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

And Silver Castle is implied to be a Death Egg like structure

 

I'll happily let almost all of those slide for being in secondary/side games that didn't really set themselves up as anything major. The only exception is E.G.G. Station in Sonic 4 which, unsurprisingly, has all the same thematic problems as Egg Fortress.

Superstars was a brand new Classic game, filling in a timeline gap between the Classic and Modern eras. It introduced a location, new lore and reintroduced Fang to the series. But it does nothing remarkable with any of that. Egg Fortress was such an uninspired final location when looking at what Superstars is. Despite the fact that I think it was a pretty cool final level viewed in a vacuum, it really could have been the final level of any game.

 

Currently stuck on Fang. Can’t consistently dodge the webs and seeing videos he throws a ton of them. Only boss I’ve struggled on.

If they were not instant death I’d be fine (I managed to wiggle out once). Instant death in any game is stupid imo. Sonic 1 final boss is oddly easy but of course 2 is pure trail and error.

Ironically Fang’s instant death beams are extremely easy to dodge. That’s how I always do the first phase. Many times rolling under him. I simply cannot handle the hologram attacks. You don’t have enough time or space to react so I don’t bother with that. I just try not to get hit.

I think the reverse stage is a clever idea. Had not thought about the time travel behind it...maybe it’s just an illusion and he has the ability to make his fortress (and mech) repair itself and operate backwards. I don’t think that’s how they meant it but maybe it can be headcanon.

Trip’s version is shockingly easy though. They literally give you 50+ rings around the start with those containers so you can be Super the majority of the stage. By the time you run out of rings you’re basically at the end and just need to Blast over the last crumbling area.

 

Atomic Destroyer is an undersea base, according to the manual.

It doesn't go into space, as far as I can tell.

I mean, I guess? The evolution of Classic Sonic gameplay and storytelling stopped with 3K, everything else is riffing on that basic formula, and I don't view 4 or Superstars as any amount more important than Advance or Rush. Actually, Rush is more important in its place as a pillar of many canon elements.

I sympathize with the disappointment over Superstars's story, but...eh, I kinda just don't care. Maybe I'm the wrong person to be talking about it. The Classic stories are a pretty flat curve in terms of my enjoyment, they each serve their purpose of shuttling you between colorful locations and bosses relatively equally. Mostly I just wanted an excuse to list off the nebulous space platforms, because I think it's funny.

I'm still not sure whether Sonic's prison in Forces counts, because it's set in the "Death Egg" location and Sonic says "they had me locked up on the Death Egg", but...you're not in the Death Egg fighting Zavok's Death Queen or in Egg Gate. You're outside of it and heading towards the Death Egg.

 

And Superstars doesn't have this? I can believe your anecdote, even though in Mania especially I've never had that be an issue, but isn't it just a thing in classic Sonic games that you just have to learn the level to flourish? It's a complaint people have had about every 2d Sonic game, and while I would say it's valid in games like Sonic Advance where learning the stage doesn't really lead to anything interesting progression wise, learning levels in games like 2 and Mania is just what you're supposed to do.

 

Ahhhhh. I never read the original manual and the 16-bit fangame set it in space, so I didn't know.

It coming after a water level makes sense now.

 

Advance has no story and context. Rush doesn't have any kind of a setting either. Both games can freely get away with being unadventurous. Superstars and 4 are both set up and sold to the players as more significant entries with their timeline and setting, so when they choose to be derivative and uncreative it really stands out. What's the point of Superstars even having any kind of world building/story/lore etc and being wedged into the middle of the timeline if nothing is going to be done with that?

I just don't understand what SEGA and Arzest were doing with Superstars' story. The Classic games certainly shouldn't have deep narratives or anything or the sort. But they went to the effort to introduce a bunch of things storywise with Superstars and didn't utilise them in any way. How do you go from the initial premise of "Eggman is searching for a legendary dragon on a tropical archipelago inhabited by giant animals", only to end that with "another space station and nothing else".

Why is the story, the in-world context for the game happening and what you assume is the well from which ideas were drawn, cast aside entirely for the same thing we've seen and done before a million times? Why bother with any of that if you don't want to follow it through? If I was in any way creatively responsible for Superstars, I'd bloody hate that end result. At a minimum, Egg Fortress would work contextually as the final level if they gave it a prize or included story elements within it. But they don't.

Eh, that one's nothing. The Death Egg is a massive station of its own, but it's reasonable for there to be individual ports and facilities all floating around the greater "Death Egg Complex". The Ark is no different. Sonic just calling it the Death Egg cause he was on part of the whole.

Or it's just a poor attempt to show Sonic traverse the Death Egg by running around the outside rather than the interior. Like, Sonic isn't supposed to realise where he was until he's far enough way to see us the Death Egg and then goes back in to find a shuttle.

 

Eh. Like I said, it's not that I don't get it, it's just that the shortcomings don't strike me as a big break with the traditions I'm used to as someone who played Advance and Rush at the same time as 2 and 3. How the games were marketed doesn't make a difference to me, that stuff fades, it's paratext. The answer to your question is of course "it's classic Sonic, it has to go there". I know you're not a fan of those designs being tied to that time period, but that's not a criticism of Superstars in specific. I'm the other way around, frankly, I would have vastly preferred if they put Superstars in the current era of the timeline and used the modern designs.

 

I did like how Forces set up Chemical plant as a distribution/freight hub for eggman and a launch base for onboarding the death egg via shuttle. Feels like one the most creative ways this series has played with previous locations

 

Ultimately, to each their own.

The marketing fades, which is why I'm not dwelling on that alone. I'm talking about the available context for the game, the stuff the game actually presents to you. And even with the remarkably small amount that Superstars gives, it still manages fumble. Superstars' plot is kind of a non sequitur, where the end doesn't follow the setup.

And that's also not really the answer to the question I'm asking. You're right as far as SEGA's brand and official canon goes (and lol yes I'll die on the hill that Sonic character designs should not be beholden to timeline placement), but that's not what I was trying to make a point about. How's this instead:

What's the point of Superstars any work of fiction even having any kind of world building/story/lore etc and being wedged into the middle of an existing timeline if nothing is going to be done with that?

 

This is the problem with Superstars. It doesn't fulfil its purpose of shuttling you to colourful locations and bosses. I'd say the story is actually worse than subpar because it's outright disorienting. It's not like Generations which was serviceable but shallow as a puddle. Superstars' story actually kills any immersion and takes me out of the experience. I know it's by far the stupidest part of the story, but why am I fighting a dragon at the end of the game? What's up with that? I couldn't even take the final boss and ending seriously because of how weird it was.

But it's all emblematic of how the game confuses you throughout. I don't mean nitpicky stuff. Trip's story is implied to take place after the main story but then you do all the old Eggman bosses again. I can understand why even though S3AK did it better. But there's really immersion breaking stuff.

Why is Eggman hunting me with guns blazing in Press Factory 2? Why does he not do so afterwards? I knew when playing 'ah they are just copying Launch Base and Lava Reef in S3AK without understanding'. Took me out the experience. Why does Eggman have a time machine (I think?) in Egg Fortress 2?

Then there's the weird aesthetics. Why is their fruit everywhere?

 

The presentation of the story comes across to me like the game was rushed more than anything.

 

I maintain that the dragon makes plenty of sense given the Trio of Trouble animation (which should have been in the game), the opening animation, Trip being a dragon, giant animals existing on the island, etc.

But having the main campaign end at an Eggman space base just feels like they were checking a box even if it had fuckall to do with the above. I mean I can buy him having a base up there just because, but why are we going there? I can say "maybe he was abandoning his scheme on the island and fleeing to it", but I don't remember enough about the stretch of Zones that lead there to know if I'm doing the devs' job for them by saying that.

 

Y'know what might've been interesting? What if the dragon hatched from a giant egg that Eggman was either hunting down or simply stumbles into while investigating the Northstar Islands and its oversized animals? That could've worked on a few levels - the egg itself would be a macguffin for the antagonists' actions to center around, it'd better build up to the dragon's appearance, and trying to hatch the thing gives Eggman a more direct reason to develop time manipulation technology.

 

I beat Fang! I thought I’d be stuck for a long time.

Watched some YouTube videos that had some nice strategy but ended up just doing it on my own by timing the webs. Everyone makes things looks so easy on YouTube. Haha.

Someone said they hated Fang. Don’t know if they meant this fight or the character now...I still like Fang. I just saw his toy at Walmart the other day. I want to get him.

Tried out the dragon. I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet but I’m much more at ease knowing I don’t have to redo things and I’m technically invincible.

 

Since its been a few years.

Does anyone else feel that they REALLY mishandled post launch support for this game?

Two of the main selling points for this title was "Play with friends" and the alternative skins/costumes.

Now, we know that the play with friends is... sort of completely broken. But the skins and costumes idea...

Like I know there's the issue of very few of the costumes/skins do anything different and some just lack features (super forms etc).

But there's just a really obvious post launch support idea with every now and again releasing a new skin or skin pack based on you upcoming games or nods to previous games, comic books, movies etc.

It started off looking good if not a tad anti consumer, with the Lego Sonic skins and the various pre-order ones.

Yet outside of the pancake Amy skin, there really wasn't anything else?

In fact, what happened to all those pre-order and promotional skins?

I understand not everybody is going to pay for new skins or even the older promotional ones, but they're just... gone?

 

I mean, that's peanuts compared to all the things updates could have done for the soundtrack and boss fights, or fixing Knuckles's bad gliding, or just added damn splitscreen. Seems to me like they expected a splash comparable to Frontiers, fucking idiotic as that was given the game and everything surrounding it. Frankly I'm surprised we even got as far as removing the Epic Games popup. "Would have been nice" is a lot easier for me to let go of than "would have fundamentally improved the game and made me like it better than Mania".

 

I was hoping for a superstars plus or at least something like that to add more playable characters but i guess sega just doesn't want to do that. Even shadow generations, which barely got any post launch support, at least got the tokyo level, which is actual new content. Superstars just got skins that you can't even get anymore. Did sega really think a fucking ihop promotion would extend this game's longevity?

 

Definitely. Game practically begged for fun cosmetics to unlock with coins and such that you naturally seek to unlock as you play and replay the game, yet the only cosmetics you can unlock can’t even be used in the base game?

 

This is not the type of game that lends itself to live service expansion, in my opinion. If they wanted to charge me like $7 for Mighty and Ray I'd think about it, but I can't see them adding more content to the game other than that. New levels? That would be fairly out of character for the series. Alternate forms of levels? We already have Trip's story and a lot of people here don't like it.