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

Can’t say I’m shocked, but it really was bad at points wasnt it?

 

Pretty sure the soundtrack is legit unfinished and the songs were meant to be recomposed by other artists.

Some of the songs in the game have a beta composed like Senoue's tracks but in the final game, they're made by different artists. The Cyber Station Boss 2 theme has an unused version that's... normal. No chiptune

 

Happy anniversary Sonic Superstars.

I would love a Sonic Superstars Plus and would buy that in a heartbeat.

 

A lot of people seemingly think that the reason why we haven't gotten an improved soundtrack is because that would make Sega "admit" that the soundtrack is far from perfect.

I can't see that being the case, however. Games coming with alternate arranged soundtracks is really common nowadays, and nobody ever thinks of them as insults towards the original OSTs.

My two cents are that Sega simply doesn't see it as worthwhile.

 

That should sound like more of an accomplishment than it is.

 

Bouncing to me goes hand-in-hand with rolling in how they highlight Sonic’s momentum across the axis, with rolling representing the horizontal/ground interactions and bouncing representing the vertical/aerial interactions. Imagine playing any of the stages more directly based on pinball mechanics where all of the bumpers had the same muted reaction to them that Sonic’s bouncing has in Superstars. Let alone any of the more vertical-based mechanics in more “standard” stages like the springs and launchers in Ice Cap, Oil Ocean, Flying Battery and so on. Or consider flying off any chute or ramp where the speed you have going in gives you a great distance in length, but you barely get anything above a small hump in terms of height. In a better-designed Superstars, the designers could had actually gone further than previous MD games did in highlighting bouncing’s value/importance with more intuitive level design and mechanics that encourage (if not require) their use.

I think what especially underlines the omission of bouncing (or any significant form of vertical momentum play) is its lack of presence in any of the abilities outside of Sonic’s moveset. It’s not in any of the Emerald Powers; and since those are the replacement for the Elemental Shields, we don’t have a Water Shield to compensate (which makes the bouncing properties more accessible and more explicit).

So from there all you have are the stage mechanics…which feature some bumpers in the carnival level and the temple level; but I’m otherwise drawing blanks on anything else.

I also would had rationalized bouncing being nerfed as some form of compensation for the co-op multiplayer…but as we all know the game is very obviously not designed for a co-op experience. It’s another single player experience, except with more “support” players than before poorly bolted onto the campaign.

 

I can't say that bouncing had ever felt like a major part of the classic. I've noticed its absence in games like Sonic 4 and even the majority 2D Colours and Generations, but thought little of it because those games don't exactly emulate the Classics in any meaningful way. But yeah, it is a noticeable, disappointing omission in Superstars. Not being able to bounce has a negative effect on flow and fluidity, because Sonic comes to an unnatural feeling stop after a big fall. I just didn't realise how much it mattered before Superstars took it away for no good reason.

The small things that Superstars got wrong with the physics genuinely do make a difference, albeit not enough to seriously detract from the game. It's only Knuckles specifically who hit majorly neutered by sloppy mechanical implementation. His glide speed doesn't accelerate, he can't bounce with a well-timed glide, his climbing input recognition is scuffed and every so often he'll immediately jump off a wall when patching on. All problems very specific to his moveset.

On a similar note are the Emerald powers. None of the movement-based skills actually work with the physics at all. When you use Ivy for example, you'll stop dead in your tracks to start climbing a vine. Bullet is the same; when you charge a shot you'll immediately stop dead in mid air and start descending slowly no matter what you were doing before. You can be heading upwards at a 45 degrees angle at the speed cap, but the moment you use bullet it'll all be cancelled. Even the burst Wisp in Colours and Forces feels better than that.

 

The Digital Deluxe version of the game's reached a record low sale price of 70% off ($20.99 USD) for PlayStation. I only thought to check right now because SEGA is being stupid and delisting their PC library of Genesis and "Dreamcast" classics as well as the console versions of the Genesis collection which I was also checking.

 

LoL, I should have waited. I just got a PS5. I bought Superstars in April on Steam.

 

PC version is the best. You made the right choice.

 

Good, the PS5 and Series X versions have completely inexplicable, baked-in input lag which for some reason only affects gameplay and not menus. That being said, those versions are totally playable (I played through to the end of the Last Story on Series X) but the Switch and PC versions are as responsive as the game should be on all platforms. It was something I felt like wasn't brought up and complained about nearly enough, or else we wouldn't be more than a year out from the game's launch with it still in this state.

 

Thanks for the reassurance! I didn’t realize I had the definitive version

 

Not with Denuvo in it!

 

Does Denuvo prevent mods?

 

No. It just affects your PC's performance.

 

I didn't notice any problems when I played through it.

 

I don't know if you're just being obtuse or if you're actually sincere, so I'll give you the BOTD.

Simply because a game has Denuvo DRM doesn't guarantee than you'll notice any performance hitches. It's a drain on PC resources, needs to be verified online every so often and it can limit the potential of modding (to an extent). Typically, Denuvo isn't a big deal for most users. But it's not great, and in the future it's likely that games using it will be bricked if the service ever ends (see games for Windows Live). The one check in thing sucks too.

The principle of the matter is that Denuvo is DRM that hurts the consumer, and that's why people hate it. It also provides only minimal gains to publishers.

 

Yeah. Denuvo wouldn't personally affect me in terms of performance with my PC, but I know it will use more resources than if the game didn't ship with it. Denuvo is a scam and companies keep buying into it. Especially Sega. Like, I'd rather have these games on my PC, but I refuse to support them when they have Denuvo. Especially because, as Blue Blood stated, if Denuvo ever goes kaput, well, you can't play games that have Denuvo anymore. Most companies take it out within six months, but Sega just seems to not do that.

 

See, that's what you say instead of "it just affects your PC's performance". And fair enough, though if companies are able to take it out after the fact at all then I'm not sure we gotta doom too much about what happens when the service ends.