SEGA president Shuji Utsumi has called Sonic Superstars a "disappointment" in comparison to the company's most recent Sonic outing, Sonic X Shadow Generations, which he says is "awesome". Utsumi admits that Superstars' shortcomings are ultimately the result of the quality of work the studio delivered.
In a wide-ranging interview with Eurogamer (thanks, VGC), the conversation inevitably turns to Sonic. Utsumi said: "We were trying to do something creative with Sonic Frontiers; with Sonic Superstars, it turned out to be a disappointment in terms of the outcome and compared to what we delivered." The SEGA president says the secret to success, as he sees it, is in taking the transmedia approach:
"This time, we have Sonic X Shadow Generations and the next Sonic movie, so we’re pushing things in the transmedia direction – movies and games working in harmony to make things bigger. But the core [experience] is the game. The game needs to be very good, or else there will be no transmedia effect."
Memorably, SEGA blamed the proximity and quality of Super Mario Wonder for hurting Superstar's launch sales.
Did you play Sonic Superstars? Did it disappoint? Set your expectations correctly in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 44
I haven't played Superstars, but it never really looked all that appealing to me. I think most fans would have preferred a Mania 2.
Critics also said the co-op was bad, which was its main selling point.
A side scroller for 60 dollars what did they expect
I recently got the game a month or so ago for like $20 physically and played it co-op with my brother and we had a pretty decent time, but I think this game wanted to make itself seem bigger than it really was for its budget. I think the base game is pretty decent, but man it just really was not a good proposition next to Mario Wonder. Because Wonder has better multiplayer, more polished presentation, and simply much more content for the same price. If they reallocated their budget more to maybe fix some of the games' pacing/level design issues, maybe retooled the bosses, and just added more new zones instead of going all in on the multiplayer co-op and battle modes, and maybe made it a bit cheaper if you were going to keep it at around the same content level, then I think it could of done much better, but with how it is currently, I think the only people left interested in it are just going to get it on sale.
Trying to defend Superstars and Forces as them doing something creative is quite a choice.
@nessisonett I think it’s Frontiers, not Forces.
Did Sonic Frontiers not perform well? I was under the impression it at least did ok
I personally had a good time with Superstars. It's probably my least favorite recent Sonic game. Frontiers was definitely better and Shadow Generations was better as well. However, I'd still say Superstars is a solid game. The coop didn't really fit very well though. Much better as a single player game.
I did play. It was more than a disappointment. It proved 2D Sonic can suck as well.
There was a good recipe there. It was the longest 2D Sonic game, but first, the graphics. They weren't good. If you compare the animation of Sonic splashing into and out of the water, it was beautiful in Sonic mania. In superstars it was a dropplet next to sonic. Absolutely embarrassing. It showed the difference in the love that went into it. That was just an example. The levels just didn't look good.
Second and probably more important was the level design. The levels were just designed in a way that would launch you into a trap or grind you to a halt. Coming from mania's levels this was very disappointing. Also... those emerald special stages were awful. The bosses pretty crap as well. They went invincible when hit once and were scripted like hell so you couldn't beat them fast.
I also don't agree with taking away lives. It makes collecting rings feel less impactful.
Finally, third is that in the water and when the screen was locked into a scroll the controls felt off. Also everytime sonic was hit it felt off as well and he seemed to be magnetised to the nearest pitfall.
In conclusion, there was a good game idea here but the execution was terrible. It was a huge mistake. They should have given the project to the mania team and kept the sprite look. Also... that new character... please delete. That was vector. We already have him. No need for a new one. Mighty and Ray were also sorely missed.
@jberg Nah, Frontiers sold very well. He was only referring to Superstars as a disappointment.
Releasing it the same week as Mario Wonder was definitely one of the choices of all time.
It looked like an xbla game, or like it desperately needed some shader work or post processing. It looked unfinished.
I don't know if they get bored with their ideas or just don't give their ideas time, but that's what Sonic is in my head. He's the really flakey friend that's probably brilliant but will never meet their potential.
Indeed. I don't consider Superstars the worst Sonic game ever but its definitely one of, if not the weakest title in recent years and in the current Sonic era.
I was really, REALLY torn about it when I bought it for $30. Physics felt fine as far as I could tell. But the rest of the game...just lacked pizazz, for a better word.
And that's even including some of the bizarre DLC choices they have done. At that point, after finishing it, I just up & sold it. i didn't finished the extra story or whtever. I felt like SEGA was trying to "1-up" Sonic Mania with their own. And I guess...it didn't work.
What hurts more is that I bought it even I promised myself to NOT BUY IT. And I'm still feeling the sting of it. If they ever do a follow-up for Sonic Mania with Evening Star again, or Head Cannon, then...yeah.
Superstars was all right. Compared to 'best Sonic of all time' Mania, it might seem both redundant and inadequate. But Superstars has some good ideas, novel level gimmicks, and serviceable — if unwieldy — multiplayer. Its mediocre presentation and divisive boss fights (I think they're fine the first time around, but annoying on replays) don't ruin the whole experience.
The 'Superstars sucks' crowd confuses me almost all much as the 'Superstars is better than Mania' crowd. Superstars, to me, is a perfectly decent Sonic game. Which is more than I can say about a quarter of Sonic games.
You know what wasn't a disappointment? Sonic Mania.
I haven't played Sonic Superstars but it looked cute and easy enough for newbie player.
Maybe because Superstars still is a disappointment. So he shouldn't blame Mario Wonder for that.
@Fighting_Game_Loser With your story you are saying that it should be completely revamped and polished. Even at a lower price it would not have made it better. I do believe its not that easy to make a game about speed also a fun experience as a platformer. Also the price did not help.
Superstars isn’t bad really. Definitely not my favorite Sonic game but I liked it. I know it had a rocky start when it was first released, but I heard it did ok as time went on. Went on sale and stuff.
@jberg Oh I’m being silly, I get both games confused all the time! Frontiers is definitely creative, and i think it sold quite well too.
Sega should made sonic mania 2 instead of superstars, and frontiers is okay, I like the game although I think mania is better.
i’m surprised . sonic fans have low standards, so i thought this was successful
I thought it was pretty good. The colors could hand been toned down slightly in my opinion and it felt a bit easy compared to other 2D Sonic games. It probably should have been pixel style like Mania though, the Chaos Emerald powers barely went used and seemed unnecessary. But aside from my criticisms here, I had fun with it.
Could also be fatigue. I bought Frontiers, had my Sonic fix so I skipped Superstars. Now I’m back with Generations.
I really enjoyed Frontiers.
I played superstars for a bit but just found it off.
Got my son Generations for Christmas so I'll play that at some point and see what I think.
Superstars felt like a stop gap game to me and it's timing hitting around same time as Mario Wonder can't have helped
Superstars was ok. The bosses were ludicrously hard compared to the levels though. I remember my son handing me the controller for literally every boss, which was funny because the regular levels he could breeze through. You gotta commit to one difficulty level for the full thing.
Is he talking in financial terms like most bosses do? The only problem with Sonic Superstars is the long boss battles that don't make sense in a Sonic 2D game and the uneven music. The 3D art convinced me while I played it, the physics are perfectly classic and the level design is solid.
Sonic Frontiers was unexpectedly excellent after Sonic Forces and set the foundations for more, but the next Sonic 3D game needs more Sonic flavour on top of that.
@Flaming_Kaiser I mean not exactly, I think quite a few of the stages as is are perfectly good as is. I'm more so saying that there's just a few moments (mainly the bosses) that just need some tuning to speed up more, and maybe just a few level design tweaks. The allocation of budget is more so about getting rid of the multiplayer stuff (which doesn't flow with the game as is), and just using the time spent on that on maybe at least 1 or more new stages and just tightening up the overall game more. And I do think a lower price would of made it sold better because then more people would of been willing to pick up an obviously much smaller game than its contemporaries.
It should’ve been Mania 2
@Banjo- Yeah Superstars is a solid 7/10 imo. Obviously a big step down from Mania, but it's much better than the recent 2D output aside from that game (Sonic 4, the 3DS games). Pretty impressive turnaround from the Balan Wonderworld team as well. Give them another 3-4 years to polish up what they started with here and the next game could really be something. Drop the 4 player co-op - 2 is enough for 2D Sonic - and the online mode nobody plays, give boss fights better pacing, more characters (Mighty and Ray return) and stages and you're golden.
@Orpheus79V Yeah, I tried the online multiplayer for two minutes and never went back. I liked Sonic Superstars more than Sonic Mania because I'm not a fan of the general level design of Sonic Mania that I find too gimmicky and the fan-made music, cutscenes and levels in this game. The best zones of Sonic Mania are the recycled and the previously discarded ones. Obviously, Sonic Mania is not bad, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is infinitely better, in my opinion. I agree with you about the rest. Sonic Superstars (co-developed with Sonic Team) is Arzest's best game and one of the creators of Sonic is its founder. They did a good job with Sonic Superstars and even if Sega thinks it was not successful enough, it doesn't make sense to throw it away and try another reboot. As a reboot using 3D graphics, Sonic Superstars is a success and a lightyear ahead of any other, including Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the 3DS attempts. Just make short and fun boss battles like the old games and improve the music instrumentation.
When you see AstroBot on PS5, everything else seems rather rubbish by comparison, regardless of platform. It destroys anything Nintendo or Sega have ever made.
I really enjoyed it. Some very clever boss battles.
Remember kids, Sega ruined their relationship with the Sonic Mania devs to have Sonic Team make this dreck.
I really liked Superstars.
Well duh. You let Arzest and a no-name director handle it. What did you expect would happen?
I liked it for what it was, a middle of the road platformer with a Sonic skin. It also has one of the most tedious and dull end boss fights I have ever played. Sonic is just a merchandise cash cow now with his games having little to no relevance anymore. I have never cared for the films, the awful CG TV shows and the cheesy as a Wensleydale factory cringe overload dialogue. Sonic Mania is still the benchmark for 2D and...well.......3D has to be generations even if the physics were off for classic Sonic.
@Randinator123 A side scroller that isn't Mario for 60 dollars.
I picked it up for £25 I wouldn't have paid more, some of the levels were fun the boss fights I still have PTSD just thinking about them especially that goddam awful final boss and what is it with putting power ups in Sonic games he's already the fastest thing alive just leave it at that.
It was fine until they said pto lay the entire game a second time for the true ending.
I mostly did like Superstars. Only thing I didn't like were the bosses, especially the final ones.
I'm playing through Trip's story and I like it. Superstars is a solid 7 for me. The only issue was the last boss in the regular campaign. Worth the $20 I paid for it. I skipped Mario Wonder because I think 2D Mario games post SNES are boring.
Sonic Superstars is genuinely one of the worst games I've played in my entire life. Somehow not the worst Sonic game though - that'd be Sonic Blast
Just put a bit more into it and take the common criticism. The co-op needs a bit of rework, which was what I was excited about. And it's got an adorable style to it, and those incredible animations!
Sonic superstars was great. I loved it. The game plays like a Genesis sonic game. The bosses are the main complaint because they can be spammed and beat in mere seconds like old sonic bosses. It’s more like the 3D Sonic bosses done in 2d.
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