Game On: Sonic Superstars bodes well for the hedgehog’s future
The Summer Game Fest 2023 showcased loads of upcoming video games earlier this month, and by far one of the biggest surprises was Sonic Superstars – a title that, by the looks of it, is Sega trying its very best to appease nearly every type of Sonic the Hedgehog fan at once.
That’s no easy task for a franchise more than three decades old. Almost everyone can agree those first few games in the early 90s were fantastic titles, especially for their time – platformers and side-scrollers were a dime a dozen, but Mario and Sonic always stood a cut above the rest. Sega has advanced the Sonic formula in numerous ways since, but always to mixed reception.
Call me hopelessly optimistic, but I genuinely think they’re onto something with Sonic Superstars. While 2D gameplay with 3D graphics isn’t cutting-edge for the series – or gaming in general – Sonic Superstars takes the extra step returning the characters and environments to their old-school design.
The short trailer showed cooperative play with up to four players, featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy – and even teased the return of Fang the Sniper, a character who hasn’t seen any real action since the mid-90s.
Behind the scenes, it gets even better. Christian Whitehead, the primary developer of Sonic Mania and its “retro engine,” has confirmed that Superstars uses a version of his engine, which features very smooth and intuitive physics and momentum. The soundtrack is being crafted by Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue, whose previous contributions to the franchise are numerous and legendary.
After the catastrophic flop of Balan Wonderworld in 2021, which was spearheaded by former Sonic Team developers Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, the latter is back to contribute art design for the blue hedgehog for the first time since 1999. Meanwhile, Naka is facing a prison sentence of up to 2½ years and a fine of 172.5 million yen for an insider trading scheme at Square Enix. We live in a strange timeline.
In fact, Sonic Team director Takashi Iizuka confirmed that Superstars is being developed primarily by Arzest, Ohshima’s studio. Sonic Team has been known to share the hedgehog with other developers from time to time, particularly for spinoffs – but it’s been quite a while since a major release like this was handed off to anyone else.
Those who got their hands on a playable demo at Summer Game Fest mostly had good things to say. The only negative reception thus far is a handful of difficulty spikes, a confirmed price tag of $60 and the lack of online cooperative play – it’ll be restricted to couch co-op only.
Difficulty spikes are par the course for a Sonic game, but a lack of online co-op is a genuine bummer. That said, it’s exceedingly rare for Sonic titles to have co-op at all – it’ll be interesting to see how well it’s implemented. Interestingly, a non-cooperative “battle mode” will allow for online and local multiplayer.
A price of $60 at launch is surprising considering most games being released at that price point today are story-based cinematic games, open-world RPGs with hundreds of hours of content or first-party Nintendo titles. The price tells me Sega is confident in the reputation of their mascot despite the way their hedgehog foundered for 15 years. I struggle to name a single title from 2005-19 that was universally acclaimed.
But in the past three years, the IP has produced two well-regarded live-action movie releases, a respectable compilation game – Sonic Origins – as well as Sonic Frontiers, the franchise’s best-selling 3D game of all time with over 3.5 million copies sold. Frontiers also retailed for $60 at launch – perhaps Sega’s renewed confidence is deserved.
Even as a lifelong fan of the series, though, I can’t deny the hedgehog’s spotty history. It’s not hard to understand why gamers would hesitate to plunk down $60 for a Sonic title. Sonic Superstars is slated to be released “Fall 2023” on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.