Want more Sonic coverage from the show? Read our exclusive piece on how a labor of love brought a 27-year old Sonic the Hedgehog statue to Gamescom 2023. Sonic Frontiers successfully revitalized the 3D formula last year, so here’s hoping Superstars can provide us with a quality 2D Sonic game worth revisiting for years to come. Sonic Superstars is shaping up to be something quite special. Oh, I was also able to outrun the screen multiple times, just like in those Genesis / Mega Drive titles but Sonic Superstars’ 60fps performance held up immaculately during these moments, even when assets were flying past the screen at remarkable speeds. In other words, Sonic Superstars is striking an excellent balance between fun platforming challenges and a convincing sense of speed you’d expect from the very best Sonic games. Additionally, a Casino Night-themed pinball minigame was released as downloadable content. I felt more like I was playing through a level akin to Chemical Plant or Hydrocity, two classic Zones that excel at mixing tricky gimmicks with high-speed sections. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows versions contain remakes of Sonic 2 's Chemical Plant Zone and Death Egg Robot boss fight, while the Nintendo 3DS version contains a remake of Casino Night. Instead, gimmicks such as bumpers, scoring targets, and balloons you can bounce off are carefully placed throughout the level.Ĭompletely gone is the stop-and-start nature of older Casino Zones in the Sonic franchise. No longer are you stopping Sonic’s momentum to board slow elevators or rocking a barrel up and down to access new sections. Such sections are still present in Sonic Superstars’ Pinball Carnival, but the stage itself has a brilliantly considered sense of flow.

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