Games worth discovering

Sonic Superstars takes my favorite hedgehog back to basics, but with some new tricks

10K View2023-10-20

SHOULD I PLAY SONIC SUPERSTARS?

Play it, especially if you’re an old-school Sonic the Hedgehog fan or just love platformers. Sonic Superstars is the latest game to take its franchise back to basics, and I love it! Jumping into this 2D adventure felt just like playing a classic Sonic game. Although the lack of voice acting (or dialogue at all, really) reminded me of what I hated about that era, Sonic Superstars kept me entertained with its awesome stages, fun minigames, and replayability. It’s a classic formula that still works.

TIME PLAYED

I played over five hours of Sonic Superstars on my PlayStation 5, giving me enough time to finish the first of three campaigns. During this time, I tried out different characters, figured out new routes to get through stages, gained special abilities, and played various game modes.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT SONIC SUPERSTARS?

• The classic zones. Sonic Superstars is platforming at its finest. I was able to interact with both the background and foreground of stages as I zoomed through them, and every zone introduced new tricks for me to master. There were also lots of levels that showcased inspiration from past Sonic games. “Pinball Carnival Zone” felt like an upgraded “Casino Night Zone” from Sonic 2, except with a huge tram running through it. And fast-paced, set-piece moments, like running from a giant sea monster in “Bridge Island Zone,” were excellent! These sequences added some much-appreciated unpredictability to the game.

• The special abilities. Collecting the Chaos Emeralds is more important than ever in Sonic Superstars, because now they grant Sonic and friends cool new powers. These abilities can turn the tide in boss battles, and they’re incredibly fun to pull off. One of my favorites was “bullet,” which let me dash through the air. Abilities like these were essential in reaching out-of-the-way areas of a stage, but they also just made the gameplay more varied. Who doesn’t want to see a bunch of Sonic clones attack an enemy all at once?

• Fun minigames. Anytime I reached a checkpoint with more than fifty rings in Sonic Superstars, I was teleported to a minigame. These nostalgic segments let me earn rewards like medals and emeralds. There’s a variety of minigames available, but my favorite had to be the classic rotating block maze that was first introduced in the original Sonic the Hedgehog. These moments brought me back to my childhood and were just as fun to play as I remember.

• The replay value. There are three main campaign modes in Sonic Superstars that you’ll have to complete if you want access to the full story. On top of that, there are multiple characters to play as who change the gameplay entirely. I liked returning to a previously completed stage and testing it with a different character just to see what new exploration opened up to me. For instance, Tails can fly, so I easily found new paths I had missed in my original runthrough with Sonic. In addition, the Time Attack game mode allowed me to speed run previously completed levels. It was a great excuse to replay levels and track my personal records.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT SONIC SUPERSTARS?

• The return of mute Sonic. There is no voice acting or much story to speak of at all in Sonic Superstars, and I hated it! Yes, I realize they’re returning to the classic formula we all love. But after years of listening to Sonic speak, it was pretty jarring to go through a Sonic game without a single utterance from the Blue Blur.

• The boss design. It’s always great to see Eggman come out in a new mech to try and kill Sonic and company, but the pacing in Sonic Superstars’ boss battles sometimes felt off. I hated waiting around for a platform to appear just so I could hit Eggman once and then repeat the process. Again, this does stick with traditional 2D Sonic tradition, but it still slowed things down a surprising amount for a game that emphasizes speed.

💬 Will you play Sonic Superstars? And who is your character? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

[Review written by TapTap editor StaggerLee.]