Summary
Sonic Superstarsis the first Classic Sonic experience sinceSonic Maniathat aims to play like the old games while being completely new from top to bottom. The game starts with Dr. Eggman, Fang the Hunter, and Trip the Sungazer aiming to work together to use the larger animals found on the Northstar Islands as a power source for Eggman’s badnik robots. It’s up to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and - new toSonic Superstars- Amy Rose to stop the bad guys and save the day in the usual 2DSonicfashion.
While the new co-op based Sonic game was a great surprise announcement for the year,Sonic Superstarsaims to test if new2D Classic Sonic adventures can be released alongside 3D Modernones. As a result, the game developed by Arzest and Sonic Team may have a secret goal to set up a new era of ClassicSonicmuch like whatSonic Frontiershas done for the 3D set ofSonictitles. There are several aspects ofSonic Superstarsthat seem to allude to this, but the biggest is how the game breaks the longstanding trend of zones having two to three acts each.
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Sonic Superstars' Zones May Only Have One Act
The adventure starts off rather unassuming at first, with two acts making up a majority ofSonic Superstars' stages. Eventually, it’ll be made clear thatSuperstarsuses a third act as bonus stages for select levels, withBridge Island Zonehaving an “Act Fruit” for a fun bonus score-based challenge, and other zones such as Lagoon City Zone offering “character acts” where players will need to use one specific character to progress through an optional extra stage. However, soon after, fans may run into a shocking change of pace once they reach Sand Sanctuary Zone, as the stage begins with Act 1 and ends with Act 1, a surprising adjustment to a formula that’s been around for decades.
There are certainly bigger Classic Sonic traditions thatSuperstarscould have broken, but what’s surprising about the one-act zones is that in a game filled with new locations and platforming challenges, ideas are introduced that are fun and exciting only to be limited to a single stage. Some of these stages are more surprising than others, such as Cyber Station Zone, the digitized stage shown in every trailer that only appears as one long act with a challenging boss fightagainst Dr. Eggmanat the end, and that’s all despite its important presence in marketing. For those looking forward to these stages in particular, this may end up being a bit disappointing.
How The Zones in Sonic Superstars Remain Refreshing At All Points
Even though a few ideas may get left behind compared to the 2-act Zones,Sonic Superstarsdoesn’t fall into the same traps asSonic 4and offers tons of new ideas to take the place of those found in other stages with ease. Almost every stage ends with a boss fight, either with a giant animal badnik, Fang, or Dr. Eggman himself. The later stages in particular have rather challenging platforming puzzles and bosses to fight, even if some players find the difficulty spike that comes with them a bit annoying.
At the end of the day, with 11 carefully crafted stages that keepall fourSonic Superstarsplayable charactersin mind, there’s hardly any reason for players to get bored, as each stage introduces new concepts that are easy to learn but take practice to master. The character acts also encourage players to branch out and try out a critter they may not have played as otherwise.Sonic Superstarsis still good old-fashioned 2D Sonic fun with plenty of challenges around every corner to keep players moving and thinking, even if a few one-act Zones come as a surprise.
Sonic Superstarsis available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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