Sonic Superstars – Everything You Need to Know

The Sonic series has been on a strong run lately, with Sonic Frontiers being a massive success and receiving The Final Horizon update to cap off the story. Sega looks to continue that momentum with Sonic Superstars, developed by Arzest of Balan Wonderworld infamy, with support from Sonic Team. It releases on October 17th for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. Here’s everything you should know before jumping into the blue blur’s latest adventure.

2D Side-Scroller

Unlike Sonic Frontiers, which took an open zone approach to its platforming, Sonic Frontiers returns to the 2D side-scrolling platforming that defined the series. For those worried it could be a disaster like Sonic the Hedgehog 4, various impressions have revealed that it’s more in line with the older tiles. Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka even told VGC that the team played the classic titles side-by-side to “nail the exact movement of the characters from scratch in their own development environment.”

4 Playable Characters

Sonic Superstars offers four playable characters – Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna and Amy Rose (also a hedgehog). Anyone familiar with the series will know about their unique abilities – Sonic can go fast and quickly dispose of enemies, while Tails can fly (and carry his allies in the process). Knuckles can glide and climb walls, and Amy Rose can double jump and use her hammer to smash obstacles and foes.

4-Player Co-op

While 2D Sonic titles have had some form of co-op, it was only for two players. Sonic Superstars supports local co-op for up to four players, a first for the series, and you can play through the entire campaign with them. The camera will stay with the player in the lead, with those falling behind automatically teleported to them.

The Trio of Trouble

To no one’s surprise, Eggman returns as a villain. Fang the Sniper from Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, known as Nack the Weasel to Archie Comics readers, also returns. Joining them is the mysterious Trip, a sungazer lizard who wears armor and guides Fang and Eggman through the new Northstar Islands.

Northstar Islands

The Northstar Islands are large, with 12 new Zones to explore. These range from Speed Jungle, with its vines and dense forestry, to Pinball Carnival, proving once again that you can never escape from pinball, no matter how many years pass. As with the 2D classics, there are multiple routes and secrets to uncover.

No Returning Zones

Hardcore Sonic the Hedgehog fans have probably noticed the lack of a Green Hill Zone or any other returning Zone from previous titles. That’s because Sonic Superstars doesn’t have any – all of its Zones are brand-new. Speaking to IGN, Iizuka said what the team “wanted to do with Sonic Superstars is really create something new and go in there and create these brand new islands that you get to explore as Sonic…

“We wanted to take Sonic to [the] brand new Northstar Islands and have Sonic run around in this new environment. So we wanted to make brand new places for Sonic to go in this new title.” It’s understandable, especially given how often we’ve seen the Zones (even when revamped for titles like Sonic Mania), and thus far, the new levels look pretty good.

Emerald Powers

The new gimmick in Superstars revolves around an already established mechanic – the Chaos Emeralds. Each now has a unique Emerald Power, like the Blue Emerald’s Avatar, which creates multiple clones to attack enemies or Red Emerald’s Bullet to shoot forward in a direction. There’s even the White Emerald’s Extra, which grants an additional ability to characters, like Sonic’s Homing Attack, Amy’s Hammer Throw and Knuckle’s Punch. Emerald Powers are selected with the right stick and must be recharged at checkpoints, but aren’t mandatory for clearing levels.

Super Forms

Can you have a Sonic title without Super forms? Probably, but it just wouldn’t feel the same. Sonic Superstars has Super forms for each character – all you need to do is gather the seven Chaos Emeralds and collect enough rings to transform, thus becoming faster and invulnerable to damage. Best of all, you can use the Emerald Powers in Super form.

Special Stages

You once again gather Chaos Emeralds by completing Special Stages, and while the typical maze from Sonic the Hedgehog 1 returns, a new type is available. These require swinging from bubbles towards the objective. Some bubbles can increase or decrease your momentum, so you must adjust accordingly. Nevertheless, they look flashy and fun – here’s hoping they play just as well.

Medals

In a Sonic game, collecting 100 rings usually confers 1Ups for additional tries at a level. In Sonic Superstars, they instead grant Medals. These are spent on cosmetics, and before you worry about them ruining the core Sonic experience, they’re meant primarily for the new Battle Mode.

Battle Mode

If the campaign is where four players can team together, then Battle Mode is for the more competitively minded. It supports four players locally and eight online, as you create a Metal Fighter and customize it with different parts (unlocked with Medals). You can also use unique skins like Mecha Tails and Mecha Amy, with Mecha Sonic available in the Digital Deluxe Edition. These are all purely cosmetic and don’t affect gameplay.

Battle Mode Stages

After customizing your Fighter, you can join a game room or create your own, and compete in three randomly selected stages with unique objectives. You have the typical Race, which involves reaching the goal before other players, but then there’s Zap Scrap, which accrues points when you shoot other players (and that decreases on taking damage). Star Snatcher is about collecting stars within the time limit, while Survival sees players dodging cannonballs without falling off the stage. Earn points each round, and the player with the most at the end of the series wins.

PC Requirements

The 2D Sonic titles aren’t typically heavy on PC requirements, and the same somewhat applies to Sonic Superstars. The minimum requirements include an Intel Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.2 GHz, 6 GB RAM, 20 GB space, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 or AMD Radeon HD 7790, either with 2 GB VRAM. Windows 10 is usable, but for the recommended requirements, Windows 11 is necessary. You also need a Core i5-6600 or Ryzen 5 2600, 12 GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX Vega 56, either 8 GB VRAM and 25 GB installation space.

60 FPS on Nintendo Switch

Sonic Superstars will play in a “smooth 60 FPS” per producer and character designer Naoto Oshima. Based on gameplay from all the trailers thus far, it seems a given. However, he also confirmed that it would run at 60 FPS on Nintendo Switch. Whether the frame rate is maintained during split-screen in Battle Mode or four-player local co-op in the campaign remains to be seen, but it’s good news.

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