SONIC SUPERSTARS

For a reduced price, it's absolutely killer. $60 though? No. Absolutely not. It is a competent classic-styled Sonic game, we thankfully don't have another Sonic 4 on our hands here, but in the face of Mania, a game with far better... uh, well, everything, it's bound to be disappointing. It was already going to be in my bad books and working it's way out based on the fact that they excommunicated Stealth and Taxman in favour of Arzest. If it had have happened any time before 2021, I would have been elated - oh, my God! Naoto Oshima and potentially even Yuji Naka back on Sonic for the first time in decades? That sounds amazing! However, Arzest are also responsible for, uhm... how do I put this generously... complete cut-rate slop? Like, their back catalogue includes such wondrous, dizzying heights as "Spooky Search from Wii Play Motion", and "Yoshi's New Island AKA The Worst One", and even "Hey! Pikmin, the pretty mediocre-at-best 2D platformer that isn't Pikmin". They were already pretty bad, and would have given me some cause for concern, but hey, I can excuse those, they weren't in their proper swing yet, they weren't cracking at something like our man Sonic again! In 2021, Arzest infamously were the ones behind Balan Wonderworld. A game so supremely confused about whether it wanted to be a NiGHTS follow-up, some sort of puzzle platformer, Naka's evolution of his one-button ideals, a Broadway musical, or anything in-between that it fancied swinging at on it's way down. I don't need to say that it failed, really, nor that it massively reduced estimations of the work that this studio could produce. It was, arguably still is, a laughing stock. So colour me surprised to be able to say that this game is a resounding "just above average". Again, it's no Sonic 4, thankfully, it avoids being that woefully dull and derivative, but you're also not exactly going to be expecting Mania levels of quality, and certainly nothing near 3&K. I would place this game on a similar level to Sonic 2; Sonic 2 itself to me being a game that rapidly deteriorates in quality in its second half by a quite significant margin, that is somewhat of a backhanded compliment. But where Sonic 2 starts stellar and peters off into quite possibly some of my least favourite levels in the series, Superstars, in a shocking display, actually manages to stay pretty consistently alright. It's far from electrifying and certainly leagues away from originality. The level motifs are all borrowed from prior entries with barely any unique spin put on them. The new gimmicks have their moments, but likewise have such little mental staying power in my mind versus even the weakest Mania stages. In terms of the moment-to-moment Sonic gameplay, you can do far worse, but there's also been way better available long before it. No, where the true complaints for me come in are with two things: the soundtrack and the bosses. Let's begin with the soundtrack, as I'm actually far less scathing on it. We have a few composers scattered across the OST this time; we have the goat Tee Lopes returning from Sonic Mania, providing more wonderful music, even if I would say that they are a fair bit more forgettable than that game, but then that's just the theme with this one; Rintaro Soma, returning from Sonic Frontiers' Cyber World stages, and the fare here is comparable to there, that is to say, nowhere near my cup of tea and certainly nothing I'd be listening to on my own time, but it's alright in the moment; Takahiro Kai, returning from Yakuzas 4, Dead Souls and Lost Judgment (I believe they may have also arranged the Alex Kidd theme in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing? Don't quote me on that), whose compositions are... fine? They're oddly reminiscent of Sonic Jam's original score in a way, utilising a lot of wind instruments to create this breezy sound that I'm quite a fan of, honestly; Ryo Fukuda, coming in from Yakuza as well, I believe the Gaidens and Infinite Wealth, and... okay, we're starting to stumble a bit here. This is that kind of synth usage that just screams out "I have no idea how to actually make an old soundchip sound good so I'm just going to make some noise and call it a day", which pains me to say because his compositions on the aforementioned Yakuza titles are absolutely killer, with "Psycho Anthem", "Receive and Believe You" and "BodyBag" being some absolute bangers; there are a few other artists featured here, but a majority of them, I will be perfectly forthcoming, I have no prior experience with, and would therefore be unable to comment in good mind. Know which one I do know? Jun Senoue. Oh my God how did it happen again. So, you know how my praise for this game has very much been centred around this NOT being Sonic 4? Well, looks like Mr. Senoue didn't get the memo, because his god-awful inability to make anything good sounding with the Genesis soundfont makes it's wondrous return after 10 years of grave-dancing. 10-second at best loops? You got it. Overpowering Genesis snare? Oh, you bet you. Compositions that sound outright unfitting or just plain bad? Oh, for sure. I don't know why, despite us having this 2.5D artstyle that's clearly trying to bridge this type of Sonic gameplay away from being just pixellated Mega Drive games, we're still trying to adhere to this retro sonic (haha) signature. Jun Senoue has always excelled with real instruments, especially his guitar work on this franchise over the years that saw him go from being barely remembered to be credited on Sonic 3, to arguably the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ face of music in the franchise for a hot second there. But ever since he's been able to dabble back into the Mega Drive synth, we're seeing why he was told to sit out more and more. The man can play instruments, he can make great compositions and arrangements, but uh... yeah, no, these synthesised tracks are surely not it. His attempts this time around are so bad that they make the boss track from Sonic 4 blush, and more often than not lead to me outright muting the damn music because it gives me a pounding headache. And that was something I was light on! Those boss fights, now. Yes, in keeping with the repeated mistakes, Sonic Superstars' boss design feels very much in line with the worst of Sonic 4 Episode II's boss design - that is to say, you can hit the things once per fortnight if you remember to file a claim, and if you miss your window, you're sat twiddling your thumbs for another year afterwards whilst Robotnik finishes making himself a croissant in the background or something. Seriously, what gives with the incredibly, incredibly long-winded boss animations? It's consistently a slog whenever you get to a boss on account of them being invulnerable for large swathes of their encounters, and when you think you might be able to do the ol' Sonic special of getting multiple bonks in at once in a satisfying manner to demonstrate your skill and knowledge of said encounter, uhh, no, actually. There seems to be a solid 10 seconds of boss I-Frames before you can even think about hitting them again, a feat that might actually be worse than S4E2, which is certainly an achievement of some sort. It is truly hair-pulling how utterly banal the boss encounters themselves are, too, more often than not killing me due to attrition more so than any actual mistakes I made. Seriously, I timed out on bosses in this game a few times, just because you need to have a few minutes set aside in order to actually fight them. The most aggressive examples of this are, of course, the final boss(es), and as a result, are an exercise in frustration. A truly sour note to end the game on. But, for what's here in the regular gameplay department, the first playable Amy since, like, 2006, and the addition of Trip, who I do really like as a character, it gets a passing grade. It's nothing to exactly write home about (despite what my wall of writing here might imply), but it's also largely inoffensive. Until it is.

O jogo não é extremamente horrível igual quem tá nos comentários fica dizendo, até porque certamente não jogaram Sonic 4 ou Advance 2. Esse é na minha opinião uma enorme evolução dos jogos clássicos do Sonic, e fico feliz que tenha vendido bem. O problema é que as pessoas vão ficar irritadas por não ser o Mania 2 e por não ter o mesmo design de gameplay dos outros jogos clássicos. Pra começar, o jogo É BEM DESAFIADOR. Você não vai mais ver bosses que demoram 20 segundos pra morrer e não vai ver um level design piedoso com o jogador. Aqui os bosses são genuinamente difíceis e levam um certo tempo pra matar, além do design das fases ser especialmente focado em exploração, no qual dá pra entender a descontentação. É um level design que não estão acostumados. O jogo mantém a mesma historinha feita com animações de sprite que tinham nos jogos anteriores, e as partes mais cinemáticas são mostradas em animações curtas. Nesse jogo, as Esmeraldas do Caos conseguiram finalmente ter um uso decente: cada esmeralda libera um poder individual que você pode usar em cada fase pra acessar áreas novas ou coletar certos itens. Assim, você não precisa ficar caçando todas as esmeraldas pra ter algum poder que facilite sua jogatina. Os special stages do jogo também são muito bem feitos. Tem o special stage de checkpoint, que tem inspiração no que tinha no Sonic 1, só que dessa vez com mecânicas novas e um controle que presta e não te irrita absurdamente. E também tem os anéis gigantes, que te dão warp pro special stage principal, onde você tem que fazer um minigame de grappling hook coletando anéis pra manter tempo, e indo mais veloz atrás da esmeralda. Pra alguns defeitos mínimos, a música do jogo foi feita por diversos artistas, e fica bem nítido quais músicas foram compostas por qual pessoa, o que acaba deixando a soundtrack bem inconsistente e não sendo muito do teu agrado pra certas fases do jogo. Não é HORRÍVEL igual no Sonic 4, mas também não é na magnificência da OST do Mania. O background das fases também peca bastante em trazer um gráfico consistente, principalmente na Golden Capital, que provavelmente é a fase mais feia do jogo. O level design das fases introduz mecânicas novas pra cada uma delas, e deixa o jogo cheio de conteúdo, principalmente na Cyber Station. O multiplayer que você viu nos trailers não funciona direito, se você correr um tiquinho, todos os seus amigos morrem em segundos, é impossível jogar o co-op. O multiplayer real do jogo é o maior foco dele, mas infelizmente é completamente morto, você nunca vai conseguir ver como é o conteúdo dele, considerando que o jogo base te pede muito pra coletar medalhas, nas quais liberam personalizações de personagem nesse modo. É uma ideia legal, mas não deu certo. Enfim, eu não acho justo o jogo ser tratado como um dos piores jogos 2D do Sonic, mas entendo que ele não é perfeito em certas coisas. As pessoas da fanbase não costumam se conformar com diferenças em cada um dos jogos, então ficam procurando agulha no feno só pra tirar o desgosto de uma gameplay que você não experimentou antes. Esse não é um jogo ruim de forma alguma, eu diria que é muito bom e é quase tão bom quanto o Mania. Dẽ uma chance pra ele em uma promoção, ele simplesmente não vale 300 reais. 8.5/10

Sonic Mania is currently 5$ on sale. This game is genuinely worse than that game in every way I can think of, it's MUCH buggier, shorter, has the worst boss fights of any 2D Sonic game by far, soundtrack is REALLY hit or miss (fang, miniboss and early boss themes kill ALL energy built up), replaces the gorgeous spritework found in Mania with more generic plasticky 3d models, it has worse controls and much more. It's still a pretty fun game, but I wouldn't even remotely think about paying SIXTY DOLLARS for such an underwhelming experience. If you like 2D Sonic wait for it to go on sale for around 15 dollars. Then you'll have a fine time.

Summary: A combination of odd decisions makes the game kinda boring for me to play. (Which is ironic considering I love 95% of the Sonic games I play!) Pros: + Northstar Island is exciting to explore for the first time since it's a new environment + I actually like the special stages (bite me.) + CHAOS EMERALDS GIVE YOU POWERS, IT'S CRAZY MAN + Fun gimmicks with the villain team in this game + Some boss fights are genuinely challenging and fun, leading to satisfying victories + They removed having limited lives, which is respectful of time in my opinion + The fat flickies are cute I guess Cons: - Sonic is SO slippery compared to other games I've played - Level design can really slow things down or just downright be annoying - A lot of 'one level only' gimmicks that are just awful and make me never want to replay those acts - Music feels so uninspired compared to Sonic 1 - 3 and 3D Sonic era tracks - The chaos emerald powers remove a lot of the challenge of some boss fights and platforming - Some chaos emerald powers are way more fun than others - Battle mode is... embarrassing. - Multiplayer sucks because it's not split screen and is impossible to have fun with - The coin collectables in this feel useless because they're for battle mode - I skip almost any side thing that just gives you the giant coins because... why bother lol Overall, I'd rather play any other 2D Sonic that I have played before lol

Game was being very fun, but then it decided to just kick me in the balls at the final stage and it's boss, like, the person who designed the final boss just decided to make the most annoying waiting game of all time, and having a second phase that is absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to get through

Jogo Sonic desde o Sonic 1 do Master System, passei por vários títulos da franquia e posso afirmar com propriedade: a comunidade de Sonic exagera demais nas críticas. Avaliar esse jogo como "negativo" é de uma injustiça tremenda. O jogo é muito bom e a proposta foi extremamente bem executada. O grande problema aqui foi o preço de lançamento (R$ 300), o que faz a crítica de "não recomendar no preço cheio" ser totalmente justa. Mas o jogo em si é excelente e tem o mesmo nível de qualidade de Sonic Mania — a única diferença real é que Mania custava R$ 30 na estreia e este veio a preço de jogo AAA. Se você souber esperar uma promoção (ou pegar em um combo com o Frontiers), vale cada centavo. Aqui está o porquê: Prós: Física Perfeita: A jogabilidade e o momentum dos personagens estão idênticos aos do Mega Drive. Quem é fã antigo vai se sentir em casa. Level Design e Variedade: Cada fase traz uma mecânica nova e criativa que renova o gameplay. Há muitos caminhos e lugares escondidos para explorar, além de um level design bem pensado para a habilidade de cada personagem. Poderes das Esmeraldas: A Sega acertou em cheio ao deixá-los como algo opcional. Você usa se quiser explorar ou facilitar algo, mas não é obrigado a ficar usando o tempo todo. Visuais e Polimento: Gráficos ótimos, modelos 3D muito bonitos e animações expressivas. O jogo é extremamente polido, liso e não sofri com bugs (rodando perfeitamente no PC). Personagem Nova: A Trip ficou sensacional, muito carismática e encaixou super bem no universo do jogo. Pontos Neutros / Observações: Trilha Sonora: Não é a melhor da franquia e tem algumas faixas meio ruins, mas a maioria das composições (principalmente as do Tee Lopes) são muito boas. Os Chefes: Muita gente reclama que não dá para "combar" dano neles e que é preciso esperar a janela certa de ataque. Isso não é um defeito, é uma proposta de design do jogo que exige paciência e leitura de padrão, como nos antigos. A luta contra o Fang no modo extra é difícil mesmo, mas faz total sentido por ser um conteúdo pós-jogo. Uma recomendação de como jogar: Recomendo fortemente jogar revezando os personagens: jogue umas duas fases com o Sonic, duas com o Tails, duas com o Knuckles e duas com a Amy. Jogar dessa forma é muito legal e faz você aproveitar muito mais o jogo, já que o level design foi feito sob medida para as habilidades de cada um. A fase Sky Temple (o templo no céu), por exemplo, é fantástica com o Tails — inclusive o jogo tem um ato exclusivo para ele lá que mostra perfeitamente essa proposta. Conclusão: O jogo tem a duração normal e padrão de um excelente jogo de plataforma 2D. Divertido do início ao fim, bem feito e muito caprichado. Recomendo muito, mas espere uma promoção! Nota: 8,5/10

This game took too many ideas from Mario and tried to apply them to Sonic. Many of the reviews for this game stress the bosses, and they're only giving you a half-truth; the bosses in this game are not truly bad [i]on paper[/i], rather it's the game's complete misunderstanding of Sonic that results in [b]everything[/b] being forgettable and drawn out, not just these inconveniences placed at the end of an Act. Arzest did a good job of recreating Sonic's Genesis-era physics, but all this has left them with is a foundation to play with in level, taking two steps forward only to then take a step back and forget to actually interact with Sonic's physics to create engaging gameplay. In the majority of Sonic games, every level offers a unique gimmick that serves as an extension of Sonic's physics. An easy example being Carnival Night's balloons and bumpers, which can serve as a hindrance to an unaware player, but are a boon for someone deliberately hitting them to reach higher areas of the level and creating even more momentum for Sonic. In Flying Battery, fans blow Sonic around, but he still inherits any velocity he had going into the fan; if he was going fast one direction, the fan will have to play with/against that, continuing the sense of speed while still offering a break in the formula for a player. Now in Superstars, every gimmick of these games serves as a replacement scheme for what Sonic would typically do. They kill his momentum, and force the player to engage with a completely unique set of rules exclusive to whatever the level gimmick may be, oftentimes culminating in a puzzle or careful, precision-based challenge. This is much more akin to Mario's level design, but like any good platformer, Mario has actually built his controls to encourage this sort of design. Sonic's controls are built around his physics by contrast, so these end up jarring and unsatisfying. Even still, the game has a noticeable quality drop after only the first two levels. Superstars quickly runs out of ideas for levels, and then runs out of ideas for its bosses, and begins hashing out every generic concept you can think of. An escort mission, an autoscroller, a vehicle level, none of which are fun in the slightest. This is where the criticism with the bosses comes in especially hard, as its initial boss design is more just excessively lengthy for a Sonic boss, yet still involves some of the level's gimmicks to provide a fun spin on things. Then the aforementioned idea drought hits and starts becoming mean-spirited, bosses go from long periods of intangibility to being background elements with rehashed gimmicks (hit the blue falling missile) and poor communication on how to actually damage the boss, and then starts busting out attacks coming from off-screen. The final boss in particular has the gall to be fifteen minutes long and toss out instant kill attacks at the very end of it all. Superstars also just has no idea who it wants to appeal to. Sonic is supposed to be the edgy, cooler rival to Mario, yet this game is trying very hard to be kid friendly. Sonic trades his attitude for a cutesy smile and disposition, characters being mute despite there being cutscenes, whimsical and adventurous music rarely straying into the series' established rock or electronic elements, and overall plain and simple level design with little challenge. Yet it doesn't take you half a brain cell to realize babies love the quippy, boost-formula "Modern Sonic" far more; it's manbabies such as myself who love "Classic Sonic." Realizing this, there are constant attempts at calling back to the Genesis games, Mania in particular, with the music also trying to sound like it's being played off of a Genesis soundchip. In general, the sound design of the game is a mess, with nothing having a satisfying punch, and even if the cutesy Sonic and co. are still charming in their own right, lighting, effects and texturing and post-processing are all well below par, with a lot of the levels just coming across as lacking detail and generic. All of this for sixty dollars is absolutely laughable. If not for the dreadful final boss, you could beat this game in very few hours, and it's barely replayable at all. Even if you find it on sale for $20, ask yourself this: are you really looking at this game because you think it sounds good, or are you looking at the game because it's Classic Sonic? If this game was some new indie IP about Trip the Sungazer, would you care at all to play it? No, Steam has way more platformers on it of the same $20 price that are of substantially higher quality and playtime, no matter how much you may be wooed by how this game wants to present itself, or Trip being the first Sonic character made by Naoto Ohshima in decades. There's just no sell for this game, you'll have a much better time replaying Mania or Sonic 3 even if you've played those games a hundred times. You're joking if you plan on playing this co-op, too. Therefore, I would not recommend this even on sale. It's a complete skip.

I will start by saying this: Do not buy for full price, get it if its on sale under $20 not worth the insane headache this games gives to sonic fans. I was having an amazing time with this game and while the bosses situation is terrible, theres plenty to like about this game, but do yourself a favor and download a save file and just play the acts, these bosses are the genuinely the worst experience I’ve ever had with a sonic game, and I played forces, mind you, they’re not hard just frustating and so SLOW, LIKE JESUS LET ME FINISH IT OFF 30-40 seconds per damn interval to wait for an opening to attack on a classic sonic game… its actually INSANE, how this got past quality check, like wow its really that bad, i wish i was being dramatic, as the levels and the music (most of the ost, aka tee lopes tracks) are insanely enjoyable, and playing as trip is incredibly fun, but jesus christ who allowed those god awful things. I spent 1.5 hours stuck on cyber station, im not bad at sonic games, I’ve beaten the 5 classics plus countless romhacks/mods/fangames, but this boss has to be the most terribly designed thing this game has to offer, it made me quit and just download a save file and play the rest of the levels without having to touch another single boss until the last one, which was just a copy paste of sonic mania’s egg reverie zone (true final boss) I want to love this, I really do, but man the fact this is the first time a game made me so frustrated to the point i just gave up and cheated to enjoy the rest of the game, on my favorite franchise and style of games which is classic sonic? Absolute insanity.