Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka on giving a hedgehog powers in Sonic Superstars
Sonic Superstars should feel like a grand return to form. That’s what I want from it whenever I look at it, and when I went hands-on with two zones at Summer Game Fest 2023, it was nearly there. This isn’t a slick recreation of classic Sonic physics like Sonic Mania was, this is a new branch of the modern 2D Sonic timeline, and developer Arzest, supervised by Sonic Team, is doing something new.
The first thing that stood out to me was that Sonic has a new suite of abilities, complete with an ability wheel that can be opened at any time. These abilities are earned by collecting Chaos Emeralds, meaning that each one you gather gives you a tangible ability to use to explore each stage.
“The Emerald Powers is a brand new feature for the Classic Sonic series,” Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka tells GLHF at Summer Game Fest 2023. “In the past the seven Chaos Emeralds would allow you to become Super Sonic, but we wanted to change it up, and now every time you collect a Chaos Emerald, you acquire an Emerald Power.”
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are all playable.
Sega
Classic Sonic games are often about going fast and, if possible, taking the highest route through a stage. Superstars’ ability wheel slows things down a bit by default, but gives you new routes through the stage. It gives these stages a new dimension to explore, and lets player make better use of the different elevations and routes through each stage.
“Last year we released Sonic Frontiers, and that was taking the modern gameplay format to the next level, and evolving it, turning it into something new. Sonic Team wanted to do something similar for the classic series,” Iizuka-san tells us. “We wanted to take the original pixel art style, and not have it be retro, but have it something current and modern, so people recognize it as a current game. So we wanted to use 3D assets for all of the artwork.”
Sonic Superstars might be charting a new course for the Classic Sonic series, but it’s still taking some cues from recent games like Sonic Mania. Mania reintroduced the obscure characters Mighty and Ray to the series, and now Superstars is aiming to do the same with Fang. “When we released Sonic Mania Plus we included Mighty and Ray, two minor characters from the Sonic universe, but we found the fan reaction was great,” Iizuka-san says.
The new perspective allows for dynamic stage designs.
Sega
“We were really pleased that our fans enjoyed us bringing these characters back, so we thought about what other characters from the Classic Sonic universe we could bring back. We were looking around and thought Fang would be the perfect character to bring back,” Iizuka-san continues. “Fang has been hired by Eggman as a mercenary to cause some chaos on the North Star Islands, and that’s how Fang gets involved in Superstars.”
It’s great to see Sonic Team and Arzest keep the legacy of the Classic Sonic series alive, and Sonic Superstars feels pretty faithful to the original games. Past 2D Sonic games made with 3D assets have felt off – imitating the physics of the 2D originals in a new dimension isn’t easy – but Superstars is surprisingly faithful. Running and rolling around at the speed of sound felt natural, and that was one of the goals from the start.
One of the big new features that Superstars introduces to the series is co-op gameplay throughout the campaign, with up to four players. Iizuka-san was eager to highlight that this is one of the key new additions: “The team wanted to implement four player, simultaneous co-op multiplayer experience, and still keep the Sonic gameplay that classic series fans expect. This cooperative, fun experience will allow casual gamers to easily jump in, so you can play with your friends, play with your family.”
Classic boss fights are still present.
Sega
Sonic Superstars seems to be a solid entry for the Classic Sonic series on the surface, but only time and intense fan scrutiny will tell if this will be received as an exciting new Sonic game, or another disappointment.
In other news, I asked Iizuka-san if Sonic Team would ever bring back Billy Hatcher. He laughed for a minute and said “Unfortunately, Billy Hatcher is not my title so I can’t speak on behalf of it.” Disappointing.
