Sonic Superstars: A VERY LATE Review

Hello, everyone! I know I arrive, like, WAY too late into the Sonic Superstars talk, but I didn't played the game back when it released (because paying full price for this game isn't worth it, so thank God it was off sale on the Nintendo eShop along Sonic Origins Plus).

Now that I have played Superstars, I wanna review it a little.

So first of all, let's talk about the gameplay... Is a classic Sonic game, that's for sure. I remember I read complains of people saying this game's control felt stiff at times, but I don't know. I played this and Sonic 1 later on, and they play in the exact same way for me. I can say the same with Tails, Knuckles and Amy: They all control excellent, just as if you played the classic games... Oh wait, this is a classic game, maybe that's why. That being said, I gotta admit that playing as Amy in a classic game for the first time ever, and THEN play with Trip, made them both my favorite characters in the whole game. Nothing wrong with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles... But really, after 33 years of playing with those three in the classic games, I'm so happy we can have some variety.

With Amy, we have pretty much all the classic Sonic move set, but with a twist: If you hold the same button to make the Drop Dash, she'll make a double jump with her hammer, and if you still hold the button, when she reaches the ground, she'll accelerate and use her hammer to smash everything on her way. The one level I played with her was incredibly fun, I don't know why I didn't played the rest of the game with her. As for Trip, the Drop Dash button gives her a double jump, and holding it makes her spikey and immune to enemies for a limited time. But here's a third thing: Holding the button and making her spikey makes her stick into walls! Now, you may say that Knuckles can do the same, and you'll be right... But Knuckles can't stick to the ceilings, Trip CAN!

Really, Amy and Trip add so much to the gameplay I regret not having played with the former the whole main campaign. I picked Sonic, if you wonder, and it wasn't bad at all, but Amy's little addition of her hammer could've make things more exciting.

As for the level design of the game? I genuinely believe this is everything a classic Sonic game should be. Really, is like Sonic Team watched what Christian Whitehead did with Sonic Mania and went further and beyond to bring a similar experience. In my opinion, they brought a better one, because while Mania was a mix of old remastered zones and brand new ones, in Superstars EVERYTHING is new! Sure, certain segments in some levels are a copy paste from previous classic Sonic entries, Sonic 1 and 3 & Knuckles being the ones that get the more "copied", but come on, this has been something normal ever since Sonic Heroes, why are you surprised they did it again in Superstars? The fact you barely even notice this also helped me to enjoy the game a whole lot more than you think.

But now that I have praised the game... Let's talk about the one thing that I despised: The final bosses.

The bosses of this game are quite creative and charming. Really, they can be challenging but also really fun... And then there's the final boss of each one of the three stories. In the main story, is Eggman, and my God, whoever designed that final battle should be fired. Giving the first few hits to the machine is not hard, but then you give him the fourth one and everything goes to hell! The worse part of all? There's a second face, and you better goddam wish you have rings left to fight against, because if you don't... Have you considered quitting the game and play Animal Crossing instead? Seriously, that game's like the perfect therapist and stress reliever ever.

Jokes aside, the final boss against Eggman is extremely difficult, and that's a shame because I believe the way it's structured is amazing, but the execution went abysmally wrong! And with Trip's story is even worse, because the final boss is Fang, but with messier platforms and an even messier level design. If Eggman's final boss battle was already a pain in the ass, Fang's just makes it worse! The fact that Trip's story as a whole is just the entire main campaign again, but harder and adapted for Trip's play style instead of Sonic's, or Tails', or Knuckles', or Amy's, doesn't help either. So you redesign the entire final boss, but can't do the same with the rest of the game?!

In Sonic Mania Plus, we have an expansion story that redesigns more old zones and even redesigns the new ones. They didn't had to do that, but they did! Here, they simply re-used the exact same levels than the main story, threw some spikes and walls here and there so Trip could have it difficult and called it a day! That's lazy and soulless, like at least try something, dammit! Also, there's an entity in the final zone of the game that's pretty similar to The End, but it's not him. Not really relevant, just curious to point it out.

Finally. we have the Final Story's boss, which is a giant purple dragon that looks cool and all, but my God, the design of this boss fight is so messed up that you can't literally win this if you don't watch a tutorial. Not to mention, the whole final boss must be done with Super Sonic. Nothing wrong with that, except for a little detail... YOU RUN OUT OF RINGS WHEN YOU'RE SUPER, FOR FUCKS SAKE! Is stressful enough that I have to figure out how the fuck do I hit the dragon that's far away from me, but it's even worse having to do that AND collect rings in the process! Not everyone is skilled enough to catch those fucking rings, Sega! I'm so sorry I suck at your game that barely manages to hint how to defeat the final fucking boss!

With the Eggman boss fights, there is something in the mechanics that eventually lead you to hit the doctor and beat him. In the final boss fight? You have to figure everything out in literally the span of a few seconds, or else you're dead. I just didn't liked this final boss. Sure, I died more fighting Eggman and Fang, but the dragon's boss fight is just even worse. I wish they could hint you better what to do and, you know, actually give you the chance to take a breath and collect rings around, but no. You must think fast in a level designed boss fight that barely allows you think at all! Sonic Superstars is great until you reach the very end of every story, and is super frustrating! So when you eventually bet the boos fights, IS ABSOLUTE JOY!

I haven't talked much about the Emerald's powers because, honestly, I almost never used them beyond Super Sonic and Super Trip. Really, I wish there were levels were certain Emerald powers are mandatory and make you have to learn this mechanic so it can come in handy later on, but no. The powers are completely optional, and while that isn't a bad thing, they become kinda pointless when the game was promoted around their mechanic. It only becomes mandatory in, like, two or three segments of the game and that's it. Is like the developers realized mid-way they made this cool new mechanic and haven't done anything with it, so they shoved in those small segments to remind you why you even bought the game.

Finally, I think the whole gimmick of getting coins to buy robot parts is incredibly dumb. Why not buy the whole fucking body as a set and then choose separately which parts I wanna use? No, I have to buy part by part because they think is fun. Guess what? It isn't.

I give this game a 6.8/10. Is a really good classic Sonic experience, but it definitely lost me with the final boss fights. Hopefully, they'll do better with the next classic Sonic game, because if this game has shown anything is that Classic Sonic has come to stay.

Next time, I'm gonna review Sonic Origins Plus... once I finish it.

Comments

[JesusG0987]

Neat