People who think Mania is worse because it has less original zones have no idea how quality works 😂

The best way to describe Superstars is that it feels like a lost 3DS game. Had it released on the handheld in like 2016, I don’t think it would be getting dogged on as much, even when it has a $60 price tag and is an overall below average experience. And it wasn’t like they needed Headcannon or Evening Star to develop it. Mania was the perfect blueprint to make a brilliant successor that was more than just Mania with new levels and 4-player co-op. It feels like they knew that people were gonna buy it because of Mania’s success and cranked it out to try and rival Mario Wonder.

I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Sonic Mania, but I can already see which one will age better. Sonic Mania is a game that can be enjoyed from beginning to end, while Sonic Superstars can hardly be enjoyed for more than two stages without interruptions.

The Shocking Thing is that Mania sold around one million copies while superstars sold around 4.3 million copies

Personally, Maina has more replay value than Superstars, people like to harp on Mania for not having more original zones (which was because Sega wanted them, not the devs) but those zones are much much better quality-wise than Superstars. That's not to say Superstars itself is a terrible game.

It also doesn't help that Superstar came out 3 days before Super Mario Bros. Wonder. That game also has issues with bosses for different reason and yet, the game as an whole is still an heck of alot better than Superstar. Goes to show that once again Sonic is trying to outweigh Mario for doing different things to beat it's rival and he still fails.

the catapillar boss aside, i'd argue that in Mania, even all of the bosses that make you wait to hit the boss easily makes up for it by still making playing the game entertaining during that window of time.

This video is called "Game Designer Explains" so I was expecting you to talk more about game design. Most of it is about aesthetic and concepts. The music commentary is also lacking knowledge about the subject (i.e. what soundchips are) For me, the title really lead me to except something else. If it had been "my thoughts on superstars" I think I would have more prepared for this kind of video. Your video is perfectly fine! Just know that a title like that can lead to a certain expectation different from the actual content. Have good day and keep at it! 🙂

The thing about Fang's theme is that, while it doesn't sound "bad" to me, what it _does_ sound like is... confused. Were I to hear it without that context, I would not be able to tell what it's supposed to be for, and the _last_ thing I'd guess is "bounty hunter boss music". Considering my view of what makes music significant in the first place? That's an even _worse_ failure than sounding bad.

Sonic Superstar brings that sonic 4 vibe to the function nobody asked for.

The genesis sound isn’t even bad, it’s just that whoever is in charge of using it, doesn’t know how to use it

I said ina different comment section that Sonic Superstars feels like an upscaled/remaster Wii game and they jumped me. I still stand by my word 💯

sonic superstar has that sonic 4 kinda vibe

Christian Whitehead seemed to want to make more original stages for Mania, but Sega mandated his team bring back classic stages, and that he include the Phantom Ruby to tie into Sonic Forces. So he did his best to put a new spindash on each of those stages and wrote a better story than Forces involving the Phantom Ruby and the origin of the Hard-Boiled Heavies. Side note: The Hard-Boiled Heavies are some of the most well-thought out and cool designed baddies since Mephiles, Chaos, Metal Sonic and even Shadow. Infinite, The Generic Deadly Six, and The Amorphous Purple Asteroid from Frontiers got nothing on The Heavy King. Whitehead did an interesting interview on the Heavies and how their names and personas were manifested by the Phantom Ruby. The animal in Heavy King’s Egg Robo saw itself as a king, hence the name, personality and appearance. Brilliant!

Sonic Mania started as a passion project primarily produced by known members of the Sonic ROM hacking community. Superstars is a corporate product.

I don’t like Superstars because of it’s bosses they take WAY to long to beat and the final bosses of each story are unreasonably difficult having 2-3 phases all taking at least 7 hits to beat before the next phase and it takes so long to hit between attacks they also have instant kill attacks they drag on too long.

sonic superstars failed for stupid reasons honestly its not even because people are tired of classic sonic gameplay

I don't think Superstars is evn half as bad as this essay try to depict it. Mania is the better game yes, but Superstars is enjoyable at least

I still don't understand why people have problems with press factory, I mean, the background and the platforms have a counter to indicate when the floor will make you jump, you just have to catch the rhythm. I don't mind the instant death in act two because they give you a generous amount of time to push a button

Superstars definetly lacks a proper direction, or rather what it wants to be exactly, wich definetly hurt the game in the long run

A local theater should do a production of "Waiting for Godot", except this version would be "Waiting for the Opportunity to Attack the Sonic Superstars Boss".

I think the greatest irony of Superstars' music is that the Genesis titles don't even have what Johnny VS describes as the console's signature "twang", but it goes out lf it's way to be as twangy as possible.

I don't have a problem with most of these issues , i just wish if it was cheaper

Just happened to come across this video and i have to say, not only do I agree with most of your points but kudos to you for really illustrating your points well. I think one additional point that I would mention that Superstars really lacked was speed. The player has maybe 2 or 3 short opportunities across all of the levels to reach top speed for at least 5 seconds. While we definitely understand its a platforming game, I feel like Superstars really muddled that sense of speed that Mania and Generations got right.

Sonic mania was the first sonic game i played since sonic mega collection so i was excited when i saw another classic game coming but now im just back to mania

i played sonic superstars but i quit because of the bosses i would rather play origins or mania cause at least the bosses are better

i would rather play a sonic game that have zones from older games that are fun from start to finish without any bad one and a soundtrack that is pure gold than a game with original zones but barely one of them is above average and the quality rise and drop from time to time and a soundtrack that i can count how many good tracks there are on one hand.

completely agree on the superstars bosses. I wanna be to blaze in there as Super Sonic damage rush the boss to death in like 5 seconds then move on. And then on later on they give us fake victories on bosses that already took me several attempts to beat. I just completely lost interest about halfway Trip's run because I kept dying and just wasn't having fun anymore

Honestly I don't care which games are good or bad. I play them either way because I feel like they're good to me. But if no one else agrees, that's fine

PlexiTier, I love your channel so much, I just had to subscribe!

What kind of games do you make?

I spent a LOT of time on that Metal Fighter battle in _Superstars_ so I learned plenty of tricks. You can hit the Metal Fighter when it's charging at you.

the level design in both Mania and Generations suit sonic well.

2:48 That sounds like some beta version of Fang's theme, because it sounds so bland and repetitive as if there's no polish applied to not waste much time on idea and melody which could be boring later on...

There was only one real reason to play Sonic Superstars and that's Amy Rose. the one thing that Mania abandoned.

You DO know that the classic forces tracks use a real SEGA Genesis right?????

Awesome video and a great analysis on both games!

The first problem of sonic Superstars is that it ran straight into the community's Sonic4 trauma with its artstyle. and then the game starts.

You calling yourself a "game designer" Doesn't justify the bias in this video. You don't explain ANYTHING from a technical standpoint, and your comparison between Generations and Superstars is wrong, since Generations pulls heavily from past games, including 3D ones, whereas Arzest pulls from past idea that Naoto Ohshima had on him that never made it into Sonic games. The two can't be compared at all. Naoto was looking to create and authentic 2D experience with 3D graphics, not a 2.5D gameplay experience in general. Superstars looks good on everything outside of the Switch and gets the job done. Sonic controls far better in Superstars than he does in both, Generations and Mania. (Mania has a problem with making Sonic run backwards while hitting springs at times.) Sure Mania's more polished, but that doesn't make Superstars a failure when it's ONLY major flaw are the bosses.

Mania actually had EFFORT put into it, and wasn't obviously a vehicle for promotional DLC's that not everyone can access.

The game looked great in the trailers but I was really disappointed when I played it

I haven't Mania played that much but I agree it's I played Superstars and notice it's glaring issues 1. It's Bosses: Mania handled them really them really well quick , easy and simple to understand while superstars it's bosses take really long , have too many patterns , long invinciblity frames especially the ones later on in the game to point where they take long than actual stage itself Classic sonic bosses are supposed to be simple , quick , and easy to understand not have long repetitive patterns Superstars bosses don't fit for a Classic Sonic game The Music: Mania had an amazing soundtrack some of them are Sonic CD JP Quality especially in the Act 2s such Metallic Madness Act 2 Studiopolis Act 1&2 , Green Hill , Press Garden I could go on and on but you get the idea while Superstars has an inconsistent soundtrack Some of them are really good such as Lagoon City Act 1 , 2 and Act Amy Lagoon City Act 2 is literally a Modern day Sonic CD Stage Some of sound like Baby Toys or Sonic 4 music such as Fang Boss Fight in Sonic and Some speak for themselves such as Press Factory Act 1 overall the Soundtrack is a mixed bag Gameplay: Mania took everything that made The Classic Sonic games so special and reinvent them in a Modern way it's gimmicks felt natural and part of level itself it's physics are one to one with the other classics but in a smooth 60fps It's special and bonus stages are really fun every character feels fun to play as while superstars some parts of what made the classics special but also took some unfun elements as well it's gimmicks don't feel natural and part of the level itself but feels forced it's special and bonus stages are alright it's special stages are boring in my opinion not as fun as mania' s but still good smooth physics but not as smooth as mania every character feels fun to play but sonic's drop dashing feels nerfed and knuckles gliding and exploration felt fun in mania since you have to explore for the giant rings and elemental shields while in superstars exploration feels pointless you don't get any elemental shields rather than a basic shield and a magnet shield and it's giant rings you collect one per level in mania you can collect five emeralds in one level while in superstars you collect one per level Overall Presention: I and many people prefer mania over superstars but that doesn't mean it's bad but superstars is not worth the full price Mania is worth 60$ if you ask me Mania is smooth from being to end while superstars had some rocks on it's way Side Note 1 : My only grip with Mania is that it reuses old zones from previous Sonic games Side Note 2 : That comment took very long to type

Modern Sonic releases have a few tropes going that Sega doesn't seem to want to learn from. From the press release, they lure you in with the allusion to grass roots game design. Pan the camera back, now its a party game. Fun time for the whole family If I could compare it, this is like having a restaurant owner personally sit you down making you feel inclusive, he then gets distracted by the lunch rush never to be seen again. You later realize that he put you next to the back room with all the bussers sprinting back and forth You're trying to salvage what's left of your meal and get slapped with a gratuity charge. Tough right? Its just how many of those experiences are you willing to pay out the nose for like that? I understand that the world doesn't consist of me alone, but in scenarios like these you can't help but feel like you've been strung along It's interesting to note that Mario doesn't seem to have this problem. If I had to sum it up its that, despite being apples and oranges, Mario games tend to be more inclusive on principle. You don't scrutinize as much, where with Sonic, it has to be tuned just so in order to be enjoyable If they are emphasizing a certain aspect which they promise to deliver on, you don't just want the handling to be on point, you also want a complete and robust game. Mario Wonder was not only fine tuned, they kept throwing new and interesting things to do, each one making you forget the last Sonic Superstars appears so tame. It's like they wanted it to be visually sonic 5, but somewhere in the editor's chambers, they decided to scrap a coherent campaign for the co-op experience. The result is that you have to tone things down so that more people can register what's happening on screen Its two different shapes overlapping with the refined crystalline one being overshadowed by bulky boring square. I wanted to pay you money for THIS experience, but you decided to switch up the order and are expecting the same pay regardless What service in the industry allows you to get away with messing up an order?

I am in the wrong for enjoying both? Like... by equal? 😞

My stance is that Superstars just feels exhausting to play, it's not AWFUL, but with the slow bosses and every 2 or so levels being a one act gauntlet it just feels far longer than it actually is. I can blast through over half of Mania easily in one session, but I could barely get through 3 acts of Superstars before calling it a break

4:09 Love how they put a wanted poster for fang in the background, maybe that’s where superstars got it’s revive fang thing cuz I’m sure they forgot about triple trouble

Yes! Someone is finally bringing this up!!! Thank you!!!

Every time someone says a Sonic game is bad, I want to scream.

Fang the Sniper's theme only has an issue that it is trying to mimic ancient ass Gamegear instrumentals. The melody itself is fine.

People have played in those same classic zones, with the same gimmicks, and heard the same songs for 20 years now (though mania has some fire remixes). Having new zones, new songs, no lives, 3D visuals, not annoying special stages/ ring locations, having gold enemies to find, and being able to swap characters between acts goes a long way for some people (I’m people). I also can’t understand why people hate press factory so much. Just jump, I thought it was really fun playing around it. and momentum jumps with the bounces are fun. Only stages I really would say are wack is the final stage, though I don’t like pretty much any final stage in classic games, and golden capital act 2. Lava reef, oil ocean, metallic madness, Titan monarch , and press garden act 1 can all kick rocks. Almost all bosses from both games can kick rocks. metal sonic, mean bean, hydrocity, and the green guy can stay from mania. the water bosses, the piggy bank, and press factory 2 can stay from superstars. Everyone else is just straight annoying.

Personally i find it dirty to conpare either game because theyre both almost completely different kinds of classic sonic games. sonic mania is a well priced $25 sega published fan game, by the mania for the mania as they say. Where as sonic superstars was done in house by sonic team and is also $70. Comparing these two would be like comparing the 16 bit triple trouble to say colors or unleashed. Both games were made with almost completely different mindsets about what they were trying to achieve.

Main Word I gotta give Superstars- TEDIOUS

As for Mania zones, we have 1 from Sonic 1, 2 from Sonic 2 and CD, 3 from Sonic 3&K, (Angel Island doesn't count), and 4 originals. I heard the reason why there are only 4 original zones in Mania is because of SEGA's mandates. So that is another knock against SEGA. Another knock against Superstars is there is no score. Sure you get some points from smashing the badnicks and from finishing the acts but there is no score in display which makes speedruning and ring hoarding pointless because there is no score. And sure there is no live system either but you could get the coins from every 50K points but it's not here. I heard that originally Christian Whitehead team was developing their own Sonic project but it was canceled and replaced by the Arzest dev team. A team that hasn't exactly proven to be amazing and with Superstars they have proven that they are not an amazing dev team. This could be a knock towards SEGA but I imagine that Takashi Iizuka had a hand in this. I mean he was part of Sonic Superstars development. Lastly, Team Evening Star (the Christian Whitehead team) did make Penny's Big Breakaway. Just letting you know.

hey, whats the music that plays in the outro? 19:14

Hey wait going by the end of this video....do you in fact have any connections to the game known as Spark the electric jester by any chance? 👀

Sonic Superstars should have been a successor to Rush Adventure/Colors DS/Generations 3DS

Superstars and Mania are both equally great. I will never rest until Superstars is just as loved as Mania is. It IS also great game in my opinion.

Your deconstruction of the "level design" felt a bit too shallow for a video whose title starts with "Game Designer Explains:". I feel like there is much, much more than just stage gimmicks when it comes to sonic level design. The fact that you didn't even mention the structuring and principles that have consistently appeared in 2D sonic level design way past the genesis games, and how they differ between mania and superstars gives the impression that you don't really have the best understanding of what makes a "sonic" level tick; the flow between speed and platforming, multi-tiered intertwining level design, passivity traps, interesting use of terrain curvature, rewarding use of physics based movement, these are things that are all present in both of these games, yet differ in very subtle ways that do end up setting them apart from each other. These are all very nuanced elements that feed into the fundamental idea of rewarding active and skillful play with speed and ultimately define what a 2D sonic game is. I suggest you go look these things up because i think there is a very interesting discussion to be had with how mania and superstars' levels *truly* differ from one another. Basically what I'm telling you is that you should watch all of Pariah695's early "Sonic was Always Good" videos because I've been pretty much parroting a bunch of things he's taught me about sonic LOL please watch his videos they are incredibly comprehensive

Lovely video! Please what song did you use during the ending segment XD

The thing with Mania is, even though over half the game is stages from past Sonic games, the way each stage is designed and reimagined puts an emphasis on variety and arguably making these stages even better than their original counterparts, so it doesn’t feel like you are going through “uninspired” rehashed levels. I haven’t played Superstars yet, but it looks like it suffers from just going through standard level design motions without anything to make them stand out. It’s basically Sonic 4 all over again.

I think Studiopolis Act 2 blows Act 1 out of the water, but both are quality tracks. I also preferred Press Garden Act 1 to Act 2. I think it goes to show how varied the tracks were, and how much each one aimed at particular tastes in music.

Also Titanic Monarch is from 3D Blast, kind of.

Fang has his Triple Trouble theme integrated into the new track.

What is the song playing at the end?

Sonic mania is the first and only sonic game ive played so far and i absolutly loved it from the moment i picked it up

This is just Sonic 4 Episode 3.

Top 10 reason why mania is so much better than superstar: numero 1: better boss theme. Thank for watching. (edit: mania's soundtrack is enough to beat superstars so ye)

The sonic fandom is stupid :)

I got a glitch in Sonic Mania chemical Plant were if you hit a Robotnik Box and then go in a pipe you'd be blasted into the air.

This fandom is great keep doing this is why your best fandom

My problem with Superstars is that it kinda lacks a coherent theme beyond Sega wanting to make a standalone classic game themselves. It feels like "Look! Classic Sonic's back!" when the classic era in general was being thrown back to constantly during the 2010s and Classic Sonic as a seperate character already appeared in both Generations and Forces as well as... oh yeah, getting an entire game of his own the opposite end of the console generation. I doubt that he's going away any time soon and think that it's a good thing [though I'm more a fan of the 3D games and it seems to have let Modern Sonic finally have another great game now that the burden to constantly pander to "2d good 3d bad" is gone, and you can never have too much Sonic] and Superstars did try to innovate, but none of it really changed the fact that the core game is just more Classic Sonic without much to differentiate it from every other time he's come back, so I feel like the next classic game should take a page from the modern games and have each game focus on a central theme or schtick. I've been revisiting Rush Adventure recently and it's probably worth noting since unlike the previous handheld games it didn't change up the core Sonic gameplay from the previous one but made up for it with having a unique aesthetic, theme, and whole new world that allowed for fresh ideas as well as adding some extra mechanics outside of the standard Sonic gameplay, and as much as the demand for Classic Sonic to return was born out of exhaustion with how much experimentation there was in the 2000s I feel like newer Classic games could use something like that to feel more fresh and unique [and taking more advantage of the 2.5D like Generations did]

I think we have to settle on either 'htting it out the park' or 'blowing it out the water', though I admire your mixing of the two:)

Great Video!

Not related, but can you change the brightness in Superstars or smth like that

Fantastic video, but is it me or at 14:32 Eggman's Mech look yellowish here in this video, when all other videos of it it's pure red?

Maybe if ppl weren’t expecting this game to be as good as mania when THEY ARENT EVEN IN THE SAME DIMENSION, AND THEY WERENT MADE BY THE SAME DEVS

5:20 yeah Light of Hope is SLEPT ON imo

I keep going back to mania.

Fang’s theme sounds more Mega Man than Sonic, that’s what I thought when I heard it. It makes more sense in Mega Man than Sonic

Before I start this video, all I'm gonna say is, I saw a ton of promotion for Mania before its release. I didn't even see a KZfaq ad for Superstars until 2 weeks after. :/

I like superstars better

I like Superstars far more than I did Mania. Much more fun to me.

The whole time I’ve played superstars I honestly just hated playing it. I didn’t feel motivated to continue at all, it legitimately bored me. In mania, the game always held my attention, even though I did take a long time to beat it, I just wasn’t good at the game when I got it when I was 11 I hadn’t played Sonic that much. I loved the music and the backgrounds of Sonic mania Sonic superstars hardly ever held my interest, the backgrounds were boring and the only song that actually held my attention was pinball carnival.

I honestly think had they made the multiplayer split screen and different path ways like when you see characters in the background that would have been at least some saving grace also no online co-op of the main story was weird to me even if they added co-op only stages with drop in and out game play that didn't stop the flow.

These 3D side scroll Son8c Games feel like a fast version of little big planet. 3D belongs in a 360° realm.

I just got superstars the other day and have been personally loving it. I never could get into sonic mania for some reason

Great comparison

Mania had a few levels that kinda drag at least on the first few times you play through them, but that's about it. Super Stars found a way to annoy me in every level lol.

I bought the ps5 disc from gamestop the day it came out (as a 35 year old man which i never do) and was pretty disappointed. Mario wonder has so much more charm, originally and knows what makes mario fun. Id rather replay mania for the 1000th time

I have to disagree on the boss part, as I my stupid ass didn't figure out how to dodge some of the bosses attacks in Mania and thus going game over multiple times, having to replay all of the stages

IMO i think the whole 2.5 at least for sonic doesn’t mesh well, I mean generations did a good job but idk superstars doesn’t look appealing, one of my friends also said how the bosses take way too long to beat although I can’t say that because I’ve never personally played the game. mania is good because it not only has some zones from past sonic games but also new ones like studiopolis(has great music btw.) the bosses are very cool too! (Remember this is my opinion.)

You know superstars is actually very fun most of the time in a world where this is the only sonic game it is one of the most fun games of the year. But there are just some mistake’s particularly the bosses that greatly hurt the quality

Some of the Mania levels were too hard. Superstars has a more accessible difficulty level and helps you find the “flow” a little better.

If Sonjc Superstars was a 3DS Followup to Sonjc Generations (rather than the god awful Sonic Boom games) I think it would’ve been much better recieved

Studiopolis zone boss is so long compared to others just because they wanted us to listen to that amazing music.

I actually liked superstars more then mainia but that's probably just me

i've never heard anyone so confidently be wrong about music lingo? hd soundchip? real sounding instruments? what?

I'm not even as offended by the comparisons to Mania as I am by the gall that some of these people have to compare Superstars to Wonder. IT DOESN'T EVEN BEAT IT IN THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT it's that much of a difference. Like I'm never someone who says don't enjoy something but people love using *better* rather than *favourite* and sometimes there's just no debate on how wrong they are

Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue (plus a few others) did the music for Superstars. Just let that sink in.

I don’t have Super Stars. But it reminds me alot of Sonic 4. Acceptable, but not really memorable or great. Sonic 4 act 2 wasn’t bad, the dedicated co-op was great. Best co-op in the series.