Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the top gaming mascots who needs no introduction. The blue hero first appeared in 1991 and to this day it is considered the main face of Sega. No one can dispute the impact and success of the 30-year-old series.
Within three decades, there have been various games (including spin offs), various collaborations with other games such as super Mario, various animated series, a successfull comic book series (over 24 years of release), various collectible
figures and recently there were two very good Live Action movies with a third one comming later this year. Thats how popular Sonic is.
Early in 2023, Sega announced the game that was to follow on the success of Sonic Frontiers which is considered the new standard of future Sonic games that were to come.
Unlike Frontiers, Sega's Sonic Teams combined with Arzest(known for working on games like Balan Wonderworld, Yoshi's new island and others) in order to create the latest
Sonic 2D adventure. There wasnt as much hype as frontiers but there was a fanbase eagerly waiting for it. Upon its release, the game was met with mixture of sales and critiques. The problem was that the game was released in the same period
as Super Mario Wonder, a classic 2D super Mario that was consider the best 2D Mario experience of the recent decade. Since Sonic and Mario have a long history of rivaly, this comparisson was
inevitable. Unfortunately for Sega, Sonic did lose the Family game award to Mario but thankfully Sega did confirm that despite the rough start, Sonic Superstars met the sales goal set by the company.
The game was released in two forms:
The plot takes place on the Northstar Islands, an archipelago known for their giant fauna. According to the creators, chonologically the game is between the plots of Sonic Mania and Sonic Adventures. The evil Dr. Eggman comes to these islands to turn these massive animals into Badniks
and steal the Chaos Emeralds to conquer the world. To aid him in his operations, he hires the mischievous mercenary known Fang the Hunter. At one point, Fang comes across a native of the archipelago, Trip, an armored, mysterious girl who is enlisted by the villains to protect and guide them
in the islands. When Eggman's actions became known to Sonic, he gather his friends Tails, Knuckles and Amy and travel to the Northstar Islands to take the villain down and save the world. Fang the Rabbit, captured plenty of animals requested by the doctor and received a satysfying award and
is send to locate other animals.(All of this is known through the comic and not the game, as the game begins with team Sonic comming to the islands)
Pretty much, the Sonic team arrive to the islands and they re in search of Eggman. Throughout their time in the Island, the heroes come across Fang and his captured animals which the heroes rescue everytime they get the chance. Ofcourse following and stopping Fangs through out the island the come across
Dr Eggman who constantly phases againts the heroes in order to stop them. The game also introduces Trip, a new female dragon who at the beginning works for Fang as she is suffering from lack of confidence but eventually she gets a liking into Sonics groups and finds the courage to help them and stand againts
Fang and Dr Eggman.
The game offers two different story events. The adventure through the eyes of Sonic and group and the one where the player gets control of Trip. The story of Trip becomes available after the story of Sonic. Last but not least, the game will unlock the secret episode and final boss of the game when both
Sonic's and Trip's plots are complete.
I do not like it.
This was my initial thoughts when playing through the story of Superstars. First of all i am not a fan of games going multimedia to share their unfamiliar stories. For example, this game relies on the fact that you read the comics in order to understand what is happening and why things and people act the way they do.
If you skipped it then tough luck. In the recent Sonic X Shadow(2024) they did a similar thing with Shadow and Maria. The difference being that Shadow and Maria's story is well known through past titles, past comics,animated series and even the new movie. All they had to tell was
a brief reference in the begining and nothing more. Superstar is brand new, things dont add up unless you put too much fantasy which i didnt enjoy in particular. What i did like was the cartoonish austhetic of the heroes acting after certain levels. For example, at some point when Sonic finishes a level, we see Trip falling
into a hole whilst walking with Fang and then we get to Amy's level where she helps Trip. Since the devs went with a voiceless game and visual narrative, Trip comes to me as a none interesting character despite being a being of Dragon type.
The game went back to the Sega Genesis era. Superstars is a classic 2D platform experience where the players get to play as one of Sonic's party. Each hero has a different abbility:
Once again i found my self not that invested. Out of all the Sonic games i played i found this to be the more underperfomed and its not like i was hyped for it and it had to live up to my expectations. Its the complete opposite, because i didnt have any expectations
i was expecting it to be just fine. I found the game slower than previous entries and way to easy. I played this in (November 2024) and i consider my self a good Sonic player who played most titles. So i was familiar with the 2D formula, heck 2 weeks ago i played
Sonic X Shadow that feature classic 2D levels. The level design was excellent no complaints there, the speed of the heroes was my main issue. I liked how each hero was unique and allowed for level explorattion but the challenge was not there unless there was a one
shot gimmick during boss fights. Since mentioned, boss fights were fun and unique which was appreciated. The game had plenty of check points which lowers the difficulty in general. The chaos emeralds were very interesting but BUSTED so i used them as little as i could mostly
cause i was forgeting about them. The 2 i used alot were the Blue and red, to collect items or jump to the minigame i missed. And since mentioned i hated the minigames, the game would ve been way better without them.
The game has no specific side content. Pretty much it offers the player the chance to replay all the levels with every hero. Aside from that, the game also has collectables from the stores such as artwork and items for equipment. Last but not least, the game does feature Co-op. Two players can play together and venture through the levels together. Ofcourse the Camera will only focus on the player running ahead and it will bubble up the player who fell behind. Unfortunately, when the bubbled player reaches the one ahead, he will most likely fall behind again duo to the first's player momentum unless the fast player decides to stop and wait for the other one to spawn properly.
I usually praise the Sonic games when it comes down to their music. This time however, the game felt mid. Dont get me wrong, the songs found in superstars are good but nothing memorable or unique that will have you go crazy. If anything these songs feel excactly like
the standard Sonic songs from every 2D game that came out in the early Sega Genesis days. For me im more fun of the songs that re more rock and vocaly such as the songs found in Fronties, Infinite/Fist bump in Forces, or even Unleashed and Generations.
Either way its okay.
On the other hand the Visual department is very good. Definetely the best looking 2D Classic Sonic. All the character models look very good and very friendly. They have unique animations when sprinting, attacking and idle posing. The levels have a nice design that seperates each
area from the other. The animations that escort both the intro and outro cutscenes are very well handdrawn animations that have exagurations on the poses and stau accurate to the models. It goes without saying that the devs put alot of effort into their characters and their movements
in order to pass the story to the player since they do not have any spoken dialog.
In conclusion, Sonic Superstars is a game worth experiencing despite it not being a huge fan of it and for the right price. The narrative i found it uninteresting because of the foolish idea of seperating the plot into multiple media. Trip is the least interesting character for me, the cocos in frontiers were more intriging. I would ve much rather being another, "oh no Eggman is into his evil schemes again", since i had zero knowledge of Fang and Trip. I did enjoy the presentation of it though. The characters were expressive and well designed. The gameplay although it fell easy and slower in comparison to other 2D games. The game had some amazing level design and offered multiple playable heroes. Each playable hero feels unique and offers unique mechanicks. Furthermore they added new abilities based on the chaos emeralds which once again offers a unique addition to the heroes arsenal of skills. The graphics and the audio department are the best for a classic 2D Sonic game BUT not to the music people expected comming after frontiers. Additionally the game features Coop. Perhaps not the best Coop but it is appreciate and its something the developers can work and implement in future titles. Last but not least the post game content is something i did not appreciate as they were repeatitive and boring.
This is a video showcasing some of my time with the the Game