Game Reveal New 2D Classic Sonic Platformer Sonic Superstars Announced

[Memelord2020]

Sonic Origins Plus and THIS in the same year!?! Sonic fans be FEASTING this year!

[Jango]

Well, Tee has been teasing a lot with replies and he even retweeted the official trailer, something he did before with games he's worked on.

Also, Falk retweeted a picture of him and Tee from the Mania period (yes, from 6 years ago) a week before this announcement... For no particular reason.

I think they're cooking.

[___-_]

Theres’ an intro video going around that has music which I think is more inline with the game’s tone (sounds very “Saturday morning anime” like).
 

It’s the only thing that’s giving me hope that the music used for Speed Jungle Zone’s boss was just a huge mistake.

[LegoFedora]

16 hours ago, Graystripe2000 said:

10-minutes of the jungle zone. 

This...kind of restores a tiny bit of faith? It still looks like it needs a lot of work and still gives me that "tech demo" vibe to it all with how the level design seems to be plastered together, but it definitely isn't making me as annoyed/worried as the reveal trailer made it look.

I still have my issues with it, it still looks incredibly slow and the flow doesn't seem to be there at all (though that could be a result of the player not being the greatest.) Considering my first thought upon seeing this game revealed was "Oh lord they're making a sonic 4 for classic sonic", the uploader using Sonic 4 music was kind of funny to me.

I like how the animations look...mostly. I think Sonic being slightly tilted towards the camera is odd. I know that's how the sprites worked, but I think that's a concept that works better as sprites than as a 3d model you can easily turn around if needed. Boss looks incredibly uninteresting, but to be fair classic sonic has never really had super interesting bosses to begin with so that's not super surprising.

THAT ALL BEING SAID, the level design here is exciting to me. It is a bit slower, yes, and seems to have more branching paths and small obstacles to suddenly stop your movement if you don't see them coming. This reminds me a lot of Sonic 1s level design philosphy, which REALLY excites me. I adore Sonic 1s level design because speed is a result of knowing the level and physics, and not just handed to you on a silver platter with boosters/springs/setpieces like Sonic 2/3+ tended to do. If this game returns to the "Speed is earned, not given" mentality, then I can very easily see this game being one of my favorite classic games alongside 1 to replay.

Interesting game so far, but they still have a LOT to prove if they actually expect $60 for this. "Pretty" graphics and simply being a new game is not enough of a justification I'm afraid.

[DaBigJ]

So I guess we know why they went 3D now. Rip Mania 2.

[StaticMania]

People just "dislike" pixel art so much, it was the right call and such.

So and such.

I'm only liking it being in 3D for one reason, to see the 3D versions of Knuckles and Amy.

It's also nice that it's way better animated than Generations/Forces Classic Sonic.

[ZinogreVolt]

18 minutes ago, DaBigJ said:

So I guess we know why they went 3D now. Rip Mania 2.

Definitely sorta sucks that pixel art is probably dead because of market pressure, but Mania felt like the apex of that specific style so I can't say I'm too bummed about it. Bring on the new.

[Graystripe2000]

More impressions. 
https://primagames.com/featured/sonic-superstars-is-a-fresh-take-on-a-classic-style-summer-game-fest-hands-on-impressions

[Red Hot Jack]

New artstyle might have something to do with it feeling dated and not being worth 60 because it feels "indie" or "niche". There is already a lot of discussion that the game is not worth 60 just because it's 2D and that is associated with... again indie and niche, and retro.

Tbh this being perhaps high budget and full priced is a taking a risk by SEGA, it's only possible because Sonic is popular right now, and they feel confident people will buy stuff.

[Waveshocker Sigma]

A very populated post about the dash pads and automation. After giving it's multiple posts and ignoring the funny minor spelling mistake at the end, what do you all think?

[Wraith]

It doesn't explain the other poorly placed dash pads in the gameplay that we've seen.

[Tornado]

I think that Twitter thread is full of questionable opinions parlayed as facts from a guy who is as full of shit as that guy who made the huge Twitter thread and YT video about how Origins' music sounding like trash was "accurate to the original hardware;" but it's okay because this guy said he "has an idea how games work" and to the layperson he sounds confident/arrogant in the things he's claiming so he's killing it as far as social media is concerned.

 

 

 

 

Incidentally that Twitter thread is where I immediately went yesterday to pull the image of the GHZ tubes that were brought up in this thread so I didn't have to take my own screenshot, because I knew that he brought them up then to make the same claim of them being automated which is weird to do for someone who "has an idea how games work" because they're not fucking automated.

[StaticMania]

If they're going to put dash pads on the loops, at least put just ONE in the middle and not 2 on different ends...

That way it won't look stupid.

[Graystripe2000]

Another impressions tweet, I think? 

EDIT: Loop jumping confirmed. 

 

[Shiny Gems]

13 minutes ago, Graystripe2000 said:

Another impressions tweet, I think? 

EDIT: Loop jumping confirmed. 

Loop jumping may kinda be hard with some loops having speed boosters, but yeah, I am excited! Loop jumping was one feature from the classics that I liked!

[Dummy Bear]

I'm kinda convinced that the automation is there for the "dum dums who thinks Sonic is all about speed, but don't want to put in the work to earn it and call the game slow" crowd.

[___-_]

The speedboosters right before the S curves in Speed Jungle Zone I will excuse since that seems to be the gimmick that isnt found in other S curves that I’ve seen in Bridge Island Zone, and that they’re stage themed. “Gotta go fast” and all that to hook the peasents in. Imma wait and see if they start teaching everyone how to spindash in the future and see if they rely on speedboosters more (maybe they plan to too since they have been teaching other stage gimmicks at the beginning of each zone properly).

 

[DaBigJ]

Good news for people who don't like ear castration 

[KHCast]

5 hours ago, DaBigJ said:

So I guess we know why they went 3D now. Rip Mania 2.

I mean, idk how absolute this statement is, when things like octopath did so well, to the point it got a spiritual successor in the form of triangle strategy. People LOVED those games artstyle and blend of pixel characters with a more “modern” graphical looking environment.  Hell, mania iirc financially did incredibly well for Sega. Plenty of kids I’m sure ate that game up, simply because it was sonic. Idk if this was a statement brought out because of some focus testing thing, or something in the vein of when AAA devs would say stuff like “single player/survival horror/ etc is dead”, but I’d certainly love if he went into more detail on how they came to that conclusion. 

 

 

 

[DaBigJ]

God dammit it's still here.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, KHCast said:

 Hell, mania iirc financially did incredibly well for Sega.

 

You have to put statements like that into perspective. Yes Mania sold well, but it actually falls well short of where a game of that quality level "should" (emphasis on quotation marks) sell. It was hailed as spectacular by critics and the second coming of Jesus by the fanbase, and yet if you were to stack it next to Frontiers, a game of considerably less quality by nearly every conceivable metric, Mania gets its doors blown off sales wise. Plus it launched at a much lower price point, which really adds to the discrepancy between the two in terms of profit. -- and then you have to consider the market saturation of Sonic pixel games following Origins and Origins plus.... eh, Takashi ain't wrong here.

A Mania2 would sell a safe million+, but its not hard to see the ceiling on that return on investment, no matter how good the game turns out. As much as a sequel to Mania sounds like a good way to go, there is a decent amount of business sense in going in another direction and looking for that boom factor in SuperStars - particularly in a time when Sonics rep is near an all time high.

(personally, I would have tried to see if I could get the Mania team to be the force behind SuperStars, but that's a whole nother convo)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

6 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

Definitely sorta sucks that pixel art is probably dead because of market pressure, but Mania felt like the apex of that specific style so I can't say I'm too bummed about it. Bring on the new.

It's honestly hard for me to agree with this take. Games used pixel-art as a clutch for a long time between 2010-2020, and nearly every time a indie game or retro throwback came into the mix, it was bound to be using some kind of harken back to the NES/SNES era of graphics. It became a immensely tired and overused art style that got more and more generic as it showed IMO.

Mania is about the only thing I can give a big break for because Mania is very much running with the idea that it's a evolution of the 16-bit era into "what if a 2D Sonic Saturn game released", and as such, the sprite work was much more involved and developed. But it doesn't mean I want each and every single classic game using pixel art as it's clutch either. I don't really think it's a matter of market pressure killing it, I think it's a matter that most devs just didn't realise they had too much of a good thing and ultimately caused it to lose all of the charm it had. 

Especially for big companies, there's a point IMO where it stops being a charming throwback and more like a budgetary limitation. I was happy when Mega Man 11 finally moved onto evolving it's art and graphical design, and I'm happy they're doing it here too, personally. Not to say some games don't do it well, because they do. But again, we had a whole decade where that artstyle was like the one that was constantly used for every retro throwback, and indie game going. 

[DaBigJ]

Music confirmed to be absolute garbage

[Jango]

About the Mania 2 subject: I agree with his (Iizuka) decision (3D graphics instead of pixel art going forward), but not the motives. Maybe he sees the same reason why Mario never released a full 16-bits game after its heyday. But I disagree.

I think they can do both, as long as the games are well crafted, polished and fun, I don't think you can measure exactly how many people completely rule out games based on an artistic choice tbf. And while it may be true that mostly "old" gamers buy retro-inspired games, it still sounds kinda vague. Sonic 4 didn't had 16-bits graphics, and, well, you know...

I'm not too down about Mania 2 not existing the way I've imagined it, simply because Superstars is looking really good and fun so far. It has the most important part of a classic Sonic game to me: momentum and style. And while yes, I LOVE games made in pixel art, the art direction they picked for Superstars is pretty beautiful and colorful too. The small details are there, and the big ones too. 

I really am excited for this. 

[Soniman]

7 minutes ago, DaBigJ said:

Music confirmed to be absolute garbage

If Jun is heading this but people like Lopes are involved then at least only some of the music will suck instead of all of it!