Highlights
- Sonic Superstars takes place in the "Classic" era of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, after Sonic Mania and before Sonic Adventure.
- The game brings the franchise back to its 2D platforming roots from the Sega Genesis, with new gameplay features and playable characters like Classic Amy Rose.
- The developers ensure that the story of each new game fits within the established lore of the Sonic franchise, and recent lore cleanup efforts have clarified details for fans.
Sonic Superstars' producer, Takashi Iizuka, has confirmed where the new game takes place in the series' winding canonical timeline. Sonic Superstars recently released earlier this week, a gameplay reboot of the franchise where the blue hedgehog and his friends embark on a new adventure on Northstar Island. It takes the franchise back to its 2D platforming roots from the Sega Genesis, while imbuing it with fresh ideas and new gameplay features, such as the Chaos Emerald powers and new playable characters in Sonic Superstars, like Classic Amy Rose. With the game firmly using the franchise's "classic" era look, it's been confirmed the game is one of the many adventures set in the past.
The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise timeline is a long and windy one, while simultaneously being loose enough that the series' canon events seem to change placement. The official timeline has always been segregated by two periods, Classic and Modern, ever since Sonic Generations. All of Sonic's adventures in the past take place before Sonic Adventure, as that game would establish Sonic's 3D gameplay jump. Sonic Superstars is another one of the series' retroactive adventures that took place in the past, which longtime Sonic Team executive Takashi Iizuka confirms while clarifying where it takes place.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Takashi Iizuka was asked about a number of decisions that went into developing Sonic Superstars, including where it takes place in relation to the other games. According to Iizuka, Sonic Superstars is set after Sonic Mania, where they both take place after the original Genesis trilogy and Sonic CD. Superstars as such takes place an indeterminate amount of time before Sonic Adventure as well, since the game franchise's "Classic" era.
Iizuka states that when the developers make a new game in the franchise, they always make sure the story fits the Sonic franchise's lore. The current timeline in regard to the "Classic" era, established as of Sonic Origins, would be Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, and then Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Based on Iizuka's comments, following those four games, Sonic Mania and Sonic Superstars occur after that, which eventually leads into Sonic Adventure and beyond.
Sega and Sonic Team have also been doing a lot of recent lore cleanup via the TailsTube series, where it clarified a lot of details that were bugging fans, such as how Sonic's adventures in the Classic era did take place in his past and weren't an alternate universe like some believed. The recent fifth episode of TailsTube leading into Sonic Superstars also had the characters reminiscing on characters like Mighty, Ray, and Fang, with Fang having a prominent role as a secondary antagonist in Superstars.
Sonic Superstars is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Eurogamer
