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

Music sounding pretty good. Sonic Superstars RULES! Mario stinks!

 

Judging from the trailer the Switch version will be 60fps in single player, 30fps in 4-player. There's only a tiny clip of 2-player (tails carrying knuckles during a boss) but also maybe looked 60fps?

Either way glad it's not 30fps across the board like most 3D graphics based Sonic games on the Switch (even the origins island was 30).

 

I’m just happy we’re getting a brand new 2D entry in both series. And by brand new I mean NEW new. Not something like New Super Mario Bros. which felt like the same game four times over (and even the original felt pretty boilerplate), or a lame retro cash-in like Sonic 4. Even games like Generations and Mania, while excellent, felt held back by being deliberate nostalgic throwbacks, whereas all of Superstars feels fresh and exciting.

Now clearly Sega just needs to do an HD facelift of Sonic Chronicles to compete with Mario RPG

 

or a remake of Sonic Adventure since it was originally codenamed Sonic RPG at one point :P

 

It's just as long as Mania zone-wise, and unlike Mania these are all going to be original levels. Wow. I can't wait till this game comes out.

 

We really did end up getting our Mania 2 with all new original zones, didn't we?
This is the best timeline, haha

 

I'll give my one nitpick here, and that's the aesthetic of the level design still isn't quite what I love visually, with so much of it being thin, rail like platforms like you'd see in Stardust Speedway.

However, that nitpick is minor because honestly? The reason it looks this way is because they've designed the stages like this for gameplay reasons, and the levels look varied as heck with a lot of paths/options... which is itself a fundamental part of he classic charm. And the gameplay mechanics actually look quite clever and intuitive, so if some of the classic aesthetic is taking a backseat to enhance the gameplay? That's hardly the worst thing to complain about.

I'm still in the camp that would've loved a sprite-based game, but I'll let it go. I also didn't want Mania 2 (as in recycled levels again) per-se either, so this is close enough. Between Frontiers (which isn't perfect, but was undoubtedly a massive success and I had a lot of fun with it) and this, the Sonic 06/Sonic 4 Episode I days appear to be truly behind us. Sonic's officially in a new golden age now. I'm saying it. And even with flaws, I haven't seen the character be this popular since the 90s?

The adventure kids, jaded classic adults, and general weeb/gamer population is finally coming together to give the brand the recognition it deserves again. Sonic is now a popular shounen hero that fits well into both the mainstream comic/anime and gamer culture now and I'm here for it. And I'm seeing more people willing to defend the 2000s titles they grew up with too, even if they aren't my favorite, and I welcome that.

 

You know, sometimes being a Sonic fan is a hit or miss, but when it hits, it HITS hard.

The new stages looks so great.

 

I need this game in my veins

 

We've got lots of talented modders of SA1, 2 and Heroes at this point. If they really wanted to keep the Origins momentum going, grabbing a bunch of them for an Adventure collection would be the best idea. maybe they could even fix Shadow

 

I am willing to bet that Sega will do some sort of Adventure-era rerelease to coincide with the release of the 3rd movie. Either a digital release of Sonic Heroes or a physical collection of SA1/SA2/(and maybe)Heroes.

 

Man, I actually think that Switch footage looked rough. Low resolution and full of aliasing/shimmering, and combined with the excessive rim lighting, those issues are even more noticeable than they'd normally be.

 

No, it isn't. The Switch isn't as weak as everyone's making it out to be. Blame the programmers, not the hardware.

 

Sonic Superstars is going to be the GOTY, calling it right now.

 

I'm still not convinced by the level design. I think matching 3&K and Mania would be pretty tough to do.

 

yeah if they ever do another re-release of Adventure 1 & 2 I really hope they work with the people behind the mods, that'd be a dream scenario imho

 

If they ever do that they better fix the goshdarn rail grinding already. I don't think even mods fixed that one yet.

 

I'm liking everything so far - except my only hesitation is with the aesthetics of the levels...

The first Zone appears to be excellent, and sort of vaporwave-esque like I have been campaigning for all this while, however the forest level is a bit more "meh" (so far at least), and now this third zone is looking even more underwhelming. I know for a lot of players that won't matter, but for me the aesthetics are a critical aspect of "Classic". Mania did it correctly, and I'm open to the 2.5D portrayal, but they need to get that Classic aesthetic correct for me to be fully satisfied. I'm optimistic though, because it looks like a "carnival" zone, so I have to assume it is generally much more dynamic and detailed than those screenshots convey.

 

After watching the footage outside of the screenshots I absolutely love what I see. I also think the background music (if that's music from the game) is nice, sounds like something you'd hear if Sonic had a Saturn. I'll reserve more music judgement until I hear more but it's not bad!

The sense of speed also looks great, this is a much better trailer than the announcement (but I get why the announcement was what it was)

Very excited now!