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

What do you mean? Superstars was in the top 20 sellers for months in the US. I know I posted charts and updates before in this thread. I can't find Mat Piscatella's tweets since I no longer have an active twitter. Here's Sonic Superstars still in the Top 20 Best Selling gams in November. I think it was still all the way until February but I would have to dig this thread to find out.

Lost World didn't chart.
Forces never charted in the top 20 outside of the Switch specific chart and that was at the bottom.

What other modern title are you citing here that it underperformed against? Sonic Frontiers? The best selling Sonic game in years?

 

I don’t love the game or anything, but you can actually continuously play levels. You can select an option to move onto the next act after every stage.

I’ll say this is a feature that should be in every Sonic game! Generations would be an absolute blast to play sequentially.

 

People immediately jumped to Sega saying the game underperformed compared to Sonic Frontiers as it underperforming in general.

 

I still don't get how everyone was just totally fine with the input lag in the higher-end console versions, so it never got fixed. #DyingOnThisFuckingHill

 

People trying to portray Superstars as some complete disaster is just hilarious to me. It maintained a steady spot on the sales charts for months after months, Sega outright said it was a success, and reviews were generally on the positive side. Not to mention that Classic Sonic is too firmly established as an arm of the brand for Sega to just drop out of nowhere. Post-release support being limited doesn't really mean anything - not every game gets a colossal amount of post-release content, and it's pretty rare for Sonic games. (Frontiers was the exception, not the norm.)

 

I just haven't been able to recognise this, no matter how often it's pointed out. I'm playing on PS5 using an LGC2 TV on low latency mode.

 

I think people were expecting that this was referring to more than what ended up just being two skins.

Plus DLC seemed like a safe bet considering what happened with Mania and Origins, not sure what it could have added beyond new arrangements for the pure Senoue tracks and new characters like Ray and Mighty, Trip’s mode is already fairly close to an encore mode.

Never noticed it on PS5 either but I played with VRR so that might fix it. Only possible input lag I ever noticed is on that QTE I’m always bitching about.

 

Look, I'm not gonna say they misfired by leaving the game basically as-is from launch, but if they *did* release ray the flying squirrel DLC that would be a day fuckin one buy for me

 

They were happy to quickly report the exact figures on Sonic Frontiers and Shadow Generations but for Sonic Superstars we have only ever gotten a vague "performed strongly" as the best point of praise for it.

That's when they weren't talking about how it didn't meet expectations and also ignoring that that they discounted for 2 months before the end of the fiscal year, with the exact aim and goal of pushing up the amount of units sold before putting it back to $60.

Last week Frontiers and Superstars were on sale on the eshop and Frontiers was $35 and Superstars, the newer game, was $17. Things like that don't happen when they feel a game can thrive on its own merits.

At least we got a Wonder of a game that same week so I could remember what a $60 game could and should be in terms of quality and polish and content.

 

1. I'll admit the fact that they at least said it performed strongly did surprise me, as I recall a lot of early talk and signs suggesting it was under-performing.
2. As you said, the sales point to a mixed bag... which always makes justifying another title in the lineup more difficult, especially because producing more classic content still seems to need to happen under special circumstances (top fan content creators come onboard, Naoto Ohshima himself returns to make it, ect. ect.)

If the game did "perform strongly", that's fine... but compared to Mania, which revived the entire part of the brand in a very unique way and kicked classic sonic back into the public consciousness for years, this just doesn't boost as much confidence in me that we'll see more, or that what we will see if they do create another title will somehow be better, as they did not even bother to fix any major issues with this title.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but the silence on this compared to even just the release of Origins/Mania still bothers me. Not to mention no one wants to address the elephant in the room of 'can' they even make a better classic title next time? It's been 30+ years since Sonic and Knuckles and we're still chasing the shadow of that game after all this time, even if Mania got close(r) to its greatness. Superstars has the potential to be much better, but just sadly falls a bit short. It wouldn't take much to improve the experience, but the things that make it fail seem to be deliberate (bad) choices.

 

Mania did not revive the classic brand. Generations did that in 2011.

I wouldn't even call it "revive". They invented by causing this split to begin with

 

To be fair, I think classic sonic as a whole is going to be fine. This game was a misfire of a huge variety (yes it was fine but after Mania it should have been great) but Sonic as a whole is a healthier brand than ever before so they'll be willing to try Classic Sonic again at some point.

A Mania 2 with all original levels is still something I don't feel is completely off of the table. Especially given Evening Stars recent financial troubles (glad they bet on themselves with Penny Big Breakway and but wish more people bought it). But I guess we'll wait and see.

 

this was a fake leak in the first place no

 

No, Generations 'created' the classic branding as we know it (the split didn't exist before that even if the gameplay/artstyle did), and did reasonably well at kicking off merchandise for that version of the character (itself a slight revision for how Sonic looked in the 90s), but Mania proved that new classic 'games' could still be made in full... and got the general gamer population to play, priase, and discuss them. It was the first game to really break the view of "Sonic was never good", a view which came out 'after' generations and show to your average gamer that you could really revive this IP and create new high quality content with it. Forces was a major let down, but Mania's success was not just in sales numbers, but was cultural across gaming media and community as a whole.

Superstars has barely been discussed for months now, relative to Frontiers/Sonic X Shadow, which is... fine... but not a great situation for those of us who like Classic games to be in.

I mean, look at the steam forum for the game. The conversation there is pretty bleak, as there's barely been any chatting about it and more than half of it is negative, or neutral at best. Reception in the Reviews section is mixed even after a year, where problems often get patched out of high profile controversial games. A quick google search for the title and other forums discussing it shows a lot of negativity too, which I think is a damn shame.

I don't hate this game, but I don't find it fun in the way I do any of the other 2D titles. I want too, but it's just not that fun to replay as it is now. I don't want to be a blind supporter of Mania either, as I strongly disliked the trope of recycled levels, but at least most were well designed even when they did recycle elements. The game had a major cultural impact on the brand and it's silly of you to keep pretending otherwise. I saw talk of it everywhere related to Sonic for the next few years, and the vast majority of the reception was very positive. Superstars is a 'new' classic title with all original content (what should be our perfect next title), that is now barely being discussed at all, and huge chunks of the active discussion are mixed or negative.

That's exactly how Forces was received at the time compared to Mania, but now the reputation has been flipped, with x Shadow and Frontiers getting the majority of attention/praise this time, and more or less deserving it despite their own distinct flaws.

Look, if people think I'm being too negative? Fine. I think the situation looks weirdly grim and I'm not afraid to say so, but of course I could be wrong. I certainly love seeing classic merch all over the place if nothing else, but merch does not create new high quality games, and it seems no one has quite the full consensus within SEGA for how to do that yet.

 

Superstars is unremarkable, but it’s far from bad. Frankly if it had a bit more polish to it and was marketed better I think its reputation would be completely different. It’s the closest post-Genesis Sonic has gotten to matching the feel of the classics both in physics and level design, aside from Mania of course.

 

It should be stated that sonic games always have quick discounts after release cause they deliberately release it around holidays season/black Friday

Frontiers the best selling sonic game in like 20 years received quick discounts weeks after release, also the newly released Shadow Generations in fact, both games we know are successful, that’s just SEGA strategy and has nothing to do with good performance or not.

 

Sonic games do not go on sale for 50% for 2 full months, which was talked about here as it was happening because it had never happened before, only two months after release. They go on sale a few weeks after release, for 2 weeks, and then are full priced again until Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft are doing seasonal sales.

I know SEGA does sales quickly, but they also bring them back to full price just as quickly. Their sales usually last 2 weeks. Not 2 months.

 

2 full months where exactly? Cause it sure wasn’t like that on either steam or PSN at least

 

Regarding Superstars’ performance, an interview was just released where it was described as a disappointment:

https://www.eurogamer.net/putting-t...ame-rock-roll-compared-to-nintendos-pop-music

it’s actually quite the interesting interview, full of more very blunt responses. Maybe thread worthy?