2/5 ★ – bradleyishere's review of Sonic Superstars.

i love sonic, but his recent games have been disappointing and this is no exception. i was actually looking forward to this game as i thought it would be impossible to mess up a classic sonic game. looking back, arzest developing this game alongside sonic team was a huge red flag. following up from sonic mania does not do this game any favours either. to get the good out of the way, the controls are almost perfected and insanely close to mania. the physics are pretty much the exact same. my only complaint is that the jumps feel much heavier and the spin dash isn’t nearly as fast. amy and trip are pretty cool additions as playable characters. they both have a double jump, which can come in handy when exploring. trip’s story i think would be a cool addition if it wasn’t forced on the player to get the true ending. it just felt like filler to make the player keep going. i was quite excited when i found out that this game would have its own unique level themes. i know it’s a low bar, but i was so burned out from green hill zone in EVERY mainline game. however, the levels in this game are some of the most bland i’ve seen in the series so far. generic deserts, factories and snow levels, which are made more boring with this games cheap lighting and art style, aren’t exciting and most of the level gimmicks just slow down the pacing of the levels. the boss battles are probably the most infuriating part of this game. bosses in sonic games usually aren’t too great, but at least they serve as a small break in between levels that don’t last too long. the problem with superstars’ boss battles is that they take far too long and feature no checkpoints. sometimes most of the level time can be taken up by a boss battle. the worst offenders are the fang boss fights. the first one consists of insanely long autoscrollers before you can even attack him. there are no checkpoints after these segments, so if you die, you have to complete them all over again. i found myself having similar issues with the final fang boss, which featured unpredictable attacks throwing you into a bottomless pit and insta-kill bullets and lasers. i love difficulty in sonic games, but this just feels cheap and unfair. sega are charging £55 for this game (£60 for the digital deluxe). i can’t help but feel ripped off. sonic mania is about £40 cheaper and i find it to be a far more enjoyable experience. despite mostly reusing old levels, that game at least felt consistent throughout and had plenty of surprises for long term fans. sonic superstars is a budget game that they are charging for full price and i can’t recommend it unless it goes on sale. releasing this game so close to mario wonder will not end well.