Sasuga Arzest. I definitely have to admit, this game reminded me a lot of their previous works, notably Balan Wonderworld and the Blinx series in just how stupefyingly confusing they are in design. Not due to the game having any obtuse mechanics or anything, but instead just from having design choices that leave me scratching my head wondering why the hell certain things even led up to how they are in the final game.
It really all just boils down to the level design, the pacing, and the boss fights. The levels have like 3 flavors; some feel like dimps-style 2D sonic levels with mostly an emphasis on pushing you forward through as many speed setpieces as possible, some feel like they are regular classic sonic levels yet designed with Sonic CD assets that are more served for exploration and backtracking (which this game doesn't particularly encourage, nor do they do it in a particularly smooth way like how Mania's CD levels handle things), and there are some levels where it genuinely felt like they had nothing so they just kinda whipped some stuff up and called it a day, truly nothingcore. I definitely felt like I was going through the motions playing through the levels, as they really just didn't feel like they had anything particularly distinct going on in them most of the time either in a level design or spectacle sense to make anything stand out. The levels lasting in the 8-10 minute range certainly doesn't help things either lmao.
The pacing is all sorts of messed up. Typically in 2D sonic games theres a nice rhythm to how acts work; there's usually like the first act to establish the level theme and any specific gimmicks, and then a second act that expands upon said theme and gimmicks. Throw in a boss at the end, and badda bing badda boom. In Superstars there's no set standard to ANYTHING. Some levels might be two acts of mostly the same thing, some levels have bonus optional acts that are character specific, and some levels just have one big act with a boss at the end, which just really feels underwhelming to go through. Why in the hell is there no consistency?? It makes the entire game just feel cobbled together, like they only had so much time to make so many levels so some zones just had to get their second acts cut. It just doesn't flow very well.
Lastly, the bosses. Definitely this games most controversial aspect, the bosses in this game are horrendously designed. Most of them have a very stop-and-go style of design to them where they are only vulnerable for one very specific window of their cycle, essentially having you wait through their whole attack patterns over and over again, dragging shit out to a ludicrous degree. Add the fact that some bosses are more than happy to use instant kill attacks like crushing attacks or bottomless pits, in which getting hit makes you have to do the whole contrived boss fight all over again from the very beginning. The Death Egg Robot was particularly egregious, that shit took me over an hour of attempts to beat just because that mfer won't die and getting back to the stupid platform-breaking death pit takes way longer than my patience can handle. Did I also mention that boss fight is also tied to a timer determined by how quickly you finished the death egg level, essentially making a last sonic level where going fast actively punishes you in the long run. In their infinite wisdom, Arzest decided to rectify this problem by just making the timer for the boss fight do nothing when it reaches zero, instead of, oh I don't fucking know, maybe LOWERING THE BOSS HEALTH TO MAKE THEIR ARBITRARILY LONG FIGHT A LITTLE LESS ARBITRARILY LONG???
I just don't get it man. I would love to go out to lunch with an Arzest designer because this company just continues to baffle me with how their games are made, and I'd love to talk with the people behind the scenes to try and understand at least somewhat where they are coming from. Their games always have decent artistic merit and are usually quite solidly coded and bug-free, just the actual games always manage to feel like complete nothingburgers to actually play, like they aren't designed by actual humans. Maybe their office is just full of alien creatures on a different wavelength, maybe they don't have proper ventilation, or maybe they are just a well meaning group of devs that have to work behind the scenes on whatever shoestring budget their publisher/rights holder chooses and never get to develop their ideas to a solid enough level. At least they get credited unlike shadow devs like Tose, for what it's worth. If anything, playing this has made me want to play more Arzest titles in the future, to see if maybe one day I can see through the mid and understand their sensibilities. Can't say I can particularly recommend you join me in that journey.
(I didn't even mention this games inconsistent OST, the fact that the xbox port in particular has a noticeable amount of input lag on it compared to the other versions, and the fact that the emerald powers were certainly cool in concept but were something I completely forgot to use entirely.)
It really all just boils down to the level design, the pacing, and the boss fights. The levels have like 3 flavors; some feel like dimps-style 2D sonic levels with mostly an emphasis on pushing you forward through as many speed setpieces as possible, some feel like they are regular classic sonic levels yet designed with Sonic CD assets that are more served for exploration and backtracking (which this game doesn't particularly encourage, nor do they do it in a particularly smooth way like how Mania's CD levels handle things), and there are some levels where it genuinely felt like they had nothing so they just kinda whipped some stuff up and called it a day, truly nothingcore. I definitely felt like I was going through the motions playing through the levels, as they really just didn't feel like they had anything particularly distinct going on in them most of the time either in a level design or spectacle sense to make anything stand out. The levels lasting in the 8-10 minute range certainly doesn't help things either lmao.
The pacing is all sorts of messed up. Typically in 2D sonic games theres a nice rhythm to how acts work; there's usually like the first act to establish the level theme and any specific gimmicks, and then a second act that expands upon said theme and gimmicks. Throw in a boss at the end, and badda bing badda boom. In Superstars there's no set standard to ANYTHING. Some levels might be two acts of mostly the same thing, some levels have bonus optional acts that are character specific, and some levels just have one big act with a boss at the end, which just really feels underwhelming to go through. Why in the hell is there no consistency?? It makes the entire game just feel cobbled together, like they only had so much time to make so many levels so some zones just had to get their second acts cut. It just doesn't flow very well.
Lastly, the bosses. Definitely this games most controversial aspect, the bosses in this game are horrendously designed. Most of them have a very stop-and-go style of design to them where they are only vulnerable for one very specific window of their cycle, essentially having you wait through their whole attack patterns over and over again, dragging shit out to a ludicrous degree. Add the fact that some bosses are more than happy to use instant kill attacks like crushing attacks or bottomless pits, in which getting hit makes you have to do the whole contrived boss fight all over again from the very beginning. The Death Egg Robot was particularly egregious, that shit took me over an hour of attempts to beat just because that mfer won't die and getting back to the stupid platform-breaking death pit takes way longer than my patience can handle. Did I also mention that boss fight is also tied to a timer determined by how quickly you finished the death egg level, essentially making a last sonic level where going fast actively punishes you in the long run. In their infinite wisdom, Arzest decided to rectify this problem by just making the timer for the boss fight do nothing when it reaches zero, instead of, oh I don't fucking know, maybe LOWERING THE BOSS HEALTH TO MAKE THEIR ARBITRARILY LONG FIGHT A LITTLE LESS ARBITRARILY LONG???
I just don't get it man. I would love to go out to lunch with an Arzest designer because this company just continues to baffle me with how their games are made, and I'd love to talk with the people behind the scenes to try and understand at least somewhat where they are coming from. Their games always have decent artistic merit and are usually quite solidly coded and bug-free, just the actual games always manage to feel like complete nothingburgers to actually play, like they aren't designed by actual humans. Maybe their office is just full of alien creatures on a different wavelength, maybe they don't have proper ventilation, or maybe they are just a well meaning group of devs that have to work behind the scenes on whatever shoestring budget their publisher/rights holder chooses and never get to develop their ideas to a solid enough level. At least they get credited unlike shadow devs like Tose, for what it's worth. If anything, playing this has made me want to play more Arzest titles in the future, to see if maybe one day I can see through the mid and understand their sensibilities. Can't say I can particularly recommend you join me in that journey.
(I didn't even mention this games inconsistent OST, the fact that the xbox port in particular has a noticeable amount of input lag on it compared to the other versions, and the fact that the emerald powers were certainly cool in concept but were something I completely forgot to use entirely.)