Many have played on the heartstrings, like Dead Space Remake which sought to seduce fans and the curious, Assassin’s Creed Mirage which wanted to return to its first loves or even Super Mario Bros Wonder which managed to do something new by surfing on what made it famous: the old-fashioned platform. You have to believe that everyone has spread the word since Sonic Superstars It’s exactly that. A new episode that seeks to make something new out of something old. The idea is therefore to offer an adventure that smells of the 90s, without forgetting that thirty years have passed in the meantime.
We take the same and start again
Sonic has always been a platform game in its own right. Where most of the time we are asked to explore, to make precise jumps, to discover secrets or to avoid a whole bunch of traps, the hedgehog has decided to do quite the opposite. He doesn’t have time, he never had time. The main games in the franchise focus everything on speed, reflexes and levels that can follow one another at breakneck speed. A little scoring, a level design that allows you to take several paths, a few secret bonus levels… these are all the ingredients that make up the vast majority of the first games in the license. A recipe that allowed the mascot to make a name for itself and a place of choice on players’ shelves.
Over the years, Sonic has tried to evolve like most other series, but has never really succeeded in 3D. Frontiers, for its part, displays a mixed record. Some love it, others absolutely don’t. However, it was to be the cornerstone of a new strategy for the license and a new generation of games. However, it was several months after this episode that Sega released Sonic Superstars, a new old-fashioned episode which wants to do everything like before, but not too much. Let’s forget the open world, the climbing games and the fights against big creatures, let’s go back a little.
Sonic Superstars presents itself as a 2D game that really smells of the 90s. It takes almost exactly what made it famous. We therefore find ourselves with a title divided into a dozen biomes of one or two acts each, on average, which we will trace very, very quickly, sometimes with a special level as a bonus. You can play as one of the four iconic heroes of the franchise: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles or Amy, but basically, the levels and gameplay remain the same. No fuss here. The gameplay is meant to be as simple as possible: you run, you jump and… that’s it. Pure and simple old school.
It’s in old pots that we make the best Sonic
We can still count on some special abilities offered when we collect Chaos Emeralds. These precious stones are collected in old-fashioned bonus levels here too (or almost). On paper, these powers can drastically change the experience. We eliminate all the enemies present on the screen in real time, and for several seconds, thanks to clones, we can swim underwater like a real fish or even become truly overpowered by overloading…. Unfortunately, two major problems mar the concept.
Firstly, the bonus levels where you unlock these famous Emeralds are real purges. Here our hero teleports to an area where there are only balls and rings frozen in space. We must then swing from anchor point to anchor point to chase after the precious stone which is trying to escape us. All while keeping an eye on the timer. It’s anything but a good idea. Not only is it boring as hell but it’s also super poorly done. The camera is focused on the gemstone, causing chaotic viewing angles and anchor points are chosen automatically. Bad luck, the locking system does what it wants too.
The second problem with these special abilities is that they simply aren’t useful and using them doesn’t really allow for experimentation. You can completely complete the game without using them once and in any case, you only have one charge of power to activate them. And even though our skills usually last a handful of seconds, that’s not enough to really benefit from them. The problem is that this charge will only be restored by passing through a checkpoint. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many of them, especially since we can miss some of them since we almost always go all out.
Skills and transformations have never really been a hedgehog thing, let’s leave that to the plumber. Sonic has the speed and the levels that follow one another to perfection. And on that, Sonic Superstars does not disappoint. It goes really fast, we trace without stopping most of the time and we do acrobatics with ease. Generally, the levels are designed in such a way that the running almost never stops. We even have the right to several paths which can sometimes lead to bonuses or simply to other trajectories.
No matter what’s happening on the screen or how fast you’re going, the game remains legible enough for you to be able to identify jumps, traps or enemies. As at the time, each act often ends with a boss fight. Either a robotic henchman or Eggman himself. There are no surprises here either, we are on familiar and conquered ground. The clashes take place in several phases during which we must strike a part of our opponent several times until destruction. If some fights are ultra basic, others are a little more inspired or even downright fun and tense to fight. An excellent thing since it is generally the only peak in difficulty that Sonic Superstars offers, even if the bosses remain very accessible. For the rest, it’s dead calm. Challenge isn’t his thing, it’s a completely honorable choice. The problem is that you still have to manage to captivate the player from start to finish, and there…
It’s beautiful, but not too much
Sonic Superstars sometimes tries to impress us with explosions, backgrounds that move at the same time as us, making us climb debris around a tornado, or even transforming us into a rocket. But between the almost obligatory linearity of the levels, and the lack of overall challenge, we sometimes progress completely automatically without really having fun or being surprised. Nothing will actually try to wake us up. Very often, we go straight and jump, letting the hedgehog perform the bounces, looping tricks or spins in the scenery itself. A feeling of moving forward on a self-guided rail quickly sets in, sometimes it is even the case in fact. Sonic hangs on a rail, does somersaults, goes through tubes while rolling into a ball at full speed. And all this, he does it without you needing to do anything, except to push the joystick forward and jump when necessary. People will call me bitter, but the fact is that I was sometimes really bored on Sonic Superstars.
So, be careful, Sonic Superstars is a good Sonic, there’s no denying it, but its old school recipe would certainly have deserved a more elaborate, more impressive and inventive level design perhaps. As it stands, the water slides and tube assets copied and pasted every 20 meters in the jungle, it’s not that crazy, even if you go fast while being carried by an OST which does the job . Note, however, that the game is intended to be a little more vertical than before with a lot of paths that intersect or send us waltzing through the air.
A recent Sonic, not necessarily modern
But Superstars could have taken advantage of this new release to modernize itself further, at least in terms of its staging, in order to captivate, but that is not really the case. Graphically it doesn’t do any miracles either. It’s ultra colorful, plump and soft on the retina, but it’s very classic. It’s not as fine as hoped, the effects (pyrotechnics, dust, etc.) are not crazy and yet are numerous and it generally lacks detail at all levels. It’s way too smooth.
If the biomes are all very different from each other, they are clearly not the same. Whether in terms of artistic direction or level design. Some levels are perfect, uninspired straight lines, while others reveal infinitely more fun potential. The underwater passages are completely missed and clearly not fun if you don’t have the power to swim. Lack of luck, the latter cannot be used all the time. Our heroes are not good swimmers, we don’t move forward, we constantly have to chase bubbles to breathe and the inertia of the movements is clearly not pleasant. On land either, as long as you want to make a precise jump, you have to deal with controls that are anything but precise. At full speed or nothing.
Sonic Superstars may have gotten a bit bogged down in its desire to tickle the nostalgic nerves of its fans. The game is very nice and it’s a good Sonic, but the fact is that certain mechanics would have deserved to be modernized so that the recipe also evolves with the times and that the Sega mascot can shine more.
A little multiplayer to play with friends
In addition, Superstars is not very long, so it would clearly have benefited from a little more pep and ambition to be definitely striking. Sonic Superstars ends really quickly. Allow 5 to 6 hours at grand max to see the end of it. The replayability is also not exceptional. However, the game offers us a cooperative mode for up to 4 players which is quite fun provided that everyone manages to follow the same rhythm. Without that, it quickly becomes a mess and it’s hard to take full advantage of it. It must also be said that this is not the ideal type of game to offer cooperation worthy of the name, but the mode will be able to give you an evening or two from time to time. We will also note the presence of a fairly anecdotal versus mode which will pit players against each other in small maps specially designed for the occasion. You can participate in fights or even races and even customize your avatar. A nice little extra not to be underestimated, but which won’t break a duck’s three legs either.