Sonic Superstars Preview – Preview
The newly announced 2D platformer takes an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach.
Disclaimer: This preview of Sonic Superstars was run on a PlayStation 5 build.
In Sonic Superstars, you can choose from four playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. The story of each character starts with them split apart, with Sonic & Tails humming along in the air on the iconic aero plane and Amy & Knuckles seeing them from ground level and following suit.
The four protagonists have distinct powers: Sonic goes fast, Knuckles can glide and climb, Amy can double jump, and Tails can fly for a limited time, with a sliver of mid-air control. In addition there are new powers granted with the chaos emeralds collected. The ones on display were a water power that allows the player to swim up waterfalls, and an avatar power that floods the screen with clones of your character all attacking forward at once. These allow for alternate paths in the stages and expand your options on how to approach different obstacles.
The two zones displayed were absolutely littered with things to do, often to their own detriment. There are segments of half pipe along the way which characters run along from the side. It’s an interesting looking hook and a neat idea, but the speed gets throttled back the moment you hit the obstacle. All the neat new touches or ways to traverse the levels, generally seemed built to kill your momentum. This is something hopefully worked out before launch.
Several different side levels include ones that play like Sonic the Hedgehog 1’s emerald levels with a collectible medal at the end goal. The gameplay feels right, but the music has been changed from a kind of dreamy soundscape to something akin to elevator music. Another special bonus level is simply being glided along a vertical space and floating to catch rings for mere seconds. The emerald collection levels found at checkpoints consist of using a web-swinging motion system to propel Sonic toward a slow-moving emerald. Given how integral the powers tied to them are, I don’t expect the quest for seven Chaos Emeralds to be a challenging one.
Sega did themselves no favors with the start of their announcement trailer. The split screen view of sonic running back and forth both between classic era and Superstars made this game appear both slower than the original games and like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in comparison. It’s unfortunate because in action the movement doesn’t feel so slow, and Sonic and his friends actually have been translated to this style adorably. Everything is polished and smoothly shaped, with little details like tails having furry outlines when spinning into a ball, or Amy swinging with a hammer in hand when jumping. These details are different but not necessarily bad.
That said, Sonic Superstars seems to be a plethora of ideas spit out all at once as if the development team had a hard time letting go of all the concepts they had, which in practice doesn’t always land. Being on the cusp of its fall 2023 release window, fans of the series will soon be able to determine whether this new shift is for the better.
