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.

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.ĭifficulty spikes are par the course for a Sonic game, but a lack of online co-op is a genuine bummer. Those who got their hands on a playable demo at Summer Game Fest mostly had good things to say.

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. In fact, Sonic Team director Takashi Iizuka confirmed that Superstars is being developed primarily by Arzest, Ohshima’s studio. 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. The soundtrack is being crafted by Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue, whose previous contributions to the franchise are numerous and legendary.Īfter 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.

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 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.īehind the scenes, it gets even better. 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. Sega has advanced the Sonic formula in numerous ways since, but always to mixed reception.Ĭall me hopelessly optimistic, but I genuinely think they’re onto something with Sonic Superstars. 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. That’s no easy task for a franchise more than three decades old. 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.

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