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

Oh yeah for sure, it's rather a shame that detail is being missed both officially and in fan works.

I've just booted up Sonic Mania to double-check, and indeed there are 2 different Drop Dash trigger sound effects. In Sonic Mania, if you hold an input to initiate a Drop Dash in the air but let go of that button before it can execute on a surface, you get the ting sound variation. If you keep an input held and successfully pull off a Drop Dash on a surface, that ting sound is absent.

 

This is just because the sound effect gets cut off if you successfully execute a Drop Dash. There is only one sound effect, and if you take too long to execute the move you'll hear the "ping" noise.

E: Even more new gameplay courtesy of SEGA Asia. Timestamp 17:45. Doesn't seem to be anything we haven't seen before, but just in case.

 

Ah, fair; yeah that makes sense.

This got me curious, so I checked some other fan games: Sonic 1 Forever uses the audio implementation like Sonic Mania, whereas Sonic 3 A.I.R. and Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit both don't include the tink sound at all.

 

Welp, they're still using White Park Act 2 song in Speed Jungle Zone. Guess we'll just wait to SEGA officialy upload the songs. I still think Bridge Island (Act 1) theme is a banger by the way.

 

twitter user @SAWhane25 noticed that sonic can parkour vault over small obstacles, which seems really cool!

you can see it in motion at the 19:52 minute mark in the SEGA Asia video

 

Just a quick note - this appears to be our first full gameplay video from the Switch port of Superstars! The biggest giveaway is that the resolution is noticeably lower than other footage of the game - elements like the depth blurring in the background being missing/reduced, and detail being lowered on the destructible elements during the boss battle, are also consistent with the clips and screenshots we've seen of the Switch version so far. In all, this is encouraging as it looks like the game runs smoothly with no noticeable issues - a good first impression overall. Pleasing to see, as I'll admit I'd already caved and pre-ordered the Switch version a few days back, haha! ; )

The Speed Jungle segment appears to be the exact same B-roll footage we've already seen - you can tell it's not footage from the same play session as the Bridge Island footage as the resolution is noticeably higher than the previous segment, and the depth blurring etc. is much more pronounced, consistent with the footage of the PC version seen in the initial announcement trailer. The hosts are also no longer holding a controller, which is perhaps the biggest giveaway that this segment is pre-recorded footage.

And yes, got to admit, the more I hear it the more the Bridge Island theme grows on me. I still think the lead instrument sounds oddly like something from Mario Kart DS, but it's overall less simplistic than the poorly isolated copy made it sound initially. = )

 

I know samples of SuperStars themes appeared on Twitter, but...
Which samples where of which themes? Zones? Special Stage?

 

As far as I'm aware, the best rips we have so far are the ones I linked to a while back:

In order, unless I'm mistaken the tracks are as follows:

• Menu theme(?)
• Bridge Island Zone Act 1
• Special Stage
• The music used in the Nintendo Direct trailer (likely Speed Jungle Zone Act 1 or 2)

 

I've grown a bit more fond of the music for Bridge Island Zone. It's more on the melody-centric side of things, similar to Sonic 1 and 2 - a strong, distinct, "safe" lead melody using only one or two instruments. It's upbeat and happy. Sonic 3K and Mania on the other hand like to jump between multiple instruments, and their main melody is either not as immediately distinct, or more experimental.

I'm still confounded at the decision to use Sonic 4-style instrumentation for the boss themes, but I'm glad the soundtrack will be at least good. The fact that the soundtrack is my least favorite part of the game so far, while still being good, speaks volumes of this game's potential quality.

 

Yasuhara is hanging out with Ohshima

 

I rechecked the footage, and there's quite a bit to iron out. Sonic doesn't have a proper transitional animation: He is running with his feet on the ground in one frame, and in the next he's posing with his hands on top of that rock. It needs a lot more polish.

But all in all, this does not feel like parkour. This feels more like a landmark of some sort, or like a switch or some specific gimmick that results in the animation we saw (which then again, needs more work). Like the character is signaling he did something. There's no huge benefit here; nothing that wouldn't have been done better with a jump. And the animation does not even seem to benefit the player in any way, in terms of momentum.

 

I can imagine this as some kind of obstacle that stops Sonic like a normal rock if he's curled, but lets him parkour over it if he's running, functionally a breakable rock in reverse. No idea if that's the way it is, but it'd make it interesting as a catch for people who automatically try to spin/dropdash through everything.

 

I can only hope you can jump out of this animation. It'd be super annoying if he does that every time you're close to a rock (while at full speed)

On the other hand, it could be cool, If there are many rocks with different heights and Sonic climbs them automatically by pressing right+jump

 

Yes yes, something like that. The question then would be more along the lines of whether this could be then considered "parkour" as it is normally understood in gaming, and not just a simple pre-determined animation that gets activated when passing through said obstacle. If this is the case, then this is nothing new. We've had that going all the way back to the classics (and executed without any jank in these)

 

Oh, true, it absolutely looks like something Sonic does, not you. I can't imagine them incorporating parkour as a moveset in this game.

 

It be cool if you time a jump input right, you would get a higher than normal jump. That's something that has never been done be-



Fuck

 

Really don't think it's gonna be an in-depth mechanic. So far we've only seen it occur with that one smaller lip and not with full-sized rocks or ledges anywhere in the stages. It just looks like something they threw in to be cute for the sake of spicing up the Magical Liopleurodon chase, imo. The animation is super jank but it's a nice touch.

 

I just hope that all these new mechanics (emerald powers on top of stage-specific mechanics like that pixel octopus section) don't overcomplicate the level design. I feel like I'm seeing an inkling of a kitchen sink approach to the level designs here.

It's one thing to have a few level gimmicks that repeatedly show up in a zone. But in the first zone we have this parkour rock, and those floating quarter-circle launchers, and that 360-degree pole spin thing, wall running sections, climbing waterfalls, the layer swap gimmick... that's a lot of different mechanics for one zone.

I'm not ready to say it's too much, because it's not dramatically different from your average level in the Genesis titles... But I'm a little nervous.

 

If replay value is being incentivized here, it could just be to give low attention span zoomers a lot to chew on for multiple playthroughs. As long as you don't have to engage with every gimmick on every path I think it could work well for all players but yeah the inverse would be a mini dealbreaker for me.

 

Vaulting over a rock is hardly a level gimmick: that seems like something you can do in every level. The same applies for the background swap, which is barely a gameplay element at all and appears in Speed Jungle Zone. Climbing waterfalls is explicitly tied to the Emerald Powers; it'd be weirder if this WAS the only level that had the gimmick.

The only gimmicks unique to the level for the level is the launchers, the 360 poles, and wall-running, which are all generally for the purpose of giving Sonic unique ways to get to higher locations, in a level generally being very vertical and open.

For reference, Angel Island Zone had swings, ziplines, breakable floors, waterfall platforms, the entire zone being on fire and some platforms falling apart, those weird bridges that spin. I'd mention things like water draining or that tree you can run up but those are general. Compared to that, Bridge Island Zone is pedestrian.

Sonic levels always had an abundance of gimmicks. If you want levels with only one or two gimmicks, play Mario, a slower, more precise game that gets more out of those gimmicks. But for Sonic, you need a variety of gimmicks to make the levels stand out, since you're going to be running quickly through all of them.