izigame.me

I remember being cautiously optimistic when this game was announced. It didn't look *quite* as good as Mania, but I respected the attempt at the 2.5D art-style and some of the new things they were doing (like the emerald powers). I even got the game at launch, and had a... Decent enough time with it. I found a good chunk of the level design to be solid (only trailing off at around Press Factory) and the controls to be well-done, however the bosses got under my skin after a point (*especially* the final boss in the main story) and I noticed quite a few game-breaking bugs in my playthrough (which I *think* have been mostly patched out, however I can't confirm for sure).
Upon recently clearing the majority of Trip's campaign (only stopping after nearly having an aneurysm during the final Fang fight), however, my opinion on the game has substantially soured, and while I'd hardly call it the worst thing to come out of the Sonic franchise (I wouldn't even call it completely "bad" per se), I can't recommend this in good faith whatsoever. First of all is the *criminal* price-tag: charging *95 AUSSIE BUCKS* for this game when the significantly more replayable Mania (*with* the Plus expansion) costs only around $30 bucks is *INSANE*. This game is *not* worth 10 bucks more than Elden Ring, and the fact that it was priced *this* high feels very disingenuous (it's as if SEGA merely marked the price up to bank on the then-recent success of Frontiers and the movies). If you (for some reason) wanna try out this game, for the love of all that is Holy wait for a sale, cause at this price it simply isn't worth it.
The gameplay itself also is super messy; the level design isn't terrible (and can be pretty fun at points), however none of the levels feel *as* tightly designed in other games and the gimmicks can sometimes detract *greatly* from the levels (that *damn* insta-kill mechanic in Press Factory Act 2 can go die), plus the levels don't really work that well for the multiplayer due to how easy it is to outrun all of your co-players, something that *shouldn't* be an issue in a game primarily marketed as a *multiplayer* experience. It also doesn't help that much of the game is accompanied by some of the most inconsistent music this franchise has *ever* seen. I think there's a small handful of songs in this game that are truly fantastic (namely all the stuff arranged by Tee Lopes), however there's more songs in this game that (due to the poor instrumentation choice) become grating to listen to after a while, or in several cases they start *out* grating (Press Factory Act 1 is genuinely the worst song in this franchise asides from the shit in Sonic Chronicles. I love Jun Senoue but he dropped the ball HARD with that one track in particular).
The worst thing in this game though (bar none) are the bosses. THOSE DAMNED BOSSES! All of them are boring, arduous waiting games that drag out ad NAUSEAM as you sit their dodging attacks, desperately praying for a single opportunity to hit the damn thing! I know they did this to balance out the multiplayer mode, however this wasn't the right approach to go with it! It just makes the game stretch out to un-fun degrees and can get *EXTREMELY* frustrating at points. I will *never* forget my first time fighting the first final boss; I was panicking due to how long it was taking to defeat (worried that I'd time-over) and kept dying due to how hard it was to see the missiles you had to reflect into it before they hit the ground, ending up missing the missile i was *supposed* to hit and instead being caught up in a damned explosion! After two hours, three level restarts due to my paranoia about the time-outs, and countless of deaths, I finally managed to get through the first phase and was ready to finish the fight, ONLY FOR THE BLOODY FLOOR TO DESPAWN BENEATH ME DURING THE TRANSITION BETWEEN PHASES, KILLING ME INSTANTLY AND FORCING ME TO RE-FIGHT THE BOSS FIGHT FROM! THE! START! ARRRRGGGGGHHH!!! I would ultimately manage to successfully progress to and complete the second phase *eventually,* however that glitch nearly drove me to throw my controller at the wall, and it didn't help that I found out that you *can't* time-out during the boss (which was not made clear in the slightest, *especially* since this is the only level in the game where the timer ticks DOWN instead of up), That's not even mentioning the giant Fang robot in Trip's campaing which, due to a stupidly high amount of insta-kill attacks (albeit these ones are *thankfully* intentional and somewhat avoidable), is even WORSE to fight against to the point where I just gave up. Speaking of Trip's campaign, I think it's a *MASSIVE* downgrade from the base game. I like playing as Trip and I think the *concept* of her level's being the games "hard mode" is good, however in practice it's *just* filling all the levels with nausea-inducing amounts of spikes and enemies. By the time I got to Press Factory my vocabulary almost entirely devolved into naughty words and phlegm, and it only got worse from then on.
Sonic Superstars is... A game. One I think *does* have some merits; I think that (while it could have been done better) the 2.5D art-style isn't terrible, a lot of the level design (in the base campaign, at least) is fine to go through, the controls are quite good, some of the emerald powers are *really* fun, a few of the songs are very good (I myself love songs like Sand Sanctuary and Speed Jungle), and Trip is a nice addition to the game. With every good thing however, it's dragged down by the absurd price point, unfocused design, TERRIBLE bosses, inconsistent music quality (as well as general volume mixing issues), and ultimately failing in its goal of being a fun multiplayer Sonic game, and as such I have a hard time recommending this game. Is it bad? Ehh, I wouldn't say so *personally* as I can still have some fun in the game, but that may not apply to everyone). Is it worth a purchase, though? God. No. If you *really* wanna get this game I'd suggest to get it on sale, however I'd overall suggest for you to check out Mania instead if you want a good 2D Sonic experience on Steam. It's only 1/3 of the price and is FAR more competently designed than this game.