Ohshima, Arzest, and Senoue: We Know Who's Making Sonic Superstars

Sounds like they're making this one heck of a comeback for Oshima.

Very nice. I like the sound of all this. Even though some of this makes me somewhat skeptical.

Not worried about the music. Sonic Team usually has a good feel for that, and puts the right people in place to take care of it. The only bad soundtrack I can think of is Sonic4 which gets a little bit of a pass considering it started development as an extremely small scale project.

I'm not sure what to think of Arzest. I don't think I've played any of their games, save for some involvement in Mario and Sonic series. On one hand, its staffed with Sega vets, who have been removed from Sonic Team long enough that they should bring something new to the table in terms of how they tackle 2D Sonic. So that's a good thing. On the other, these guys haven't necessarily felt the growing pains from 2D Gens and Forces - so they might fall into some of the same pitfalls.

3 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Not worried about the music. Sonic Team usually has a good feel for that, and puts the right people in place to take care of it. The only bad soundtrack I can think of is Sonic4 which gets a little bit of a pass considering it started development as an extremely small scale project.

Jun "Sonic 4 and the ill-fitting Origins S3&K Super theme" Senoue is in charge of the music and, quote, "is really focused on making it sound like a classic game."  We have some pretty firm insight at this point as to Jun's idea of what a classic game sounds like is.

Like, I don't want to be too mean since I love the melody-work in Sonic 4 (I wish Metal Sonic's Sonic 4 theme became his permanent leitmotif over Stardust Speedway) and Jun is responsible for so much amazing modern Sonic music over the years.  But if I've noticed one thing about him, he doesn't tend to innovate or go out of established comfort zones too much.  I can't see him adopting Tee Lopes' style to give us a rich, Mania-style classic soundtrack.  While Tee is involved, I imagine there's going to be an awkward hodgepodge of styles within the game, or Tee is going to have to match Jun's overall direction for the sound.

Like, I'm worried now.  Please, god, prove me wrong, Jun.

Yeah I'm not at all optimistic for the music after reading that. 

Level design will be good, though. Didn't know how Oshimas designed the levels in Sonic 1, too!

I have no problem with Arzest making the game. So far, nothing is raising any red flags, and games development is often more about leadership and vision rather than who specifically is making it.

That said, the music bit is worrisome. I'm hoping Senoue has improved his work on "retro" sounding music, or at least is gonna try taking a more inspired approach to it like the Classic music in Generations. But given how he completely fumbled the Origins tracks, it makes me weary.

I like to think Ohshima's involvement/influence over the design is a really positive sign that Superstars will be a lot of fun to play and will hopefully be one of the best 2D games (besides mania) we've had in a long time. I also feel Tee's involvement is a good sign. Every project he's been involved with (Sonic and non-Sonic) has really good music. So hopefully he can influence/guide Jun and help improve over the crap-fest which was Sonic 4's soundtrack. No more dying cats & ducks please.

If the music is at least on par with generations classic levels, which is a huge step above sonic 4, then we good. 

If Tee is on the team, there's nothing to worry about.

Well, I suppose in Arzest (and Jun) we trust.

A mixed blessing here, on one hand as mentioned, they’re not tainted with the previous Classic Sonic attempts, but on the other hand they also played a part in some troubling titles… and great ones too. Let’s hope this is on the latter end of that spectrum. 

With Jun - I love so much of his work… just not his approach to sound design in Sonic 4. Outside of a few banging tracks in Episode II (as well as the melodies themselves) - it was pretty terrible. But since it appears to be a collaborative effort I’m looking forward to seeing the approach taken this time. It’s just a shame Sonic 4 placeholder music was used in the videos - it taints the vibe the game is going for.

Music is super important to making the overall experience memorable, and contributes to compliment the gameplay hand in hand. 

As for the Mania Devs not following up? That sucks. Whilst I appreciate what Izuka was trying to do here, I actually would rather had not know this detail (mostly because I want what could have been, even if what we have looks promising). 

This is a who's who of who should not be making the next Sonic game, Tee and Falk aside. I'd be happy to be wrong about this if they stick the landing but I'll remain skeptical for now. 

Jun will do fine as long as he doesn't go out of his way for a retro soundfont. Which he might. However, given the theme of the game is classic thrills with a new feel, I imagine that much like the graphics they will not marry themselves to 16 bit sounding music.

My expectations for music have been seriously lowered. Anything that's marginally better than Sonic Forces' classic music will be a pleasant surprise. 

On another note, I knew Sonic Team was not behind this game on their own. I always knew there was a chance Sonic Superstars was developed by another company. That said, I wonder what engine they are using for this game if it is not Sonic Team and their usual engine?

On that note, if Classic Sonic appeared in another Modern Sonic title like Generations and Forces, do you think they could hire Arzest to do the Classic Sonic stages, like how Dimps did the daytime stages in the Wii and PS2 versions of Sonic Unleashed?

Honestly, I think a happy medium of "classic music" and "modern music" (for lack of better terms) could end up sounding like Rintaro Soma's song for Cyber Space 4-6: "Fog Funk". Not that I expect that to be the case, but it's not entirely impossible for it to come out sounding great. Let's just hope the other musicians working with Jun Senoue are able to act as quality assurance so we don't get an entire OST of cat meows again.

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if Classic Sonic appeared in another Modern Sonic title

I pray to god every night specifically to make sure this doesn't happen