A Closer Look At Sonic Superstars' Battle Mode, Metal Amy & Knuckles

Not big fan of Metal Amy. She can't have a skirt, but no shirt. That gives impression she's half-naked. And those engines in odd directions.

Hm. Online mode...i suppose it will need psn to access it. I hate online subscriptions to play a game i own. Shame.

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

And those engines in odd directions.

Float maybe?

I'm so happy to see metal knuckles again, even if it is in a smaller role like this.

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Sega walks you through the Battle Mode for Sonic Superstars, the upcoming 2.5D Sonic game for up to four players due out on October 17 for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

I had a feeling the default blank character was meant to be the base endoskeleton model that Metal Sonic was built over.

How does Metal Amy look? Can't find her anywhere

1 hour ago, ShadowForever said:

How does Metal Amy look? Can't find her anywhere

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by the new Metal character designs. Knuckles fares best, being similar to his Sonic R design, albeit looking significantly clunkier. But I don't like the fact that his spines aren't attached smoothly to his head, nor the fact that they're hinged in the middle. The metal plates on his shoes are too huge too. 

Metal Amy is really weak. Her face looks entirely cute and girly, instead of threatening. Her head shape is the same as Metal Sonic's, with the addition of a exhaust pipe her forehead to look like hair. All that combined with her "naked pink" torso and unusual jet-skirt just fakes for am uninteresting, boring and blue kind of ugly design. It lacks originality. At the very least, her torso needs to be recoloured to green. 

And finally we've got Metal Tails. Off the bat, his design isn't exactly the worst, but I don't particularly like it either. The positive is that I'm glad that they managed to give him a threatening face. Everything else though, nah. He looks oddly bulky with all of the heavy armour plating on his limbs. He's a very mustard-yellow colour, and I'd personally have preferred to see him look more orange. His jet engine tails are a cool idea that actually make sense, but they look a bit too busy. Maybe they're better in motion? But my biggest gripe is that, like with Metal Amy, he lacks originality. And that stings a lot because he didn't even need to exist. Tails Doll was already the perfect "metal" variant of the character, providing a much more interesting and creative Eggman-made doppelganger to Tails than just just giving Tails a Metal Sonic makeover. 

So yeah, kinda wish they went in a different direction with these designs. Whilst Metal Knuckles is alright and Metal Sonic is the same old glorious design as ever, the other two kinda stink. 

The only thing I'm not digging is how the robots do not turn into a ball when jumping. It looks awkward as fuck and even hard to aim. It's strange, because they nailed the ball form with the main characters, way better than Generations ever did. 

Other than that, looks like a fun time. Just mildly dissapointed that you can only use robots in MP modes... that's... a choice... maybe they'll reconsider.

All of the models have to fit the same head/torso/legs body plan, which is why they can't use Tails Doll for this.  I'm not really sure why they went for a clunky multi-part system rather than just having more flexible single-body costumes, and I think it may undermine some of the designs; I think Metal Amy's skirt boosters are an interesting idea, for instance, but I might not have bothered with the legs at all in that case.

I do like that they resisted the urge to give Metal Tails literal helicopter tails, and gave it two jets instead; I can picture Eggman smugly reflecting that he's improved on the original.  I think the strength of Metal Knuckles is that it's quite chunky and mechanical; it's a bit weirder than the others, and I think Metal Tails and Metal Amy could have used some of that weirdness, too.  Metal Tails and Metal Amy's eyes aren't quite so nakedly threatening as the other two Metals', but I don't know, I think they have an unsettling Five Nights At Freddy's sort of vibe.

Mainly I just want to see some better art or renders of the new Metals.  In-game screenshots won't necessarily be the most flattering introduction.

33 minutes ago, Salamander said:

All of the models have to fit the same head/torso/legs body plan, which is why they can't use Tails Doll for this.  

I just knew someone was going to say this. It doesn't hold up. Tails Doll still has the same body plan as everyone else. What exactly about him wouldn't work? 

The fact that these are...for some reason customizable bots instead of just character skins.

1 hour ago, Blue Blood said:

I just knew someone was going to say this. It doesn't hold up. Tails Doll still has the same body plan as everyone else. What exactly about him wouldn't work? 

Mea culpa; in my head, Tails Doll is really small, but I double-checked and he's actually of comparable size to the other characters.  In that case, perhaps his floppiness would have required unique animations which they didn't feel were appropriate?  Too great a commitment to the robot gimmick?  Doesn't really make sense to break it up into multiple modular parts?  I'm sure there must have been a reason, they know people would have liked to see Tails Doll.

1 hour ago, Salamander said:

Mea culpa; in my head, Tails Doll is really small, but I double-checked and he's actually of comparable size to the other characters.  In that case, perhaps his floppiness would have required unique animations which they didn't feel were appropriate?  Too great a commitment to the robot gimmick?  Doesn't really make sense to break it up into multiple modular parts?  I'm sure there must have been a reason, they know people would have liked to see Tails Doll.

I'm sure this is the only reason. Commitment to some degree of "Metal parity" between all of the characters. I just think it's a shame to see him pushed aside at the first real chance at a come back since 1997, in favour of a much more vanilla Metal Tails. They brought back Metal Knuckles, but not Tails Doll.

2 hours ago, StaticMania said:

The fact that these are...for some reason customizable bots instead of just character skins.

Honestly, established names like Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll should've been separate characters. I like the idea of picking Metal Sonic's head and torso and giving him an engine skirt, but whole characters should've been their own characters I guess.

You know... Looking at Superstars' Green Hill Zone... I... actually kinda dig it???? Would it be too much to ask for a Sonic remake like that?