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

Yeah, like that! Although I remember the Hidden Islands being really short and pretty lame LOL, I always appreciated how much content was packed into that game.

With all these different collectibles (coins, fruits, and there seems to be a big emphasis on rings), I'd be surprised if you don't get SOMETHING for them. But it's a bit of a pipe dream for sure.

 

I don't think that's a good comparison. Sonic Mania was a budget title with tons of reused assets, while Sonic Origins Plus is an overpriced budget compilation with little care put into it.

 

While I was looking at the footage, what stood out to me is that there's a ground speed cap for running, which is most evident after he hits a booster. You can see it in situations like this: when Sonic comes out of his roll and is forced into his run animation, he suddenly slows down to a running speed instead of conserving his speed from the booster. It's been a hot minute since I've played the originals, so this might be accurate - but it looks kinda awful.

 

I’m also looking forward to what modders do. In terms of level mods, I’d be interested to see folks mod in levels from 4 episode 2. I’m honestly curious if that game’s level design would work with better physics. I can also see folks reimagining Color’s 2D sections, with the wisps replaced by the new chaos abilities

I’m sure we’ll also see skins and music packs but I am curious if modders will remove the ground speed cap (if one is implemented to maintain balance for co-op). I’m also curious how long it will take for people to create custom abilities for characters. All of this greatly depends on what engine this is running on

 

Nah, it's because he's run through a bush. Bushes are a "gimmick" that truncate his speed, cancel roll and (occasionally?) put bombs on him (just like bushes in Ristar) that he has to get rid of.
You can see that happening all throughout the stage

 

Less zones, more battle modes. That's my motto.

Same tbh. They're a slog to playthrough and I just want the game to be over by a certain point. I find it far more painful to get through Mania though because a lot of the level layouts are downright mediocre.

 

I saw Fang.

Me happy.

 

Is this because it displays Zone 5 and the scroll bar is about halfway down? If it's just that and nothing else, I think estimating 10 zones is being too hasty. The debug selection could have 7 slots for Special Stages, slots for Bonus Stages, a slot for a Super Sonic boss, slots for Online Battle stages (depending on what they are), slots for "Encore Mode" versions of zones.

I'm leaning towards 7 or 8. Aside from Mania, recent games have only used the 7 animal friends from Sonic 1. And if there's a giant animal in each zone, then that's 7 zones and maybe a final zone after that.

 

Sonic slows down because of the bush, not a speed cap.

 

I wouldn't say that's halfway down at 5, looks like less to me. But also, scroll bars like that can basically amount to anything depending on how far you make them move with the selection. I don't think it' is a good way to judge how many stages are in the game, nor am I confident in judging based on the animals.

More than that though, is that the game does not need to have an absurdly-long campaign to justify its price tag, it just need to A. Be good and B. Have a variety of content that justifies playing the levels it does have in different ways. Make a bunch of Origins-style missions, add an encore mode, a mirror mode. We've got four characters and a time attack, there are plenty of things that could expand what is here no matter how many stages it has. Hell, I have no idea why DLC characters are not a consistent day-1 assumption for new Sonic platformers, since this character design is Sonic's greatest strength and we have a billion to choose from.

That said...I'm fairly confident that if they bothered to make the game feel so much like classic Sonic in the first place, they're not going to make it absurdly short. Even Forces had more stages than the awful pre-release cycle implied.

 

If the game allows for it, I wonder what multiplayer will be like in Switch wireless. Would love to see the return of Advance 3/Kirby and the Amazing Mirror/Dragon Quest IX style of co-op where players can traverse and play independent of one another.

 

Speaking of co-op, if there really are character-exclusive acts, how will that work with multiplayer? I was imagining that the exclusive acts would be tuned around each character's unique abilities but that doesn't really seem possible with multiplayer.

 

I wonder how the Co-Op works, I hope not like in classic games.

 

It could be like the Disney game World of Illusion on the Mega Drive - in that game, various levels have character-specific sections depending on whether you're playing as Mickey or Donald, but in a co-op game they're replaced with co-op specific sections instead.

 

If you've played New Super Mario Bros. Wii/U or the Retro Studios Donkey Kong Country games, that's what I'd expect co-op to be like in Superstars.

 

I feel like there are more potential difficulties with those implementations due to the variety of paths and how easy it'd be for players to fall down to them. It'd be stifling if you had to bubble or lose visibility due to dropping lower or going higher than P1, but it'd also be frustrating to just get killed instead- though the lack of lives means it would be meaningless, and it makes me wonder if you just get dropped right back in without consequence. Short of that, the skill floor of engagement gets bumped up with the pace and the level design without some other considerations, which is why co-op is something I'm curious to see shown off.

I don't even have certainty that the debug menu represents a full Act list to begin with, so I'm good to wait and see as we approach launch.

 

I did another physics comparison for those who are interested, the jump:
https://twitter.com/SonicPhysics/status/1668229453250543616

Jump is quite accurate and lasts the same amount of time (but may be a little taller, closer to like it is in Mania). Also shows that the camera works a little bit differently, main difference being that Sonic doesn't pass the centre of the screen when falling.

I'm certain that all of this is a brand new recreation (as opposed to "using" the Mania's framework as a base somehow, as has been speculated), and a really good one too.

 

Thanks for these comparisons - it's good to see the physics are looking so on-point so far. Although it looks to be a new recreation, the jump height being slightly higher like in Mania makes me wonder if they used that game specifically as their point of comparison when trying to recreate the classic gameplay feel in Superstars. As the most 'modern' 2D classic Sonic game prior to now, it would make a certain sort of sense.

 

Is it wrong that he's still Nack to me, guys?

Can Fang be classic Sonic's snappy (silent?) nickname for the guy?

"Hey look, it's a giant talking Fang!"

 

I've always headcannon'd that his real name is Nack the Weasel, but in the crime world he's known as Fang the Sniper, and he's adopted the name.

To me it makes sense since "the Weasel" is his species, which is what most characters use in their names. "The Sniper" is a profession, so that title would be more descriptive of what he does than his legal name.

You could say Bean the Dynamite is doing the same thing, and we just don't know if his real first name is "Bean" or not. He could be "Bean the Duck".