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Sonic Superstars | Review Thread

Draugoth

Gold Member
20a06bf1886558538728f46bf4b3bae2875e7d371d3b0d2b3bbf6ea2302f7668


Game Information

Game Title
: Sonic Superstars

Platforms:

  • Nintendo Switch (Oct 17, 2023)
  • PlayStation 5 (Oct 17, 2023)
  • PlayStation 4 (Oct 17, 2023)
  • Xbox Series X/S (Oct 17, 2023)
  • Xbox One (Oct 17, 2023)
  • PC (Oct 17, 2023)
Trailers:

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: SEGA

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 73/100 - 50% Recommended

Captura-de-tela-2023-10-13-103233.png


MetaCritic - 72/100 - PlayStation 5

Captura-de-tela-2023-10-13-103318.png


Critic Reviews

PSX Brasil - Portuguese - 80 / 100
Quote not yet available
Press Start - Harry Kalogirou - 7.5 / 10
While its value proposition is questionable, and its slew of modes are of varying quality, Sonic Superstars delivers a true sequel to the original games where Sonic the Hedgehog 4 failed to. The all-important physics are spot on, each Zone is a thrill to blast through, and inventive new ideas iterate on a tried and true formula.
Spaziogames - Italian - 7.9 / 10
Sonic Superstars takes the blue hedgehog back to his retro 2D roots, once again: so, if you're a super nostalgic gamer, it's a good title, but don't let the classic appearance fool you, 'cause the game is also fresh and modern.
TechRaptor - 8 / 10
Sonic Superstars elevates 2D Sonic beyond nostalgia after a definitive greatest hits entry. With loads to unlock, satisfying levels of challenge, and a great selection of new Zones, Sonic Superstars has everything you could want from a new 2D Sonic.
 
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Awesome. Even though 3D gaming is “better” than 2D gaming, I know I had more fun in the 16-bit 2D era than I did in the long 3D era. It’s part nostalgia, but not totally. Those games sucked you into the gameplay like sloppier 3D games just can’t.
 

Nvzman

Member
I played the demo at NYCC yesterday and thought it felt great. Level design was pretty good and I felt the physics were fairly close to the classic games and the visuals are pretty excellent, I like the 3D art far more than the evolved cheap plastic-y look that Mario Wonder is still doing from the NSMB games. Imo it looks like it evolved from cheap plastic to now looking like a mobile game. 2D Sonic > 2D Mario for gameplay as well imo.

Also, just quickly panning through these reviews, I can already tell that the journalists criticizing it for "level design issues" and "frustrating bosses" probably have either never played a Sonic game before, or are just genuinely bad at them. The level design is actually very reminiscent of the classic games, which are a bit more unforgiving until you take the time to learn them and master them so you can speed through them on later playthroughs. Not expecting modern journalism to understand this of course.
 
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Fake

Member
Usual shit-post being usual shit-post.

Game is not developed by Sonic Team, they are only support.

Don't take my post into heart dude. Go for it.
edit: BTW, is a collaboration between Sonic Team and Arzest. So, enough with excuses.

 
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Saber

Member
This is what happens when you though the only problem with your games is the physics, which are not even created by them. Most of the reviewers main complain is about level design, which honestly its not surprising at all seeing the all the demos and previews(which some hard denied). No way repeated process and spam of dashpads(along other gimmicks) wouldn't affect the design. What actually surprised me though was the music, which once again most "defended", but the result was something more less like Sonic 4.
The "emerald powers" looks and sound brain damaging, like the first emerald power that summon a horde of Sonics that kill themselves to destroy enemies lol
 
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Kikorin

Member
Another average Sonic game that at some point in my life I'll play, not surprised but I was hoping for better.
 

Unknown?

Member
If they recreated Green Hill again, reviews would be higher. This looks way better than Mania but nostalgia corrupts.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
After Frontiers I don't know about Sonic reviews. I had a blast with Frontiers last year, I played it for approx 50 hours. In retrospect I even enjoyed Unleashed enhanced on Series S. I will probably buy this one too.
 

poodaddy

Member
Don't take my post into heart dude. Go for it.
edit: BTW, is a collaboration between Sonic Team and Arzest. So, enough with excuses.


Jesus that review is embarrassingly awful. The guy constantly complains about how hard it is and how it doesn't measure up to the classics, when a lot of what he's complaining about can be applied to the classics. Frustrating mini games and strangely designed portions of levels that slow down gameplay? Yup, classics had it. Bosses that could nail you with one hit kills that felt cheap and knock you into gaps? Yup, they had plenty of that. Soundtrack? Relative, but the soundtrack snippet he showed off there wasn't too offensive. All in all, the game seems fine, and it seems pretty similar to the classics, and I love those games, warts and all. Not Earth shattering, but probably fun with the family. I'll pick it up at some point on sale.
 

Unknown?

Member
Jesus that review is embarrassingly awful. The guy constantly complains about how hard it is and how it doesn't measure up to the classics, when a lot of what he's complaining about can be applied to the classics. Frustrating mini games and strangely designed portions of levels that slow down gameplay? Yup, classics had it. Bosses that could nail you with one hit kills that felt cheap and knock you into gaps? Yup, they had plenty of that. Soundtrack? Relative, but the soundtrack snippet he showed off there wasn't too offensive. All in all, the game seems fine, and it seems pretty similar to the classics, and I love those games, warts and all. Not Earth shattering, but probably fun with the family. I'll pick it up at some point on sale.
Like I said, if they just reused old zones it would automatically score higher despite the fact we've had Green Hill like 10,000 times already.
 

Ristifer

Member
Honestly, I like hearing about the difficulty spikes. One of my main concerns going into this game was that it was going to be embarrassingly easy the whole way through. Sounds like good news to me.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Seems that the quality is 'ok' certainly worth playing for the fans ,even if its not at the same level as Mania overall the project will be a success


The art is not good imo,but they can improve it next generation
 
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Nvzman

Member
Don't take my post into heart dude. Go for it.
edit: BTW, is a collaboration between Sonic Team and Arzest. So, enough with excuses.


And this review is getting ripped apart for the reviewer having clearly never played or bothering to understand the classic games.

Again, Sonic unfairly shat on because of the "SONIC WAS NEVER THAT GOOD" brainrot.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Jesus that review is embarrassingly awful. The guy constantly complains about how hard it is and how it doesn't measure up to the classics, when a lot of what he's complaining about can be applied to the classics. Frustrating mini games and strangely designed portions of levels that slow down gameplay? Yup, classics had it. Bosses that could nail you with one hit kills that felt cheap and knock you into gaps? Yup, they had plenty of that. Soundtrack? Relative, but the soundtrack snippet he showed off there wasn't too offensive. All in all, the game seems fine, and it seems pretty similar to the classics, and I love those games, warts and all. Not Earth shattering, but probably fun with the family. I'll pick it up at some point on sale.

Yeah I couldn't really understand where this guy was going to. I couldn't find much negativity in the footage as well. It could be he's more into Rush style gameplay for Sonic. Personally I don't mind some downtime, I even enjoyed CD.

Some gimmicks do look bad, and the emerald powers look like whatever but it seems you can ignore them. The soundtrack is bad too, especially since Frontiers OST was my OST of 2022.
 

Fake

Member
Jesus that review is embarrassingly awful. The guy constantly complains about how hard it is and how it doesn't measure up to the classics, when a lot of what he's complaining about can be applied to the classics. Frustrating mini games and strangely designed portions of levels that slow down gameplay? Yup, classics had it. Bosses that could nail you with one hit kills that felt cheap and knock you into gaps? Yup, they had plenty of that. Soundtrack? Relative, but the soundtrack snippet he showed off there wasn't too offensive. All in all, the game seems fine, and it seems pretty similar to the classics, and I love those games, warts and all. Not Earth shattering, but probably fun with the family. I'll pick it up at some point on sale.

I do agree he is quite annoying while speaking, but most of what is saying match what others reviews are talking about this game.

IGN for example, gave 7 downplaying the level design, enemy placement and the lack of speed, with match what he is saying, hater or not.
 

Ristifer

Member
I do agree he is quite annoying while speaking, but most of what is saying match what others reviews are talking about this game.

IGN for example, gave 7 downplaying the level design, enemy placement and the lack of speed, with match what he is saying, hater or not.
Eh. Everything IGN says there is essentially the same as other classic games. Many different routes, some that reward with more speed, others with more platforming. They also said the soundtrack is amazing, whereas the other review thought it sucked. They even say that they found more routes with more speed on subsequent playthroughs and they just needed to learn the stages more. Basically the same as any classic game.

Questionable enemy placement is one thing, I guess.
 

Fake

Member
Eh. Everything IGN says there is essentially the same as other classic games. Many different routes, some that reward with more speed, others with more platforming. They also said the soundtrack is amazing, whereas the other review thought it sucked. They even say that they found more routes with more speed on subsequent playthroughs and they just needed to learn the stages more. Basically the same as any classic game.

Questionable enemy placement is one thing, I guess.

I talking about the IGN vs Gaming Bolt points, not necessarily the IGN vs older IGN reviews about Sonic. But indeed reviewers are questioning the enemy placements.
 

Jinzo Prime

Gold Member
Reviewers treat Sonic like a second-class citizen because Sega treated Sonic like a second-class citizen for years.

It's not fair, but Sonic is going to have to rebuild its reputation by continually releasing quality titles. That said, Sonic Superstars looks like a good game for fans of the classics.
 

Holammer

Member
2.5d is my nemesis so it had the odds stacked against it. 5/10, the reviews are too kind. IMO, time to put Sonic in a hospice, make him comfortable and let him pass with dignity.
I always disliked the bonus stages in the originals for breaking up and killing the pace, here they return with a vengeance and they really overstay their welcome. There's also the old painful controls where you move like a sloth at slow speeds, why can't he be more like that nice boy Mario?

Sega could have taken a random fan made game and it would have reviewed better.
If I have to say something nice? The animated bits are very well made, but it feels like they blew the budget on them.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
I fucking told you lol.

Seriously though I played a little bit of this and it's pretty fun in one player if you treat that as a classic linear experience. Albeit like I said in the reveal thread it can be too zoomed in at times and yes the music is fairly generic. It's got that 'trying to sound 16bit but souless' thing going on, basically the same issue as Sonic 4. Sonic Mania was a masterclass is how to do retro sounding music with a modern twist.

All the additional extras though fails Collecting medals so you can make a robot for multiplayer?
No ability to use regular characters in multiplayer battle mode?
The additional powerups are pretty lame.
Why even have a map screen lol

Also we've known since Sonic 2 that multiplayer 2d sonic doesn't work and Sonic 2 was rather tame on the speed compared to these days. Whose bright idea was it to make it 4 player multiplayer and market it as the big push?

What you have here is a solidly built single player sonic game with shite additional content.
 
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Nvzman

Member
2.5d is my nemesis so it had the odds stacked against it. 5/10, the reviews are too kind. IMO, time to put Sonic in a hospice, make him comfortable and let him pass with dignity.
I always disliked the bonus stages in the originals for breaking up and killing the pace, here they return with a vengeance and they really overstay their welcome. There's also the old painful controls where you move like a sloth at slow speeds, why can't he be more like that nice boy Mario?

Sega could have taken a random fan made game and it would have reviewed better.
If I have to say something nice? The animated bits are very well made, but it feels like they blew the budget on them.
"Reviews are too kind"
You just admitted it's not your type of game, and it's obvious here you don't have a clue either. It's not a Mario game where it's supposed to be braindead easy pick up and play with gradually increasing in difficulty levels. It's a game about momentum and understanding basic mechanics before mastering the level design.

You can always tell when a reviewer is bad at their job when they fail to actually learn the game and instead just say "Why isn't it like X?". Truth is, when you actually bother to learn to play, it actually tends to have a lot more depth, this is why I always found 2D Sonic superior to 2D Mario. 2D Mario is always really basic and the only complex part becomes the level design. Sonic has actual momentum mechanics with levels that start out complex but require more knowledge of the mechanics as the game progresses. Problem is, people try to just hold right and jump and play it like Mario, and then bitch when it doesn't actually play like Mario. Yea, no shit, you are playing a different game that's doing it's own thing, and that's perfectly fine. I see this all the time and it's why reviews for Sonic games should be largely ignored. When you see gameplay of people running through loops and into enemies and then complain about "cheap enemy placement", when the game is subtly teaching you that rolling into loops allows you to instead go faster and go through enemies, it's just kind of laughable.

But "LMAO SONIC 06 SONIC SHOULD BE DEAD" comments persist, because why on earth would people dare and just judge things of it's own product.

Also some light hypocrisy, why on earth is this game being shat on for the multiplayer, but NSMB doesn't get the same treatment? Both games are literal clusterfucks with more than one player. The only games to actually do the 4 player co op platformer right was Rayman Origins and Legends.
 
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Ristifer

Member
Interested to hear the soundtrack as the released songs have sounded great. But if they are doing a weird mash of retro-to-new sounds, it may clash. Guess we’ll see.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
"Reviews are too kind"
You just admitted it's not your type of game, and it's obvious here you don't have a clue either. It's not a Mario game where it's supposed to be braindead easy pick up and play with gradually increasing in difficulty levels. It's a game about momentum and understanding basic mechanics before mastering the level design.

You can always tell when a reviewer is bad at their job when they fail to actually learn the game and instead just say "Why isn't it like X?". Truth is, when you actually bother to learn to play, it actually tends to have a lot more depth, this is why I always found 2D Sonic superior to 2D Mario. 2D Mario is always really basic and the only complex part becomes the level design. Sonic has actual momentum mechanics with levels that start out complex but require more knowledge of the mechanics as the game progresses. Problem is, people try to just hold right and jump and play it like Mario, and then bitch when it doesn't actually play like Mario. Yea, no shit, you are playing a different game that's doing it's own thing, and that's perfectly fine. I see this all the time and it's why reviews for Sonic games should be largely ignored. When you see gameplay of people running through loops and into enemies and then complain about "cheap enemy placement", when the game is subtly teaching you that rolling into loops allows you to instead go faster and go through enemies, it's just kind of laughable.

But "LMAO SONIC 06 SONIC SHOULD BE DEAD" comments persist, because why on earth would people dare and just judge things of it's own product.

Also some light hypocrisy, why on earth is this game being shat on for the multiplayer, but NSMB doesn't get the same treatment? Both games are literal clusterfucks with more than one player. The only games to actually do the 4 player co op platformer right was Rayman Origins and Legends.
Dude screw the console wars, this is what I’m talking about, some good ol’ fashion Sonic vs Mario. I wanna shoot this post straight into my veins, this is some good shit.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Interested to hear the soundtrack as the released songs have sounded great. But if they are doing a weird mash of retro-to-new sounds, it may clash. Guess we’ll see.
For me the issue is they're trying too hard to sound retro 16 bit so they often use the same synth sounds that make it sound like something from Sonic 2.

Sonic Mania didn't do this. Every track is completely different and in my opinion memorable. It's one of my favourite soundtracks ever.
This isn't terrible but it certainly isn't on the same level. That review saying the music is AWFUL is pushing it.

Also that IGN review that says it has no sense of speed is bollocks as well. It has a tremendous sense of speed, I'm guessing it's newer gamers used to the boost mechanic and so on.

I think those looking for a single player sonic game and nothing else should absolutely get this on a sale and they won't be disappointed.
 
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cireza

Member
Haven't played the game yet, but this art-style is absolutely abysmal. Can't stand it.

Capture.png


Nothing makes sense. Lighting makes no sense. Every gradient goes from black to an overly saturated color. The far background is super blurry. Everything is shining and readability is just bad. What is important in this screen ? What are the main things we are supposed to focus on ? People who design this have no idea what they are doing.

Generations 3DS :
d4bvpig-2b7ca604-21e7-4efe-a25c-3a41655ddab1.jpg

Infinitely more readable, and yet this is low res. There is simply a good understanding on how to do gradients, where to put things that are darker and brighter. Black is a dangerous color to use in backgrounds and should be avoided in most outdoors background. Three things pop-out : the main character, the enemy, and a hazard (spikes).

I have yet to play Superstars, but I didn't find such basic design elements in the few screenshots I have seen.
 
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Saber

Member
Interested to hear the soundtrack as the released songs have sounded great. But if they are doing a weird mash of retro-to-new sounds, it may clash. Guess we’ll see.

Nothing special to crappie to say the least. Most of the soundtracks use repeated sound effects that looks like it was made from the guy who created Sonic 4 soundtrack(you can notice the generic drum effect he uses in every music).
 
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GrayDock

Member
I played at BGS yesterday and was blown away by it, game of the show.
IMO, it is what is expect as the evolution of 2D visuals of the old Sonic games, just like NSMBU was for Mario.
And yes, it's hard just like the old ones, with jumps over endless pits, enemies that hit you from nowhere (a green lizard behind a green bush - camouflage 101), or missiles that follow you when you're on loopings or sliding through vines, requiring precise jumps to avoid them. I love it!
I just can't justify buying it at launch because of my backlog and SM2 already pre-ordered for the next weekend... But I'll get it for sure.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
At this point we should probably be glad Sonic Team managed to deliver something mid. It could have been another Sonic 4. But it's still kind blowingly dumb they couldn't give a real budget to the Mania team to deliver a true sequel.

This probably cost 10 times what Mania did and it will sell half.
 
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Nvzman

Member
At this point we should probably be glad Sonic Team managed to deliver something mid. It could have been another Sonic 4. But it's still kind blowingly dumb they couldn't give a real budget to the Mania team to deliver a true sequel.

This probably cost 10 times what Mania did and it will sell half.
The Mania team didn't want to do a sequel, that's why it didn't happen. They are working on their own stuff out of choice.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
The Mania team didn't want to do a sequel, that's why it didn't happen. They are working on their own stuff out of choice.
That's not really how I heard it. The Mania team was in talks to make a sequel, but they couldn't come to an agreement with Sonic Team on vision.

Mania only got made because they made a demo on their own dime, backdoored it through Sega of America, and kept it so low budget it was essentially off the radar. And that created its own set of problems, but the fact is, Sonic Team wouldn't have let it happen any other way.
 
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