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

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by DefinitiveDubs, Jun 8, 2023.

  1. Iggy for Short

    Iggy for Short

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    I would've much rather the budget be spent on smoother-looking animation than shoving fancy lighting everywhere. Sonic's kind of literally about movement, conveying that should be more important than making everything glow. Even the choreography for Sonic's and Amy's attacks felt off.

    I don't remember any of the other Hesse animations feeling choppy like this. I wonder what went differently this time.
     
  2. Beamer the Meep

    Beamer the Meep

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    Mania Adventures seems to be using a mixture of 2s and 1s, Frontiers Divergence is the same but leaning more towards 2s. With Frontiers Divergence though, especially the Knuckles gliding scene, they composite the drawn frames in a way that the same drawing will have a different position between one frame and the next. In this way I don't think Superstars' intro is all that different, it's more that they try to do too much action with so few frames which reduces readability. That has to be a budget or time issue of some kind in my opinion.

    That said, I don't hate the animation, it serves its purpose well. Whether or not it's animated on 1s or 2s is a rather nitpicky animation thing on my end being a former student of animation lol.
     
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  3. JackBz

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    It's a fine animation, but a definite step down from mania (and both are lightyears behind Sonic CD). The shot of Sonic's feet running at the start is the only bit that looks noticeably choppy to me, but the more dynamic camera movement is interesting at least.

    It's got extreme anime opening titles vibes, especially that freeze frame.
     
  4. big smile

    big smile

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    The animation is lovely, but I feel they are wasting Hesse's talent by limiting him to just doing these sorts of "attract mode" animations. You can only do these in so many ways, before they become stale. I wish they'd let Hesse make animations for the in game cut scenes, so his work could tell a story. I think that would work so much better and would be an excellent use of his skills.
     
  5. Blue Blood

    Blue Blood

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    Amen.

    This animation would have been 10/10 had it been the first one we'd seen, just as Mania's was. But it several games and animations in, decidedly run of the mill now. It's basically the Mania trailer/Mania intro/Origins intro/Origins outro again, with a new skin. I wish that the animated intro served a narrative purpose, because I feel like I've seen this exact same animation before.
     
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  6. Adamis

    Adamis

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    Do we know if it's just the opening (before the title screen) that, when the player starts a new game, would be followed by another animation, setting the story ? A bit like Origins' Anniversary mode...
     
  7. Blue Blood

    Blue Blood

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    This is the same animation that played when the title screen was left idle at Summer Games Fest. Different, in-engine animations played for each of the main characters after the character select screen before the first level started.
     
  8. shilz

    shilz

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    I have to disagree - I think it's a step down through and through. I'm not even a big fan of most of the other animations they've done since Mania, but like, nothing interesting happens in the video, the choppiness (if that is the intended way to view it) is fairly annoying, and the music doesn't even really match up, which is the one thing I'd expect out of an animation like this.
     
  9. McAleeCh

    McAleeCh

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    I like the idea, but the execution lacks the smoothness of Mania and its sense of timing - this looks like it's pretty much all animated on 2s, and the movements feel a little lacking in weight and impact.

    The camera work in the final shot also seems to be a little overambitious compared to the execution - there's a noticeable jump in the background art when switching from the detailed zoom out of Eggman to the shot of the three antagonists together, which breaks the intended illusion that it's all one continuous shot.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2023
  10. DigitalDuck

    DigitalDuck

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    The animation looks nice but it feels disjointed from a direction standpoint.

    Mania's intro showed the trio investigating a weird abstract world with portals to different zones (classic and new) and each scene lead into the next one; it introduced what the game was about and told its own little story. Sonic CD's intro was similar, Sonic sees a mysterious planet chained to the ground and runs to liberate it. Simple, introduces the game, tells the story.

    This one has Sonic accidentally run off a cliff for some reason so Tails can save him, and then cut to Knuckles and Amy who are doing something completely different and then suddenly Sonic and Tails are there again. Sonic does his emerald clone thing and then there's another cut to Eggman and friends and the clones are gone again. Some of the story is told but it mostly just feels like "Sonic and friends doing stuff".

    Admittedly there probably isn't much you could really do to make it interesting, but perhaps the solution to that is to ask whether the game needs an animated intro.
     
  11. jubbalub

    jubbalub

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    Tyson Hesse:

    https://twitter.com/tyson_hesse/status/1681660703520747520
     
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  12. Sweet, I will feel much better saying how much I don’t like it now that I know @Boxer Hockey was not the one behind it haha.

    I very much dislike it. There’s no story to it, the animation is choppy, the lighting and shading make it look like a colored animatic, etc. The music also meanders a bit too much for something this short.

    It’s by far the worst I’ve seen from the current “Mania and after” animation style, and is a far, far cry from what we got in CD which has never been matched by a Sonic OP.

    Maybe it’ll grow on me, but neither CD, Mania, Mania Adventures, or even Origins’ animations had to do that.

    Edit: This is all relative. If I saw an animation like this in a Sonic game back in 2010, I’d have been floored. It just feels like a step down.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2023
  13. Crimson Neo

    Crimson Neo

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    At least he's still cooking more stuff:
    [​IMG]

    Edit: Even knowing the flaws of the opening, I still think it is good, in my opinion.
     
  14. Snub-n0zeMunkey

    Snub-n0zeMunkey

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    okay after watching it again, I definitely see where a lot of the critiques are coming from. Definitely a bit rough in places (probably the strangest example is when sonic looks as if he gets two right hands for a few frames lol). I wouldn't call it outright bad at all though, it has a lot of charm and the character expressions are nice. It's charming in spite of the perceived flaws.

    I think it's cool that this is the first non-marza, 2D animated sonic thing done in Japan since the Sonic Riders intro. Hope it leads to more in the future.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2023
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  15. milo

    milo

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    Love the intro! It's very "saturday morning cartoon" style to me. Don't get where people are saying it's choppy. it's just traditionally animated, not all "120fps 4k" like people are used to these days. I find it kind of refreshing. Definitely not as clean as the Mania stuff, but I think it's just a style choice. The colors and shading are bit more gritty and I dig it.

    Love the part where Tails catches Sonic on the wing of the plane and the way his weight shifts the plane a little bit as he lands. That's some fun attention to detail.
     
  16. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    This is better left to someone more qualified, but neither the Superstars or Origins cutscenes have a fixed frame rate for animations. Camera motions are usually smooth in Origins... but they're not as smooth in Superstars. Combined with more horizontal movement from the characters, I think that's the source of the relative choppiness. And yes I noticed it too.

    It's not super unusual for intros to not tell stories - in Yakuza they give you a vertical slice of what to expect in the main game, which yeah, is kinda pointless, but at least Superstars doesn't just recycle future cutscenes and gameplay footage. It may have also been commissioned before they had a proper plan (as in, more than "4 player co-op Sonic").


    p.s. I'd like to believe they'll replace all the Sonic 1 badniks with newer models, because that's what the games used to do as a matter of course.
     
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  17. Deep Dive Devin

    Deep Dive Devin

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    It's a different approach. Less flashy in terms of detail, but it's trying different things with composition. There are way crazier camera motions in the Superstars intro, and I think it's because they're using CG. That's why all the backgrounds are flat with billboarded trees, for instance. I think it's probably being used for the loop and tornado too, but it lends more wacky angles than anything Mania or Origins did.

    It's fine, though. Not bad at all.
     
  18. The Joebro64

    The Joebro64

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    The animation looks good. I am satisfied.

    With regards to the criticisms, I think people need to remember that these things are made by people with a limited budget and time constraints. And I think they did a great job especially considering those factors.
     
  19. VectorCNC

    VectorCNC

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    I'll just share my feedback also:

    Animation: I appreciate they are still doing animations and they should continue to, but I also wish they would have more relevance and personality, rather than the same boilerplate offering. Put it this way, what is memorable at all about that animation? Nothing. Time to step it up...

    Music: Bad. It's that same weird faux-synthy sound they keep using which makes my brain feel inflamed. Again, nothing memorable about it. Although I feel confident Lopes will deliver with the in-game soundtrack.

    For my tastes, I'm very happy they are moving in the correct direction with Classic Sonic, but they need to go beyond surface level and create content which builds upon a legacy, something substantive... It seems like they are "painting by numbers", going through the motions - but failing to be meaningful or innovative in this respect. It's this mentality which tops out at 7/10.

    If this were a university paper, the professor would hand it back with the comment, "Good. You are onto something but dig deeper... 72%"
     
  20. Sneasy

    Sneasy

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    I've watched the Origins intro after the Superstars one. I'll be honest. They're not that different. In fact, they try to do similar things and roughly succeed.

    But that is actually a problem for Superstars. Origins is a general intro for the classic games. Superstars is a new, specific title. So why do they show roughly the same things? The latter should be more imaginative and expressive of what Superstars is in particular.

    The coolest scenes in Superstars are the Tornado scene and when Sonic uses the Avatar Emerald Power. And that's because those are the actual unique things to Superstars.

    In terms of ACTUAL animation, though, it's extremely overstated how different they are. The frame rate and camera I'd point to being the source of people's ire. The latter especially for Amy and Knuckles' scenes. I actually do not like how Knuckles' time is 1) one punch and 2) how he takes up the screen entirely until he actually hits the Badnik.

    Nothing about the intro though I'd say can be easily blamed on crunch or budget. Or to put it differently, I don't think more time and money would make this intro fundamentally different.

    Tyson Hesse didn't direct this, but they are emulating his artstyle. It makes sense that it looks "off".

    If it's made by a Japanese animation studio, that also pans out; a lot of the intro is closer to a standard anime opening. That's by no means a bad thing, but American and Japanese animation studios do have different ways of expressing themselves and use different techniques.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2023