupid decisions and always learn the wrong lessons but I don't think they're gonna stop pushing classic sonic stuff just because one game sold less than projected.

 

Same. The game has flaws but the core classic sonic gameplay loop has been preserved and expanded on! I’ve beaten the main campaign 4 times (once as each of the starter characters). Trip’s story is a mixed bag but the main campaign is so great I don’t mind. I can def understand why the $60 price tag is offputting to folks given superstars’ flaws… but I’m in bliss. I honestly haven’t enjoyed a game this much since Mania came out. (Tho that’s a purely personal statement. There are objectively better non-Sonic games that came out between Mania and Superstars, I’m just talking about my personal enjoyment)

 

We already had a game for hardcore Classic fans. We got it 6 years ago.

Holy shit, Sonic Mania came out 6 years ago.

 

That's strange... Unity has a maximum delta time so extreme frame stutters or pressing the home button shouldn't screw up the game.

 

Jun’s tracks aren’t that annoying to me but I’d rather hear something like this. Lol