Sonic Superstars test – Chilivili Porcupine

Among the most defining video games of my life are the first parts of the Sonic series. I also lovingly played through the collection that was released not so long ago. I’ve always had mixed feelings about where the franchise went after that, but if I’m not mistaken, I’m not the only one. Sonic has been on a long journey over the past 3 decades, so we know exactly what works and what doesn’t about him. Sonic Mania has proven for a couple of years that 2D is the best for hedgehog racing. Superstars also pushes this line, only in a beautifully reimagined 3D environment.

The story starts with a cartoon insert, which we are used to in similar adventures. This time, Sonic and his gang are chasing the mad scientist in a new area. In addition to Eggman, they also pulled an ancient character out of the hat, none other than the treasure-hunting ferret, Fang. The purple Indiana Jones-like creature has only been used as a cameo in a few games since the ’90s, but is now an integral part of the story. He mostly crushes pepper under our noses with his weird robotic tick, as well as constantly getting in the way of the mouse with his floating engine. His person is a good blood refresher, and besides him, we will also fight several gigantic robotic creatures on our way. Of course, the famous Eggman battles at the end of the track were not left out of the creation either. Let’s just say that if he had been abandoned, the bald genius would surely miss jumping on his ship.

The levels themselves are really pretty, the enemies are nicely animated, and a classic pallet robot is back. The environment is also beautiful, there is plenty to see even while racing. We will run with the already well-established four, i.e. in addition to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are also optional heroes. At the end of the campaign, a fifth secret fighter enters the ring, but revealing his identity would be a spoiler. He also has a separate story mode, which are more difficult versions of already known levels, adjusted to the character’s abilities.

The base campaign has almost a dozen chapters, but the number is deceiving, because almost all of them consist of two or three levels. These thematic chapters recall the already known classic Sonic episodes. You are better off looking at the attached pictures than listing them now.

The game mechanics remained the “get from A to B, and if they throw a main enemy at us at the end, kill him” method. Meanwhile, you can collect gold rings, and with 50 pieces you can play a mini-game at the checkpoints. This is a reimagining of the very first Sonic the Hedgehog minigame, I loved it. You can bag gold coins by completing them, but you can also find coins in the open. There is a gold-plated robi lurking on every track, which can also be knocked out if we are maximalists.

Indispensable elements of this stuff are the chaos emeralds, from which you can transform into a super form by collecting all seven of them. We will have one chance to touch such a jewel per level, we just need to find the huge gold ring in the level. These courses are short skill sections, and can be completed with a little practice. As a novelty, each emerald has a superpower. Well, since collecting the stones is completely optional, I felt the reason for the abilities was pretty useless. We can grow tendrils from scratch, climb waterfalls, see some invisible elements, etc. I’m guessing maybe 3% of the game where these would have been useful if you had them right then and you remembered to select them from the dial, on the fly, in real time. I’ve only used the first ability, flood of clones, during a few boss fights. Super Sonic is worth collecting the magic gems, but I think this ability is not well thought out in terms of gameplay.

Even now, the music is superbly orchestrated, there is no sync or a deka in the program, which is not a problem. A mini-album came with the Deluxe edition, and there were also some weird LEGO skins. In addition to the main game, the program also included a battle robot builder competition. We can buy accessories and body parts for our robot from the aforementioned gold coins. I don’t know who will keep me engaged for a long time, it was worth a look for me, and because of Deluxe I already had a cool Metal Sonic character to go with it.

I left it to the end that the whole campaign can be played by several people, for the first time even four people. But it’s not worth it. I experienced this as a big negative, because the whole thing is not enjoyable at all, as the player who is one and a half meters behind ceases to exist, and then the camera focuses on another. And there was a case where the clumsier gamer was followed by the cameraman, which only turned into cursing.

But I’m not going to download the program because of that, because then the new Super Mario Bros. Wonder could also be spit on, because the situation there is even worse in terms of offline multiplayer fun. It seems that the Japanese simply don’t understand how this could be implemented properly, but the “playable with 2-4 people” mark on the cover and the cheerful family frolicking in the commercials look very good. For no other reason than the front of the house, Sonic Superstars is simply a slightly better-than-average platform game. It has a lot of homages to the early episodes, but the new ideas are lame. And it is very sad that, after several decades, innovation still follows the new rather than the good principle, as opposed to the “competitor”.

The test copy was provided by the domestic distributor of the game, Cenega Hungary.