As is customary with these large reveal showcases, I watched Thursday’s Summer Game Fest opening with my fellow gamers of TheGamer. Seeing as many of these gamers are degenerates, there were some ungodly squeals unleashed when Sonic Superstars was revealed. I’ve always been slightly on the outside of the Sonic fandom, and I have some reservations here.
I’ve played most Sonic games down the years, but I’ve always considered it to be the worst of the platform icons of my childhood - Super Mario, Kirby, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro the Dragon all scoot in ahead of it. Frontiers’ evolution with the times was admirable, but still resulted in a game that was only okay. While die-hards will defend anything with the Blue Blur, the only good game the series had prior to Frontiers in a decade was Mania, and that began life as a fan game.
That’s not a death knell for Superstars. Frontiers could be the start of revival, especially with the success of the movies and the experimental flair of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. The fact Superstars is 2D bodes well too - despite Frontiers making good use of all three dimensions, and the high regard past games like Adventure are held in, Sonic has always excelled most in 2D. His whole thing is that he runs fast, and evidently it’s easier to curate levels that channel that speed if players can only go backward, forwards, upwards, and occasionally downwards, rather than any which way they can.
But I’m still apprehensive, and not just because of a justified fear that Sonic games have a tendency to let you down. Sonic Superstars is a four player co-op game, and that rarely works in this genre. In fact, two of Sonic’s old foes have already tried and failed.
Most famously, we have Kirby: Star Allies. The pink puffball from Planet Popstar also embraced 3D recently with the charming Forgotten Land, and has endured a lot of changes to the genre while staying the course over the years. At least its mistakes were made in the right order. It tried to adapt 2D to the modern day with the addition of co-op, failed, and decided to embrace 3D instead. Sonic, however, has already produced a solid 3D game and has a legacy to build on. While a return to Sonic’s 2D strengths is not a negative on its own, the addition of co-op to spice things up feels foolish.
Even Mario, Sonic’s one-time closest competitor who has continued to surpass it by a greater and greater distance with each passing generation, couldn’t get this one right. While Kirby: Star Allies had a lot of general flaws, Mario’s co-op games were good… as long as you ignored the co-op. Both New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3D World supported four player co-op, like Star Allies and Superstars, and they were a disaster.
The problem with platformers is that screen real estate is a crucial part of the game design, and with four players sharing the same screen, you’re never getting the ideal experience. It makes levels and obstacles cramped, where things move too fast or too slow. Unless you play with three people of precisely your skill level, your experience is going to be significantly worse than heading out on your own. Even then, players of the same skill still approach obstacles in different ways, and 2D co-op quickly gets very hectic. This problem could be even bigger for Sonic, as going fast could be hampered by one player who has just gotta go slow instead.
Of course, there are a few reasons to be hopeful. Firstly, Sonic could succeed where Mario failed. I mean, there’s a first time for everything, right? More importantly, you will be able to play Superstars on your own. These co-op games do tend to be a little slower with co-op in mind, featuring longer-than-average flat sections to account for a trail of four, but it should still be a decent game. If you’re one of the degenerates who squealed when it was announced, don’t let me rain on your parade. Just remember that, if you want to play with three friends, you probably won’t have as much fun as the four of you playing individually.