They should have taken inspiration from klonoa to make the cutscenes, it just makes sense to have dynamic character expressions and dynamic camera shots in a 2.5D Platformer
Having those kinds of in-game cutscenes is important for a story driven narrative with little to no dialogue in a 2.5D platformer. Klonoa was able to get it right on the PS1. There's no reason why a modern game like Sonic Superstars couldn't!
nah triple a publishers are too afraid to experiment with aesthetics beyond le retro pixel art and sloppy 3d assets with tons of reuse cuz who knew making 3d models and environments is hard actually
The zone selection and asthetic is so basic and safe that Sonic Mania's few original zones are so much memorable and unique than any of the zones in Sonic Superstars from what I've seen imo. Edit: Doesn't help that so many of the enemies and gimmicks to an extent feel so derivative. Sonic fangames felt more unique than this lol
It's just a jumble of other zone themes. The art is also terrible, so plain and flat. Do not see the appeal with this game. For full price as well, yikes.
even if i'm not a fan of Advance 3, i have to agree that getting 2 gba and 2 copies of the game just to play an actually good CO-OP 2D multiplayer sonic was worth even in early 2000's
And Sonic Triple Trouble 16 Bit perfected it, letting switch characters on the fly during gameplay which should’ve been a thing by like Sonic 3, Chaotix or Advance 3. Oh wait you guys were talking about co-op multiplayer right? Well I was talking about single player but having Tails tag along with you but being able to switch and gain control of him in TT16 Bit
I think it’s worth mentioning Sonic 4 was just a rebranded mobile title for Sonic. The backlash was so bad they had to make new stages for the console versions to remove the mobile based gimmicks.
Idk why sega or Sonic team thinks telling the fucking story outside of the game is s good idea. At the very LEAST the extra material should be included in the actual game too.
Takes me back to the days of being required to read the manual to understand a game's story, except worse because you don't have to buy a separate comic
I played Sonic Superstars on the Switch, and when I ran out the timer for the main story final boss, it didn't kill me. Maybe if you're playing on the PS5, it doesn't share this quirk from the Switch🤔
It's a mixture of extreme pride from Sega, Sonic Team, and the Creator's of Sonic, along with some prejudice. Sega of Japan is known for being extremely offensive and critical towards American coworkers, which is what led to the failure of the Sega Saturn and several of the blunders in the 2000s. Sega couldn't care less about the quality of Sonic games either since their current parent company, Sammy, specializes in pachinko machines, meaning Sega is pulling a Konami and wants their old IPs to be mascots whilst they prey on Japan's extreme gambling addiction.
Still can't believe Sega tried to release this game very close to Mario Wonder and Spiderman 2. A problem i have with this game is that stuff just happens just because. I'm not asking for story or anything. I just want things to make sense. Mania gave you little sneak peeks on what to expect in the next stage. In Superstars, you suddenly play through a stage that's rewinding in time, which is cool, but it just kinda happens out of nowhere. And there are several pointless stage elements like those loopty loops you're forced to run around in 5 times, that just feels like they're dangling keys in your face.
I remember someone stating sonic team put the dangling keys as a way to extend the gameplay such as everything else in the game like the portals or you ever thought why they added so many em
I did enjoy Superstars, but something I noticed that I don't think anybody else has brought up is how shameless the Zone themes are. In Mania for example, them bringing back the old Zones as they were and actually managing to breathe new life into them by mixing in things from the other Zones, evolving their ideas like what you mentioned in Oil Ocean with the Flame Shield, or just improving them, felt like it was made with so much love and genuine affection for these locations and the playstyle. Now with Superstars you have Zones like Lagoon City, or Sand Sanctuary, or Press Factory. I remember playing the game for the first time and thinking "Oh so it's discount Hydro City." or "Oh, so it's not Sky Sanctuary because they changed one word for the new theme." It felt to me like they were edging how close they could get to copy the original Zone without BEING the original Zone because they knew we didn't want returning levels. I even remember in Lagoon City 1 just unenthusiastically expecting the Hydro City motif knowing it was gonna come up in the music, and what do ya know it did. See what I mean? Mania fully acknowledging it was double dipping in these old ideas is more forgiving than Superstars trying to slap a sign over one word of the name to basically be like "Oh see it's Press FACTORY, instead of Press Garden. Don't think about Mania and how much better it was!" It just came off as obnoxious at times really.
It's not just that the newer zones in Superstar are the less diet counterpart to old zones we're familiar with. It's just wasn't that intriguing as it could've been. They add so much gimmicks to each zones that were pretty uninspiring and they don't have the balanced between speed & platforming and no alternatives pathway. It's mostly stop & go, touch or push that, rense & repeat and they can be very obnoxious to get by.
@@nikolepsysyndrome7538 it’s so clear that they wanted to do something new-ish with the game, but they also really want to be so much like their predecessors Like the music, and cutscenes for example The game just never tried to go all out with its ideas and presentation It just went half way with them. it’s not bad, but, I wished it went about its themes and ideas more creatively.
SEGA thinking Sonic Supermid was worth $60 is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It’s the same Classic Sonic game yet again, failure to evolve either the Gameplay or Story.
Definitely don't worth the full price but to be fair though...it did tried some new things and ideas like the emerald powers they are... something new and the previous classic games never had that Soo that's somewhat innovative
The boss fights were definitely one of the worst aspects of Superstars and probably one of the worst in the series. It's what keeps me from going back to this game as often.
The game has noticeable input lag on Xbox and PlayStation and that may be the difference you're experiencing. It feels fine on Switch even though it has reduced graphic settings.
I think that the emerald powers should have been like the upgrades from some 3D games, giving you either a passive or new move depending on the emerald. Like Lightspeed Dash, losing only half of your rings from certain sources, or summoning the elemental shields. Something like that.
I had the unfortunate chance to play the entire coop experience for a stream, only in duo, but I can tell you, it gets so much worse. First, only the player that the game "currently" considers the main player can use some of the stage gimmicks. Meaning, if in Speed Jungle, you're in the dark cave, only one player can see, while the other one keeps trying to jump into the circle to at least understand what is going on. Same with Golden Capital, if the wrong player tries to activate the stage flip they'll just run off. Additionally, you literally cannot play the entire game in coop. The character specific stages literally kick your partner, which is odd, cause it's absolutely possible to just give the second player I dont know....a darker Knuckles and call it a day. And yeah, due to them blocking out the option that two people can play the same character you literally cannot properly finish Superstars. So at the end of the day the coop gives one the worse version, kicks you out at time and STILL doesnt let you experience the full game. The amount of bugs was also insane. Like we died multiple times during the final boss just because the ground kept glitching out and literally disappearing.
As a long time sonic fan I can confirm that co-op multiplayer in Sonic Superstars is DAMN near un-playable even with only 2 players.. 1.5 out of 10 for the attempt and nothing else. The game as a whole falls into the fine to aggressively mid category for me. Trips story was a f@#%ing nightmare for me to complete mainly with the extreme over abundance of damn near point blank egg-robo lasers to the face and spikes every freakign where. Not to mention the absolutely atrocious final boss design (Fang Bot). It would be slightly easier if almost every single god-damn attack wasn't a 1 hit instant kill and I agree with Lemon the boss wait times are unacceptable for any sonic game. I've played lots of Sonic mods/rom hacks where the bosses are designed to be harder but fair (Classic Sonic Master Edition Series). Never have I played a sonic game that made me actually want to damn near break my controller. I am a really calm person but damn man. My final verdict on Superstars is I would give it a 5 out of 10 in terms of playability a low 6 if im really feeling generous. Defiantly not worth 60 bucks i spent for this game for switch or steam personally I wouldn't even spend 40. The only reason I even plan on re-buying Superstars for steam is because of the rush conversion project hack/mod that converts superstars into a sonic rush style type game. So far it looks absolutely insane.
I’m kinda shocked people are being generally nice in this comment section. When the game first came out, everyone was ready to drag you around if you didn’t like it claiming you were just nitpicking or something. I guess people just stopped caring once the honeymoon phase passed.
@@BingBong67489 I'm assuming you didn't watch the whole video. Lemon gave a pretty detailed explanation on why they didn't enjoy it. And they're one of the nicer critiques. If I had to bring one very important factor that isn't brought up enough, Sonic Mania launched at 20 dollars. You only needed to pay 70 for the Collector's edition. Sonic Superstars which is generally agreed to be an inferior game to Sonic Mania launched at 60 dollars. So for anyone who jumped in or returned to Classic Sonic with Sonic Mania, Sonic Superstars is supposed to be 3-times the game Sonic Mania was. And by that metric, it failed miserably. Its not the worst game in the world. Its not the worst Sonic game in the world. But its a game that had heavy expectations on it and it couldn't even do the bare minimum of being an uninspired sequel that does nothing wrong, but fails to impress. Its a game with flaws unique to itself that turn people off.
Are you telling me the developers of THE Balan Wonderworld attempted to tell a somewhat complicated story and did so in the most bizarre way possible, requiring external media to (just barely) understand it? I think they just don't like the concept of voice acting at this point.
The game is so much fun to control in the brief moments for the level design isn't awful and it sucks because I keep wanting to go back to it before realizing it's shit
I knew I wasn’t tripping about the background. It was really triggering me a bit. So much blur and nothing going on. No detail. Nothing in comparison to generations. It’s such a downgrade on an artistic level. It kills the immersion. This game was definitely made cheaply. I’m glad someone mentioned this.
@@pinstripecool34I know this is an old comment, but I’m glad to see it from you two. For a while I didn’t know if it was just a change of my mindset due to my age, or is it the fact modern stage designs seem like rush attempts in trying to project the vibe of an old stage designs. All of it without actually putting in the time to what designs and details make stages standout. Feels like generic commercial temporary ad type of designing lol…
my god just looking at the footage i genuinly am flabergasted at how frequently the players get respawned, a simple upwards spring shouldn't despawn every other player. my biggest criticism of classic sonic is the close up camera to begin with, it was justifiable when hardware limitations were concerned, but even in mania which has a stage where you move in the background, it was honestly so much better due to actually seeing where you'd land from a running speed jump. so having an even more zoomed in camera in a multiplayer game is just criminal. if sega for whatever reason attempts to make a coop classic game again it should strictly be online coop with individual screens, keep the end of act mini bosses from sonic 3 to lock the lead players in place while the others catch up so the leading player can still play the game and can finish the stage if the others are too far behind, while giving the other players a chance to still fully play the stage and join in mid boss fight to keep an illusion of coop. hell could make it more competitive by allowing you to attack eachother to add some chaos.
When it comes to game content, quality and sales, Superstars gets often compared to Mania, which is completely understandable and valid thing to do. However, there seems to be a strange, skewed narrative floating around, that when it comes to sales figures, Superstars has been a catastrophic flop for Sega, which is not true at all! Back in 2017, Sonic Mania sold around 1 million copies, while Sonic Superstars has sold over 4.3 million copies world wide, in less than a year.
Sonic fans are just being biased dweebs that flanderize their classic games or games that are almost like them, to not see any of the good /great qualities of Superstars or the weakness of those other titles. They don’t care if Amy isn’t taking after her Sonic Advance moveset (because they don’t play those games ever) or how Trip objectively has a far more well-thought out and creative moveset than whatever was going on with Mighty and Ray, or how lame a lot of the bosses in Sonic 1-Mania are in comparison to most of the bosses in Superstars.
@@justice8718 Trip's moveset is literally just the Pink Spike wisp Color Power from Sonic Colors repurposed and nerfed (you can't spindash on walls), it's not very unique or creative at all, lmao.
This game is pretty rough, but it has its moments. What really got me in this video was when you were talking about the backgrounds. Looking at how flat the backgrounds in this game were with the little detail they've got, it made me think of Sonic 4: Episode 2. I looked at a playthrough for the game, and it was sad to see how a mobile game that released when I was seven years old had better backgrounds than Superstars; better music too, somehow.
As for the story, I think Trip’s arc was fine for a simple plot. My main problem is just the lack of cohesive lore behind the Northstar Islands. There’s inflation fetish animals, an evil dragon, that’s it. We never learn anything about why this place is the way it is. Like in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, we discovered the Master Emerald’s connection to the Chaos Emeralds throughout the adventure, and from the manual we knew Knuckles was the guardian and didn’t want us here because Eggman tricked him. Here it’s like, why do the Emeralds change Trip’s entire species? What’s her light dragon’s connection to the dark dragon at the end? Is there one? Where does the dark dragon come from and what’s its purpose? I’m not asking for like walls of text, you could just say the dark dragon is Trip’s dad pulling her strings and he needs Eggman’s technology to be brought to full power. Bam, lot of my issues solved.
So, this is a pretty small point, but it does speak to how low effort this game feels and it's the badnik designs. Specifically, what type of badniks are in each level. Say what you will about Mania, but the badnik integration into the level themes was spot on, with each zone having it's own set of unique enemies that fit in some way, shape or form into the level's theme and aesthetic. Now look at Superstars, and take a shot every time you see that stupid pink spike ball enemy, and you'll die by the 2nd zone's last act (I know some zones have unique baddies, but it's honestly nothing compared to the variety Mania had)
When talking about the Co-op section, it wouldve been nice to bring up the Advance series as those had a true co-op mode with no setbacks. As you needed two systems with each a copy, the limitations were lifted because your screen only focused on yourself. For example, in Advance 3, you and a friend can play through the entire game in co-op with no drawbacks AND experience the character synergy you wouldve gotten regardless in single player. Its a shame that many wont experience a perfect sonic co-op mode today like in the Advance series.
Hey there Lemon! This is the first video from you that I'm watching, and I'm impressed! It's engaging from start to finish and your writing along with the way you speak communicates your ideas in an enjoyable and easy to follow way. I also like how you don't seem to be forcing any kind of cool or funny voice/personality, it sounds very genuine. And I say that as someone who usually acts like a kid with short attention spam and drops a video the instant I think I won't enjoy it as much as my comfort stuff (Caddicarus). So congrats!
39:14 mrbluejay mentioned mrbluejay mentioned in all seriousness this video is class mate, i honesty really do think that superstars was just a cheap knock off mania that could never hold a candle to it. this video put those thoughts out in a perfect way and i mirror a lot of what you think, less so tho since i gave up after like the second world lol also yeah the online is wank
Sonic superstars doesn’t feel like a Sonic game because of the, music, zones, texture, and bosses. Well Sonic superstars feel’s like a *FANMADE* game. And the multiplayer does not focus on the player who’s going ahead, Sometimes.
I don’t understand how you can call yourself a fan when the games that get the most praise are the Classic 2d games and the advance and rush trilogy are also seen as quality games.
She didn't realize eggman and co were the bad guys she was force to work under them and didn't have the courage to speak against it's very important element in her story that represent her mental a anxiousness and lack of ability to speak to herself and face others and how kindness communal aid allow us to break from our outer shell reveal the truth Even her design is a play on this when the armor is removed it reveals the sun the truth about that we are hiding out of fear from ppl How ppl miss her story that bad or the story of superstars in general
I agree with the general charscterization of Superstars as a pretty boring, rote Sonic game. But, describing Pinball Carnival as a watered-down Carnival Night (while fair from aesthetic perspective) gives the latter too much credit from a level-design perspective. Carnival night is easily one of the weakest Sonic 3 levels in my opinion, and Act 2 has several sections that completely kill the pace. While arguably more forgettable, I'd easily prefer the superstars version simply because it's far less annoying to play through.
I see what your saying tbh, i just found the levels very uninspired in this game but carnival knight is probably pretty a pretty weak level to compare it to.
Nah bro no one is gonna remember pinball carnival . The flow was off imo ..I love the theme of act 2 tho but everything else is clunky and weird and forgettable compared to carnival night but I respect ur opinion
@@joshuatrevino4508I respect your opinion, but I really love pinball carnival. In fact, I definitely prefer it over the Sonic 3 level However, I respect your opinion, and I get why you think that. (Also, that sonic 3 zone kinda has a problem with crushing object, but tbf, almost? every 2D sonic game has that problem)
@@prismaticseal2553 what is the intent of this comment? 🤔 Anyways, that was just my opinion. You can have a different opinion. All I ask for you is to be not be rude about it Also, wdym by "not respect"? You mean respectfully disagree? Because otherwise, it seems like you might start being rude to me... of course, if that did happen, then I did nothing(other than expressing my opinion) If that made sense
If this had come out a year after S4 E2, people would have praised it for being a step in the right direction. The problem is, Mania happened and raised the bar so high, that in comparison Superstars feels like many steps backwards.
on the final boss rant, actually the time limit is purely cosmetic, i found this out from the timer running out from the bosses phases taking so damn long. it honestly left me so aggravated because i'd just watch the time tick down and the boss just stand there inbetween attacks, the fang final battle specifically was so horrible for this, i legitimately quit the game after livestreaming both stories because it just absolutely disrespected my time with its constant instakills. also the headslam was his final hit??? i'm actually pissed off i gotten there once, right as my patience was running out and died to it, i was too annoyed and impatient to ever see that attack again before the time i quit like 2 hours into attempts.
The final Eggman fight was almost responsible for the ultimate destruction of my Controller. Jesus Christ and don't get me started on the final Fang fight.
This game did something important for me. While generations and mania made sega think they needed clasic Sonic, Superstars kinda failed. Maybe they'll stop trying to force classic on us now and release some Modern Sonic spinoffs like rush or storybook games again.
19:31 oh yeah, I totally forgot about the spindash problem. Apparently your spindash is tied to your fps, so if you're playing above or below 60fps (I think), then your spindash is weaker.
Not to be an asshole, but I personally didn’t find the game compelling. Is like they have a really nice momentum based movement but the level design never takes full advantage of it. And that’s just the biggest issue. I feel like the game shares a lot of problems with both superstars and frontiers.
naoto ohshima directed Sonic CD! he played a big role in that game, designed amy, and i recall the composers saying he was very strict about the music and went through several drafts and ideas until the music was the way we know it today.
Kind of disingenuous to talk about how Jun’s songs sound like Sonic 4 while playing music from that game instead of this one. Like I agree with the overall point, but the execution was misleading
When I played this game in 2P (Switch) a glitch made it impossible to beat the giant Eggman. You don't regain control right away, and the game positions you too far to the left in 2P, so when he enters the second phase you are always instantly killed. When you play it 1P you start in the correct position and have no issues
I think sonic superstars is pretty good, I like all the levels they have pretty good gimmicks. The music is nice. Overall, it’s no Mario wonder but it is a fun game
59:00 I do like Mario Wonder I do think it’s better than Sonic SuperStars… but do we really have to trash on one game to prove that another game is good? And I hate that people couldn’t praise Mario Wonder without shooting Sonic Superstars down.
I choose to compare superstars against Mario wonder because they were both brand new 2d platformers releasing at exactly the same time as each other and for the exact same price. It just shows there are other options for 2d platformers.
Great video, you have hit the nail on the head. Those bosses are dreadful. I haven't completed it yet because of the final boss. Got all emeralds but just can't bring myself to go through the boss battle.
i think sonic superstars is on par with sonic forces in terms of rating. both of them are bar none the WORST sonic games i've ever played. before someone comes in saying "but 06" no! I had fun with 06. I enjoyed what it tried to do, even if it failed. Also it came out in 2006, forces was 2017 and superstars is 2023, they had so much more time and they sucked that much harder. I had fun with 06, I did not have fun with superstars or forces. Absolutely terrible games. 2/10 for both
i haven't played superstars in a minute but from what I remember it felt a bit sluggish. actions all felt slightly delayed, jumping felt weirdly heavy but floaty at the same time
I don’t like Sonic. Unleashed on Xbox 360 was great. Colors sucked. Generations was just ok. Mania was great. There are just too much garbage games in between the good ones.
As someone who has been around since the early 1990s, I can guarantee you that the true golden era (now the 'sprite OG' era) is the 16-bit "Sonic" games and "Sonic Mania (Plus)". Outside of that true golden era, it's extremely divisive on what a 'good' "Sonic" game is within the extremely messy fan base. It's been that way since the shift to 3D on Dreamcast with "Sonic Adventure", and it continues to be as divisive as it is now with "Sonic Superstars". Personally, I'd rather stick to the mainline 2D sprite OG "Sonic" games, especially since I know it's going to be THIS divisive outside of the 'sprite OG' era.
The guy in the video was right about the classic sonic games not having much story in terms of plot but they told a lot through the music, level art, etc, it had a deeply infused feeling of cinematic story to it for lack of a better word, like when you're sailing on the tornado heading to eggman's base as that triumphant music plays, the games communicated a lot through their art and music and really made it feel like this big meaningful journey without having much explicit plot, which is something completely and utterly lacking from superstars, the music and art is so indistinctive and bland and it barely feels like there's much of a journey in the game at all
I think in terms of Classic Sonic music, I think Jun Senoue should try experimenting with blending "mega drive" synth leads with his usual style. If you listen to his Splash Hill arrangement from Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, it sounds great (especially compared to the original), so I think an original song with that style in a more contemporary Classic Sonic game, instead of going balls to the wall and recreating the "classic Sonic" sound wholesale would be way cooler and more interesting.
@@newtonshiggers I partially agree in the sense that I don't think his version of the classic Sonic sound works especially well. Though, I think he could produce something pretty good if he changed his approach, I just don't think he should do the "faux genesis/megadrive classic" thing. Other songs in the soundtrack had full fidelity and sounded fairly modern in terms of production, so he could lay down some cool more-modern sounding stuff without it sounding out of place. Ironically, I think him trying to make "classic" music, makes him sound more out of place, than if he produced music with his more "modern" approach. Something similar to some of Heroes' soundtrack could work, I think.
Personally if this game didn't have the Fang boss I would give it a solid 8, I genuinely enjoyed it, but the Fang boss fight was quite frankly the closest I've ever been to actually punching a hole in my fucking monitor, and I've played really challenging games in my life time
Arzest is a successor company to Artoon which was founded by Ohshima in 1999. Naoto Ohshima is uncredited on all versions of Sonic Adventure since sadx due to a fallout between Yuji Naka.
53:40 this is actually incorrect. At least, for the steam version. I don't know about the others, but you can't run out of time on steam. The timer counts down until zero, but just stays at zero. I played it for the first time with friends on discord who had already beaten the game when it came out. I will never forget the hours of time I spent grinding that boss since I'm ass at the game and panicking as I ran out of time, followed by probably the loudest I've ever yelled "WHAT" humanly possible as infinite time was revealed. So while you can't run out of time, the game makes you think you do have limited and gives players mini panick attacks. Thanks superstars
For me the time killed me if I was in the first phase of the boss fight. Once I got to the second phase where he enters the foreground then the time limit didn’t matter
I think there's a huge gap between the classic 2D games and newer 2.5D titles (not just in Sonic games-this is a trend I've noticed a lot elsewhere too) that boils down to one very simple, but also crucial difference: 2D sprite-based games had stricter limitations and would try to squeeze every single last bit out of those limitations to get the best possible visuals, sound, character interactions etc with what they had. As soon as you're using full 3D graphics (even if the gameplay remains 2D), there's zero reason to keep any of those restrictions around: no need for the characters to animate as if the game still works with limited sprite sizes (models can go bigger and more expressive than that), no need to keep any megadrive-esque synths, no need for cutscenes to still work as if sprite animations were all the game was capable of, no need for the usual static zoomed-in camera that was born out of the megadrive's resolution and tile dimensions. A 2D, sprite-based game working with those kinds of restrictions is creating more with less, while a 3D game mimicking those restrictions is doing the exact opposite: creating less with more. Even if they aren't hardware limitations, but instead self-imposed restrictions like in Mania, it still works! Mania occasionally uses some lowpoly 3D models on things like the big rings, special stages, or even some stage backgrounds, to make them look more special and impressive, but if the entire game looks like Superstars does, it stops pushing any limits, and just ends up feeling like it's holding back all the time (because it is). Also while this isn't my main point, as for the game feeling unfocused, it's like Superstars is trying to be 3-4 games at once? One or two games focused on Fang and/or Trip, one with the various abilities, and one with 4-player coop. I don't think a game should be juggling so many ideas around at the same time if it can't properly design the game around literally any of these.
sonic superstar is a game i completely forgot existed whereas sonic mania is a game i recall fondly. the interesting part is i have neither watched nor played either of those games. weird isnt it?
I 100% believe that they don't know what they're doing anymore. Breath of the Wild did well? Slap sonic in there! Fans want SA3, Mania 2 or a Chao Garden game? Nah, have a game that plays itself. This IP is wasted, man.
Breath of the Wild? What's that got to do with it? Are you one of those clowns who think Sonic Frontiers is like BoTW? I agree with your point, but BoTW is about as similar to Sonic Frontiers as DOOM is to Bubsy 3D. (They're both 3D, that's it) BoTW is just The Zelda Scrolls V: Skyrim, not Sonic Frontiers' inspiration or anything of the sort.
12:49 I respectfully disagree I would much prefer a simple story with a decent depth rather just a simple sonic vs Eggman plot I would much prefer a simple story with a decent depth in it rather than just plain simple plus I think the characterizations are actually great for the cast and fairly accurate enough including the new character you may not like her but i did..and I can appericiate atleast the writers went on their way and added an extra layer to the story of the game yes it's still a simple story but will a decent depth
I enjoyed superstars 🤷🏿♂️ maybe feel like they wasted their money because a 2D game hasn’t been the same price of a 3D game in YEARS. If superstars was $40 I think it would’ve been received better
It's really strange that they leaned on "couch co-op". If the multiplayer had been built around online multiplayer where you could race your friends, that could've actually been cool. This is a type of game that does not work at ALL for cooperative play, but competitive play for a type of game already built around optimising your play to go faster seems like a no-brainer.
for the bosses they took inspiration from Rush. that's copy pasted. 1 hit then wait out animations until you can get the next hit in except for this game they purposefully limited you to just 1 hit per chance you get.
They really dropped the ball not getting evening star to make another mania like game again. Mania was really close to prefect if it had original levels and maybe Amy playable
The fact that they used not having more characters as a SELLING POINT!!!! It no longer surprises me that they went to the mediocre Paramount for the movies.
Hey lemond, praying that your getting trough life challenges. Please take the time you need to sort things out. life do be lifen but we'll always be here supporting. great job with this review and I agree with every statement you made about this is game, tbh I'm threw with franchise. I've accepted Sonic isn't for me anymore but indie games like freedom planet, spark the electric jester, and rolling rascal have given me everything i love, value and play a sonic game for. Sonic in my perception is no longer a respected gaming icon he's just a corporate children's mascot, all style and no substance. I respect your opinion on 3D sonic but personally I don't like most of the 3D games at all, Adventure 1&2 have their merits but overall I'm not a fan of the many different play styles those games brings to the table and the boost games ain't my cup of tea. sorry you had an unpleasant time with superstars but genuinely appreciate the thorough review, Also if you don't mind me asking, what's the outro music?
Thanks for the kind words pal. I can see how the adventure games just don’t do it for some people tbf, there a mismatch of a lot of different gameplay styles. The music in the outro is electric toothbrush from the jet set radio soundtrack
Only Super Mario Bros Wonder haters/post-2000s (and that mainly excludes other media than the games, which some are actually great like Sonic Mania) Sonic fanbrats would dislike this.
The guy straight up says he loves Super Mario Bros. Wonder and dislikes this game, lmao. There are 90s fans that don't like Superstars and there are post-2000s "fanbrats" that like it. Get off the copium.
I wanted to like this game, I really did. The whole time I was playing I felt underwhelmed, waiting for it to pick up a bit and when I finished, it was like "is that it?". The final Super Sonic boss was really not enjoyable, as well as feeling extremely tacked on out of nowhere- "Oh by the way, here's a huge dragon to fight"
Ah, Sonic Superfarts. Which totally isn’t worth 60 dollars by the way. Picked it up, put it down and never touched it again until Sonic’s birthday this year. And I never want to see classic Sonic brought back again. Bullshit level design and enemy placements, horseshit bosses, abysmal and borderline unplayable co-op, mid soundtrack. Never even beat the game after getting to the last part against Eggman; having to play it all again with Trip to get the true ending? Kiss my ass. Yeah no, Sega needs to let this iteration of Sonic die already.
I’m a simple man, when I see a lemon upload I must watch
exactly
facts 🔥
Based
They should have taken inspiration from klonoa to make the cutscenes, it just makes sense to have dynamic character expressions and dynamic camera shots in a 2.5D Platformer
Yeah that I can see, plus WAH HOO
Having those kinds of in-game cutscenes is important for a story driven narrative with little to no dialogue in a 2.5D platformer. Klonoa was able to get it right on the PS1. There's no reason why a modern game like Sonic Superstars couldn't!
nah triple a publishers are too afraid to experiment with aesthetics beyond le retro pixel art and sloppy 3d assets with tons of reuse cuz who knew making 3d models and environments is hard actually
Nah that would require Sega to give any Sonic character some sort of character
The zone selection and asthetic is so basic and safe that Sonic Mania's few original zones are so much memorable and unique than any of the zones in Sonic Superstars from what I've seen imo.
Edit: Doesn't help that so many of the enemies and gimmicks to an extent feel so derivative. Sonic fangames felt more unique than this lol
It's just a jumble of other zone themes. The art is also terrible, so plain and flat. Do not see the appeal with this game. For full price as well, yikes.
The zone selection music has very short loop too which gets annoying really quickly and Jun Senoue has no place in Classic Sonic soundtracks
Something to note is that Sonic Advance 3 did the co op thing almost perfectly.
True
even if i'm not a fan of Advance 3, i have to agree that getting 2 gba and 2 copies of the game just to play an actually good CO-OP 2D multiplayer sonic was worth even in early 2000's
And Sonic Triple Trouble 16 Bit perfected it, letting switch characters on the fly during gameplay which should’ve been a thing by like Sonic 3, Chaotix or Advance 3. Oh wait you guys were talking about co-op multiplayer right? Well I was talking about single player but having Tails tag along with you but being able to switch and gain control of him in TT16 Bit
I think it’s worth mentioning Sonic 4 was just a rebranded mobile title for Sonic. The backlash was so bad they had to make new stages for the console versions to remove the mobile based gimmicks.
For the story of this game, you need to read the idw fang the sniper anniversary comic to understand part of it, such great story telling
No to diss the comics or anything but I shouldn't have to read a seperate, and different form of media to understand the story of any game I'm playing
@@candybird true, especially if they aren’t gonna explain the story well in game
Cute pfp.
Idk why sega or Sonic team thinks telling the fucking story outside of the game is s good idea. At the very LEAST the extra material should be included in the actual game too.
Takes me back to the days of being required to read the manual to understand a game's story, except worse because you don't have to buy a separate comic
For the final boss of the main story, even though it looks like running out of time will kill you, it doesn't.
It did for me in the first phase, once u get to second phase where it enters the foreground it was fine
@@_lemon52It didn't for me
@@_lemon52 I recommend Freedom Planet as a successor to 2d Sonic.
It's still an piece of a trash boss though. No matter how better you get, it is still badly design.
I played Sonic Superstars on the Switch, and when I ran out the timer for the main story final boss, it didn't kill me. Maybe if you're playing on the PS5, it doesn't share this quirk from the Switch🤔
It still boggles my mind that Sega dumped Whitehead from Superstars. His team CLEARLY know more about 2D Sonic then Sega's "Sonic Team" does.
Even the creator of Sonic himself
Ita clearly because of Ego. Sonic team was surprised Sonic Mania was such a huge hit remember?
It's a mixture of extreme pride from Sega, Sonic Team, and the Creator's of Sonic, along with some prejudice. Sega of Japan is known for being extremely offensive and critical towards American coworkers, which is what led to the failure of the Sega Saturn and several of the blunders in the 2000s. Sega couldn't care less about the quality of Sonic games either since their current parent company, Sammy, specializes in pachinko machines, meaning Sega is pulling a Konami and wants their old IPs to be mascots whilst they prey on Japan's extreme gambling addiction.
none of the Mania team actually wanted to return to work for Sega lol
@@KewlSokudoSource?
Still can't believe Sega tried to release this game very close to Mario Wonder and Spiderman 2.
A problem i have with this game is that stuff just happens just because. I'm not asking for story or anything. I just want things to make sense. Mania gave you little sneak peeks on what to expect in the next stage. In Superstars, you suddenly play through a stage that's rewinding in time, which is cool, but it just kinda happens out of nowhere.
And there are several pointless stage elements like those loopty loops you're forced to run around in 5 times, that just feels like they're dangling keys in your face.
And for $60 initially too
The most tiresome thing about Sonic now is the "we're going into space now folks, just because" finales.
I remember someone stating sonic team put the dangling keys as a way to extend the gameplay such as everything else in the game like the portals or you ever thought why they added so many em
I did enjoy Superstars, but something I noticed that I don't think anybody else has brought up is how shameless the Zone themes are. In Mania for example, them bringing back the old Zones as they were and actually managing to breathe new life into them by mixing in things from the other Zones, evolving their ideas like what you mentioned in Oil Ocean with the Flame Shield, or just improving them, felt like it was made with so much love and genuine affection for these locations and the playstyle. Now with Superstars you have Zones like Lagoon City, or Sand Sanctuary, or Press Factory. I remember playing the game for the first time and thinking "Oh so it's discount Hydro City." or "Oh, so it's not Sky Sanctuary because they changed one word for the new theme." It felt to me like they were edging how close they could get to copy the original Zone without BEING the original Zone because they knew we didn't want returning levels. I even remember in Lagoon City 1 just unenthusiastically expecting the Hydro City motif knowing it was gonna come up in the music, and what do ya know it did. See what I mean? Mania fully acknowledging it was double dipping in these old ideas is more forgiving than Superstars trying to slap a sign over one word of the name to basically be like "Oh see it's Press FACTORY, instead of Press Garden. Don't think about Mania and how much better it was!" It just came off as obnoxious at times really.
It's not just that the newer zones in Superstar are the less diet counterpart to old zones we're familiar with. It's just wasn't that intriguing as it could've been. They add so much gimmicks to each zones that were pretty uninspiring and they don't have the balanced between speed & platforming and no alternatives pathway. It's mostly stop & go, touch or push that, rense & repeat and they can be very obnoxious to get by.
@@nikolepsysyndrome7538 it’s so clear that they wanted to do something new-ish with the game, but they also really want to be so much like their predecessors
Like the music, and cutscenes for example
The game just never tried to go all out with its ideas and presentation
It just went half way with them. it’s not bad, but, I wished it went about its themes and ideas more creatively.
Press Factory and Press Garden do not feel alike in the slightest but I totally get the Lagoon City and Hydrocity comparison
@@jaretco6423 ??????? Press Factory isn't a snow level. Frozen Base is. And I'm not even sure how you got them confused cause they aren't even alike.
@@jaretco6423 lol
SEGA thinking Sonic Supermid was worth $60 is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It’s the same Classic Sonic game yet again, failure to evolve either the Gameplay or Story.
Deffo didn’t feel like a full price triple a game to me. More like a digital only download title for like $25
Definitely don't worth the full price but to be fair though...it did tried some new things and ideas like the emerald powers they are... something new and the previous classic games never had that Soo that's somewhat innovative
@@JakeThehedgehog-m1x The Power up Shields existed and a lot of the Emerald Powers are contextual aka not useful in normal gameplay.
I disagree but alright, cool pfp
@@ivoneo2806Thank you.
The boss fights were definitely one of the worst aspects of Superstars and probably one of the worst in the series. It's what keeps me from going back to this game as often.
The game has noticeable input lag on Xbox and PlayStation and that may be the difference you're experiencing.
It feels fine on Switch even though it has reduced graphic settings.
I think that the emerald powers should have been like the upgrades from some 3D games, giving you either a passive or new move depending on the emerald. Like Lightspeed Dash, losing only half of your rings from certain sources, or summoning the elemental shields. Something like that.
I had the unfortunate chance to play the entire coop experience for a stream, only in duo, but I can tell you, it gets so much worse.
First, only the player that the game "currently" considers the main player can use some of the stage gimmicks.
Meaning, if in Speed Jungle, you're in the dark cave, only one player can see, while the other one keeps trying to jump into the circle to at least understand what is going on. Same with Golden Capital, if the wrong player tries to activate the stage flip they'll just run off.
Additionally, you literally cannot play the entire game in coop. The character specific stages literally kick your partner, which is odd, cause it's absolutely possible to just give the second player I dont know....a darker Knuckles and call it a day. And yeah, due to them blocking out the option that two people can play the same character you literally cannot properly finish Superstars.
So at the end of the day the coop gives one the worse version, kicks you out at time and STILL doesnt let you experience the full game. The amount of bugs was also insane. Like we died multiple times during the final boss just because the ground kept glitching out and literally disappearing.
Damn that sounds horrific
As a long time sonic fan I can confirm that co-op multiplayer in Sonic Superstars is DAMN near un-playable even with only 2 players.. 1.5 out of 10 for the attempt and nothing else. The game as a whole falls into the fine to aggressively mid category for me. Trips story was a f@#%ing nightmare for me to complete mainly with the extreme over abundance of damn near point blank egg-robo lasers to the face and spikes every freakign where. Not to mention the absolutely atrocious final boss design (Fang Bot). It would be slightly easier if almost every single god-damn attack wasn't a 1 hit instant kill and I agree with Lemon the boss wait times are unacceptable for any sonic game. I've played lots of Sonic mods/rom hacks where the bosses are designed to be harder but fair (Classic Sonic Master Edition Series). Never have I played a sonic game that made me actually want to damn near break my controller. I am a really calm person but damn man. My final verdict on Superstars is I would give it a 5 out of 10 in terms of playability a low 6 if im really feeling generous. Defiantly not worth 60 bucks i spent for this game for switch or steam personally I wouldn't even spend 40. The only reason I even plan on re-buying Superstars for steam is because of the rush conversion project hack/mod that converts superstars into a sonic rush style type game. So far it looks absolutely insane.
I’m kinda shocked people are being generally nice in this comment section. When the game first came out, everyone was ready to drag you around if you didn’t like it claiming you were just nitpicking or something. I guess people just stopped caring once the honeymoon phase passed.
I love Sonic Superstars!
me to :)
@@noww446cool!
Yeah I've been playing it and I really don't get the negativity some people have. I guess the story could be better but the game is fun.
@@BingBong67489agree 👍
@@BingBong67489
I'm assuming you didn't watch the whole video. Lemon gave a pretty detailed explanation on why they didn't enjoy it. And they're one of the nicer critiques.
If I had to bring one very important factor that isn't brought up enough, Sonic Mania launched at 20 dollars. You only needed to pay 70 for the Collector's edition. Sonic Superstars which is generally agreed to be an inferior game to Sonic Mania launched at 60 dollars. So for anyone who jumped in or returned to Classic Sonic with Sonic Mania, Sonic Superstars is supposed to be 3-times the game Sonic Mania was.
And by that metric, it failed miserably. Its not the worst game in the world. Its not the worst Sonic game in the world. But its a game that had heavy expectations on it and it couldn't even do the bare minimum of being an uninspired sequel that does nothing wrong, but fails to impress. Its a game with flaws unique to itself that turn people off.
Are you telling me the developers of THE Balan Wonderworld attempted to tell a somewhat complicated story and did so in the most bizarre way possible, requiring external media to (just barely) understand it? I think they just don't like the concept of voice acting at this point.
The game is so much fun to control in the brief moments for the level design isn't awful and it sucks because I keep wanting to go back to it before realizing it's shit
I knew I wasn’t tripping about the background. It was really triggering me a bit. So much blur and nothing going on. No detail. Nothing in comparison to generations. It’s such a downgrade on an artistic level. It kills the immersion. This game was definitely made cheaply. I’m glad someone mentioned this.
Yea it reminds me alot of the new super mario bros games.
@@pinstripecool34I know this is an old comment, but I’m glad to see it from you two. For a while I didn’t know if it was just a change of my mindset due to my age, or is it the fact modern stage designs seem like rush attempts in trying to project the vibe of an old stage designs. All of it without actually putting in the time to what designs and details make stages standout. Feels like generic commercial temporary ad type of designing lol…
my god just looking at the footage i genuinly am flabergasted at how frequently the players get respawned, a simple upwards spring shouldn't despawn every other player.
my biggest criticism of classic sonic is the close up camera to begin with, it was justifiable when hardware limitations were concerned, but even in mania which has a stage where you move in the background, it was honestly so much better due to actually seeing where you'd land from a running speed jump. so having an even more zoomed in camera in a multiplayer game is just criminal.
if sega for whatever reason attempts to make a coop classic game again it should strictly be online coop with individual screens, keep the end of act mini bosses from sonic 3 to lock the lead players in place while the others catch up so the leading player can still play the game and can finish the stage if the others are too far behind, while giving the other players a chance to still fully play the stage and join in mid boss fight to keep an illusion of coop. hell could make it more competitive by allowing you to attack eachother to add some chaos.
When it comes to game content, quality and sales, Superstars gets often compared to Mania, which is completely understandable and valid thing to do. However, there seems to be a strange, skewed narrative floating around, that when it comes to sales figures, Superstars has been a catastrophic flop for Sega, which is not true at all!
Back in 2017, Sonic Mania sold around 1 million copies, while Sonic Superstars has sold over 4.3 million copies world wide, in less than a year.
Sonic fans are just being biased dweebs that flanderize their classic games or games that are almost like them, to not see any of the good /great qualities of Superstars or the weakness of those other titles. They don’t care if Amy isn’t taking after her Sonic Advance moveset (because they don’t play those games ever) or how Trip objectively has a far more well-thought out and creative moveset than whatever was going on with Mighty and Ray, or how lame a lot of the bosses in Sonic 1-Mania are in comparison to most of the bosses in Superstars.
@@justice8718trip is literally just amy and knuckles
are you trolling?
@@justice8718 Trip's moveset is literally just the Pink Spike wisp Color Power from Sonic Colors repurposed and nerfed (you can't spindash on walls), it's not very unique or creative at all, lmao.
@@gamelordabd If it could spindash, she would be too crazy.
@@NeoNickz Not really. Trip’s entire kit is about momentum while Knuckles is about flying and climbing at a a seemingly fixed speed.
This game is pretty rough, but it has its moments. What really got me in this video was when you were talking about the backgrounds. Looking at how flat the backgrounds in this game were with the little detail they've got, it made me think of Sonic 4: Episode 2. I looked at a playthrough for the game, and it was sad to see how a mobile game that released when I was seven years old had better backgrounds than Superstars; better music too, somehow.
As for the story, I think Trip’s arc was fine for a simple plot. My main problem is just the lack of cohesive lore behind the Northstar Islands. There’s inflation fetish animals, an evil dragon, that’s it. We never learn anything about why this place is the way it is. Like in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, we discovered the Master Emerald’s connection to the Chaos Emeralds throughout the adventure, and from the manual we knew Knuckles was the guardian and didn’t want us here because Eggman tricked him.
Here it’s like, why do the Emeralds change Trip’s entire species? What’s her light dragon’s connection to the dark dragon at the end? Is there one? Where does the dark dragon come from and what’s its purpose? I’m not asking for like walls of text, you could just say the dark dragon is Trip’s dad pulling her strings and he needs Eggman’s technology to be brought to full power. Bam, lot of my issues solved.
Well if you look into trip species it's called a dragon lizard so you can assume that her super form is going to be a dragon
So, this is a pretty small point, but it does speak to how low effort this game feels and it's the badnik designs. Specifically, what type of badniks are in each level.
Say what you will about Mania, but the badnik integration into the level themes was spot on, with each zone having it's own set of unique enemies that fit in some way, shape or form into the level's theme and aesthetic.
Now look at Superstars, and take a shot every time you see that stupid pink spike ball enemy, and you'll die by the 2nd zone's last act (I know some zones have unique baddies, but it's honestly nothing compared to the variety Mania had)
he... he uploaded.... he FINALLY UPLOADED!!!
tee hee
Sonic: Lemon **eats** ughaaaaaaa
When talking about the Co-op section, it wouldve been nice to bring up the Advance series as those had a true co-op mode with no setbacks. As you needed two systems with each a copy, the limitations were lifted because your screen only focused on yourself. For example, in Advance 3, you and a friend can play through the entire game in co-op with no drawbacks AND experience the character synergy you wouldve gotten regardless in single player. Its a shame that many wont experience a perfect sonic co-op mode today like in the Advance series.
Hey there Lemon! This is the first video from you that I'm watching, and I'm impressed! It's engaging from start to finish and your writing along with the way you speak communicates your ideas in an enjoyable and easy to follow way. I also like how you don't seem to be forcing any kind of cool or funny voice/personality, it sounds very genuine.
And I say that as someone who usually acts like a kid with short attention spam and drops a video the instant I think I won't enjoy it as much as my comfort stuff (Caddicarus).
So congrats!
Thanks man appreciate it. Glad to have you on board👍🏻
39:14 mrbluejay mentioned mrbluejay mentioned
in all seriousness this video is class mate, i honesty really do think that superstars was just a cheap knock off mania that could never hold a candle to it. this video put those thoughts out in a perfect way and i mirror a lot of what you think, less so tho since i gave up after like the second world lol
also yeah the online is wank
Sonic superstars doesn’t feel like a Sonic game because of the, music, zones, texture, and bosses. Well Sonic superstars feel’s like a *FANMADE* game. And the multiplayer does not focus on the player who’s going ahead, Sometimes.
Cool video,the game was peak imo
glad u enjoyed it man
@@_lemon52why thx, your cool
Trying to find the good parts about this game was QUITE hard. Especially when it leaves no lasting marks, unlike every other 2D game in the series.
I don’t understand how you can call yourself a fan when the games that get the most praise are the Classic 2d games and the advance and rush trilogy are also seen as quality games.
@Frank-zb7zh I'm quite a fan of the 2D games, actually! I just stuck at typing! My bad 😂.
I personally think the game is good(Imo)
She didn't realize eggman and co were the bad guys she was force to work under them and didn't have the courage to speak against it's very important element in her story that represent her mental a anxiousness and lack of ability to speak to herself and face others and how kindness communal aid allow us to break from our outer shell reveal the truth
Even her design is a play on this when the armor is removed it reveals the sun the truth about that we are hiding out of fear from ppl How ppl miss her story that bad or the story of superstars in general
Screw it, I enjoyed Sonic Forces more than Sonic Superstars.
Honestly, same. And unironically.
I agree with the general charscterization of Superstars as a pretty boring, rote Sonic game. But, describing Pinball Carnival as a watered-down Carnival Night (while fair from aesthetic perspective) gives the latter too much credit from a level-design perspective. Carnival night is easily one of the weakest Sonic 3 levels in my opinion, and Act 2 has several sections that completely kill the pace. While arguably more forgettable, I'd easily prefer the superstars version simply because it's far less annoying to play through.
I see what your saying tbh, i just found the levels very uninspired in this game but carnival knight is probably pretty a pretty weak level to compare it to.
Nah bro no one is gonna remember pinball carnival . The flow was off imo ..I love the theme of act 2 tho but everything else is clunky and weird and forgettable compared to carnival night but I respect ur opinion
@@joshuatrevino4508I respect your opinion, but I really love pinball carnival. In fact, I definitely prefer it over the Sonic 3 level
However, I respect your opinion, and I get why you think that.
(Also, that sonic 3 zone kinda has a problem with crushing object, but tbf, almost? every 2D sonic game has that problem)
@@Hyp3rSonici do not in fact respect that opinion
@@prismaticseal2553 what is the intent of this comment? 🤔
Anyways, that was just my opinion.
You can have a different opinion. All I ask for you is to be not be rude about it
Also, wdym by "not respect"? You mean respectfully disagree? Because otherwise, it seems like you might start being rude to me... of course, if that did happen, then I did nothing(other than expressing my opinion)
If that made sense
this is sonic 4 episode 3
If this had come out a year after S4 E2, people would have praised it for being a step in the right direction. The problem is, Mania happened and raised the bar so high, that in comparison Superstars feels like many steps backwards.
@@newtonshiggers true, but then it would just be compared to sonic generations
This literally was the only game in history I’ve ever felt scammed . Like it’s that bad
@@joshuatrevino4508 respectable.
For me, however, I love Superstars
Game is very solid. Sorry bud
these guys don’t realize liking the game doesn’t make it a good game, it is indefensible that this game is $60
on the final boss rant, actually the time limit is purely cosmetic, i found this out from the timer running out from the bosses phases taking so damn long.
it honestly left me so aggravated because i'd just watch the time tick down and the boss just stand there inbetween attacks, the fang final battle specifically was so horrible for this, i legitimately quit the game after livestreaming both stories because it just absolutely disrespected my time with its constant instakills.
also the headslam was his final hit??? i'm actually pissed off i gotten there once, right as my patience was running out and died to it, i was too annoyed and impatient to ever see that attack again before the time i quit like 2 hours into attempts.
The final Eggman fight was almost responsible for the ultimate destruction of my Controller. Jesus Christ and don't get me started on the final Fang fight.
so it made you feel nothing for 1 hour
thank you for commenting this so i dont have to
Yes
This game did something important for me. While generations and mania made sega think they needed clasic Sonic, Superstars kinda failed. Maybe they'll stop trying to force classic on us now and release some Modern Sonic spinoffs like rush or storybook games again.
When people say soulless games like this come to mind. It's a straight line of interest that looks phoned in and by the numbers even for a sonic game.
19:31 oh yeah, I totally forgot about the spindash problem. Apparently your spindash is tied to your fps, so if you're playing above or below 60fps (I think), then your spindash is weaker.
penny mentioned. yo-yo qctivated
Not to be an asshole, but I personally didn’t find the game compelling. Is like they have a really nice momentum based movement but the level design never takes full advantage of it. And that’s just the biggest issue. I feel like the game shares a lot of problems with both superstars and frontiers.
@@Frank-zb7zh thats what sequels are for to make things better in area that are lacking.
wise Plutia
naoto ohshima directed Sonic CD! he played a big role in that game, designed amy, and i recall the composers saying he was very strict about the music and went through several drafts and ideas until the music was the way we know it today.
In the next SAGE event someone needs to make this game in Mania style
very first thought when i saw the reveal trailer was "oh god no it's sonic 4 again" lmao
Kind of disingenuous to talk about how Jun’s songs sound like Sonic 4 while playing music from that game instead of this one. Like I agree with the overall point, but the execution was misleading
Was originally superstars music, actually had to change it due to a copyright issue unfortunately
When I played this game in 2P (Switch) a glitch made it impossible to beat the giant Eggman. You don't regain control right away, and the game positions you too far to the left in 2P, so when he enters the second phase you are always instantly killed. When you play it 1P you start in the correct position and have no issues
I think sonic superstars is pretty good, I like all the levels they have pretty good gimmicks. The music is nice. Overall, it’s no Mario wonder but it is a fun game
i forgot mario wonder existed.. weird
59:00 I do like Mario Wonder I do think it’s better than Sonic SuperStars… but do we really have to trash on one game to prove that another game is good? And I hate that people couldn’t praise Mario Wonder without shooting Sonic Superstars down.
I choose to compare superstars against Mario wonder because they were both brand new 2d platformers releasing at exactly the same time as each other and for the exact same price. It just shows there are other options for 2d platformers.
@@_lemon52 True even though when we do compare the two it’s pretty much the same arguments.
comparing games isnt trashing them my b if youre this upset about people having opinions please dont comment thanks! ❤
I take a fat L for doing that. At the end of the day, I think they both suck.
Great video, you have hit the nail on the head. Those bosses are dreadful. I haven't completed it yet because of the final boss. Got all emeralds but just can't bring myself to go through the boss battle.
Thanks man! And yeah if I wasn’t doing a video there’s no way I would’ve fully finished this game
i think sonic superstars is on par with sonic forces in terms of rating. both of them are bar none the WORST sonic games i've ever played.
before someone comes in saying "but 06" no! I had fun with 06. I enjoyed what it tried to do, even if it failed. Also it came out in 2006, forces was 2017 and superstars is 2023, they had so much more time and they sucked that much harder. I had fun with 06, I did not have fun with superstars or forces. Absolutely terrible games.
2/10 for both
First video I've seen from you, and it's a really good video!
Glad you enjoyed!
Why did the Mighty No. 9 comparison hit the mark so well? Generations Classic sonic levels looking real good right now.
i haven't played superstars in a minute but from what I remember it felt a bit sluggish. actions all felt slightly delayed, jumping felt weirdly heavy but floaty at the same time
I don’t like Sonic. Unleashed on Xbox 360 was great. Colors sucked. Generations was just ok. Mania was great. There are just too much garbage games in between the good ones.
As someone who has been around since the early 1990s, I can guarantee you that the true golden era (now the 'sprite OG' era) is the 16-bit "Sonic" games and "Sonic Mania (Plus)". Outside of that true golden era, it's extremely divisive on what a 'good' "Sonic" game is within the extremely messy fan base. It's been that way since the shift to 3D on Dreamcast with "Sonic Adventure", and it continues to be as divisive as it is now with "Sonic Superstars".
Personally, I'd rather stick to the mainline 2D sprite OG "Sonic" games, especially since I know it's going to be THIS divisive outside of the 'sprite OG' era.
i also feel like ian flynn was hold back by sega to do an actual good story
The guy in the video was right about the classic sonic games not having much story in terms of plot but they told a lot through the music, level art, etc, it had a deeply infused feeling of cinematic story to it for lack of a better word, like when you're sailing on the tornado heading to eggman's base as that triumphant music plays, the games communicated a lot through their art and music and really made it feel like this big meaningful journey without having much explicit plot, which is something completely and utterly lacking from superstars, the music and art is so indistinctive and bland and it barely feels like there's much of a journey in the game at all
I think in terms of Classic Sonic music, I think Jun Senoue should try experimenting with blending "mega drive" synth leads with his usual style. If you listen to his Splash Hill arrangement from Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, it sounds great (especially compared to the original), so I think an original song with that style in a more contemporary Classic Sonic game, instead of going balls to the wall and recreating the "classic Sonic" sound wholesale would be way cooler and more interesting.
I think Jun Senoue should be sacked from Classic Sonic projects altogether.
@@newtonshiggers I partially agree in the sense that I don't think his version of the classic Sonic sound works especially well.
Though, I think he could produce something pretty good if he changed his approach, I just don't think he should do the "faux genesis/megadrive classic" thing. Other songs in the soundtrack had full fidelity and sounded fairly modern in terms of production, so he could lay down some cool more-modern sounding stuff without it sounding out of place.
Ironically, I think him trying to make "classic" music, makes him sound more out of place, than if he produced music with his more "modern" approach. Something similar to some of Heroes' soundtrack could work, I think.
Personally if this game didn't have the Fang boss I would give it a solid 8, I genuinely enjoyed it, but the Fang boss fight was quite frankly the closest I've ever been to actually punching a hole in my fucking monitor, and I've played really challenging games in my life time
you're so lucky you didn't face the true final boss then
@@DracoHandsomei did face the true final boss, it was just ring management simulator tbh, it doesn't hold a candle to how bad fang is
Mario wonder just ate up any hype i had for this game
Mario wonder is what Sonic superstar could have been if sega put as much care into their games as Nintendo does
@@3clisp315 Yall just want sonic to be like mario.
@@jonathanwade3882 that’s not even remotely what I said.
Arzest is a successor company to Artoon which was founded by Ohshima in 1999. Naoto Ohshima is uncredited on all versions of Sonic Adventure since sadx due to a fallout between Yuji Naka.
53:40 this is actually incorrect. At least, for the steam version. I don't know about the others, but you can't run out of time on steam. The timer counts down until zero, but just stays at zero. I played it for the first time with friends on discord who had already beaten the game when it came out. I will never forget the hours of time I spent grinding that boss since I'm ass at the game and panicking as I ran out of time, followed by probably the loudest I've ever yelled "WHAT" humanly possible as infinite time was revealed. So while you can't run out of time, the game makes you think you do have limited and gives players mini panick attacks. Thanks superstars
For me the time killed me if I was in the first phase of the boss fight. Once I got to the second phase where he enters the foreground then the time limit didn’t matter
I think there's a huge gap between the classic 2D games and newer 2.5D titles (not just in Sonic games-this is a trend I've noticed a lot elsewhere too) that boils down to one very simple, but also crucial difference:
2D sprite-based games had stricter limitations and would try to squeeze every single last bit out of those limitations to get the best possible visuals, sound, character interactions etc with what they had. As soon as you're using full 3D graphics (even if the gameplay remains 2D), there's zero reason to keep any of those restrictions around: no need for the characters to animate as if the game still works with limited sprite sizes (models can go bigger and more expressive than that), no need to keep any megadrive-esque synths, no need for cutscenes to still work as if sprite animations were all the game was capable of, no need for the usual static zoomed-in camera that was born out of the megadrive's resolution and tile dimensions.
A 2D, sprite-based game working with those kinds of restrictions is creating more with less, while a 3D game mimicking those restrictions is doing the exact opposite: creating less with more. Even if they aren't hardware limitations, but instead self-imposed restrictions like in Mania, it still works! Mania occasionally uses some lowpoly 3D models on things like the big rings, special stages, or even some stage backgrounds, to make them look more special and impressive, but if the entire game looks like Superstars does, it stops pushing any limits, and just ends up feeling like it's holding back all the time (because it is).
Also while this isn't my main point, as for the game feeling unfocused, it's like Superstars is trying to be 3-4 games at once? One or two games focused on Fang and/or Trip, one with the various abilities, and one with 4-player coop. I don't think a game should be juggling so many ideas around at the same time if it can't properly design the game around literally any of these.
I thought the game was decent until i got to the final boss of trips story
I spent 70 bucks on this game digitally about a year ago and I wish I could get a refund.
I literally barely remember anything about this game.
sonic superstar is a game i completely forgot existed whereas sonic mania is a game i recall fondly.
the interesting part is i have neither watched nor played either of those games. weird isnt it?
You know it was bad when SEGA started sponsoring Sonictubers to say mostly positive things about the game.
This video really opened my eyes to why I didn't like superstars. Biggest waste of $60 in my life.
I 100% believe that they don't know what they're doing anymore. Breath of the Wild did well? Slap sonic in there! Fans want SA3, Mania 2 or a Chao Garden game? Nah, have a game that plays itself.
This IP is wasted, man.
Breath of the Wild? What's that got to do with it? Are you one of those clowns who think Sonic Frontiers is like BoTW?
I agree with your point, but BoTW is about as similar to Sonic Frontiers as DOOM is to Bubsy 3D. (They're both 3D, that's it)
BoTW is just The Zelda Scrolls V: Skyrim, not Sonic Frontiers' inspiration or anything of the sort.
Why is the algorithm recommending bad takes? I'm having a blast with Superstars. Get this stuff outta my feed man.
Just a different opinion buddy, glad your enjoying it
you should elaborate how this is a bad take, without using a form of “i like it so it must be good”
my only problem with the physics of this game, and idk if you could even call it a physics problem, is what they did to knuckles’s glide
unacceptable
Love sonic superstars
I forgot this game even existed I'm not even gonna lie LMFAOOO
12:49 I respectfully disagree I would much prefer a simple story with a decent depth rather just a simple sonic vs Eggman plot I would much prefer a simple story with a decent depth in it rather than just plain simple plus I think the characterizations are actually great for the cast and fairly accurate enough including the new character you may not like her but i did..and I can appericiate atleast the writers went on their way and added an extra layer to the story of the game yes it's still a simple story but will a decent depth
Fairs man I see what your saying glad you enjoyed it
I think a majority of Superstars has great level design that is fun to master and speedrun.
Fairs man glad you find enjoyment in it, didnt do much for me Personally
Yo, I didn't know that Penny was developed by Christian and Co. Holy crap, it plays so well! I gotta buy it now.
I enjoyed superstars 🤷🏿♂️ maybe feel like they wasted their money because a 2D game hasn’t been the same price of a 3D game in YEARS. If superstars was $40 I think it would’ve been received better
I actually really like the game.
It baffles me to this day that SEGA released this game the same day, and same price, as Super Mario Bros. Wonder...
It's really strange that they leaned on "couch co-op". If the multiplayer had been built around online multiplayer where you could race your friends, that could've actually been cool. This is a type of game that does not work at ALL for cooperative play, but competitive play for a type of game already built around optimising your play to go faster seems like a no-brainer.
100%. Hit the nail on the head
Was definitely not expecting that voice.
for the bosses they took inspiration from Rush. that's copy pasted. 1 hit then wait out animations until you can get the next hit in except for this game they purposefully limited you to just 1 hit per chance you get.
More 2.5D sonic games will always be welcomed
Finally hazbin hotel and sonic have something in common
Having shitty storytelling for requiring external media to comprehend
Should also be noted Amy’s stage is not optional. The worst one by far, and it’s required.
They really dropped the ball not getting evening star to make another mania like game again. Mania was really close to prefect if it had original levels and maybe Amy playable
When sega has control with 2D Sonic its a mess, Mania was a success as no hollow rushed corporate grasp on it and talented fans were self aware
as a fellow yellow fruit, great video mate!! :3
The fact that they used not having more characters as a SELLING POINT!!!! It no longer surprises me that they went to the mediocre Paramount for the movies.
Hey lemond, praying that your getting trough life challenges. Please take the time you need to sort things out. life do be lifen but we'll always be here supporting.
great job with this review and I agree with every statement you made about this is game, tbh I'm threw with franchise. I've accepted Sonic isn't for me anymore but indie games like freedom planet, spark the electric jester, and rolling rascal have given me everything i love, value and play a sonic game for. Sonic in my perception is no longer a respected gaming icon he's just a corporate children's mascot, all style and no substance.
I respect your opinion on 3D sonic but personally I don't like most of the 3D games at all, Adventure 1&2 have their merits but overall I'm not a fan of the many different play styles those games brings to the table and the boost games ain't my cup of tea.
sorry you had an unpleasant time with superstars but genuinely appreciate the thorough review, Also if you don't mind me asking, what's the outro music?
Thanks for the kind words pal. I can see how the adventure games just don’t do it for some people tbf, there a mismatch of a lot of different gameplay styles. The music in the outro is electric toothbrush from the jet set radio soundtrack
@@_lemon52 thanks you man🙏
"With assets that got ripped from a Dreamcast game" - Oh come on! The Dreamcast Sonics had better backgrounds than this.
Tbf both sonic adventure 1 and 2 managed to look far more appealing on less powerful hardware and years before this game released
I bought Sonic super starts for $20 bucks I still want a refund… and I LOVE LOVE Sonic. Every level feels like I’ve been playing for 30 minutes
they really thought releasing this around the same time as Super Mario Wonder was a good idea😂
Only Super Mario Bros Wonder haters/post-2000s (and that mainly excludes other media than the games, which some are actually great like Sonic Mania) Sonic fanbrats would dislike this.
The guy straight up says he loves Super Mario Bros. Wonder and dislikes this game, lmao. There are 90s fans that don't like Superstars and there are post-2000s "fanbrats" that like it. Get off the copium.
They're both mid.
I know I said this years ago.......
But thank you Sega for Sonic mania
😊❤
I wanted to like this game, I really did. The whole time I was playing I felt underwhelmed, waiting for it to pick up a bit and when I finished, it was like "is that it?". The final Super Sonic boss was really not enjoyable, as well as feeling extremely tacked on out of nowhere- "Oh by the way, here's a huge dragon to fight"
Ah, Sonic Superfarts. Which totally isn’t worth 60 dollars by the way. Picked it up, put it down and never touched it again until Sonic’s birthday this year. And I never want to see classic Sonic brought back again. Bullshit level design and enemy placements, horseshit bosses, abysmal and borderline unplayable co-op, mid soundtrack. Never even beat the game after getting to the last part against Eggman; having to play it all again with Trip to get the true ending? Kiss my ass. Yeah no, Sega needs to let this iteration of Sonic die already.