Sonic Superstars Brings Classic Sidescrolling Thrills to Consoles, PC - Hardcore Gamer
The first new Sonic Team Sonic the Hedgehog game since 2017’s Sonic Forces is available now and aims to bring back the old with a bit of the new and craft an experience that blends the familiar with new, fun mechanics. Sonic Mania was the last full-on sidescrolling Sonic game and now Sonic Superstars aims to bring that gameplay back, but with super-colorful and lively polygonal art style. The end result is a game that winds up feeling very natural to fans of old-school Sonic games, but with a faster pace akin to newer entries in the series.
Sonic and the gang’s movement feels right in line with the 16-bit classics and now Mania, but the use of a polygonal world allows for more detail in the environments. It very much reminds me of an older Sonic 2 HD fangame that basically did something similar, only Superstars is official, but also benefits from a lot more gameplay polish but also visual polish with Sonic Team at the helm. As someone who grew up on the Game Gear and Genesis Sonic games, it’s fascinating to see things like a modified version of Sonic 1’s special stages alongside new rope-swinging special stages for hidden coins and Chaos Emeralds.
The team also has access to Emerald Powers to do things like have a sea of Sonic take out foes and collect coins and that does a lot to keep things fresh during a longer stage. It’s fun to just create mayhem on-screen and see the end result. The gameplay feel is very much like Sonic 3 with a natural progression from one act to the next and area variety is higher than usual even with having a requisite Green Hill-style zone for comfort food to start things off.
Sonic Superstars is one of the finest side-scrolling Sonic games ever made and it’s playable across all modern-day
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