To use an altered quote from Forrest Gump “Sega’s like a box of chocolates you never know what Sonic you’re gonna get”. So let’s dive into Sonic Superstars and see exactly what we’re getting.
Sonic Superstars is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that sees you travel through various stages to defeat Dr Eggman, all while avoiding obstacles, defeating enemies, beating bosses and collecting Chaos Emeralds, or at least accessing them via a giant golden ring. The zones are for the most part your standard environments, you have a very green zone, a Casino zone, a water zone and so on, though there is an interesting retro-future zone later in the game. While the zones aren’t out of the ordinary the actual stages themselves are all well done, starting off simply with easy-to-finish levels, not too much threat and plenty of spaces to go fast, but as the game progresses, the platforming becomes more challenging, not to a huge degree, but it ramps up enough and the game is more involved than simply going fast. It requires more thought and judgement, and it seems that getting Sonic and company up to speed isn’t the main focus but the payoff to skilful navigation through the stages.
The levels also have branching paths meaning you have plenty of places to explore or you can take different routes on subsequent playthroughs. Along with this, you have sections of stages that are easier accessed by different characters, speaking of which the game has 4 playable characters, they are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sonic. They all have a unique ability with Sonics being the drop dash, tails being able to fly and swim, Knuckles can climb and climb walls, while Amy has her Peko Peko hammer which gives her a double jump and the hammer acts similar to that of the insta-shield that was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, holding jump as you land also allows Amy to continue using the hammer to pound the floor for a brief period. Speaking of characters, Fang who has only appeared in a small number of Sonic games makes a triumphant return in this game along with Fang you also have a new character named Trip, both are teamed up with Dr Eggman to get the Chaos Emeralds and defeat the Sonic Squad.
When it comes to the Chaos Emeralds these are collected in bonus stages, these are accessed through Giant Golden Rings during the stages. To get the Chaos Emeralds in the bonus stages you have to chase them, not down a half pipe, or around a stage, we’ll on foot, you use a sort of grapple beam to hook onto tiny blue balls and swing after the Emerald. Again, these stages begin easily enough, but they do get progressively tougher, with adding in springs which can sometimes be a help, sometimes a hindrance and you have spiked balls that when latched onto you don’t swing but get pulled towards them and they explode and it slows you down. Rings are used to increase your time that is constantly ticking down, if it reaches zero you are ejected from the level with no Emerald. These levels are okay, they aren’t the most interesting bonus stages, but are sufficient enough to have a change of pace even if one or two are a little frustrating at times. The other bonus stage you get is when you have enough rings and pass a checkpoint these stages allow you to get medallions, the stages are based on the bonus states of Sonic the Hedgehog and its spinning mazes. they‘ve added a few little ideas with a switch that flips certain parts of the stage or one that opens red blocks while closing off the green and vice versa. While these levels are familiar and again are serviceable enough the music during them is awful, it’s tolerable at first, but the more you do the more and more grating it becomes, so much so I just avoided the stages.
Chaos Emeralds in The Sonic series have generally been about giving Sonic the ability to become Super Sonic, in Superstars they have had an upgrade, the Emeralds now give you powers. These range from making clones that kill enemies and collect coins, to becoming water-based, gaining the ability to breathe underwater, and swim about too. These powers are handy but not necessary to finish levels, They help with trying to reach difficult areas and finding hidden platforms and rings, they even come in handy when facing bosses. They are fun to use and add an extra level of diversity to the gameplay but you can get through the levels without them.
The game also features 4 player co-op, which is hectic. Playing it solo is probably the best way to get a smooth play-through of the game, as you aren’t having people steal your rings as you get hit, or it zooming out to accommodate for the multiple players running about or grabbing the item boxes when they don’t need them. It means you get a straight game where you can go at your own pace. Playing with others is great fun, though. Having everyone running about together, helping each other get to different places is enjoyable, it feels like 2 very different experiences, one is more focused while the other is a jolly good romp with friends and/or family. The only issue is it can be random on which character to follow at times as some people will head on one path and others on another it will pick a person and remove other players off the screen as it can only zoom out so much. It’s nothing major but it can be a little irritating when you are heading towards a Giant Ring and bam, you are removed from the screen.
Battle mode is a 4-player mode where you and friends or people online play 3 rounds with different objectives to see who wins. It’s by far the weakest part of the game, the games are boring, with little to no substance. The rounds I played were running about a small stage collecting the most amount rings, followed by a race through one stage and lastly getting the most KO’s with a quick blast. It wasn’t enjoyable at all really.
I don’t have a lot of issues with the game generally, but I did have some glitches when playing in co-op when underwater someone could have the death timer on them, die by another means and the timer will count down and kill another player and I also had another glitch where I fell through the floor and was in a blue screen of death once, so it does have some bugs that need ironing out. The game is also nice to look at, it’s colourful, and interesting and has a really nice modern look of classic Sonic, I also enjoyed the soundtrack, well, apart from the bonus stage. I’d recommend this as it’s a genuinely good game and you’ll get even more joy if you are a Sonic fan.