Sonic Superstars does not have online co-op. Sonic Superstars was first announced during Summer Games Fest earlier this June, where the game will be revisiting its retro roots with a touch of modern elements. This can be seen with Superstars having 3D graphics instead of using sprites like Sonic Mania, incorporating new power-ups via the Chaos Emeralds, and the aforementioned four-player co-operative play.
This is the first time the series has tackled fully functional four player co-op, with previous games having incorporated multiplayer co-op play with limited functions. With the four-player co-op some fans have compared Sonic Superstars to the New Super Mario Bros. games. Much like Nintendo’s platformers, Sonic Superstars has four different playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose. However, this is limited to drop-in local couch co-op, with Takashi Iizuka, the creative officer at Sonic Team, explaining why.
In an interview with VideoGamesChronicle, Iizuka explains that the game was built around the idea that Sonic Superstars could be comfortably played with four players. The decision to make the co-op local only came from a practical perspective: to accommodate for the gameplay’s speed. Iizuka cites a specific example where one player can be so far ahead in a level within a single frame, which could introduce lag in a co-op setting. The team didn’t want to compromise that feature if it would result in the game lagging, so to keep the game fun, co-op is limited to local only.
According to Iizuka, the four player co-op of Sonic Superstars is jump in and out, meaning players can participate or exit the game at any time. The game’s level design won’t be changed based on the amount of players in a given session, but rather the experience will change depending on which characters are used. He gives another example, pointing out how Tails can carry Sonic throughout different locations in a Zone.
Other aspects of the interview cover how the game was created, where the developers’ priorities were in recreating the classic 2D Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay, as well as bringing back the original character designer, Naoto Ohshima. In fact, the whole game’s concept was spawned during a drinking party hosted between Iizuka and Ohshima on Zoom, which resulted in Sonic Team and Ohshima’s company Arzest collaborating for this game.
Sonic Superstars launches in Fall 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: VideoGamesChronicle
