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Things have been a little quiet for Sonic Superstars news this month. Other than an appearance at San Diego Comic Con, most of the time spent with Sonic Superstars news has been simply waiting for when SEGA and Sonic Team are ready to reveal more on the game. Today, however, has changed that with the publishing of a new issue of Game Informer magazine, complete with loads of new information on the game. First, let's check out the amazing cover artwork for the latest GameInformer issue, created by none other than Mark Hughes - aka @thesketchsector! So, where to begin with the information itself, then? Well, first things first, we now know the names of the first 7 zones of the game. Bridge Island and Speed Jungle, we've seen plenty of in the past month. Game Informer, however, introduces us to 4 more. Sky Temple, inspired by Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, occurs after Speed Jungle and one act that goes for 9 minutes long. The next zone is Carnival Pinball, which we briefly saw in the Nintendo Direct footage from last month. Lagoon City then follows, which seems to be the game's water zone. This is followed by Sand Sanctuary, a desert zone. The final zone that Game Informer mentions is Press Factory, but we know little about it because it was the moment the zone's name appeared that Game Informer's time with the game concluded. There is also a zone called Golden Capital, but it isn't known where it fits in the zone order. In fact, the name may have been accidentally confirmed via the names of screenshots Game Informer uploaded of the zone. There are still 5 unknown zones, and there are some of levels, including the one seen in the reveal trailer where we got to see the characters become pixelated, that don't immediately seem to have association with any of the named zones. What we do know, however, is that there are exclusive acts. For example, Sonic has an exclusive act in Act 2 of Speed Jungle. Amy Rose receives an exclusive act in Act 2 of Lagoon City, and there's an interesting part in the very end of the level where Amy escorts Trip to safety. What is, perhaps, the most interesting part of these exclusive acts is that Game Informer says that they're "seemingly optional". You don't necessarily have to do Sonic's exclusive act, for example, as the game will asking you after clearing a level if you want to do his exclusive act next, or a regular one. Oh, but that's not all. Not even close. According to Game Informer, the game has a world map, which they describe as "reminiscent of Sonic Generations' hub where you are running around a 2D plane and selecting your zone". Speaking of selecting Zones, Game Informer seems to be suggesting that you don't have to do multiple full playthroughs of the game just to play all the levels again with a different character. You can now apparently change characters on the fly in between playing zones and pick up where you left off to your own heart's content. It sounds similar to Sonic Mania's Encore Mode, but it's now the main game. So, with all that said, now we have to talk about the emerald powers. We already knew of Avatar, which causes a bunch of clones of your character to appear, so nothing new to report there. We already knew of Water, which allows Sonic to swim up waterfalls. But Game Informer and Takashi Iizuka revealed that this ability isn't limited to just waterfalls. It can be used to swim underwater too! Vision, an emerald power we learned in the Nintendo Direct, does exactly what we thought it was. It allows us to see hidden stuff. Iizuka, however, told Game Informer that there's an indicator that will let players know that there's any interesting stuff that's hidden in their general area. What makes this information particularly interesting is that, not only did we get new details about emerald powers we already know, we finally know all of the other emerald powers. Bullet, an ability where you can blast a character in a any direction you want, was revealed. Ivy allows your character to grow a vine where they stand and direct its growth in a certain direction. Slow, well, slows everything down on the screen. And the 7th emerald power may be the most interesting of all. It's an ability that is exclusive to each character. Sonic gets a Homing Attack, Knuckles gets a Punch, Amy can throw her hammer, and Tails can create a tornado (Tornado Spin) that will follow the ground and take out enemies in its way. There's also an 8th emerald power that all the characters can use, but we'll refrain from saying much more about it to avoid spoilers. You can probably guess what it is though! The final major bit of information we got, other than descriptions of the various bosses Sonic and his friends will encounter (for example, Carnival Pinball features Eggman in a roulette wheel), is that we finally know what collecting those gold medals do. There's a shop on the world map that will allow you to purchase various cosmetics for your characters. They include cosmetic parts for the head, body, arms and legs. There are also patterns, colors, accessories, and something that Game Informer says is called "prototype". That is all we know, unfortunately, as Game Informer isn't entirely sure how it will work, and they said that Takashi Iizuka "played coy" whenever they asked him about it. And that's everything. The game still has a "Fall 2023" release, but it's safe to say that it probably won't stay this way for much longer. Not only has Game Informer stated that they will have more Sonic Superstars-related news to share, but Gamescom is next month. So, it's very likely that we'll know by the end of August. So, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, all this news from Game Informer came with a lot of screenshots. You can see them all in the gallery below. Via Game Informer

Some fresh gameplay videos and previews of Sonic Battle have surfaced following the GBA fighting game's appearance at E3 2003, giving us all a bit more detail on how the mechanics work and how blindingly fast it runs. The following videos are from IGN, who recently posted three short clips from direct feed gameplay, along with a longer, more official SEGA promotional video. And a new report from Kikizo outlines the objective of this Super Smash Bros-looking spinoff. 2003-video-battle-may1.mp4 According to Kikizo, in Sonic Battle you "battle it out in an almost isometric style playing field against three opponents at the same time. The object of the game being that the first 10 KOs in two minutes wins, so you'll have to focus on knocking down your opponents as much as possible in this all out brawl and avoid being knocked off your feet as much as possible." 2003-video-battle-may2.mp4 As if that time limit wasn't fast enough, you can see that the game itself runs at mach speed. Each character appears to have their own combo punch and kick attacks, along with special aerial moves that can either lift, juggle or slam down your opponents. Sonic has his homing dash and a spin attack that can send foes upward, while Knuckles can perform a move that can close a gap quickly on the ground while punching their enemies to oblivion. We already know of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow forming part of the character roster, but these videos also showcase some new faces. Cream the Rabbit can use Cheese the Chao to direct attack commands, and we can see Rouge the Bat performing roundhouse kicks alongside E-102 Gamma launching electric attacks. There's also a new robot character that we haven't yet seen before... 2003-video-battle-may3.mp4 The arenas all pull from the usual library of Sonic environments, from a colourful beach stage to a cityscape and a pinball table. To mix up the play, it appears there will also be loadouts that can be configured every time you spawn, which could help you keep your opponents on their toes. 2003-video-battle-may4.mp4 Kikizo's preview overall wasn't very positive - the writer called the action "very fast, sometimes a bit too annoyingly fast that it makes it difficult to keep track of the tiny sized characters and the moves they perform. Even with the image blown up on a decent sized TV screen the characters were still quite small, making a need to play the Gameboy Advance with a microscope." "The character move set seemed to be quite limited to just a few overly simplistic moves that could be easily triggered by repeatedly tapping a single button to victory... The graphics were average at best and the sounds were pretty simplistic and generic sounding for the most part." We'll hold judgement until we play it for ourselves, but from the videos we've seen here we can say we're very intrigued. The more we learn and understand about how Sonic Battle plays, the better! For more images and information, check out our previous news story here.

Sonic had a big showing at E3 this year, but let's not forget that Sonic Team also introduced a brand new character at the show as well. Finally, we're getting a proper look at Yuji Naka's latest, which was first announced a month ago - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg! Judging by the screenshots, the game definitely has that iconic Sonic Team art style. Bright and colourful, with interesting environments to roll around in as you save the world from evil. Wait, "roll around"? Yep, as the name suggests, you play as a human called Billy who takes control of eggs dotted around the stage and uses them to beat up cartoon cat-like creatures. You can roll around using these eggs to pick up speed and dash around to higher places, which sounds an awful lot like Sonic to us. According to a preview on Kikizo, eggs are more than just toys. They're your primary source of protection in a world filled with monsters. "Without an egg you're vulnerable to enemy attacks and can't progress very far at all... you can launch [eggs] at enemies to kill them. Each enemy releases a orb-like fruit, so you can quash several enemies and then you'll be able to roll your egg over the orbs, increasing the size of your egg each time." Once the eggs get big enough, Billy "can hatch it to get an animal. In the spirit of the game's bizarre theme, these animals can be anything from flying chickens, to penguins, cows and seals. The animals you hatch often follow you around afterwards, and some will give you advice or help you when you interact with them, for example advising or helping you to tackle an imminent puzzle or obstacle." There will be lots of egg-based puzzles to work through as well. Kikizo mentions one example where Billy has to get himself and an egg across a chasm, and to do so he has to use a hatched animal's power to reveal some rails which the egg needs to be set on in order to roll ahead while Billy jumps across using an alternative route - before running round to pick the egg up before it falls into some lava. All in all, it really sounds like Billy Hatcher is turning out great. Check out the other screenshots that we got from SEGA below, and underneath that some artwork of the main character... Here's some artwork of Billy... Kikizo also got a short gameplay video from SEGA, you can watch it below: e3-2003-billyhatcher1.m4v It's certainly looking very cool! We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. Source: Kikizo

SEGA announced today a brand new 2D Sonic the Hedgehog title, Sonic Superstars, which will hit consoles later in the year. According to the press release: Check out the trailer below... ...and then read on for everything you need to know about the game! Ohshima is Back! That's right, our favourite Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator is back at the helm on this new Sonic title! Who could be better than Sonic's dad to be at the helm? Ohshima-san is overseeing the fresh new 3D look of this platformer. Fang the Sniper is Also Back! We were a bit giddy at this news (especially Adam - Fang is his fave!), but the purple peril will be armed with his cork-gun and undoubtedly causing trouble for our heroes! You'll have to wait until the end of the trailer to see him (unless you really have eagle-eyes!) but it is well worth it - he even arrives in his own vehicle, the Marvellous Queen! A Whole New World Sonic and his friends will be travelling to the new environment of North Star Islands, a "mystical place offering never-before-seen environments, as well as a mysterious story waiting to unfold". The Number of Characters That's right! FOUR CHARACTERS in the initial roster. From the teaser trailer, it looks like players will be able to take control of Amy Rose, alongside our regular trio. In addition to this, it looks like as a first for a 2D Sonic title, you can play as all characters simultaneously! Awesome (but I still get to be Sonic, you can be Tails). New Abilities Ahoy! Sonic and pals will be making full use of some pseudo-3D features, such as wall running and waterfall climbing in this new instalment. Undoubtedly each character looks to have some unique abilities - such as an ability to clone! Special Stages on Steroids We get a brief glimpse at the new Special Stages in Sonic Superstars, that look to take notes from some of the original rotating zones from the original title. In addition to that, it looks as though there will also be 3D environments in some special stages through which the player must navigate dangers. Pac-Man Fever! While the new game will make use of 3D models and assets, the game will also give nods back to the classic 16-bit look as well. Oddly, we also see our heroes transform into jellyfish characters, vaguely reminiscent of the ghosts from Pac Man. Why do they transform? We are yet to find out! Let's Get Physical The game will be released both digitally and Physically across all major platforms for the RRP of $59.99, so those of you looking to invest in a hard copy won't have to wait for, say, Sonic Superstars Plus! Are you folks excited? We certainly are!

We now know what Sonic Heroes looks like, but how does it actually play? Well, it's peak E3 season right now and lots of gaming websites are sharing their opinions on the game, with a lot more information on how the three-way team system is supposed to work. According to a preview by Kikizo, "you control Sonic, Knuckles and Tails simultaneously, with the heroes often speeding along side by side - although one character is always under 'primary' control. As far as we know, the characters never split up and leave each other." Each character in the team has their own unique abilities, which can be combined to create even more interesting styles of attack and travel. Players can swap between Sonic, Tails and Knuckles at will by pressing the X button, but there will sometimes be scripted areas which automatically swap you out for a specific character. Doing this is important (besides wanting to simply play as your favourite character), because some levels will have hazards and puzzles that can only be cleared using a certain hero's moves. "For example, some areas may be behind a solid rock-type surface that only Knuckles can destruct, while others are so high that only Tails can fly the three heroes up there. It is much, much better than in 16-BIT Sonic 2 , where Tails merely 'followed' Sonic pointlessly, often dying, due to massive lack of intelligence." It sounds like even the formation of the team will change depending on the character you are playing at the time and the moves you make. Here's Kikizo on the specifics: The opening stage, which is the area Kikizo played, was apparently very fast to play through with the action being "amazingly fluent, fast and seamless... levels are many times bigger than your average Sonic Adventure 2 level. They are huge - but at the same time, quite varied." The preview mentions that some stage elements have changed to consider the three-character play, with classic loop-de-loops adapted to include three separate tracks for each hero to run around. Overall, it sounds like Kikizo really enjoyed what they played! "Graphically, Sonic Heroes is beautiful. The game is so fast that some kind of technical compromise would have been understandable - but there are no such compromises. The 3D graphics are very solid and tangible, and the frame rate never drops below sixty even when there's loads happening on screen... Yuji Naka and the Sonic Team will definitely be onto a winner with Sonic Heroes, but ultimately the success of the game depends on how well the subsequent levels are designed." We'll share more on Sonic Heroes as soon as we can spot it!