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

Story? Dunno about others, but the main reason why I love the Advance games is the phenomenal pixel artwork. It was so good it launched thousands of fan made flash animations.

Had Superstars went with a pixel look instead of this very stiff 3D look, I think it's reception would be much better. Dan Root released not long ago a very good video precisely on the topic of where Superstars loses to the Advance games when it comes to animation:

 

Those animations are beautiful but if you are asking for Advance Sprites, you are also asking for everything else that comes with that. The level design, and Dimps to be the creator behind that. One of the many reasons we went back to Classic 2D is because the level design is better. Dimps does not have the worse resume but they do miss on some. Their full list of Sonic platforming games are Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2 (my least favorite out of the Advance series), Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Rush, Rush Adventure, Sonic 4, Sonic 4 Ep. 2. As stated a few posts back, most Modern titles have a ton of 2D sections. Those 2D sections are exactly like Rush. Sonic/Shadow Generations 2d levels play a lot like Rush but are better. I really like the Advance/Rush series but history will repeat itself.

 

Push Square's conclusion of Superstars in their review I think sums up the issue well for what's supposed to be a "modernized" take of MD Sonic gameplay; in that the reviewer's judgement is that the two big new additions and selling points of the game --the co-op and the emerald powers-- are actually the game's worst components. Which has been the same analysis by nearly every reviewer from across the board. That should be the opposite response that you should receive when you're trying to build upon an existing formula.

 

I didn't think the co-op was very bad. I was actually pretty surprised how good it was, even. I had an enjoyable playthrough with my brother.
The boss fights can be pretty fun but they're just way too long. The game's pacing suffers tremendously as a result of them. That, the poor presentation, and the damn zoomed-in camera were the worst parts of the game.

 

Sonic Superstars is at number 35 in the UK sales charts. I didn't expect that. So, the game is still selling reasonably well.

UK Charts: The Usual Suspects Make Up The Top Ten As Christmas Approaches | Nintendo Life

 

I finally got the time to play some games. I'm very late to the party but I want to share my thoughts anyway. I don't think I need to warn about spoilers though, it's been a while.

I played Sonic Origins and I thought it was pretty nice. I was expecting way worse due to fandom reception, but I quite like it. Those challenges were pretty fun, and the game is pretty generous with the amount of coins to unlock everything (I thought it was very weird to include Mania Adventures as an unlockable but whatever). Maybe the game had issues at launch and I didn't catch them because I played only last week. And I didn't play the Game Gear games because I don't care about them, maybe it's a pretty bad port but I won't check it.

And this week I played Superstars. I just completed the 38 achievements like 30 minutes ago. And OH BOY.

To be fair, I was enjoying the game, truly. I mean, I didn't like the darkness/butterfly gimmick in Speed Jungle 2 (it reminds me of a level from Crash Bandicoot 3, but it was less annoying there), but I thought it was harmless enough. In general, the levels were nice to play, I didn't find them slow (but I like the pace in Sonic 1, so take that with a grain of salt), and I was enjoying the exploration to find Giant Rings and even some useless golden badniks that make up an achievement. And I loved playing with Amy, more than in Origins.

I like the special stages in general. But the emerald powers are... meh. Some are nice though, but I don't use them often. I don't like having to use a wheel selector to choose them - would it be that hard to map them in different buttons? What really annoys me is that, if you get hit, the power you selected is reset (even if you weren't using it) so you have to select it again on the wheel. That happened a lot during late game.

I was not hating the bosses despite everyone's opinion. Yes, it was kind of annoying to wait for the moment when you are able to hit them again, but I thought that decision made the bosses more impactful. Like, they are bosses, they are an important part of the game, you shouldn't spam the jump button and kill them in 5 seconds. It's a challenge that you're gonna have to fight properly. My only complain was that these bosses should be placed in a different act, just like Sonic CD used to do. Maybe I just want to replay the level and not fight the boss. Maybe I just want to replay the boss (who knows?) and skip the level. So it would be nice to have them in different acts. It would work way better than CD itself, because CD bosses are too easy, and these are not.

HOWEVER, things got weird in Press Factory. Why is this only the 7th level? It's so goddamn hard! Act 1 was annoying enough with the gimmick that the whole level "jumps" at a count of 5 seconds (I guess). But Act 2, FUCK ACT 2. I can't enjoy this damn level if everything is hitting me and that fucking timer is making me anxious ALL THE TIME because of an insta-kill that is always about to happen. How am I even supposed to explore the level if the level itself is forcing me not to?

It's weird because after Press Factory comes Golden Capitol which is way easier. And the other levels after Golden Capitol are also fine enough.

And then the last zone is Egg Fortress. FUCK THIS LEVEL. I can't walk 10 meters without getting hit by something. Even when I'm not walking I'm getting hit by those lasers in the weird gravity thingy sections. And Act 2 is Act 1 backwards because for some reason Eggman could reverse time, so I basically get hit by the same things again, but now sometimes I don't even see what hit me because they pop out of existence due to time travel shenanigans.

At the end of Act 2 is the "regular" final boss. FUCK THIS BOSS. Its first phase is alright (hard, but alright), except that for some reason I always have trouble to find the last blue missiles to hit them back to Eggman (they don't always appear, I don't understand). But second phase is where things get really annoying. If you die, at any point, you return to the first phase. This could be "fine", since it's the final boss, but each phase takes 5 minutes to be completed (I counted), so it takes TOO long. The last pattern (when he tries to hit me with his hands) is very tricky, so it's easy to die and return to the beginning, 10 minutes ago. And there are no rings at all, except those you had when you entered the fight. If you lose them during the fight, you will have none until the end.

When you beat the regular final boss, you unlock Trip's campaign. It's the same levels all over again, but way harder. Trip is very nice to play, but her levels are not. It's like the whole game is Egg Fortress.

At the end of the proper Egg Fortress, Trip's final boss is Fang instead of Eggman. It's kind of a harder version of the regular final boss. FUCK THIS BOSS SO MUCH. The same applies: two long phases, if you die you return to the first phase, and there are no rings during the battle. What is different is that bastard has multiple attacks that insta kill you. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. It's infuriating. He throws a web (or something) at you, it gets you stuck, then he throws a missile at you and you're dead and gone.

Ah, don't think Super Sonic (or Super anyone) will help you during these final bosses, as they take too long. But you probably won't have 50 rings anyway, since it's Egg Fortress.

Speaking of Super Sonic, when you finally beat Trip's final boss, you unlock the true final boss. FUCK THIS BOSS VERY VERY MUCH. Again two phases, again you go back to the beginning if you die. But now you're Super Sonic, so your main concern is your ring counter. The whole boss is just a dragon annoying you while you try to collect rings. Sometimes I don't understand the pattern of his attacks, sometimes I can't see the attacks, sometimes I don't understand the purpose of them (are they there really just to take me some time?). I just want to hit the motherfucker but the opportunity to do it never comes, it's a pain in the ass.

If you beat him, then it's finally over. Trip seals the thing in a thing. I didn't understand shit about the lore and I'm gonna watch some Youtube video explaining.

I think it's absurd to say Superstars is just Sonic 4 with good physics. The only thing that this game reminds me of Sonic 4 is some of the songs, but the game itself is way better. BUT, it's not 1-CD-2-3K-Mania level of quality (and I don't even like CD very much). I could have considered it a good game up to Egg Fortress (despite Press Factory). From then on, it only gets worse and worse and worse. So I guess it's an okay game. It's fun if you know where the fun is.

 

I do care about gameplay and I would like another Advance game, right because of the gameplay specifically.

I mean, I didn't read the full comments in the last few pages and I don't know if someone already addressed this (sorry) (EDIT: did it now), the Advance games were smaller projects meant to exist as handheld alternatives to Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes; they weren't the focus, they were mostly spin-off-ish and the quality issues they have are more due to this than anything.

Most of the mechanics that the Advance games have introduced (second action button, boost mode, air tricks and tag actions) have potential for new gameplay and level design ideas that would actually innovate the series. Flat level design and bottomless pits are the reason why those ideas were underused and still hold a lot of untapped potential; a new spiritual successor to the Advance games doesn't have to bring the flaws of the originals back.

No, Rush doesn't count, it threw everything away in favor of the instant top speed button.

Another Advance game with more focus on quality, a bigger budget and all, has the potential of being an actual great game, especially with also the hand drawn animations in the style of the originals.

The Advance games are not much different than the classics at their core, anyway; they are still based on physics first and foremost.

 

The emerald powers always bothered me because it's like they almost got the right idea. I love the idea of rewarding the player for collecting some of the emeralds so it's not an all or nothing game. But I would prefer something like extra speed or more power for having one or two emeralds kinda like how it was in Sonic X. Sonic rarely used the emeralds in the show, but when he did he was just stronger. Something like a free hit or a higher jump would be interesting. maybe have the emerald powers be more like the elemental shields.

 

Your entire post summed up every reason we're disappointed with superstars. When it's good, it's fun, but the flaws are too hard to ignore and make replaying the game feel like a chore more than anything, which is a total killer to the classic game series.

It's a very weird case where the game itself has a rock solid engine with few to no glitches (aside from Knuckles slow glide and serious issues with multiplayer) but the things they built on top of it (including the methods to use the powers) are an absolute mess after zone 6. A 2D game like Sonic 4 is insultingly broken and lazy, but at least it makes for a passable replay... most of the time (except for that final boss in Ep I, screw that thing). Here? It's very hard to replay the game even if you're quite skilled at Classic Sonic. The game's designs just don't conform well to the instincts of the rest of the classic design, so it ends up with dimps like obstacles that hurt the flow/experience, but much worse.

And we seem to just be stuck with the game like this. It is what it is.

 

Shadow Gens basically does Emerald Power better. The Doom Powers are basically the same thing, only there's 5 of them instead of 7. By the time you unlock the last "Doom" power, you're at the game's equivalent of super sonic.

They're designed to unlock at specific moments in the game, and doing so unlocks new paths in older levels, which is perfect IMO. This means they can have both zones where the powers are optional, and zones where they're necessary because they'll always know exactly when you unlock them. Plus Shadow Gen's doom powers integrate very, very well into the level designs, arguably better than any other power ups in the sonic franchise.

 

Interesting to hear people's opinions on this. I still haven't tried this yet, but I heard it was quite buggy on release. Apparently they're not updating or adding any more DLC (I was hoping for new playable characters like Mighty and Ray!), but this sounds like fundamentally flawed design choices if the difficulty really skyrockets suddenly that much. They didn't even release a physical vinyl of the soundtrack. Did this game have physics like Sonic 4 Episode 1 where you could stand on walls or something?

 

No, if anything the physics is one of the good things about it, it’s very close to the classic games and controls very well

 

Finally got the game and played a bunch of it.

It's been fun but I definitely see why the bosses were so talked about here, almost feels like all I've been doing is fighting bosses.
I had some faith because of how they'd been handled in Balan Wonderworld but nah it's really just "wait to attack when we say you can and also here's a 20 second cutscene in the middle of the battle"

The emerald powers also feel like a chore to activate and aren't nearly as OP as I've seen people call them, I'm not sure why I can't just keep it on one and then use it whenever without it resetting to nothing just because I got hit while not using it.

Other than that pretty great game.

 

This may come as a shocker, but maybe some of us are getting old. My kids constantly replay this game like we did with the classics.

 

I only owned Sonic 2 thought.

 

Only just finished the main story as Sonic but man what a downer that boss is. Part of me is like "okay yeah this is difficult just like it was for me with a bunch of Sonic Rush bosses at first" but then I'm also like "no fuck that I didn't have to replay a whole 10 minute level just to retry those when I wanted to take a break", not that that level was particularly bad (it was pretty cool) but it's diminished by the context.
At least the cutscene after it had something funny enough to course correct a little.

 

The absence of a checkpoint after the first phase is baffling, considering it's a 5 minute phase.

 

One thing about the bosses that doesn't feel classic, is how much of a buffonish spaz Robotnik/Eggman is, he and his contraptions can't seem to keep the fuck still. He's always waving his arms about while the machine wobbles and bounces around like a fucking jello. It's all very comical and silly.

Remember the purposeful way he used to glide into the arena? A quick cackle, then straight down to business - miss that!

 

Ok.

So I played this for the first time in months after beating Sonic x Shadow Generations and I am so disappointed finally playing Trip’s story. Controlling her is like bring permanently stuck on Marble Garden’s spinning tops. I also now understand everyone explaining how broken Super Trip is. I feel that a Super Big would be faster…

How is this possible when the physics for most of the gameplay outside of Trip’s story is the 2.5D perfection we got more than a decade after Sonic 4 Ep II?

 

I think Trip controls amazing. She’s literally the easiest character to use besides her super dragon form. Most people critique her stages and not how she controls.