2023-10-26 17:00:23
New islands, new adventure.
The blue hedgehog franchise has, in recent years, returned to the forefront more than ever. In addition to this much talked regarding Sonic Frontiers, SEGA has published several productions over the last two years such as an animated series, the second cinema film, comics, derivative products, board games and even short footage for TikTok. However, the Japanese company does not want to forget the two-dimensional origins of its most famous hero, and that is why in this hot October 2023 the Sonic Superstars moment has also arrived. The dear and always energetic Eggman discovered the existence of Northsar Island, an archipelago of islands where larger than normal animals live. Being a tiring job, for help the doctor has hired the mercenary Fang the Hunter, a native of the country, and his objective will be the usual: to capture the creatures and use them to power his creations. The player must obviously ensure that this harmful objective is not achieved. In short, as you can imagine, the story of Arzest and Sonic Team’s latest effort is mainly a pretext to trigger yet another chapter in Sonic history. This isn’t to say that cutscenes are entirely absent, although they do have a maximum length of one minute and are devoid of any sort of dubbed story. We particularly appreciate the choice to create the opening and certain moments through animation. Telecom Animation Film has brought these real shorts to life with great results, and it’s a shame that there are so few of them.
Sonic Superstars takes what the 2D genre of the series has been building for over 30 years and brings it back in a whole new chapter. The 11 zones present are all original, without any sort of nostalgic reuse like the Green Hill Zone at Chamical Plant. A choice that will certainly please fans of the franchise, even if the lack of courage in the choice of themes is obvious. Level settings like the snowy mountain, the factory or the desert are situations that have been seen and reviewed too often. What is pleasing, however, is the intention to make the experience extremely varied, also thanks to a continuous introduction of new mechanics at all levels. In this review, we prefer not to anticipate the ideas that the developers have created, but we still want to reassure you that there is no shortage of inventiveness, in a continuous effect of surprise, particularly in the first part of the adventure. At the same time, the general feeling is not the same as for the Mega Drive or Sonic Mania games. The characters certainly reflect the physics designed by the game directed by Christian Whitehead, but this creates a level design more focused on gimmicks. A situation which risks ruining the replayability factor, given some automations and downtime which quickly become burdensome in the long run. Another disappointing point concerns one of the main features of this adventure, namely the powers of the emeralds. The mechanic certainly has an interesting concept, but it resolves itself in moments that are quite unnecessary or too situational. At most it is capable of facilitating or speeding up certain sections, but it is quite easy to forget that they exist. At least the special areas designed to unlock certain moves are fun in their simplicity. The same cannot be said of the two other categories of special areas present in the levels, which quickly become redundant and superficial. Indeed, one allows you to obtain rings, while the other allows you to obtain special coins. The rewards aren’t poorly thought out, but the dev team has filled every area with both things, so much so that the urge to take them on quickly passes.
Four runners to the rescue.
One of the strong innovations of this title is certainly the multiplayer. Unlike previous 2D installments of the series, in Sonic Superstars, up to four local players can participate in the adventure at the same time. The level design addresses this dynamic very well, making the adventure much more fun and interesting. Perhaps this is why there is a much more user-friendly general approach, adapting more to a wide audience with all types of gaming experience. Really a shame that not all modes or levels can be tackled in cooperation, unlike the special events which present interesting solutions to allow everyone to take control of the controller. Another serious shortcoming is the lack of online play, at least story-wise. The work created by Arzest and supervised by Sonic Team, however, offers an online versus mode, in which the player takes control of a personalized robot to defeat opponents in a series of challenges. This is where you can use the parts obtained in the main game, purchasing all the components needed to create your creature. Everything is done purely out of simple aesthetic taste, because in challenges personal skill is mainly required. This last part of the game is absolutely not designed for professional competition, but rather for light fun. At the time of testing we were unable to test the servers, but SEGA confirmed the presence of cross-play as well as a specific online ranking. This mode is also playable locally, despite the cost of split screen and view scaled down. The game even features Time Trial mode, where it is possible to complete stages within a certain pre-set time, while other modes must be unlocked by the player. These further increase the longevity of the product, which otherwise turns out to be just 3 hours historically, with a certain feeling of recycling and artificiality.
Sonic the Hedgehog from the early 1990s is known for its very recognizable pixel art style, which tends to convey that “cool” feeling typical of the era. Naoto Oshima – who has worked on the franchise in the past back to Sonic Adventure – and his team decided to focus on a more “cute” aesthetic. This is not so much evident in the use of 3D graphics through Unity, but in the visual style of environments, enemies or even just giant animals. A choice which certainly does not satisfy everyone but which is undoubtedly undertaken to attract an audience of families. However, the created world has a good set of details, from unselected characters that roam the game world to background objects that interact with the environment. Ecstatic choices that work, even if they don’t impress, and that make the environments much more interesting despite their general simplicity. The soundtrack and effects, however, do not present the quality to which the SEGA franchise has accustomed its audience. Some songs are extremely well done, for example the Sonic Act from Speed Jungle, but most are far too generic and repetitive. It’s a real shame, especially since musicians of the caliber of Jun Senoue and Tee Lopes worked on this project. The version we tested also has a bit unstable optimization. In our game, we encountered frame rate drops in several situations, as well as simple but unwanted graphical glitches. Nothing that would spoil the gameplay, but the game isn’t complex enough to warrant such brutal treatment for this release. The hope is that with some fixes the situation will be resolved in the future. Note that the first printing of the physical edition has a reversible dust jacket.
VERDICT
Sonic Superstars is a title that takes a beloved formula and takes it to an interesting multiplayer dimension. The result is an okay game that doesn’t reach the heights of the best entries in the series or the ambition of Sonic Frontiers, but it’s capable of providing interesting entertainment for fans, families, and video game enthusiasts.
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