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

I haven’t beaten Trip’s broken ass story yet. They really phoned in the Hard Mode. Playing Frontiers after this clues me in to how disappointed several were when it came to skill building in the game (not that 2D Sonic doesn’t have it, but it’s less complex).

What really pisses me off the most about the game are the bosses and the broken powers. I still love it, but I’m afraid long term people will be making Sonic 4 comparisons even though the physics are mostly perfect.

I feel like this will unfortunately be our last 2D Sonic game for at least another decade. All they need to do is just use the same engine and make a few changes to vastly improve a sequel.

The real feat will be seeing the fan games/hacks it spawns. (Or is that era over for us?)

 

Yeah, Superstars had little-to-no glaring technical issues. It's shortcomings are really based in it's art direction, music, and boss design.

I even think the level design itself is fine! It's no Mania, but its at-least on-par with, like, Sonic Advance.

 

Having continually played it for days now, I'd disagree with a majority of that. I loved the art direction, music, and level layouts. Sonic Manias level layouts were drawn out at times and a chore. Everyone sort of has their bias for Mania because "The fans made it!", but it definitely had its flaws too. I would say these level layouts are superior to Manias.

The bosses however, they were definitely not good. Ill agree with that.

 

Blasphemy!

 

The first half of the game honestly works miracles with the game's terrible objective structure. Bridge Island Act 1 is especially great, as it does show you a lot that you could be doing and makes it very pleasant to go back to with new emerald powers from the next few levels. There's a lot to see, a lot to discover and enough reason to do so. Medals and fruits end up being lame short term goals because they do nothing worthwhile, but I love the way the level layouts tease you with them. They really push you to master the layout's nuances!

Badniks are hit or miss but I like how they pose fast-paced reaction-based challenges in Bridge Island and Speed Jungle, especially. They will appear out of the blue and for you to do something, but that something is always different and might lead you to unexpected places! I like their placement, feels intentional without being heavy-handed.

I'm also very fond of the usage of global gimmicks in the earlier stages -- Sand Sanctuary and both Press Factory Acts in particular. They shake up the way you approach the levels, changing how you perceive threats and boons. Pinball Carnival Act 2 less so, because the fast moving trains are weird. It's like they decided to add a forgotten Sonic Rush level in the middle of the game, but Act 1 is still a pretty great pinball level when it's about pinball.

The less I talk about anything after Press Factory, though, the better. I have nothing good to say about the level layouts there.

 

But why dash panels exist in Bridge Island Zone, thought?

 

Haven't experienced or heard of the random crashes. And I'm actually tired of hearing about this input lag that I simply cannot recognise no matter how hard I try to see it.

They literally only exist to facilitate the giant loops that transition you between the foreground and background layers.

 

I was gonna wait to write this until I beat the whole thing. I’m currently on Frozen Base in Trip’s Story. It’s just taken me awhile to finish because I’m not able to play as often as I want. Not because of the difficulty. Just a lot of other things going on. Finally made time to get back to it.

So like I said before I love the game and I still think the bosses are unfairly criticized. Regardless of Trip’s story. I get people hate the “wait your turn to attack” structure and want them to play like the other 2D games where you can land hits as much as possible.

The thing is in the 3D/Modern games bosses are very much “wait your turn”. Even though you may be able spam some in certain situations...you’re always waiting for the next opening or having to do something that triggers the opening. None of them are just freely vulnerable. Certainly not like in the Genesis games.

Yet people only complain about it in Superstars because you can technically land multiple hits but since they won’t register as damage it annoys people.

I will say sometimes you can die way too easily because you’re scrolling and happen to get hit in a way that knocks you out or unable to recover rings. This is more of a problem in Trip’s story.

The one thing I will agree with is the placement of enemies, again more an issue with Trip. I find myself just willing to get hit so I’m momentarily invincible and can quickly get by.

This leads me to something I thought of and I’m sure it’ll be an Unpopular Opinion...there should not be momentary invincibility after getting hit in any game. Obviously we’re all used to it but really it should not be a thing. There’s no context (game design or story related) where being briefly invincible makes sense. It’s just something developers included and it stuck.

I’ve been trying to play as legitimately as possible and not exploit this but it’s almost a given in Trip’s story. If I could change one thing about it I’d get rid of all the EggRobos trolling you.

Oh and I’m surprised some people would complain about the art direction. I guess some just don’t like cute and colorful?

 

Yes, but the mid-air variant of dash panels were just there to hold your hand.

 

There's a reason it stuck - not having temporary invincibility on taking damage means you've got a high chance of immediately taking more damage, with no control over it happening, which is incredibly frustrating. It absolutely makes sense from a game design context.

That said, it would be nice to see it done in such a way that it can't be used to your advantage. The invincibility exists to allow you to get out of danger, not to score easy hits.

 

Developers, always including things in their gameplay for absolutely no reason at all.

 

I mean, no. They were a relatively unique gimmick. Not the most creative one, but unique all the same.

 

Sonic 1 Spikes: Am I joke to you?

 

So, what you're asking for is to be juggled until death or instakilled by hazards in platform games, then?

It's okay, I was young once and didn't understand game design either.

 

Ah yes, because being able to survive running at supersonic speeds through checkered loop-de-loops, using multicolored Emeralds (which real Emeralds are only green) to gain demigodlike-powers, and battling as a anthropomorphic Hedgehog against a scientist who has an IQ that is literally impossible are all within the realm of proper suspension of disbelief.

I'm sorry, but games should be fun and interesting above all else, logic be damned. If games had to make sense, as one (currently highly popular, well-selling example) FPS' would have gun-jamming, slower ammo-reloading, no regen health, and shots AND RECOIL would be able to disarm or even completely disable you. Games should not, as a general rule, be super punishing and have extremely realistic mechanics just because the game mechanics "don't make any sense". If people like that were in charge of every game ever gaming as a whole would never have taken off like it has.
There absolutely can, should, and there has, is, and will be games that cater more to the realism and hardcore survival elements that the 1337 gamers want. The Sonic series may not be for you if 'temporary invulnerability to damage after getting hit" bugs you because the series has ALWAYS had that.

 

While the underlined bits don't help, I think there's more context to consider when making the comparison to 3D entries. Those games have bosses far less frequently and typically consider them their own level, so they're not constant pace-breakers on a full playthrough and can (usually) be skipped fairly easily if replaying levels on a cleared save file. They also have more mechanics and a third dimension to work with. Superstars has bosses at the end of nearly every Act, so any tedium gets old fast, and you can't really replay around them unless you want to pause and quit out of most levels 90% of the way through. (And Trip's Story giving them more hits absolutely compounds the problem, especially when played right after the normal campaign.) If you dislike them, they actively get in the way of enjoying the rest of the game.

At the pace many of Superstars' fights go, there should absolutely be ways to get extra hits in. It doesn't have to involve emerald power cheese or invincibility frame abuse - intentionally-designed methods of stunning a boss or skillfully squeezing in a follow-up attack before it goes back on the defensive would do wonders. Y'know what was fun? Having enough boost to slam into Unleashed's Egg Beetle an extra couple of times for more damage as it ragdolled down Mazuri's tree-road.

 

Bizarre take. People dislike a lot of bosses in the 3D games, with Chaos 4 and that one Iblis fight in Flame Core being the most notorious examples. Waiting forever on a tedious boss sucks whether it's in 2D or 3D.
I don't like the bosses in Mania or 3&K and really dislike how they pop up at the end of every act. But with a few autoscroller exceptions, they're all pretty easy to just blitz through and mitigate.

 

This makes sense. Still in most cases you’re not being relentlessly attacked. Just knocked backwards. You could remove brief invincibility and then just design the tougher levels/bosses of a game around it so you’re not blown away.

To be clear I do not like extremely hard games. I really never tackle Hard Modes or play games known for high difficulty. Trip’s Story is a rare exception. It’s obviously tougher but I don’t think it’s unfair or hard for the sake of it. I think it pushes things just enough without going too far.

I totally agree about the bosses being part of the Acts. I wish they were treated as separate “levels” too. So in terms of replaying they can be annoying. Especially on first-play-through.

Overall though I don’t have a problem with their structure. There’s actually times you can land a quick hit to stop a full attack cycle.

 

For me there's also just personal taste: I don't enjoy bosses. I like the platforming bits. I can tolerate the classic game's bosses because they are short and (now) very easy for me, but in Superstars I spend at least half my time flighting a boss, and I'm just not having fun. So it's not necessarily something wrong with the game but I still dislike it.