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

Classic and Modern were considered separate continuities for a while (though it was never really clear whether Generations itself caused that), but they're not separate in the current canon.

If I were writing, I'd say that the abilities of the chaos emeralds conform to the environment they're in, or that areas with higher energy density or particularly reactive environments can bring different results out of the gems themselves. Just give people a reason to ignore it, don't even need to put it in the game, this series is not that deep.

 

It was THAT bad back then?

 

Well obviously the Sonic 4 music is a placeholder, but it's also a bad omen, as is the use of Sonic 4 style music for new tracks in Origins Sonic 3 - it says to me that Sega still somehow think this kind of music is acceptable. They could've easily used CD or Mania music for placeholders if they wanted.

 

How is IGN picking random music a bad omen for the game's soundtrack? Why does the music that won't be in the game matter?

 

It is an odd choice. I wonder if the use of Sonic 4 music as a placeholder might have been influenced by the game being showcased with Origins fresh on the public's mind? Genesis-esque music when a majority of the games in Origins were limited to the Genesis soundchip. Not that I entirely disagree with the statement made, but it would make the most sense to me.

 

I thought it had some been established that the uploader added the music themselves? SEGA seem to have a thing for recording B-roll footage without music, and then handing it around to journalists sometimes without putting the music back in. I can't remember when exactly, but it's definitely happened before. The Classic Sonic gameplay debut footage for Forces was one such case where they actually did overlay the music, but did it wrong so the music actually starts late and there's a spike in volume when it's supposed to loop (1:28). They later uploaded the footage to their own YT channel and corrected these mistakes.

Either way, we can comfortably conclude that the S4E2 music will not be recycled in Superstars. Now they might go with that same style, because the Superstars Act 1 boss music is seemingly brand new, but that's another story.

Fun fact: Generations 3DS actually does recycle existing music verbatim. Tropical Resort 1 is identical to the Wii original, and Water Palace 1 is straight from the Original Groove Rush OST. Not that either of these cases really count as such, but just a little nugget of trivia.

The Act 1 boss music the Superstars footage is brand new, isn't it? The level music itself is White Park 2 and the Act 2 music is the S4E2 boss music with one channel muted or entire rearranged. But the Act 1 track is something we've never heard before. If it didn't come from Superstars, where did it come from and how did the uploader get something that sounds so authentic to S4E2? That's what confuses me.

 

I use "placeholder" but yeah, "added in post" is much more accurate.

The boss musics are interesting because they are original, but they also are added in post (when the mid boss shows up, there's not even sound effects). Perhaps IGN Japan somehow got unused music? I doubt that.

 

Sonic 4 basically sandwiched Generations with its both episodes, yet Gens music had no impact from 4's style at all. There's nothing stopping them from trying to make the same style of music of course, but at this point we might as well be worried that your console won't launch the disc at you so Sonic can jump out of it and steal all of your life savings just because you could play Sonic Generations in 3D

Jokes aside, I get the concern... well, kind of. But unlike the gameplay discussion that happened before, I don't think there's any point in worrying about the game's music until we actually hear it for ourselves

 

Well, they did use S4e1 super theme in Gens...

 

Holy fuck I always forget about this, and it's always hilarious to remember lol

 

Acksually it's Sonic 4's Invincibility theme

It's also remixed with instruments that don't sound like butt (though honestly, the original isn't bad)

 

Not gonna lie; it would be really funny if Sega just accidentally released an entirely unused sonic 4 track cause they needed a placeholder for Press but couldn’t be bothered to remember or check if what they pulled from their bank had actually been used back then or not

 

It would be even funnier if nobody was sure if the song was actually unused for years because no sane person remember most of Sonic 4's soundtrack

 

I remember Sonic 4's soundtrack



(I occassionally put Turret3471's Sonic 4 Genesis project on autoplay)

But yeah, I'm definitely sure if that is from Sonic 4, it's unused

 

Well shoot. That shows my familiarity with most of Sonic 4's soundtrack if I just lumped that in with the others...I'll fully admit to never fully completing neither Episode 1 or 2.

Then yeah, perhaps this does suggest a faux-Genesis soundtrack is being considered? It does seem very odd to me if it was actually some sort of rejected track from those titles and it was given to IGN. If that is the case though, then that's a fun little bit of tidbit to ponder over after the game is released.

Again, I genuinely think some of Sonic 4's soundtrack is actually quite decent from the tracks that do come to mind. I think it's the messy soundfont that can hurt some of the melodies, and it's a bit upsetting if they're being asked to 'hey do a song with this' instead of being able to do whatever. I'm hoping the sound team is given more freedom to do what they want.

Regardless, the title does seem very promising in pretty much every other department!

 

Regarding explaining the Emerald powers: Just don't. There's no need to over-complicate things and for SEGA to write themselves into a corner. The Emeralds give powers because that's just what they do this time around. We never needed to have plot reasons for parkour, or Thunder Shoot, or the Lightspeed Dash. If the powers are fun, that's enough for me. Not only would writing an explanation for them risk contradictions with later games in the timeline, it could potentially hurt future releases if they want to use the powers again and have to establish why it's possible every time.

 

Oh, I never noticed Act 2's boss theme is Episode II's, @Blue Blood

 

Oh, something else I noticed (and I can't seem to find the timestamp) in the Speed Jungle footage is this one section where Sonic skids just as he's running off a cliff and falling far down, but surprisingly he remains in the skid animation while falling. I doubt that kind of thing is an intentional part of "re-creating classic Sonic physics", but I thought it was funny you can actually do that again.

Also re: Sonic 4's soundtrack, there's a couple of tracks that I thought were pretty memorable! Splash Hill Act 3 (?) and Wing Fortress Clone Act 2 or whatever it's called from Episode 2 come to mind, I think those would sound great with proper instrumentation.

 

Super Sonic can create energy projections in Frontiers simillar to this "Avatar" power, so it's not like they can't just say the Chaos Emeralds here are more powerful for whatever reason

 

Love what I've seen so far! Not a fan of the game's title, though. For some reason I keep forgetting it... every time I want to look up videos or news I have to stop for a few seconds and go "what was the game's name again?" before I can proceed.