According to series producer Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Superstars will feature zones and levels we haven’t really seen before in older 2D Sonic titles. In an interview with IGN, Iizuka talks about leaving classic levels from the franchise, like Green Hill Zone, behind, and how Sonic Superstars will now feature new levels with their own visual styles.
Traditionally, Green Hill Zone has always been present in 2D Sonic games in some way or another. Even more relatively recent titles like Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins had some interpretations of Green Hill Zone.
“In Sonic Mania, Green Hill Zone changed up a little bit,” Iizuka told IGN. “And even Sonic Origins, we did have Green Hill as part of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what we 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 North Star 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.”
Interestingly, this means that we also won’t see other popular levels from 2D Sonic titles returning, like Chemical Plant Zone, for example. Despite leaving the old levels behind, however, when it comes to gameplay, Iizuka says that Sonic Superstars will be a return to the roots of Sonic.
“One of the things we wanted to do is make sure we really had the roots of that classic gameplay solid,” says Iizuka. “And I’m sure the classic gameplay, you’re playing as Sonic, you jump, you go into a ball and you attack the enemies. The very first thing the team did was went and replicated that classic gameplay down very precisely. So when you’re playing Sonic Superstars, you’re going through the core classic Sonic game loop. You’re running, you’re jumping, you’re getting into a ball, you’re defeating enemies and you’re continuing forward.”
Iizuka caps off the interview by talking about the new visual style for Sonic Superstars. For the sake of reference, Sonic games with 3D graphics have also traditionally featured 3D gameplay, with some 2D gameplay segments being smaller parts of bigger 3D levels. Games like Sonic Mania, however, retained both the franchise’s classic 2D gameplay, as well as a classical 16-bit look. Sonic Superstars will be the first Sonic title to feature 3D visuals but with 2D gameplay.
“It is that 2D classic Sonic game, but because we’re using 3D models to create the world and the characters,” says Iizuka. “We’re able to do things inside of that 2D gameplay formula that we couldn’t have done before. So sometimes it’s going to be sending the character back further into the world. Maybe it’s going to be turning the character, spinning the character in a way that we couldn’t really do with the classic look and the pixel art. Or it could be a boss battle that we’re going to have in this kind of 3D space. There’s all these things we can do because we have 3D models, even though we have a 2D game style and a game format, we’re able to play around and do things that the classic Genesis and Game Gear titles couldn’t do.”
Sonic Superstars was unveiled during Summer Game Fest earlier this week. The game will have a host of features, including co-op for up to four players, different playable characters, and a host of mini-games and bonus levels. Sonic Superstars is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch this Fall.