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

Idk what game's slope physics they might be trying to emulate, I tested a close enough scenario in Sonic Studio (my fan game) which is emulating the Sonic 3 slope slipping method and got this.

Not too far off, if even off at all imo. If this had some of the Sonic 1 rules, I'd be able to have stood still when I stopped.
Obviously take it with a grain of salt you if like, being a fangame and not a perfect reconstruction of the stage. And who knows what their inputs were.

I don't think they ported Mania's physics code, there'll be minor differences all over, but I think they've really nailed a lot.

 

People are so accustomed to being mad over stupid things that they are now actively looking for things to be mad about because they can’t see them at first glance

 

Can always count on a new 2D game causing a regurgitation of Sonic 4 opinions.

 

It's also possible that any differences in the physics are design choices, this is going to support 4 players at a time I'd expect some differences. Either way I don't think that this really tells us much about the quality of the game. I don't care if it isn't accurate exactly to the classic games I I just want the game to be fun.

 

So many opinions I've seen are literally seeing one thing and making the most knee-jerk, negative take.

2D game with 3D graphics? It's Sonic 4 (ironically, the same people fail to recognize when something is LITERALLY from Sonic 4)!

Boosters in a loop? The game is automated and the physics don't work!

Only 5 zones on the level select screen? There's only 5 zones in the entire game! Yes, I've heard this take

 

God forbid if people discuss things in a discussion board

 

Thinking about it, the Nintendo Switch would typically be the best place to play one of these classic -or classic styled- 2D Sonic games thanks to native access to two controllers. Despite that, the power wheel makes me wonder if single Joy-Con play will be a feature for this entry. I can imagine that minimum function option might be available for that controller configuration in cycling linearly between powers with the shoulder buttons. Using the analog stick to make a selection may still work, but it'll either mean the game would have to pause during selection or that the player character would just act as though you've stopped inputting a direction. With the co-op focus, I doubt any solution that involves stoppage would come up.

Then there's power swapping during co-op itself. I wonder if each quarter of the screen will get a corresponding assignment for each player when they pull up their wheel, if it'll just appear on center for anyone who uses it (which might prevent simultaneous use), if it'll be shrunk and tracking each character, or if it'll be something only player 1 has access to.

I think that it'll be interesting to see how co-op comes together as a result/in terms of these things as more footage and details come along.

 

Fadel mentioned the music sounded "TEE LOPESLY", but I'm not so sure if he even knew it was Sonic 4: Episode II music.

 

The actual floor demos are likely different from IGN's direct feed.

And this isn't just me talking about quality, but Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue sound very different. Hard to confuse the two.

 

I didn't know it was Sonic 4 music either tbf, I just assumed it was the instrumentation they were going for and I never touched Episode 2.

Its been over ten years. I'm not surprised one but nobody outside of this place really talks about Sonic 4 much. Everyone more or less forgot it existed.

 

Nobody is IGNORING logic, they're USING logic based on Sega's past fuck-ups, and have every right to do so.

 

Sonic 4 is like the ultimate uncanny valley of mid. It's not broken enough to be a novel conversation piece about dev struggles but it's also not good enough to put alongside any of the games people really care about. And most importantly, the artistic and presentational efforts of both games (more ep1 than 2, which is ok) are so unremarkable that it doesn't have any iconography to inspire others. So it only really comes up when something forces it to. Like, Chaotix is a more braindead game, but it also looks and sounds like nothing else in the series. 06 is busted, but it also has tons of mechanics the games never tried again and was the last attempt at Adventure-style gameplay until sort of Frontiers. Rise of Lyric is bland, but is so clearly missing giant chunks that it's interesting to speculate about and to discuss the nightmare development process. Sonic 4 doesn't have any of that. The games came out, you can play them without much interruption from beginning to end...and then you'll stand up and do something else. They make me feel very little. A couple parts were fun sometimes, I guess.

SEGA hasn't done much to set a precedent of straight reusing level themes or game OSTs, though. And certainly not Sonic 4 episode 2 of all games.

 

Logic dictates that they would not reuse music because they haven't done that for any game since Pocket Adventure. Not Frontiers, not Forces, not even Sonic 4. Remixes? Sure. Mania remixed a bunch of songs. Not a single one of them are literally borrowed.

Frontiers reused whole level assets and design and STILL did not reuse music.

What logic is there in "this clearly obvious placeholder is actually the soundtrack because Sonic 4 sucked"?

"But Sega made mistakes before" is an obnoxious crutch. They call that a thought terminating cliche.

 

I'm actually decently enthusiastic about this. Similar to thoughts echo'd above, this actually seems like it's trying to 'evolve' the Classic 2D formula in a way that...seems and feels pretty fresh? I dunno how to quite put it into words, but stuff like co-op and Emerald Powers are pretty interesting to me in the same way Sonic 4 Episode 2's 'Team Mechanics' were.

Sonic Mania is a great title, but it very much felt like a 'Sonic 3K & More' to me. It stuck very close to the gameplay mechanics and progression 3K introduced. Mania's only major additions being Mighty & Ray/Encore Mode in the Plus DLC (and truthfully I found Ray to be the only really cool addition to Mania). This seems like it's trying to do a bit more to shake both the gameplay mechanics and progression up? It very much feels like Sega's answer to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, or Return to Dreamland. That's something I actually kinda wanted from a 'new 2D Sonic' without really realizing it! A cute little co-op adventure, which might be fun with the fiance.

The physics don't have to be 1-to-1, but I'm extremely happy with what I'm seeing in the Japanese IGN footage! It looks pretty good and the level design seems decently expansive. I am hoping we see more of co-op since I'm super curious as to how that would work in action. The 'ring block pulley' mechanic had me scratching my head until I realized that was very likely designed with co-op in mind.

Also happy to see Fang back. I thought he was a pretty fun secondary character you can easily have switch sides whenever, or just give him alternative motives from Eggman. Really fun design with the popgun/gadgetry, and the little intermissions with the new character are cute and give me hope they'll be doing a fair amount with him. Really curious what they're going to do with him boss fight-wise. Praying he's playable since fangames have spoiled me (SRB2 had a super fun idea with the pogo tail), but I realize I should probably limit my expectations and just expect a boss fight.

Really my only concerns are about the music and stage design. There's a fair amount of discussion I'm seeing here that seems to suggest the Sonic 4 stuff might be a placeholder. Not that it's a huge deal if we do get some faux-Genesis tunes, but yeah the soundfont used can leave a bit to be desired to some otherwise pretty good melodies (I stand by Splash Hill actually sounding pretty good). I'm hoping the composers on the project aren't limited to that since Mania kinda broke away from the trend. The stage design also seems to flow a bit less fluently than something like 3K/Mania with a lack of ramps, but it still seems very expansive and fun regardless. I also imagine it might be done to make co-op work a bit better? I'm not quite sure how to describe the stage design otherwise, but perhaps I'm simply trying too hard to nitpick here.

Pretty excited! I don't think anything can quite beat how good Mania felt to me, but at the same time this seems like an exciting step forward. Really I'm praying this is the closest we'll ever get to an official 'Sonic Advance 4' at the very least. Something that isn't quite trying to call itself a followup to Sonic 3, but doing it's own thing with unique mechanics.

What's also amusing to me is that a ROM hack for Sonic 1 and 2 popped up a little while ago with a similar concept of the Emeralds giving the player abilities for obtaining them. I think it's a nicer incentive to go for the Emeralds outside of 'oh golly I don't want that Bad Ending':

 

That’s true. I only think a few people can deliver as well and I’m always overly critical about 2d sonic but for example a YouTuber was disappointed about the announcement of Sonic Superstars being a classic Sonic game instead of being a Modern Sonic 2D game when we already have Sonic Frontiers. There hasn’t been a classic Sonic game in 5 years. Then he follows that with saying “Modern Sonic is cooler.” This is a popular young YouTuber that makes really good content.

 

I'm intrigued by these new powers from the Chaos Emeralds.

Is this something to do with the island itself? Like, the Chaos Emeralds in this Northstar Island give powers, but not outside it? This would limit creativity for the next games. At the same time, they had never given powers before, and most of the games in the franchise happen after Superstars in the timeline.

 

I didn't pay much attention, but the Generations, Forces, and Mania classic Sonic split may have a sort of divergence, meaning that the Superstars game represents a sort of different experience for the characters. That can easily justify new things happening back then when they wouldn't (or have not yet happened) in the Modern era releases. It also allows things like that to be introduced fully and in detail without contradiction of note in Modern/3D entries and vice-versa.

 

Fadel had played both Sonic 4 Episode I and II recently (about a month ago) on his YouTube channel, so I'm sure he knows what Sonic 4 music sounds like. He's a pretty big Sonic fan, and the majority of his content is Sonic related, so I don't understand why people are immediately ignoring his word.
Also imo it makes no sense why they would reuse Sonic 4's soundtrack when they pretty much never did this (besides Pocket Adventure).