I knew I was in for a concerning time when I didn’t hear the SEGA logo scream out, “SAYGAAAAAAAAAA”
get yourself a beverage and a meal this is going to be a long one
real quick I want to mention that despite everything I will say later in the review, I do think Sonic Superstars is a good game, I had a fun time with it for the most part. is it a great game? if it had spent a little more time in the oven then yeah for sure. however as it is right now it’s still pretty alright, but of course there’s a lot of flaws holding it back. with that said though, I’d be lying if I said I’m not eager to tear this game a part or two, because wow there are tons of questionable decisions in here that I want tocomplain civilly discuss about.
alright let's start with the story, people play Sonic for the story right? so in the intro cutscene, Dr. Eggman has kidnapped some big chunky critters to power up his robots again, though this time he's assisted byFang the Sniper Nack the Weasel Fang the Hunter who probably just escaped from jail a day prior, and along with them is a new character, Trip the Sungazer, who is definitely evil and is not a reluctant member whatsoever. suddenly Sonic and the gang show up on Eggman's monitor heading to a new destination and thus the game begins. yeah that's all you get in the actual game for the most part, though that's fine since 2D Sonic games aren't focus on being story driven, that said this aspect does come to bite the game in the butt later on so I will actually continue on this later on the review so look forward to that.
I'm happy to say that the physics are faithful from the previous Classic games like Sonic Mania so you won't encounter some goofy stuff regarding it like those short clips you see about Sonic 4 all the time. a lot of things are also accounted for like the Bonus Stages at the Goal Posts, the Special Stage Rings, and uhhhh....actually, I think it'd be easier for me to talk about the stuff not here, yeah here we go. first off, the Elemental Shield are absent. the Flame Shield, the Thunder Shield, the Aqua Shield (I'm just now learning it's not called the Bubble Shield), all uncounted for besides the original Blue Shield which is a bit lame since not only does Sonic loses out on the attack and movements options he'd get with it, but the Elemental Shields were already in Mania, along with the original Blue Shield, so not having them here kinda stings, but after thinking about it I might understand why they're not here which I will discuss later. oh yeah the lives system is gone too so you can just die all you want without much consequence. now this doesn't bother me as much as others since Sonic 2 is the only Classic Sonic I've played where I have trouble managing lives, but the option to use the old system would have been nice. this also means that the score system is useless now and while that's still in the game, it might as well not be there because now it does nothing. you can't even see the score while playing Acts, you can see the 100, 200, etc. pop out of Badniks after defeating them but you can't see the current score at the top left of the screen....unless you pause. the score only shows up when you pause. this is no accident, they knew what they were doing. you know what is in this game though? the Sonic 1 Special Stages!!!
like how Blue Spheres were made into Bonus Stages in Sonic Mania, here the same applies to the Sonic 1 Special Stages. the problem with that is Blue Spheres is actually fun, I don't think anyone is jumping up and down to play Sonic 1 Special Stages, actually knowing the Sonic fandom there has to be at least one guy so ignore what I said earlier. now I'll give them this, the stages here have more interesting things going on with them than ones in Sonic 1, but at the end of the day they're still the Sonic 1 Special Stages. instead of getting a Chaos Emerald at the end, you rather get a Medal for completing a maze, three of which you'll go through with each Goal Post. now you may be thinking "ooo medals that sounds interesting do they do anything cool???" no not really lol. the only thing you can do with Medals is purchase parts for your customizable Metal Fighter in Battle Mode. the only thing you can do with Medals. I'm not even going to discuss the Battle Mode because I only tried it once and and I'll say you're not really missing out, so instead I’ll leave you off with this, this is all you will get. back to the Bonus Stages, although I think they're better designed than the originals, I feel like a lot of the tension has gone away. in Sonic 1 if you were going for all the Emeralds, these Special Stages were a matter of life and death. the serene music, the 80's CGI background, it's simultaneously soothing yet frantic at the same time. if you failed to get the Emerald and fell into one of the Goal Blocks, you had to go collect and maintain 50 Rings all the way to the end of an Act to get another shot, and you could only do this ten times so you have four rooms of error (kinda weird how Sonic 1 only had six Emeralds). in Sonic Superstars, not only can you encounter them all the time with the Goal Posts, but the rewards you get for them aren't even that special so it turns what was once a tense journey to escape Hell into a boring waste of time.
what about the actual Special Stages are they any better? I guess? once again you're sent into a 3D purgatory but this time you have to swing around the Blue Spheres (cool to see them being a reoccuring object) to reach the Chaos Emerald which is constantly moving around like in Sonic Mania, though there's also obstacles like the spike bombs from the Sonic 2 Special Stages (which you can use as a small boost if you let go of the button immediately) and these giant crystalline walls which will stun you briefly if you bump into them, but there's also springs and boosts that'll help you reach the Emerald and of course Rings to increase the time ticking down. the first two are really easy, to the point that'll you get the Emerald without even knowing what you're doing yet, the next two are more about what you expect, then the fifth is insanely annoying to chase after for some reason, then the last two are fairly challenging but not nearly as crazy as the fifth, did they mix up the Special Stage order? once you collected all the Emeralds, you'll still be able to enter the Giant Rings and go through them all over again, though this time the award you get is....Medals!!!!!!!!!!! after going through them again whenever I found more Giant Rings I kinda got used to how they worked so all in all I'll say that the Special Stages here are mostly inoffensive, of course they'll never top Blue Spheres or even the Mania ones.
can you believe I've gone this far without mentioning how the characters play? well not me because you should know how these characters play like. Sonic's the one with emphasis on speed thanks to the Drop Dash, Tails is like Sonic but instead of the Drop Dash he can fly around with his tails for a set period of time which also acts as an upwards attack, Knuckles sacrifices a high jump for gliding and climbing walls as well as not needing to Spin Dash through breakable obstacles, and Amy has a longer ranged jump attack with her hammer, can use the hammer for a brief time after landing, and even a double jump--damn Amy pretty's good, all she's missing is an infinite hammer bounce. they control well, but unfortunately Sonic does not have the Super Peel Out from CD or the Insta-Shield from Sonic 3 which makes sense since they're not in his default Mania moveset, but Mania at least let you obtain this moves as unlockables which this game does not, once again would have loved the option. also Knuckles's glide does not get faster the longer you use it, I have no clue what happened there. granted I don't play as Knuckles outside of his Sonic 3 campaign since I'm not a huge fan of his lower jump height, but that alongside something else I'll discuss later (I will get to these points trust the plan) makes Knuckles not that fun to play as in this game. well 3/4 ain't bad.
did you guys know each character has their own special move, but only if they have the 7th Chaos Emerald? Emerald Power time! yeah I know smooth transition haha anyway the Chaos Emerald are actually useful individually as now for a brief time limit they give you temporary Emerald Powers useful for combat and speed purposes which can be refilled upon reaching a Goal Post, I guess this explains why Elemental Shields aren't here. the 1st Emerald gives you Avatar which sends a bunch of clones of your characters across the screen, hitting any enemy they come in contact with. the 2nd Emerald gives you Bullet which turns you intothe Burst Wisp a fireball that lets you launch yourself in any direction which also functions as an attack. the 3rd Emerald (Vision) lets you see hidden platforms, the 4th (Water) turns you into liquid to traverse through waterfalls and water sections easily, the 5th (Ivy) lets you create a vine that you can climb, the 6th (Slow) slows down everything except you and the 7th (Extra) gives your character a unique move. Sonic gets the Homing Attack (well now we know how he perfected it), Tails gets a small tornado, Knuckles gets a Hadouken and Amy can throw her hammer in an arc. now you may be thinking that these Emerald Powers are really awesome and cool, and a few of them are, but a lot of them are pretty situational. Avatar is useful to get some easy hits on the bosses but besides that it's not too important unless there's an area with a bunch of enemies you want to get rid of. Bullet is really good no complaints here, maybe too good. Vision lets you see hidden platforms but there's not a single point where you ever need to use it. Water seems cool since it makes water sections less annoying, until you realize there is only one Act in the game when you can actually drown, not kidding. Ivy is good for reaching high places, until you remember Bullet already does that and more, Ivy's your reward for the annoying 5th Special Stage btw, they really should have switched these two around. Slow is another one I have no complaints about, there's a lot of moments in the game where it's pretty useful. Extra is another one good for the bosses, though Sonic and Amy's are more useful for dealing with the many airborne bosses in the game. so there's two really great ones, three situational ones, and two really underwhelming ones, but hey I'll take that over nothing. if you have all seven Emerald you can go Super like always, however only Sonic gets his traditional Super form, the other three only get a glow filter added to their model which is pretty lame since previous games like 3 & Mania gave them new color palettes, I'm just saying I need my Pink Knuckles man.
as a callback to my Sonic 1 review, I'm going to discuss each Zone one-by-one and have a personal ranking at the end of it all.
Bridge Island: no way "Bridge"? that one Zone from MS Sonic 1 with the really good music??? anyway this one's cool not much to say here, a solid beginning Zone that kinda reminds of Seaside Hill visually and I like Seaside Hill so I like this Zone, the Act 1 boss isn't really a boss though it's just a really easy chase sequence.
Speed Jungle: probably my favorite Zone gameplay wise which is not a good sign lmao but yeah the vine rails are awesome and the jungle aesthetic is based, though the vines that bounce you upwards can kill the pacing a bit and the dark section in Act 2 that limits your vision is a bit questionable.
Sky Temple: for some reason some Zones only have one longer Act which is fine I guess sure why not and Sky Temple's one of them, I don't have much to say about this one it's okay it looks like Windy Valley from Sonic Adventure and I like Windy Valley so....yeah I'm reusing a joke but what's there to say about Sky Temple
Pinball Carnival Zone: Act 1 is pure pinball kino and Act 2 is more of the same except with a spooker aesthetic than I wish they went all the way with, though the sections where the fast moving platforms and bottomless kinda sucks , the Act would have been better without them.
Lagoon City: another solid Zone and the only one with the underwater section though the Water Emerald Power takes care of that, it also has an exclusive Act with Amy featuring a based moment where she helps out Trip in her time of need, oh yeah each character get one exclusive character Act, didn't mention it until now though because they're not too special and Amy's is the only one where something cool actually happens.
Sand Sanctuary: Sandopolis Zone but only one Act, which automatically makes it more fun, though the desert aesthetic here is not nearly as unique as Sandopolis, but the Zone's fun to go through which is a rarity for desert levels that I go through.
Press Factory: here we go time to get more vocal. Act 1 has a mechanic where the platforms bounce you up on occasion, it's not nearly as schizo about it as Wacky Workbench though so it's mostly harmless. then Act 2 introduces a mechanic where if don't land on these cool down buttons, the entire Act burns up which instantly takes away a life. now once you figure this out it's no problem, but damn they're a lot of insta-death stuff here, something that this game has a hard-on for and will not be going away from this Zone onward.
Golden Capital: this Zone's cool because there's kind of a weird moment that takes place here. in an in-game cutscene of the Knuckles Act, he finds a room that would have the remaining Emeralds, the next cutscene has him chuckling with the Emeralds before Fang appears and snatches them up for the time being. however as I had all the Emeralds already, in my eyes Knuckles found a empty ass room, then later on decided to leave all the Emeralds out in the open for no reason just so Fang can take them. I can understand leaving them out if we just found them, but we've had these Emeralds for a couple of Zones now, it just makes Knuckles look like a dumbass, they really should have made a different cutscene for this. oh yeah I'm supposed to talk about the Zone, it's like Pinball Carnival Act 1 but with a bunch of rings and some lava pits here and there, neat.
Cyber Station: I don't care if you only have one Act or have a similar aesthetic to Techno Base from Sonic Advance 2, you might be the worst Zone in the game. in this Zone they're sections where you transform into a virtual squid and virtual mouse to traverse through segments, the problem is that the squid controls janky especially if you're moving left or right so you're bound to get hit by those annoying electric barriers. the mouse segment where you have to travel up the wires is trial and error. oh you got hit by the enemy? back down you go try again. you got hit by the electric barriers at the end? should have went to the right path try again. not good.
Frozen Base: I'm not sure what to think about this one. for some reason you can skip Act 1 entirely and go immediately to the Tails Act which I didn't even ponder at the time so I missed out on Act 1 on the first playthrough. Act 1 is a snow level with some conveyor belt platforms while the Tails Act focuses more on the industrial side with a bunch of spikes and insta-death crushers, awesome. Act 2 throws away the "Frozen Base" and turns into a Fantasy Zone level, which while it's a cool reference, it's not a very interesting Act and it ends far too quickly. that said while I didn't notice this at the time, depending on which character you choose, you ride the Egg Mobile from the game they debuted in. Sonic gets the Sonic 1 Egg Mobile, Tails gets the one from 2, Amy gets the one from CD, and Knuckles gets the 3&K Mobile, now that's a based callback.
Egg Fortress: Act 1 is at least eight minutes long, Act 2 is even longer due to the final boss fight, you could speedrun Sonic 1 before you finish this Zone. Act 1 incorporates everything wrong with this game's level design: insta-death sections, abundance of spikes, checkpoint starvation, there's even two sections where you have to slowly traverse through laser beams in zero gravity, fun game design. Act 2 is an interesting case though. rather than going through a different level, Eggman reverses time so now you have to go through Act 1 backwards. I actually think this is a cool and nice twist, I even find Act 2 more fun than Act 1 since it's easier to traverse outside of one or two sections. unfortunately this means you still have to put up with all the BS that Act 1 gives you, and that includes going through the slow laser sections again, as well as two auto scroll sections with fire bursting out of the walls, so that's eight boring sections all in one Zone, lol.
Speed Jungle > Pinball Carnival > Lagoon City > Golden Capital > Bridge Island > Sand Sanctuary > Sky Temple > Press Factory > Frozen Base > Egg Fortress > Cyber Station
and now the moment most of you have been waiting for....it is time to discuss the bosses. now Classic Sonic bosses aren't too extravagant or anything, most of them are fairly short as their invincibility frames go by very quick so you can just brute force a lot of them if you want to, however the ones in this game function a lot more differently. when a boss appears, you'll be able to land a hit on it, however the invincibility time is greatly increased and instead you will have to wait for the boss to give you an opening before you can land another hit on it, this is made clear by the very first boss that takes place in Bridge Island Act 2. every boss fight in the game functions like this which is fine at first since while they take longer than most of the old Classic bosses, it's not too much of a pace breaker. however overtime, they go way overboard on this "wait for an opening, attack then wait again" mentality. to give you an idea of what I mean, there's a boss in Kirby Triple Deluxe called Pyribbit. normally Kirby bosses are well paced and you'll usually not spend more than two minutes dealing with one, however Pyribbit is often found moving around to the background during many of his attacks leaving you unable to deal damage, sometimes he even reappears in the foreground for a second or two before jumping back to the background. if that wasn't bad enough, he has two moves in his second phase where he does nothing but attack you from the background, the former lasting almost 30 seconds and the latter lasting 13 seconds before he immediately goes back to the background for another 13 seconds then he does it AGAIN for 13 seconds before he starts doing something else, clock in almost 40 seconds. that is the average Sonic Superstars boss. if there's anything good I can say about Pyribbit is that at least you can always deal damage to him whenever he's in the foreground, yet here's Sonic Superstars deciding when you can get the chance to land another hit, you have to play the waiting game.
Sand Sanctuary's Boss gave me a huge sense of déjà vu, as if I was back in Endless Explosions dealing with Pyribbit's BS all over again. Eggman is out in the background, he sends these blocks out towards you which I thought was an attack at first but it doesn't actually hurt you they're just there to cover up the sand you're standing on. now he slowly sends enemies toward you, now you need to wait for a certain one to pop out so you can send it back to him, alright that's one hit down. now he spends a good couple of seconds emerging into the foreground, destroying some platforms and giving you access to another hit. now repeat this process for another two cycles before he switches from emerging from the sand to blasting out of it leaving you unable to attack him that way and having to wait the other way to deal damage, well you might be able to attack him here with an Emerald Power but I didn't think of it at the time and I'm booting the game up again to see if that works. two cycles later and you finally end a boring process that takes just as long if not longer than Pyribbit, they get even longer than this btw. welcome to Golden Capital Act 2. while on a floating platform that follows your movement you now face off Fang and are able to get a hit on him that's cool. oh okay now he's going to move to the background and shoot lasers that sends lava popping out, this takes about 12 seconds before he comes back so you can land another hit. now he's back to the background and you now have to traverse through some autoscrolling rooms where the walls spout out fire on occasion and sometimes lava is dumped that you have to steer clear off, all while Fang sits in the background leaving you unable to engage him as he gets his vehicle repaired, THIS WHOLE SEGMENT TAKES 50 SECONDS. after that you can finally land another hit on Fang before he goes back and covers himself in hexagonal barriers that you need to break so you can hit him again, do it fast because if you don't then uh oh he goes back in the background for another few seconds before you get another shot to hit him. after that you have to go through ANOTHER AUTOSCROLL SEQUENCE then after that Fang shoots missiles at you from the background before he returns to the foreground so you can get another hit, a full minute of nonsense. I don't even want to talk about the boss fight anymore it's so bad yet it's not even the worse one in this game. real quick I want to mention the Cyber Station boss fight and how it's cool that the Metal Fighter you have is what you face against here, meaning that you have a customizable boss fight in the game, at least visually. I mean the boss fight still kinda sucks though not to the extent as Golden Capital's but I appreciate that I have to option to face off against a Metal Tails or Metal Knuckles or even a Metal NiGHTS. Egg Fortress Act 2 has the final boss of the Main Story. a giant Eggman robot sits in the background, he sends you missiles at you, the blue ones let you hit him but only if you travel behind him and send the missile that way something that isn't telegraphed well. he sends out some electric orbs that you have to avoid that goes on for like 20 seconds, wait for him to send the blue missiles again so you can hit him from behind, there's also these giant barriers he sends out on occasion another time waster, wait for the missiles again yada yada tell me something new. after sixhits minutes the robot falls apart but not before Eggman reverses time again (does the game even explain how Eggman can reverse time I don't think it does) and now WHOOP DE DOO THIS BOSS FIGHT NEVER ENDS because now you have a second phase that likes to destroy the ground you're standing on and if you lose a life here TOO BAD back to the first phase with you HAHA. this is still not the worst boss fight in the game, but if I want to discuss that one then I need to get into a bit of spoiler territory.
SPOILERS FOR SONIC SUPERSTARS but really who cares this game's been out for months now at this point
after defeating Fang in Golden Capital, Trip retrieves the Chaos Emeralds from him which turns her into a golden dragon. why does she turn into a dragon? idk but I guess that's cool. she then defeats Fang and switches sides to help Sonic and the gang. after you defeat the final boss, you then get the option to not only play as Trip in the Main Story, but you also unlock Trip's Story which is similar to Knuckles's campaign in Sonic 3, except not really. Knuckles's campaign was cool because if you didn't get the Super Emeralds during Sonic's campaign then you see an Eggrobo emerging out of the rubble after the credits, and that same Eggrobo is the one that antagonizes Knuckles and pilots the Egg Mobiles that Eggman used in Sonic's campaign. likewise in Trip's Story an Eggrobo shows up and Trip goes out to stop off, but like there's no reason why there's an Eggrobo out there it just is, wouldn't it make more sense for Fang to be the main antagonist? idk whatever let's talk about Trip. Trip is really good, she has a long range jump attack and can double jump just like Amy and can interact with walls just like Knuckles, though instead of slowing climbing them up she sticks to them in a spiky ball form and is able to freely move on them all at a fast pace, her existence makes Knuckles and Amy obsolete. well at least with Amy she has the hammer attack and hammer throw with the Extra Emerald Power, Knuckles has nothing that makes him better than Trip, dude was done dirty in this game. Trip also gets a unique Extra Emerald Power which has her spit out fireballs Super Mario All Stars SMW Luigi style, and on top of that she has a unique Super Form that transforms her into a golden dragon with a different gameplay style. while in this form she can fly around freely with the d-pad/control stick and every Badnik she bumps into is automatically defeated and she can even breathe fire with the jump button though the range sucks and she can already just touch Badniks to defeat them so there's not much point there. somehow despite turning into a shiny gold dragon, they managed to make it lame. Trip's controls while she's in this form is a bit jank. sometimes she gets "stuck" on the ground so you have to press the jump button so you can move around freely again, she's also not too agile or fast in her Super Form which is crazy to think about, she also can turn into a golden light when interacting with speed boosters or loops but trying to get to do so with the loops feels a bit inconsistent to pull off. I have no clue what's up with this form, it's unironically more fun to just play Trip normally, that's how jank her Super Form is.
for Trip's Story instead of getting unique pathways like Knuckles did in Sonic 3, Trip just gets the same Acts but with a bunch of added spikes and enemies everywhere, she also has to do the character specific Acts which were normally optional in the Main Story which also have added spikes and enemies, have fun. I'll at least acknowledge that at least you start off with all the Chaos Emeralds so you don't need to go through all the Special Stages again, and you'll need the Emerald Powers if you want to have an easier time, some sections even has blocks that need to be destroyed with Assist or a fast door going up and down that you need to use Slow on. you remember how I spent a big ass paragraph complaining about how slow paced the bosses were? they're given more hit points in Trip's Story, bumping them from six hits to nine, more than the regular bosses in the previous Classic Sonic games. after a few hours of hearing the Ring spill SFX on what seems like an infinite loop, you return to the end of Egg Fortress Act 2, but instead of Eggman or the Eggrobo you face off against Fang in what is probably the worst Classic Sonic boss in the franchise, well idk I haven’t played something like Sonic Blast that might have some worse stuff but we’re not here to talk about that.
the Fang final boss functions a bit similar to the Eggman one in the Main Story, in that he camps around in the background most of the time and gives you an opportunity to land a hit on him once per century. Fang sends out a bunch of missiles, which not only do none of them can be sent back to him to counter-attack, but you can just double jump to easily avoid them, you don't even need to move left and right just keep double jumping so that's about 15 seconds down the drain. then he comes into the foreground and starts throwing these insta-kill spinning lasers at you, though surprisingly they're not difficult to avoid if you follow the pattern, but that makes it all the more embarrassing if you do get hit by them, which I did once. if you want to make it even more easier, you can just spin dash under him before he starts throwing the lasers and you can just get an easy hit on him from behind, he doesn't even turn around he just keeps throwing at the same direction like a dumbass. after that he goes back to the background and shoots more boring ass missiles for a while, then he does this illusion thing where copies of him start diving down but only one of them is the real one so you have to hit the right one which is easy as well since the fake ones are in a transparent purple color scheme. after this the pattern keeps looping: sending missiles from the background, throwing spinning lasers at you, sending missiles from the background, diving at you with illusionary copies, repeat until you get enough hits in, this can take at least three minutes or even longer if you miss some hits. this isn't even hard and it's actually really easy once you figure it out which only makes those 3+ minutes even more aggravating. but of course this is Sonic Superstars so we have to have a second phase and in here he uses the giant Fang robot that he tried to use at the Golden Capital ending cutscene before Trip destroyed in her dragon from. because the plot demands it, Trip can't just transform again and destroy the thing so we have to deal with another couple minutes of nonsense. like with the Eggman robot, Fang sends out a bunch of Badniks that you need to use to hit him from behind which is actually better telegraphed than the Main Story one since he raises his arms to shield itself right after he does that, probably the only thing this fight gets right. after you get a hit on him, he sends these electric webs at you that you ABSOLUTELY need to avoid because if you do he fires these giant corks that get ready for this one....instantly kills you! you can escape out of them by button mashing but I was never able to do so myself because he sent out the giant corks immediately even though in other videos I've seen online you at least have a second or two before he does that so I have no clue what was going on with my version of the game. then he sends these bouncing bombs that you also have to send out from behind which is near identical to the Badnik attack, then he starts shooting the webs again--oh how fun. send out Badniks, shoot out webs, fire corks, send out bombs, shoot webs, fire corks, rinse and repeat until two hit remains then he does a funny move when he smashes the left and right sides of the platforms with his arms then does a headbutt to destroy the center which you will most certainly die to on your first try, it's basically a "haha get trolled" move. I should also mention that dying to the second phase of any boss in this game does not return you to that phase after a death so you need to do all of it again until you win so have fun with Fang's boring and tedious first phase. it is here where I confess that I did not beat the Fang final boss. you see, Sonic Superstars has a few goofy bugs, some were patched but some are still in the game, you can probably find the whole list on a Sonic wiki or something. while I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs, my game unexpectedly closed after I completed a Trip Act one time but that's besides the point I don't want to go too off-topic. there's a glitch you can perform in both versions of Egg Fortress Act 2 where if you stick high in the walls with Trip & Knuckles during an auto scrolling segment then start using Bullet as the platform is about to stop moving, you can go out of bounds and keep going left with Bullet, then if you land near a countdown timer in the background, you'll hear and be able to destroy an Egg Capsule if you jump at the right place, this not only counts the Act as completed, but it also considers the whole story mode as completed, which means you get access to Trip's Story and Last Story without engaging the final boss, here's a video on it if my explanation is a little complicated. while I didn't do this for the Main Story, I did do this for Trip's Story and I have no regrets, yes I'm marking this game as Mastered even though I didn't beat the Fang robot if you don't approve of what I've done you can go file a complaint at www.kirbdoesnotcare.com.org
so yeah you'll have noticed that there's no Super final boss fight until now and that's because it takes place in Last Story, though Last Story is a bit misleading it should have been called "Last Battle" because that's all that really happens. Last Story begins with a realistic looking dragon, going by the very original name "Black Dragon", emerging from the Northstar Islands so Sonic becomes Super Sonic to fight and seal it back from where it came from, that's it. okay so, what the hell is the Black Dragon, where did it come from, and why was this thing barely foreshadowed during this entire game? now there is one moment in the opening cutscene where it's foreshadowed, and it's when Eggman shows off a poorly made scribble of the dragon to Fang, holy crap that has to be some of the worst foreshadowing I've ever seen in a video game, what am I supposed to make of that? you want to hear of a game that does better foreshadowing without any dialogue? Sonic 3. in Hidden Palace Zone while fighting Knuckles, there's a mural on the wall that showcases a glowing creature facing a robot with the Master Emerald. when you get to Doomsday Zone later on, you're playing as Super Sonic who at the end faces against Eggman's robot that's holding the Master Emerald, that's how you do it. back to Superstars, you can actually get a little more backstory on the Black Dragon during the end of an official web animation "Trio of Trouble" where Eggman discovers a mural featuring the creature, however not only is this still pretty vague but it's not even in the actual game, granted all you need to do is go on YouTube and watch it there, but having it as an in-game unlockable after finishing either story mode would have been good. also I don't know about you but if I need to read or watch supplementary material to at least get a vague idea of what's going on in the game, then you're not doing a very good job with the storytelling. also Eggman's completely absent here I'm not sure why since apparently he was going to try to control or use it like he does for a few other ancient deities such as in Adventure or Unleashed, but yeah he's just not here, what was he crying in the shower while all of this was going on?
okay as for the actual fight, this is probably a hot and surprising take, but I actually kinda like it. of course I didn't start off with this opinion, as there's three problems I have with it, and the first one is that the game does not make it clear how you're supposed to go about the fight. now it starts off with the dragon sending red and blue meteors down at you, and it's pretty obvious you're supposed to send the blue ones back, but then it switches to the Doomsday perspective and now you're chasing after it while it sends black holes at you, if you get sucked into them you're insta-killed, black holes once again prove to be Sonic's greatest adversary. you can actually escape from them by pressing the action button to boost out, but the game doesn't tell you that. you can also boost at any point of the fight but for some reason it quickly drains out a lot of rings whenever you do it even though it didn't in Sonic 3 or Mania, so don't even bother using the boost unless you get sucked in a black hole. now when you get close to the Black Dragon you'd assume you're supposed to hit it in the face....WRONG it's the chest, once again this isn't made clear outside of the face sending you back a bit. don't mess though because if you don't hit the chest in time the dragon flies back in the background and you need to wait for it to use the meteor attacks again, oh yeah sometimes the blue meteors crash down too far to the point where you won't be able to see them so lol. once you figure this stuff out the boss fight actually becomes alright and the second phase is not only pretty similar but it's actually more enjoyable since the black holes are replaced with non lethal fireballs and there's less time wasting moves then there were in the first phase, that is until the very end. near the end the Black Dragon sends homing meteors toward you and you have to time the hits exactly right to send them back, and while they give you a reticle that closes around the meteors, it's still not clear when exactly do you need to dash into them, Rings don't spawn during this and due to me not knowing the timing I ended up having to restart this 10 minute battle, fun. and that's the second complaint, this goes on for way too long. now this wouldn't be a problem if there was more engagement with the Black Dragon, but a lot of time like every other boss you're waiting for another chance to land another hit while it spends a lot a time using attacks that you can't use against it when coincides with my last complaint: the Ring spawn is somewhat miniscule. now this isn't as bad as the first two complaints, but there is a surprising lack of Rings to collect, meaning your Ring count will be pretty low especially if you aren't able to manage them properly. thankfully this is mostly remedied by Tails & Knuckles dropping by every now and then to drop a good amount of Rings and Amy and Trip if you manage to avoid getting hit for about a minute which I just learned by looking it up right now, thanks Sonic Wiki. once you know all of this, the Black Dragon fight ends up being alright, though the slow pace is not something that you'd want out of a Super Sonic battle.
before I talk about the graphics and music, there's a few other minor complaints and nitpicks I want to bring up real quick. why does the game never explain why Trip works for Fang and Eggman? I think it does get explained in a promotional comic but once again, why do I need to read supplementary material for something that should be in the actual game? why do I need to subscribe to a newsletter just so I can get access to a cosmetic Amy skin? why do I need to pay actual money for LEGO skins? if only there was some in-game currency I could use to unlock these things....oh yeah why are there LEGO skins? why do the LEGO skins use the Modern Sonic designs, I mean I guess it's funny that they look so out of place but still. why can I not use my Metal Fighter for the main game even though they control identical to all of the main characters, maybe make them unlockable after the Cyber Station boss fight come on that's a missed opportunity. why does all the Metal Fighter parts cost so many Medals to the point where you'll need to grind out Bonus and Special Stages to purchase what you want? why does the spray paint item get used up after one use? why is there no unique drowning animation yes you thought I wouldn't notice even though there's only one drownable Act BUT I DID. why are the credits ten minutes long? why does the credits theme loop about three times? why are there no proper Zone transitions even though Sonic 3 was able to do so ALMOST THIRTY YEARS AGO? (man I feel old saying that) forget it let's just move on.
I've briefly touched on this in my Klonoa 2 review, but there's a certain style some games (usually ones on a budget) have nowadays that I like to call the "3D Mobile Game Aesthetic", and Sonic Superstars is one of them. now if I had to place it on a hypothetical tier list, it'd probably be a low A. this is definitely one of the better ones out there, but I'd be lying if I said some of the Zones looked pretty uninspired, notably places like Sky Temple, Sand Sanctuary, Press Factory, the Tails Act in Frozen Base. with all my gripes about Cyber Station aside, it's probably the best looking place in the game, I can just feel the Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 vibes. everything else I haven't mentioned looks fine, overall the visuals get the job done, but there was definitely room for improvement.
as for the music, before I continue let me list off all the composers who made music for the game according to the credits sequence. Tee Lopes, Fumio Otah, Satoshi Oike, Takahiro Kai, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hideaki Kobayashi, Hidenori Shoji, Rintaro Soma, Iono Takashima, Yasuyuki Nagata, Ryo Fukada, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, Tae Fujimoto, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Kenji Mizuno, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, TORIENA, Yuzuru Jinma, and Jun Senoue and Teruhiko Nakagawa as Sound Director and Assistant Sound Director respectfully, yeah that's a lot. listen I'm sure everyone listed here are all great people, and I'm happy they all had a chance to compose Sonic music, but this might be a bit much. I'm not sure if a Sonic game really needs this many composers, Sonic Mania's music was solely done by Tee Lopes and his work there turned out excellent so I wonder why they didn't have him do all the tracks here, idk maybe he was busy you never know. speaking of, the tracks he composed here such as Speed Jungle Act 1 and Sand Sanctuary are probably the best ones in the game, Lagoon City Act 2 might be the favorite for me, it sounds like a water area I'd hear in a hypothetical Super Monkey Ball 3. speaking of Super Monkey Ball, why don't we talk about the actual composer because they got the man Hidenori Shoji himself, I know he's composed more Yakuza nowadays but for me he'll always be the SMB 1 & 2 guy. nevermind Speed Jungle Act 2 is the Super Monkey Ball 3 track, it even takes place during a jungle! another notable composer is Rintaro Soma who composed both Pinball Carnival, I actually thought Act 1 was a Tee Lopes until I listened closer, the Tee Lopes vibes are there but he also has his style going on here especially with Act 2, his Lagoon City Act 1 is nice too. Yasuyuki Nagata composed Frozen Base Act Tails and he seems to compose a few Virtual Fighter and Shining Force stuff but I wouldn't be surprised if he was a 3D Blast composer because that's the vibe I get. not only is Frozen Base Act 2 a Fantasy Zone reference but it also has the same composer on it (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), this Act may be a little boring but the references are top notch.
LITTLE RED CORVETTE, BABY YOU'RE MUCH TOO FAST, LITTLE RED CORVETTE.
what the hell I thought I was going to complain about how inconsistent this game's music is, and while it is a lot of these tracks are actually A-OK. okay elephant in the room time, Jun Senoue's compositions here are....better than I expected. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon on how he can't compose or anything because the dude is good he has talent, a lot of his compositions in the game are fine it's just that the instruments he uses (Vaccum VST presets according to a YouTube commenter that knows what they're talking about) sound like....this. now that's a bad pick if you want a better one than here's Golden Capital Act 1. the melody's actually nice but I feel it'd be a bit more lively had he just used actual instruments. Frozen Base Act 1 fairs a bit better with that Genesis sound but like with Golden Capital the instruments hold it in better. intererstingly though, I feel the instruments actually enhance both Press Factory Act 1 and Act 2, the industrial theme actually suits Jun's style very nicely plus these track's are just really nice, well done Jun you made the instruments work.
nevermind I take it back
yeah this is the worst track in the game, not only is it associated with this most of this game's terrible bosses, but it's only about 50 seconds long before it starts looping, but really it's 25 seconds long because the second half is identical outside of that last second before it loops. this song is stuck in my head and I WANT IT OUT. also the Bonus Stage music puts me to sleep, but I guess it's chill.
I spent these past couple of days writing this review, what has my life come to
I'm not even a huge Sonic enthusiast compared to other Sonic fans I've seen online, well maybe I am considering how much time I spent talking about an average game that I will likely forget a few days after this, but idk I guess I just wanted better from this game. there's a good game in here I said that in the very beginning, but there's so many factors preventing it from reaching the top that I felt like I needed to acknowledge. I know Sonic Mania set a high bar and I'm not expecting Superstars to try and be the next Mania, but I at least want it to be an excellent Classic Sonic. I'll give it this though it's better than Sonic 1, maybe Sonic 2 as well but I'll need to do another playthrough of that one to see if that's true. I don't really know what else to say other than I'm tired. I'd still recommend this game, but only to hardcore Sonic fans, however I wouldn't recommend it right now since the price as of the time writing this review is $59.99. wait for the price to go down, anyone who says this game is worth $59.99 is objectively wrong, end of story.
the coolest thing about this game is that it was created because Iizuka and Ohshima had a drinking game on Zoom
get yourself a beverage and a meal this is going to be a long one
real quick I want to mention that despite everything I will say later in the review, I do think Sonic Superstars is a good game, I had a fun time with it for the most part. is it a great game? if it had spent a little more time in the oven then yeah for sure. however as it is right now it’s still pretty alright, but of course there’s a lot of flaws holding it back. with that said though, I’d be lying if I said I’m not eager to tear this game a part or two, because wow there are tons of questionable decisions in here that I want to
alright let's start with the story, people play Sonic for the story right? so in the intro cutscene, Dr. Eggman has kidnapped some big chunky critters to power up his robots again, though this time he's assisted by
I'm happy to say that the physics are faithful from the previous Classic games like Sonic Mania so you won't encounter some goofy stuff regarding it like those short clips you see about Sonic 4 all the time. a lot of things are also accounted for like the Bonus Stages at the Goal Posts, the Special Stage Rings, and uhhhh....actually, I think it'd be easier for me to talk about the stuff not here, yeah here we go. first off, the Elemental Shield are absent. the Flame Shield, the Thunder Shield, the Aqua Shield (I'm just now learning it's not called the Bubble Shield), all uncounted for besides the original Blue Shield which is a bit lame since not only does Sonic loses out on the attack and movements options he'd get with it, but the Elemental Shields were already in Mania, along with the original Blue Shield, so not having them here kinda stings, but after thinking about it I might understand why they're not here which I will discuss later. oh yeah the lives system is gone too so you can just die all you want without much consequence. now this doesn't bother me as much as others since Sonic 2 is the only Classic Sonic I've played where I have trouble managing lives, but the option to use the old system would have been nice. this also means that the score system is useless now and while that's still in the game, it might as well not be there because now it does nothing. you can't even see the score while playing Acts, you can see the 100, 200, etc. pop out of Badniks after defeating them but you can't see the current score at the top left of the screen....unless you pause. the score only shows up when you pause. this is no accident, they knew what they were doing. you know what is in this game though? the Sonic 1 Special Stages!!!
like how Blue Spheres were made into Bonus Stages in Sonic Mania, here the same applies to the Sonic 1 Special Stages. the problem with that is Blue Spheres is actually fun, I don't think anyone is jumping up and down to play Sonic 1 Special Stages, actually knowing the Sonic fandom there has to be at least one guy so ignore what I said earlier. now I'll give them this, the stages here have more interesting things going on with them than ones in Sonic 1, but at the end of the day they're still the Sonic 1 Special Stages. instead of getting a Chaos Emerald at the end, you rather get a Medal for completing a maze, three of which you'll go through with each Goal Post. now you may be thinking "ooo medals that sounds interesting do they do anything cool???" no not really lol. the only thing you can do with Medals is purchase parts for your customizable Metal Fighter in Battle Mode. the only thing you can do with Medals. I'm not even going to discuss the Battle Mode because I only tried it once and and I'll say you're not really missing out, so instead I’ll leave you off with this, this is all you will get. back to the Bonus Stages, although I think they're better designed than the originals, I feel like a lot of the tension has gone away. in Sonic 1 if you were going for all the Emeralds, these Special Stages were a matter of life and death. the serene music, the 80's CGI background, it's simultaneously soothing yet frantic at the same time. if you failed to get the Emerald and fell into one of the Goal Blocks, you had to go collect and maintain 50 Rings all the way to the end of an Act to get another shot, and you could only do this ten times so you have four rooms of error (kinda weird how Sonic 1 only had six Emeralds). in Sonic Superstars, not only can you encounter them all the time with the Goal Posts, but the rewards you get for them aren't even that special so it turns what was once a tense journey to escape Hell into a boring waste of time.
what about the actual Special Stages are they any better? I guess? once again you're sent into a 3D purgatory but this time you have to swing around the Blue Spheres (cool to see them being a reoccuring object) to reach the Chaos Emerald which is constantly moving around like in Sonic Mania, though there's also obstacles like the spike bombs from the Sonic 2 Special Stages (which you can use as a small boost if you let go of the button immediately) and these giant crystalline walls which will stun you briefly if you bump into them, but there's also springs and boosts that'll help you reach the Emerald and of course Rings to increase the time ticking down. the first two are really easy, to the point that'll you get the Emerald without even knowing what you're doing yet, the next two are more about what you expect, then the fifth is insanely annoying to chase after for some reason, then the last two are fairly challenging but not nearly as crazy as the fifth, did they mix up the Special Stage order? once you collected all the Emeralds, you'll still be able to enter the Giant Rings and go through them all over again, though this time the award you get is....Medals!!!!!!!!!!! after going through them again whenever I found more Giant Rings I kinda got used to how they worked so all in all I'll say that the Special Stages here are mostly inoffensive, of course they'll never top Blue Spheres or even the Mania ones.
can you believe I've gone this far without mentioning how the characters play? well not me because you should know how these characters play like. Sonic's the one with emphasis on speed thanks to the Drop Dash, Tails is like Sonic but instead of the Drop Dash he can fly around with his tails for a set period of time which also acts as an upwards attack, Knuckles sacrifices a high jump for gliding and climbing walls as well as not needing to Spin Dash through breakable obstacles, and Amy has a longer ranged jump attack with her hammer, can use the hammer for a brief time after landing, and even a double jump--damn Amy pretty's good, all she's missing is an infinite hammer bounce. they control well, but unfortunately Sonic does not have the Super Peel Out from CD or the Insta-Shield from Sonic 3 which makes sense since they're not in his default Mania moveset, but Mania at least let you obtain this moves as unlockables which this game does not, once again would have loved the option. also Knuckles's glide does not get faster the longer you use it, I have no clue what happened there. granted I don't play as Knuckles outside of his Sonic 3 campaign since I'm not a huge fan of his lower jump height, but that alongside something else I'll discuss later (I will get to these points trust the plan) makes Knuckles not that fun to play as in this game. well 3/4 ain't bad.
did you guys know each character has their own special move, but only if they have the 7th Chaos Emerald? Emerald Power time! yeah I know smooth transition haha anyway the Chaos Emerald are actually useful individually as now for a brief time limit they give you temporary Emerald Powers useful for combat and speed purposes which can be refilled upon reaching a Goal Post, I guess this explains why Elemental Shields aren't here. the 1st Emerald gives you Avatar which sends a bunch of clones of your characters across the screen, hitting any enemy they come in contact with. the 2nd Emerald gives you Bullet which turns you into
as a callback to my Sonic 1 review, I'm going to discuss each Zone one-by-one and have a personal ranking at the end of it all.
Bridge Island: no way "Bridge"? that one Zone from MS Sonic 1 with the really good music??? anyway this one's cool not much to say here, a solid beginning Zone that kinda reminds of Seaside Hill visually and I like Seaside Hill so I like this Zone, the Act 1 boss isn't really a boss though it's just a really easy chase sequence.
Speed Jungle: probably my favorite Zone gameplay wise which is not a good sign lmao but yeah the vine rails are awesome and the jungle aesthetic is based, though the vines that bounce you upwards can kill the pacing a bit and the dark section in Act 2 that limits your vision is a bit questionable.
Sky Temple: for some reason some Zones only have one longer Act which is fine I guess sure why not and Sky Temple's one of them, I don't have much to say about this one it's okay it looks like Windy Valley from Sonic Adventure and I like Windy Valley so....yeah I'm reusing a joke but what's there to say about Sky Temple
Pinball Carnival Zone: Act 1 is pure pinball kino and Act 2 is more of the same except with a spooker aesthetic than I wish they went all the way with, though the sections where the fast moving platforms and bottomless kinda sucks , the Act would have been better without them.
Lagoon City: another solid Zone and the only one with the underwater section though the Water Emerald Power takes care of that, it also has an exclusive Act with Amy featuring a based moment where she helps out Trip in her time of need, oh yeah each character get one exclusive character Act, didn't mention it until now though because they're not too special and Amy's is the only one where something cool actually happens.
Sand Sanctuary: Sandopolis Zone but only one Act, which automatically makes it more fun, though the desert aesthetic here is not nearly as unique as Sandopolis, but the Zone's fun to go through which is a rarity for desert levels that I go through.
Press Factory: here we go time to get more vocal. Act 1 has a mechanic where the platforms bounce you up on occasion, it's not nearly as schizo about it as Wacky Workbench though so it's mostly harmless. then Act 2 introduces a mechanic where if don't land on these cool down buttons, the entire Act burns up which instantly takes away a life. now once you figure this out it's no problem, but damn they're a lot of insta-death stuff here, something that this game has a hard-on for and will not be going away from this Zone onward.
Golden Capital: this Zone's cool because there's kind of a weird moment that takes place here. in an in-game cutscene of the Knuckles Act, he finds a room that would have the remaining Emeralds, the next cutscene has him chuckling with the Emeralds before Fang appears and snatches them up for the time being. however as I had all the Emeralds already, in my eyes Knuckles found a empty ass room, then later on decided to leave all the Emeralds out in the open for no reason just so Fang can take them. I can understand leaving them out if we just found them, but we've had these Emeralds for a couple of Zones now, it just makes Knuckles look like a dumbass, they really should have made a different cutscene for this. oh yeah I'm supposed to talk about the Zone, it's like Pinball Carnival Act 1 but with a bunch of rings and some lava pits here and there, neat.
Cyber Station: I don't care if you only have one Act or have a similar aesthetic to Techno Base from Sonic Advance 2, you might be the worst Zone in the game. in this Zone they're sections where you transform into a virtual squid and virtual mouse to traverse through segments, the problem is that the squid controls janky especially if you're moving left or right so you're bound to get hit by those annoying electric barriers. the mouse segment where you have to travel up the wires is trial and error. oh you got hit by the enemy? back down you go try again. you got hit by the electric barriers at the end? should have went to the right path try again. not good.
Frozen Base: I'm not sure what to think about this one. for some reason you can skip Act 1 entirely and go immediately to the Tails Act which I didn't even ponder at the time so I missed out on Act 1 on the first playthrough. Act 1 is a snow level with some conveyor belt platforms while the Tails Act focuses more on the industrial side with a bunch of spikes and insta-death crushers, awesome. Act 2 throws away the "Frozen Base" and turns into a Fantasy Zone level, which while it's a cool reference, it's not a very interesting Act and it ends far too quickly. that said while I didn't notice this at the time, depending on which character you choose, you ride the Egg Mobile from the game they debuted in. Sonic gets the Sonic 1 Egg Mobile, Tails gets the one from 2, Amy gets the one from CD, and Knuckles gets the 3&K Mobile, now that's a based callback.
Egg Fortress: Act 1 is at least eight minutes long, Act 2 is even longer due to the final boss fight, you could speedrun Sonic 1 before you finish this Zone. Act 1 incorporates everything wrong with this game's level design: insta-death sections, abundance of spikes, checkpoint starvation, there's even two sections where you have to slowly traverse through laser beams in zero gravity, fun game design. Act 2 is an interesting case though. rather than going through a different level, Eggman reverses time so now you have to go through Act 1 backwards. I actually think this is a cool and nice twist, I even find Act 2 more fun than Act 1 since it's easier to traverse outside of one or two sections. unfortunately this means you still have to put up with all the BS that Act 1 gives you, and that includes going through the slow laser sections again, as well as two auto scroll sections with fire bursting out of the walls, so that's eight boring sections all in one Zone, lol.
Speed Jungle > Pinball Carnival > Lagoon City > Golden Capital > Bridge Island > Sand Sanctuary > Sky Temple > Press Factory > Frozen Base > Egg Fortress > Cyber Station
and now the moment most of you have been waiting for....it is time to discuss the bosses. now Classic Sonic bosses aren't too extravagant or anything, most of them are fairly short as their invincibility frames go by very quick so you can just brute force a lot of them if you want to, however the ones in this game function a lot more differently. when a boss appears, you'll be able to land a hit on it, however the invincibility time is greatly increased and instead you will have to wait for the boss to give you an opening before you can land another hit on it, this is made clear by the very first boss that takes place in Bridge Island Act 2. every boss fight in the game functions like this which is fine at first since while they take longer than most of the old Classic bosses, it's not too much of a pace breaker. however overtime, they go way overboard on this "wait for an opening, attack then wait again" mentality. to give you an idea of what I mean, there's a boss in Kirby Triple Deluxe called Pyribbit. normally Kirby bosses are well paced and you'll usually not spend more than two minutes dealing with one, however Pyribbit is often found moving around to the background during many of his attacks leaving you unable to deal damage, sometimes he even reappears in the foreground for a second or two before jumping back to the background. if that wasn't bad enough, he has two moves in his second phase where he does nothing but attack you from the background, the former lasting almost 30 seconds and the latter lasting 13 seconds before he immediately goes back to the background for another 13 seconds then he does it AGAIN for 13 seconds before he starts doing something else, clock in almost 40 seconds. that is the average Sonic Superstars boss. if there's anything good I can say about Pyribbit is that at least you can always deal damage to him whenever he's in the foreground, yet here's Sonic Superstars deciding when you can get the chance to land another hit, you have to play the waiting game.
Sand Sanctuary's Boss gave me a huge sense of déjà vu, as if I was back in Endless Explosions dealing with Pyribbit's BS all over again. Eggman is out in the background, he sends these blocks out towards you which I thought was an attack at first but it doesn't actually hurt you they're just there to cover up the sand you're standing on. now he slowly sends enemies toward you, now you need to wait for a certain one to pop out so you can send it back to him, alright that's one hit down. now he spends a good couple of seconds emerging into the foreground, destroying some platforms and giving you access to another hit. now repeat this process for another two cycles before he switches from emerging from the sand to blasting out of it leaving you unable to attack him that way and having to wait the other way to deal damage, well you might be able to attack him here with an Emerald Power but I didn't think of it at the time and I'm booting the game up again to see if that works. two cycles later and you finally end a boring process that takes just as long if not longer than Pyribbit, they get even longer than this btw. welcome to Golden Capital Act 2. while on a floating platform that follows your movement you now face off Fang and are able to get a hit on him that's cool. oh okay now he's going to move to the background and shoot lasers that sends lava popping out, this takes about 12 seconds before he comes back so you can land another hit. now he's back to the background and you now have to traverse through some autoscrolling rooms where the walls spout out fire on occasion and sometimes lava is dumped that you have to steer clear off, all while Fang sits in the background leaving you unable to engage him as he gets his vehicle repaired, THIS WHOLE SEGMENT TAKES 50 SECONDS. after that you can finally land another hit on Fang before he goes back and covers himself in hexagonal barriers that you need to break so you can hit him again, do it fast because if you don't then uh oh he goes back in the background for another few seconds before you get another shot to hit him. after that you have to go through ANOTHER AUTOSCROLL SEQUENCE then after that Fang shoots missiles at you from the background before he returns to the foreground so you can get another hit, a full minute of nonsense. I don't even want to talk about the boss fight anymore it's so bad yet it's not even the worse one in this game. real quick I want to mention the Cyber Station boss fight and how it's cool that the Metal Fighter you have is what you face against here, meaning that you have a customizable boss fight in the game, at least visually. I mean the boss fight still kinda sucks though not to the extent as Golden Capital's but I appreciate that I have to option to face off against a Metal Tails or Metal Knuckles or even a Metal NiGHTS. Egg Fortress Act 2 has the final boss of the Main Story. a giant Eggman robot sits in the background, he sends you missiles at you, the blue ones let you hit him but only if you travel behind him and send the missile that way something that isn't telegraphed well. he sends out some electric orbs that you have to avoid that goes on for like 20 seconds, wait for him to send the blue missiles again so you can hit him from behind, there's also these giant barriers he sends out on occasion another time waster, wait for the missiles again yada yada tell me something new. after six
SPOILERS FOR SONIC SUPERSTARS but really who cares this game's been out for months now at this point
after defeating Fang in Golden Capital, Trip retrieves the Chaos Emeralds from him which turns her into a golden dragon. why does she turn into a dragon? idk but I guess that's cool. she then defeats Fang and switches sides to help Sonic and the gang. after you defeat the final boss, you then get the option to not only play as Trip in the Main Story, but you also unlock Trip's Story which is similar to Knuckles's campaign in Sonic 3, except not really. Knuckles's campaign was cool because if you didn't get the Super Emeralds during Sonic's campaign then you see an Eggrobo emerging out of the rubble after the credits, and that same Eggrobo is the one that antagonizes Knuckles and pilots the Egg Mobiles that Eggman used in Sonic's campaign. likewise in Trip's Story an Eggrobo shows up and Trip goes out to stop off, but like there's no reason why there's an Eggrobo out there it just is, wouldn't it make more sense for Fang to be the main antagonist? idk whatever let's talk about Trip. Trip is really good, she has a long range jump attack and can double jump just like Amy and can interact with walls just like Knuckles, though instead of slowing climbing them up she sticks to them in a spiky ball form and is able to freely move on them all at a fast pace, her existence makes Knuckles and Amy obsolete. well at least with Amy she has the hammer attack and hammer throw with the Extra Emerald Power, Knuckles has nothing that makes him better than Trip, dude was done dirty in this game. Trip also gets a unique Extra Emerald Power which has her spit out fireballs Super Mario All Stars SMW Luigi style, and on top of that she has a unique Super Form that transforms her into a golden dragon with a different gameplay style. while in this form she can fly around freely with the d-pad/control stick and every Badnik she bumps into is automatically defeated and she can even breathe fire with the jump button though the range sucks and she can already just touch Badniks to defeat them so there's not much point there. somehow despite turning into a shiny gold dragon, they managed to make it lame. Trip's controls while she's in this form is a bit jank. sometimes she gets "stuck" on the ground so you have to press the jump button so you can move around freely again, she's also not too agile or fast in her Super Form which is crazy to think about, she also can turn into a golden light when interacting with speed boosters or loops but trying to get to do so with the loops feels a bit inconsistent to pull off. I have no clue what's up with this form, it's unironically more fun to just play Trip normally, that's how jank her Super Form is.
for Trip's Story instead of getting unique pathways like Knuckles did in Sonic 3, Trip just gets the same Acts but with a bunch of added spikes and enemies everywhere, she also has to do the character specific Acts which were normally optional in the Main Story which also have added spikes and enemies, have fun. I'll at least acknowledge that at least you start off with all the Chaos Emeralds so you don't need to go through all the Special Stages again, and you'll need the Emerald Powers if you want to have an easier time, some sections even has blocks that need to be destroyed with Assist or a fast door going up and down that you need to use Slow on. you remember how I spent a big ass paragraph complaining about how slow paced the bosses were? they're given more hit points in Trip's Story, bumping them from six hits to nine, more than the regular bosses in the previous Classic Sonic games. after a few hours of hearing the Ring spill SFX on what seems like an infinite loop, you return to the end of Egg Fortress Act 2, but instead of Eggman or the Eggrobo you face off against Fang in what is probably the worst Classic Sonic boss in the franchise, well idk I haven’t played something like Sonic Blast that might have some worse stuff but we’re not here to talk about that.
the Fang final boss functions a bit similar to the Eggman one in the Main Story, in that he camps around in the background most of the time and gives you an opportunity to land a hit on him once per century. Fang sends out a bunch of missiles, which not only do none of them can be sent back to him to counter-attack, but you can just double jump to easily avoid them, you don't even need to move left and right just keep double jumping so that's about 15 seconds down the drain. then he comes into the foreground and starts throwing these insta-kill spinning lasers at you, though surprisingly they're not difficult to avoid if you follow the pattern, but that makes it all the more embarrassing if you do get hit by them, which I did once. if you want to make it even more easier, you can just spin dash under him before he starts throwing the lasers and you can just get an easy hit on him from behind, he doesn't even turn around he just keeps throwing at the same direction like a dumbass. after that he goes back to the background and shoots more boring ass missiles for a while, then he does this illusion thing where copies of him start diving down but only one of them is the real one so you have to hit the right one which is easy as well since the fake ones are in a transparent purple color scheme. after this the pattern keeps looping: sending missiles from the background, throwing spinning lasers at you, sending missiles from the background, diving at you with illusionary copies, repeat until you get enough hits in, this can take at least three minutes or even longer if you miss some hits. this isn't even hard and it's actually really easy once you figure it out which only makes those 3+ minutes even more aggravating. but of course this is Sonic Superstars so we have to have a second phase and in here he uses the giant Fang robot that he tried to use at the Golden Capital ending cutscene before Trip destroyed in her dragon from. because the plot demands it, Trip can't just transform again and destroy the thing so we have to deal with another couple minutes of nonsense. like with the Eggman robot, Fang sends out a bunch of Badniks that you need to use to hit him from behind which is actually better telegraphed than the Main Story one since he raises his arms to shield itself right after he does that, probably the only thing this fight gets right. after you get a hit on him, he sends these electric webs at you that you ABSOLUTELY need to avoid because if you do he fires these giant corks that get ready for this one....instantly kills you! you can escape out of them by button mashing but I was never able to do so myself because he sent out the giant corks immediately even though in other videos I've seen online you at least have a second or two before he does that so I have no clue what was going on with my version of the game. then he sends these bouncing bombs that you also have to send out from behind which is near identical to the Badnik attack, then he starts shooting the webs again--oh how fun. send out Badniks, shoot out webs, fire corks, send out bombs, shoot webs, fire corks, rinse and repeat until two hit remains then he does a funny move when he smashes the left and right sides of the platforms with his arms then does a headbutt to destroy the center which you will most certainly die to on your first try, it's basically a "haha get trolled" move. I should also mention that dying to the second phase of any boss in this game does not return you to that phase after a death so you need to do all of it again until you win so have fun with Fang's boring and tedious first phase. it is here where I confess that I did not beat the Fang final boss. you see, Sonic Superstars has a few goofy bugs, some were patched but some are still in the game, you can probably find the whole list on a Sonic wiki or something. while I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs, my game unexpectedly closed after I completed a Trip Act one time but that's besides the point I don't want to go too off-topic. there's a glitch you can perform in both versions of Egg Fortress Act 2 where if you stick high in the walls with Trip & Knuckles during an auto scrolling segment then start using Bullet as the platform is about to stop moving, you can go out of bounds and keep going left with Bullet, then if you land near a countdown timer in the background, you'll hear and be able to destroy an Egg Capsule if you jump at the right place, this not only counts the Act as completed, but it also considers the whole story mode as completed, which means you get access to Trip's Story and Last Story without engaging the final boss, here's a video on it if my explanation is a little complicated. while I didn't do this for the Main Story, I did do this for Trip's Story and I have no regrets, yes I'm marking this game as Mastered even though I didn't beat the Fang robot if you don't approve of what I've done you can go file a complaint at www.kirbdoesnotcare.com.org
so yeah you'll have noticed that there's no Super final boss fight until now and that's because it takes place in Last Story, though Last Story is a bit misleading it should have been called "Last Battle" because that's all that really happens. Last Story begins with a realistic looking dragon, going by the very original name "Black Dragon", emerging from the Northstar Islands so Sonic becomes Super Sonic to fight and seal it back from where it came from, that's it. okay so, what the hell is the Black Dragon, where did it come from, and why was this thing barely foreshadowed during this entire game? now there is one moment in the opening cutscene where it's foreshadowed, and it's when Eggman shows off a poorly made scribble of the dragon to Fang, holy crap that has to be some of the worst foreshadowing I've ever seen in a video game, what am I supposed to make of that? you want to hear of a game that does better foreshadowing without any dialogue? Sonic 3. in Hidden Palace Zone while fighting Knuckles, there's a mural on the wall that showcases a glowing creature facing a robot with the Master Emerald. when you get to Doomsday Zone later on, you're playing as Super Sonic who at the end faces against Eggman's robot that's holding the Master Emerald, that's how you do it. back to Superstars, you can actually get a little more backstory on the Black Dragon during the end of an official web animation "Trio of Trouble" where Eggman discovers a mural featuring the creature, however not only is this still pretty vague but it's not even in the actual game, granted all you need to do is go on YouTube and watch it there, but having it as an in-game unlockable after finishing either story mode would have been good. also I don't know about you but if I need to read or watch supplementary material to at least get a vague idea of what's going on in the game, then you're not doing a very good job with the storytelling. also Eggman's completely absent here I'm not sure why since apparently he was going to try to control or use it like he does for a few other ancient deities such as in Adventure or Unleashed, but yeah he's just not here, what was he crying in the shower while all of this was going on?
okay as for the actual fight, this is probably a hot and surprising take, but I actually kinda like it. of course I didn't start off with this opinion, as there's three problems I have with it, and the first one is that the game does not make it clear how you're supposed to go about the fight. now it starts off with the dragon sending red and blue meteors down at you, and it's pretty obvious you're supposed to send the blue ones back, but then it switches to the Doomsday perspective and now you're chasing after it while it sends black holes at you, if you get sucked into them you're insta-killed, black holes once again prove to be Sonic's greatest adversary. you can actually escape from them by pressing the action button to boost out, but the game doesn't tell you that. you can also boost at any point of the fight but for some reason it quickly drains out a lot of rings whenever you do it even though it didn't in Sonic 3 or Mania, so don't even bother using the boost unless you get sucked in a black hole. now when you get close to the Black Dragon you'd assume you're supposed to hit it in the face....WRONG it's the chest, once again this isn't made clear outside of the face sending you back a bit. don't mess though because if you don't hit the chest in time the dragon flies back in the background and you need to wait for it to use the meteor attacks again, oh yeah sometimes the blue meteors crash down too far to the point where you won't be able to see them so lol. once you figure this stuff out the boss fight actually becomes alright and the second phase is not only pretty similar but it's actually more enjoyable since the black holes are replaced with non lethal fireballs and there's less time wasting moves then there were in the first phase, that is until the very end. near the end the Black Dragon sends homing meteors toward you and you have to time the hits exactly right to send them back, and while they give you a reticle that closes around the meteors, it's still not clear when exactly do you need to dash into them, Rings don't spawn during this and due to me not knowing the timing I ended up having to restart this 10 minute battle, fun. and that's the second complaint, this goes on for way too long. now this wouldn't be a problem if there was more engagement with the Black Dragon, but a lot of time like every other boss you're waiting for another chance to land another hit while it spends a lot a time using attacks that you can't use against it when coincides with my last complaint: the Ring spawn is somewhat miniscule. now this isn't as bad as the first two complaints, but there is a surprising lack of Rings to collect, meaning your Ring count will be pretty low especially if you aren't able to manage them properly. thankfully this is mostly remedied by Tails & Knuckles dropping by every now and then to drop a good amount of Rings and Amy and Trip if you manage to avoid getting hit for about a minute which I just learned by looking it up right now, thanks Sonic Wiki. once you know all of this, the Black Dragon fight ends up being alright, though the slow pace is not something that you'd want out of a Super Sonic battle.
before I talk about the graphics and music, there's a few other minor complaints and nitpicks I want to bring up real quick. why does the game never explain why Trip works for Fang and Eggman? I think it does get explained in a promotional comic but once again, why do I need to read supplementary material for something that should be in the actual game? why do I need to subscribe to a newsletter just so I can get access to a cosmetic Amy skin? why do I need to pay actual money for LEGO skins? if only there was some in-game currency I could use to unlock these things....oh yeah why are there LEGO skins? why do the LEGO skins use the Modern Sonic designs, I mean I guess it's funny that they look so out of place but still. why can I not use my Metal Fighter for the main game even though they control identical to all of the main characters, maybe make them unlockable after the Cyber Station boss fight come on that's a missed opportunity. why does all the Metal Fighter parts cost so many Medals to the point where you'll need to grind out Bonus and Special Stages to purchase what you want? why does the spray paint item get used up after one use? why is there no unique drowning animation yes you thought I wouldn't notice even though there's only one drownable Act BUT I DID. why are the credits ten minutes long? why does the credits theme loop about three times? why are there no proper Zone transitions even though Sonic 3 was able to do so ALMOST THIRTY YEARS AGO? (man I feel old saying that) forget it let's just move on.
I've briefly touched on this in my Klonoa 2 review, but there's a certain style some games (usually ones on a budget) have nowadays that I like to call the "3D Mobile Game Aesthetic", and Sonic Superstars is one of them. now if I had to place it on a hypothetical tier list, it'd probably be a low A. this is definitely one of the better ones out there, but I'd be lying if I said some of the Zones looked pretty uninspired, notably places like Sky Temple, Sand Sanctuary, Press Factory, the Tails Act in Frozen Base. with all my gripes about Cyber Station aside, it's probably the best looking place in the game, I can just feel the Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 vibes. everything else I haven't mentioned looks fine, overall the visuals get the job done, but there was definitely room for improvement.
as for the music, before I continue let me list off all the composers who made music for the game according to the credits sequence. Tee Lopes, Fumio Otah, Satoshi Oike, Takahiro Kai, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hideaki Kobayashi, Hidenori Shoji, Rintaro Soma, Iono Takashima, Yasuyuki Nagata, Ryo Fukada, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, Tae Fujimoto, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Kenji Mizuno, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, TORIENA, Yuzuru Jinma, and Jun Senoue and Teruhiko Nakagawa as Sound Director and Assistant Sound Director respectfully, yeah that's a lot. listen I'm sure everyone listed here are all great people, and I'm happy they all had a chance to compose Sonic music, but this might be a bit much. I'm not sure if a Sonic game really needs this many composers, Sonic Mania's music was solely done by Tee Lopes and his work there turned out excellent so I wonder why they didn't have him do all the tracks here, idk maybe he was busy you never know. speaking of, the tracks he composed here such as Speed Jungle Act 1 and Sand Sanctuary are probably the best ones in the game, Lagoon City Act 2 might be the favorite for me, it sounds like a water area I'd hear in a hypothetical Super Monkey Ball 3. speaking of Super Monkey Ball, why don't we talk about the actual composer because they got the man Hidenori Shoji himself, I know he's composed more Yakuza nowadays but for me he'll always be the SMB 1 & 2 guy. nevermind Speed Jungle Act 2 is the Super Monkey Ball 3 track, it even takes place during a jungle! another notable composer is Rintaro Soma who composed both Pinball Carnival, I actually thought Act 1 was a Tee Lopes until I listened closer, the Tee Lopes vibes are there but he also has his style going on here especially with Act 2, his Lagoon City Act 1 is nice too. Yasuyuki Nagata composed Frozen Base Act Tails and he seems to compose a few Virtual Fighter and Shining Force stuff but I wouldn't be surprised if he was a 3D Blast composer because that's the vibe I get. not only is Frozen Base Act 2 a Fantasy Zone reference but it also has the same composer on it (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), this Act may be a little boring but the references are top notch.
LITTLE RED CORVETTE, BABY YOU'RE MUCH TOO FAST, LITTLE RED CORVETTE.
what the hell I thought I was going to complain about how inconsistent this game's music is, and while it is a lot of these tracks are actually A-OK. okay elephant in the room time, Jun Senoue's compositions here are....better than I expected. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon on how he can't compose or anything because the dude is good he has talent, a lot of his compositions in the game are fine it's just that the instruments he uses (Vaccum VST presets according to a YouTube commenter that knows what they're talking about) sound like....this. now that's a bad pick if you want a better one than here's Golden Capital Act 1. the melody's actually nice but I feel it'd be a bit more lively had he just used actual instruments. Frozen Base Act 1 fairs a bit better with that Genesis sound but like with Golden Capital the instruments hold it in better. intererstingly though, I feel the instruments actually enhance both Press Factory Act 1 and Act 2, the industrial theme actually suits Jun's style very nicely plus these track's are just really nice, well done Jun you made the instruments work.
nevermind I take it back
yeah this is the worst track in the game, not only is it associated with this most of this game's terrible bosses, but it's only about 50 seconds long before it starts looping, but really it's 25 seconds long because the second half is identical outside of that last second before it loops. this song is stuck in my head and I WANT IT OUT. also the Bonus Stage music puts me to sleep, but I guess it's chill.
I spent these past couple of days writing this review, what has my life come to
I'm not even a huge Sonic enthusiast compared to other Sonic fans I've seen online, well maybe I am considering how much time I spent talking about an average game that I will likely forget a few days after this, but idk I guess I just wanted better from this game. there's a good game in here I said that in the very beginning, but there's so many factors preventing it from reaching the top that I felt like I needed to acknowledge. I know Sonic Mania set a high bar and I'm not expecting Superstars to try and be the next Mania, but I at least want it to be an excellent Classic Sonic. I'll give it this though it's better than Sonic 1, maybe Sonic 2 as well but I'll need to do another playthrough of that one to see if that's true. I don't really know what else to say other than I'm tired. I'd still recommend this game, but only to hardcore Sonic fans, however I wouldn't recommend it right now since the price as of the time writing this review is $59.99. wait for the price to go down, anyone who says this game is worth $59.99 is objectively wrong, end of story.
the coolest thing about this game is that it was created because Iizuka and Ohshima had a drinking game on Zoom