Sonic Superstars | PS/XB/NSW/PC | 17th October 2023

played the first couple of levels while on my lunch break, pretty good so far. the new special stage is fun, nice to have something new instead of just another half pipe.

Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

Glad to hear you've enjoyed it rula

Yeah the bosses do sound like the most contentious aspect of this, I'm curious to see how I fare with them Super excited to play it tonight regardless, grabbed it on PC from CDKeys!

Jazzem wrote:Yeah the bosses do sound like the most contentious aspect of this, I'm curious to see how I fare with them Super excited to play it tonight regardless, grabbed it on PC from CDKeys!

The bosses are creative, I'll say that. But some do have a few random elements to them which is probably where the contention is coming from.

Hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

took me a good 9 minutes to get through pinball carnival act 2, spent a few minutes on the boss alone.

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

I am.

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

I am.

What’s it like on Switch, run and look good?

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

I am.

What’s it like on Switch, run and look good?

Yeah, it's pretty smooth on the Switch. Can't say there's really been any glaring cutbacks from it being on the Switch.

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

I am.

What’s it like on Switch, run and look good?

Yeah, it's pretty smooth on the Switch. Can't say there's really been any glaring cutbacks from it being on the Switch.

i have noticed loading in-between acts has been a bit stuttery at times.

Ploiper wrote:

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:

ITSMILNER wrote:

DarkRula wrote:Think I'm close to the end of my first run with Sonic, with six emeralds found. Very nice theming with the stages, with varied gimmicks with each theme. Also love the details of seeing the other characters in the background at times, making it feel like they're all working toward the same goal despite only one character being played. Had some close calls with those special stages, as well.

Bosses are also a fun bunch, but I'm terrible at them. Never seem to get through them with a single ring intact.

You playing on Switch?

I am.

What’s it like on Switch, run and look good?

Yeah, it's pretty smooth on the Switch. Can't say there's really been any glaring cutbacks from it being on the Switch.

i have noticed loading in-between acts has been a bit stuttery at times.

Yeah, the loading is a bit long. Didn't mention it 'cus I have no idea if it's the same across all consoles. Which, being Arzest, wouldn't be too surprising.

Seen this coming up a bit on my TikTok FYP and it looks, actually not terrible. Might pick it up on payday.

Despite some flaws, I've had a really good time with Superstars I'm about six zones in

I'd probably agree with where the reviews have landed. I love how it controls and there are a lot of great new ideas and level gimmicks. I've generally liked the bosses and challenge of it so far, though the game does have a few "...wait,what?" oddly punishing moments. Also, The rewards for medals you collect are really underwhelming unfortunately; cosmetics for the just okay battle mode.

Though I often dig how the game looks and sounds, it is very inconsistent there; sometimes coming across as quite cheap unfortunately. Especially a shame on the music side; there are some great songs but there are also some Mega Drive styled ones that don't particularly work.

So aye, overall I think the scores landing between 7s and 8s are fair I'd definitely say fans of classic Sonic should play it but I can also understand waiting on it. It's not a home run like Mania but still happy with £38.49 for it. Also; Playing it at 120fps on PC, even with a spin dash bug I'm hoping they fix, makes a huuuuge difference on fluidity! I will miss that going back to the other games

EDIT: Finished! Wow, folks weren't kidding on that final boss being brutal. Happy to say I honestly loved the second half of the game, some of the most creative stuff I've seen in the series honestly I honestly loved the challenge of the bosses as well, some really clever attack patterns. Though aye, they certainly could do with more leniancy here and there (again, especially that final one...).

beaten the game now, the final boss was frustrating as all hell. really didnt like the final zone either, felt like one of the more weaker ones in side scrolling sonic games.

Finished.

Really enjoyed that. I hope they make more of these games. Bless them for being creative with 3D sonic but every game they try so many innovative new things not all of them hits, they throw the baby out with the bathwater for the next game. Superstars is really the sort of game everyone wants, I hope they keep doing their thing with the 3D games then make one of these proper back to basics 2D games every few years.

Those bosses though! Some of the later ones were pretty tough, annoying there was no save points. Like I get the expectation is that a game should be 8 hours long (which is difficult with a sonic game) and they're maybe wanting to inflate playtime AND credit to them for getting rid of lives and game overs but some of them were time consuming and difficult and took a few goes so it wasn't very fun having to repeat the whole thing each time.

Not quite as good as Mania but nice colourful graphics, your standard running side scrolling sonic platforming was bang on with tight controls and there was a bit of variety in gameplay with some courses requiring you to use specific characters with levels built around their abilities. A big hit with me!

Edit. Decent bit of post game content, extra modes and playable characters. Battle is quite fun and I like the time trial mode.