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

I think it's difficult to group the Advance games together. The first one, at least, isn't really "a completely different experience than the classics". Especially when, unlike Superstars, it actually got the 'badnik bouncing' right. This is one area that very much "counts" for me.

Might seem like a small thing, especially since I seem to be the only person in this thread ever complaining about it. But that's been part of the Classic Sonic toolkit since Sonic 1, and it forms an essential piece of my playstyle across all of the classic games. Thus its proper presence (or absence) helps distinguish the real ones from the imitators in my eyes. And the more vertical space there is to play in, the more the move's botching is felt. So, this is especially egregious with the amount of verticality that Superstars' stages have. Incredible missed opportunity that is honestly a bigger blight on the game to me than the weak excuse for "co-op", sloggy bosses, bland visual presentation, and lopsided soundtrack put together.

If they didn't fuck that up, then yeah, I'd hold it in the same general family that I put 1, 2, CD, 3K, Advance 1, and Mania in, even with the bosses and the music being what they are. Add whatever experimental or dumb bullshit you want on top of the core template, but don't fuck with the template, is all I ask. To Superstars' credit, it fucked with the template much less than Sonic 4, Generations, or Forces did, so I am happy about that at least. It reached the gate, but I can't let it in.

 

Please explain to me how.

As I posted previously in this thread, most of the levels don't feel like Sonic levels at all. In particular, they don't flow well, and there's a lack of slopes. It also took the wrong lessons from Sonic Mania, like propelling Sonic forward a lot instead of allowing the player to make use of momentum.

 

...Lack of slopes? I don't agree with anything you said at all (like any other good Sonic game once you start learning the levels its easy to get into a comfortable flow state) but this one comment just stuck out as particularly wild. What do you mean by that

 

I felt that the majority of the terrain was filled by blocks, platforms, and other gimmicks.

 

It's something we can kind of count, and I might at some point, but the memory I have is of a game with more gimmicks that give you a fixed speed than normal (the zip lines in Sand Sanctuary and Cyber Station, the vine rails and the tubes in Speed Jungle, those carts in Pinball Carnival Act 2) and, most importantly, a little less path switching due to verticality than I'd like. Bridge Island actually has a lot of slopes that let you access areas you otherwise wouln't be able to, but past that I don't recall it happening that much. But then again it doesn't make it not on point to me. Looks well within a "margin of error" if we can call it that.

Speaking of Sand Sanctuary, doesn't it seem to you like it would have made a lot of sense for Sand Sanctuary to have an Act 2? It strikes me as weird that it has only one act whereas the place in Trio of Trouble with the murals and, well, most of the story bits that would have made it make sense are in fact located there (or at least the big snake makes me believe that).

 

Found the best selling price for this game.

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I'm shocked they never released a patch for the music.

 

Can’t say I’m shocked about that, but the fact that the game has song absolute bangers right next to dogshit is in and of itself surprising

 

It will be so funny if one of Superstars "MD" songs be remixed in Sonic Rumble with good arrangement.

 

Yeah, it's the sheer level of inconsistency in the soundtrack that gets me too. As soon as we learned that Senoue was producing for a classic themed game I was concerned, but then we learned that Tee was on-board along with a host of other artists and it seemed like things could be alright. In the end we got a smattering of tracks across the spectrum from Splash Hill to Studiopolis so to speak (and grossly over-simplify).

I find it saddening that Senoue would listen to tracks that created he such as like Golden Capital 1 or the horrendous Act 2 boss theme and think "yes this is good and just what we need" following a game like Mania and alongside tracks such as Lagoon City 2 and Pinball Carnival 2. Did he seriously not hear any negative feedback back S4 and Origins, or learn a damn thing from all the praise of Mania?

 

Well... At least I like the Final Boss fight theme.

Spoiler

By Final Boss fight, I mean the Black Dragon.

 

Not to be rude, but are we in the wrong thread? This thread was used for leaked Switch release of the game.

 

I... genuily didn't noticed until you told so.