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

Objectively speaking, Sonic Superstars is a game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that you can play.

 

For good reason. It doesn't belong in the music and the only reason it's there is because It's the Classic Sonic Snare.

It'd be fine if they stuck with that sound for only a few tracks, not literally half

 

I will never apologize for my absolute disgust when the snare pops up.

 

Yeah, I don't think it's bad to the point where it should be ignored and skipped like a Sonic 4 but it also is not better than Mania, Sonic 3&K, Sonic 2, or Sonic 1. The physics is closer to Mania but not perfect because there are some glitches present that were not in Mania. The Multiplayer is broken. It's good enough to be considered a classic title but not the best. If you can, get the PC version because the modding community is already working on things like the camera, and Knuckles' Gliding physics to make it more like Genesis.

 

The beats are very heavy on snares, which is uh. Not typical? Someone more knowledgeable than me has mentioned how there isn't a proper drumbeat in the boss theme, and I think it happens in many themes. There isn't a time-keeper. And there's a lot of fucking snares.

 

Don’t worry the game makes sure you listen to the short receptive boss tracks in excruciating detail.

 

It's better to look at why people think what they do than just what they think.

You can find pretty uniform comments across pretty much the entire web: The core gameplay is very strong, recreating Classic Sonic pretty faithfully. Most of the levels are good (though several are rather gimmicky), but the bosses are too long and some of them are bullshit. The music is uneven, some tracks being great and others being terrible. The emerald powers are a neat idea but their implementation is questionable. The coop is completely fucked.

Some people will disagree with me on these, but this is all of the most-common takes I've seen. So is the game good? Well, that depends on if you care about the coop sucking, the bosses being boring/shitty and several music tracks being shit. I don't play coop, I can tolerate most bosses that don't make me wait long periods between retries and I like some of the more iffy-sounding music. I think all of the levels are great, even the gimmick stages. So for me, the game is pretty good, but I can understand that other people have other priorities, and you can too.

 

Do I understand that yeah, I just want to make sense of it all. Every damn opinion about this game is too different. Mario Wonder, easy it's good and 90% of the Internet would say that. Superstars? You got a 50/50 Rate here.



Worst of all it's just getting more confusing. The Steam Page for Sonic Superstars went from 'Mixed' to 'Overwhelming Positive". So just what is all this about you know?

 

Denuvo and surprise EGS services requirement at launch. EGS requirement got removed so reception started swinging the other way in Steam reviews.
Ultimately, you're just gonna have to play it yourself. Why do you care what others think? Why do you need to prove it?

 

If I'm not mistaken that's because of the EGS log in requirement for coop when the game was launched, and that later was dropped.

 

Oh I've already played it on Steam, Day 1, I liked it. 8/10 from me easily.

Why am I rambling about all this. Look I'm just one guy, who cares what I think. But when multiple people like something you do, and when it becomes the more-agreed opinion, it just makes liking stuff easier. Otherwise you're stuck like "Underrated" Games.

 

It was services for the online battle mode. The co-op portion is local only, doesn't require it. It didn't matter if you were never going to touch the online mode, you had to install it.

 

Yes, that, got it completely mixed up. Which reminds me: local co-op via that Steam functionality thing is fucked. You can't use a keyboard and a controller; you have to use two controllers. Tried to play with my brother and it didn't work.

It's a really specific problem, but also it looks like it only happens to Sonic Superstars so here's the heads up anyway

 

My straightforward answer is Superstars is a fine game with some fresh ideas and is moderately enjoyable. Not going to blow your mind and has serious presentation problems. But it is well made.

Unfortunately it also has the worst bosses imaginable.

That's pretty much it.

 

As a song, it’s a banger, but the instrumentation is the let down. Hearing the “remixes” and “tune ups” is great, but they are either missing something or go in a creative direction that doesn’t blend as well as it should. Don’t get me wrong, I still love those interpretations, especially the intro for the “Tune Up”. Something like that, mixed with more realistic sounding instruments sounds like it fit in to a Sonic Adventure-style game.

 

It’s ok papa jun hears you, next time he’ll make it THE ENTIRE OST WOOOOOOOO.

 

Well, at least there's no dying cats around to be heard... right?

 

I think the reason the reception is so mixed is that the game is perfectly fine in some areas and totally not in others. Different people will be bothered by the "not great" parts to differing degrees.

Like, I think the levels are fun, but the boss battles draaag... and I'm someone who doesn't care much for boss battles in games in-general. I largely prefer navigating obstacle courses at my own pace to combat encounters.

So, I beat the game and haven't gone back to play it much, since even if I play a level well, I'm "rewarded" with a slog of a boss flight to bad music*, absolutely killing any of the figurative momentum I feel while playing through a Sonic game.

Some people enjoy boss battles or just don't mind them... so even if they agree that the battles aren't GOOD in Superstars... it might not disturb their enjoyment of the game as much as it disturbs mine.

*I don't think ALL the Jun faux-Genesis tracks are bad. Most are good/fine compositions with bad production choices... but that Early Game Boss Battle theme is actually a bad piece of music, IMHO. Too short, too repetitive, not interesting or catchy or fun. If a good Sonic song is a cheese doodle, that song is a packing peanut. No flavor, and a bad texture.

 

I mean, subjective opinions aren't the kind of thing one goes about "proving".

 

I'd go even further and say that this is true of literally every game ever, which is why even when people agree on which parts are good and which parts are not good (which we don't here) then it can still be either the best game ever or the worst game ever.

Here's the problem with being as objective about it as possible:

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Superstars features five playable characters. Sonic's moveset matches that of Mania. Tails has an added fast descent option from his appearances in S3K and Mania, and Knuckles can no longer bounce really high from badniks and monitors, nor can he pick up lots of speed while gliding. Amy has a double jump that behaves similarly to the lighting shield ability from S3K, but extends her hitbox while doing so. She also has a hammer rush ability which behaves like a drop dash with a more fixed speed. Trip has a very similar (possibly identical?) double jump to Amy, minus the expanded hitbox. She also has a wall cling ability that behaves like the Spike Wisp, without a time limit. In terms of physics, Superstars behaves very similarly to the classic games. Air drag has been reduced (or is calculated differently), and it's harder to cling to curved ceilings. [subjective comparison to help the objective point: it's about as different from Mania as Mania was from S3K].

The level design requires more active player input than Sonic 2 or Mania, but with less spectacle. There are lots of routes away from the "main" path to beat the level, most of which feature some kind of reward. There are no real character-specific routes of the kind that S3K had. Bosses in general require more strategy and have fewer opportunities to attack than is typical of a classic Sonic game. Approximately two thirds of the bosses have less waiting time between attack opportunities than, say, Oil Ocean Zone's boss, but lack the ability to cause several hits' worth of damage at once which means they take longer to defeat overall.

Superstars has 19 required acts across 11 zones, making it very similar in number of levels to Sonic 2's 20 acts across 11 zones, although this does ignore the lengths of the levels themselves. None of the zones are returning from previous games, and some of the level tropes have not been seen in a classic game before. Like Mania Plus, there is an additional post-story mode with modified level design. Superstars uses 3D rendered graphics, and music varies between simplistic synths inspired by Sonic 1's instruments and full fidelity new jack swing. Bonus stages are based on Sonic 1's special stages, with additional mechanics and modified physics, completing them rewards medals that unlock customisation options in the battle mode. Special stages are in full 3D with the player expected to use momentum from swinging and strategically choosing where to swing in order to catch a moving chaos emerald. Collecting a chaos emerald also unlocks an extra ability the player can use.
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The problem with this "objective" overview is that it reads like a manual and doesn't really tell you anything about how the game feels to play. How the game feels is very important, but also completely different from person to person. Perhaps the best way to judge whether you'll like the game or not is to find someone who shares similar opinions with you on other games, and see how they feel about it.

Being completely subjective, I think character movesets for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were already virtually perfected in S3K and I'm not a massive fan of the drop dash from either Mania or Superstars. I think the Knuckles nerfs in Superstars are a poor decision that essentially ruins him, but the Tails fast drop makes him the most fun character of the three. I liked Ray's flying in Mania but not Mighty's "Sonic but easy mode", and I'm disappointed that Amy seems to have taken the same approach as Mighty and then gets overshadowed by Trip anyway.

I think the level design is some of the best we've ever seen in a Sonic game, it's like the best parts of S3K and CD combined and gets gradually harder (but no less fair) as the game progresses. I am disappointed with the lack of character-specific routes though, and Trip's story ruins it by getting more unfair with progression instead.

I enjoy most of the bosses. I don't mind there being periods where I can't attack the boss, and I like finding opportunities to attack in its less vulnerable states (as opposed to just the times when it actively presents itself to you). I think the sins of Mania's bosses are much worse than those of Superstars'. I do think some of them drag on for far too long though, especially the final boss.

And I don't really care too much about anything else, like special stages, graphics, music etc. All of the classic games, and Mania, are better here in basically every way.

So personally for me, I'd play S3K, CD, or Advance over Superstars, but I'd play Superstars over Mania and Sonic 1 and 2. And I think someone who puts both S3K and CD towards the top of their favourite Sonic games will probably absolutely love this game, but maybe those who prefer Sonic 2 over either one of those two will see this as a downgrade, as a general rule. I'd be interested in knowing how accurate that is.

Also if you're a big fan of Knuckles you'll hate Superstars.