The surprise announcement of Sonic Superstars has many fans of Sega's blue hedgehog mascot very excited. With its colorful graphics and personable animations, as well as impressive reveal trailer, it's easy to understand why future players are already looking forward to the title. On top of that, it's coming sooner than fans likely ever expected, since Sonic Superstars has a release window marked sometime in Fall 2023.
However, this surprise 2D Sonic game may be a bit too good to be true. While many hands-on previews from the Summer Game Fest Play Days event seem promising, and the trailer shows accurate Sonic Mania-esque physics, parts of Sonic Superstars leave plenty to be desired. With the title is being co-developed by Sonic Team and series co-creator Naoto Ohshima's personal company Arzest, Superstars has to be a great experience worth players' time in order for it to bring the success Sega desires.
Why Fans Might be Skeptical of Sonic Superstars
Last year, Sonic Team said that its current approach with the Sonic franchise is to release 2D games alongside 3D games like Sonic Frontiers. Superstars is the answer to how there's a finite number of 2D titles to constantly rerelease, so Sega has chosen to develop new ones to keep the marketing strategy going. However, entrusting this task to Sonic Team may leave fans nervous about Superstars' capabilities. After all, Sonic Team's last endeavor with Classic Sonic physics was Sonic Forces, which was very lackluster to many after Sonic Mania brought the niche back.
On top of that, while bringing back Naoto Ohshima to help with Superstars' art direction is a pleasant surprise, his company Arzest may have to earn players' trust as its last project was known as one of 2021's worst games. This game is none other than Balan Wonderworld, published by Square Enix. Ironically, the critically panned game was directed by the other Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka. His absence on Superstars may allow Arzest to shine with the 2.5D title instead, as a director's influence (among other factors such as direction from executives) could easily make or break a game.
Sonic Superstars' Surprising Price Tag
It's understandable that Sega would desire to release more Classic Sonic games after the massive success of Sonic Mania in 2017. One of the highest-rated Sonic game in years, Mania took players about five and a half hours to complete a basic playthrough as a chosen set of characters without purposefully aiming to collect the Chaos Emeralds or beating bonus Blue Spheres stages. With how the game is a fun nostalgic-filled romp through ironic stages with new ones mixed in, many players felt that $40 dollars was a great price for the experience.
However, many things have changed in the last five years, including important details regarding video games and even the global economy. Players around the world are currently lamenting the recent video game price hikes as games widely seen as must-plays such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom now cost $70 dollars. Even though its becoming common knowledge that video games are becoming more expensive, many Sonic fans were shocked to find out that Sega plans on selling Sonic Superstars for $60 compared to the price of Sonic Mania.
This $20 price increase has surprised fans because many future players think that Superstars will have the same short playtime as Mania, which is arguably not worth it comparatively. In order to convince fans to buy the game when sales are critical, Sonic Team and Arzest need to show what the title is made of in terms of physics, while also making it a rather lengthy Classic Sonic experience. If Sonic Superstars can't do that, then Sega may need to rethink Sonic's marketing strategy in the future.
Sonic Superstars will release in Fall 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
