I did not know that Knuckles wall jump was a thing until know. I’m glad that for the most part Superstars has all the features of Mania’s time attack, Mania’s time attack really should be standard for future time attacks in Sonic games.

In the same vein as the Knuckles wall jump, Superstars added a feature where Tails descends faster if you hold down (directionally) mid-flight. Really glad they addressed that.

It’s incredible to me how much the game would improve by just changing the boss’s invincibility frames and music

I love how he keeps titling "Sonic was always good" I really have so much respect with this guy.

There's two other reasons why I think the boss fights are so long: 1. The robot designs. Those are some cool robots, and I think they knew that and didn't want people to just beat them in 10 seconds and move on. To which I say, at least make the music better. 2. Avatar, the emerald power that summons clones. It would instakill all of them. To which, yeah, they could've just made the power work differently.

You said you're one of the few people who loves time attacking in Sonic games, and I'm like... that's the primary appeal OF Sonic games, I thought! Learn to be better, learn to be faster, sharpen your skill, and blast through zones with speed and finesse. If that's NOT the point, then geeze, it's no wonder I've felt like a square peg in a round hole in this fandom the past few years! But hey, I'm glad someone else loved this game!

Dude are you kidding me… the Knuckles wall jump thing is an actual feature?! I kept doing that on accident and to me it just felt like Knuckles was jumping off the wall when I was trying to climb it… Cuz the way I normally play Knuckles in these games is, if I’m gliding toward a wall I know I want to climb, I preemptively press and hold up so I start climbing the instant I touch the wall… no friggin wonder I felt like Knuckles was just broken and bad to play in this game ffs… Also yeah I pretty much agree with your takes on this game. Unfortunately tho, idk what it is but I do not really enjoy speed running 2D Sonic games. I think because like almost every single one of them you cannot see where you are going, this means speedrunning 2D Sonic games relies a lot more on memorization of the stage. Which isn’t necessarily a problem for me cuz I have the 3&k and Mania stages mapped out in my head to a T, I guess I just don’t find it as fun as seeing what’s ahead and reacting when I’m speedrunning. This is why I actually REALLY love Classic Sonic in Gens because they play with the camera a lot more so you can actually see where you’re going 90% of the time. All that said, my thoughts on Superstars kinda stopped at “it’s okay and disappointing compared to Mania” because that’s what my standard playthroughs of the game felt like. The bosses do ruin this game a lot for me because when I play Classic Sonic, I like to replay the games from start to finish, so really long, boring, and unfun bosses at the end of every act of every stage really gets old on replays. But the stages themselves are pretty fun Sonic stages all the same, so I can’t call this game bad, not even close.

this game is "ugly"? that's a huge troll, it looks amazing!

Cant wait for sonic super duper stars

Everyone: Where's Sonic Forces??? Me: *Where's Sonic Jam for the Tiger® Game Com?* (It's a unique, "original" game, different from Sonic Jam for Saturn, for a "proper" dot-matrix handheld, so it has about as much right to be considered mainline as Sonic Pocket Adventure or Sonic Lost World 3ds).

I like this and all...but where is forces pariah

The Fang Robot in Trip’s Story was the first time I’ve ever ragequited a Sonic game by how unfair the fight is, not helping by the fact his slam attack would glitch for me sometimes by shifting the platform under me causing me to die unfairly

This games feels like what Sonic 4 should have been back in 2010 and released on live services

Sonic Mania 2 - Sonic was Always Good

Honestly this video is probably the closest that anyone has gotten to selling the game for me. Ironically it's through telling me that Superstars is actually pretty fun if you ignore most of the mechanics that came with it, but I already had a feeling that would be the case anyway. It's crazy to think that the more ST added to this game, the worse it got. If not for coop, the game could have gotten even better stage design and tolerable bossfights. And if not for the emerald powers maybe players would have gotten a better experience not having instant win abilities at their disposal. It's real easy to tell where the haphazard attempts at justifying a 60$ price-tag happened

Honestly the absence of elemental shields also disappointed me, I assume the emerald powers were to cover this (especially the fire blast lol) but I still feel like I find more use of the bubble, electric and fire in 3&K/Mania than the emerald powers

Bro thought we wouldn’t notice he skiped Forces and Frontiers

The "it's fun, fuck you" at the end was really funny i can't lie. I agree that time attack completely changes this game and for the better, I got obsessed with getting my time down on Sky Temple as Sonic for a good couple days. I love running the longer levels since there's a lot more substance, and stringing together a perfectly smooth run feels that much better for it. Also, I agree that the platforming can be a bit basic - some levels, especially Golden Capital and Egg Fortress, felt very Sonic 1 to me in design. I hope that they make some kind of follow-up in the same engine soon, hopefully with better bosses, level design closer to Sonic 2 or Mania, and some innovations to make it stand out so we can avoid the New Soup fatigue that Mario was subject to in the late 2000's-early 2010s. Good video!

Y'know, I only played the very brief demo of SSS on my cousin's PS5, and I thought the game was okay to solid, but after seeing your run, I REALLY WANT TO ACTUALLY PLAY THIS GAME, GODDAMN.

I had a lot of fun playing this game last month and I'm so glad that you also loved it! It was a really fun experience and I'm here for it

I'll never understand why they didn't make the camera zoom out in this game's co-op, or in the best case scenario, MAKE IT SPLITSCREEN. Oh, and they had the fucking gall to sell this budget game for full price. Why the hell would anyone buy this over Mario or Spider-Man?

i was not expecting this so soon but i’m here for it

Honestly I think the reason I didn't enjoy superstars as much as mania was because of the music. I think I am the rare person who only plays sonic games just to listen to the music in the levels and if there are only a few levels with good music I have trouble enjoying them as much. I also felt like the game didn't really learn much from mania. I just don't like boring slow down gimmick sections that grind the pace to a hault. So its mostly just how I feel and my opinion on things. I just hope the foundation here is improved on and not abandoned.

Let's gooo!!! I did not expect the Superstars review this soon, i was just thinking abt it earlier and damn lol. You articulated my exact thoughts really well and found out things i didn't know before like the Knuckles wall jump, im definitely going back to Superstars, the game is so fun My only hope is for Evening Star to finally get to make the Sonic game they wanted to make, i heard Izuka was planning to get Evening star for the project, but that did not get thru because of creative decisions, Izuka wanted to focus on the old classic stuff while Evening Star wanted to improve upon the formula, which is what Classic Sonic needs in order to rise back to the top among all other 2.5D games out there, including Mania

Sort of disagree with your opinion implying that Sonic games-or any game- needs to do something new or groundbreaking to be a great title. There have been games that stick to their guns and thrive from it, and I don't necessarily think you have to change the core gameplay too much for it to be engaging or appeal to people.

Pariah got me into time attacking sonic games. Mania’s time attack is amazing, and I love time attacking SA2

Trip's rail grinding animation when she's in her super form. That is all.

I hope this video helps the game's reputation

I can't tell you how happy I was to see this video pop up for me. Up until I actually played Superstars for myself I just had no idea what to think of it. Especially when I was going out of my way to keep from looking too far into the discussion of the game, so I continuously saw the grab bag of general opinions around the game and came in with an incredibly cautious optimism. Honestly, seeing the title for your first playthrough really kept me on the track of likely loving the game when I actually got it. The steam Golden Week sale came by, got it then, and gosh I was not disappointed in the slightest. I'm really glad that at this point you've altered how I play a Sonic game, especially classic Sonic games. That really played into just how much I enjoyed playing the game. Taking note of any neat potential time saves and trying to go for them and all that. Yeah the bosses stunk, especially since I wasn't going out of my way to cheese them with the emerald powers like I'd do on subsequent playthroughs, but it was overall an experience I'm glad I had. I just kept going back to it over and over and over, that gameplay loop just caught me so hard just like any other good 2D Sonic game would do for me. I'm also glad I wasn't alone in really enjoying Trip's campaign. Just having that be the intro to playing as her just had me experiment a whole lot and I just had a good time with those harder levels. Given all the stuff I've heard of it between others and you, it gets me all the more curious to play Unleashed's DLC Adventure packs someday. I really do get the feeling I'll find those just as fun as you do. But yeah, overall, good video. Felt really vindicating. I hope you have yourself a real fine day.

Weird, I thought the art and presentation was the best part of this game

The game isn’t ugly

YESSSS, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!!

I thought i was missing something because I really enjoyed this game while seemingly everyone was hating on it.

We are so close to the end, it will be interesting to see this channel after this series finishes, but I think that it's gonna be cool

People should really stop comparing Superstars to Mania. Mania was just an omage to the classic Sonic formula while Superstars was doing it's own thing with the 2.5d gameplay and the chaos emerald abilities, for Superstars was trying to be it's own thing.

I just recently got sonic superstars and I got to say people make it sound like it's the worst game ever, I think it goes right up there with the original classics. I think Arzest deserves another chance at 2d classic game because the level design is pretty good imo. I don't think the game looks bad at all and I actually think it looks good. I'm fighting the final boss and I'll try time attack after that because you inspired me.

This game is ok

great review

My take on Superstars is that it's great in regards to the main story mode because really, it does get everything that makes classic Sonic games really well and alot of the new things they added are pretty cool additions. It's really just the final bosses and the second half of Trip Mode (at least from my experience) that suck. But though I understand alot of the issues and agree to some extent, Superstars is rather overhated because by no means it is "Sonic 4 Episode 3". That just tells me not enough people actually played Sonic 4 and only use the surface level similarities (2D Sonic games with 3D graphics that have Jun Senoue involved in the music) they gathered from it's reputation and project them onto why they didn't enjoy Superstars.

I am really happy Superstars appealed to what you look for in a Sonic game. To me Superstars is good. Not outstanding but not a dumpster fire. I feel like people saying either are being a bit hyperbolic. I will say I can understand why people would have it over Mania but I feel like the discourse between the two mostly comes down to how original Superstars is compared to Mania. I will not deny that Mania takes a lot from the classics, we have to wait till Flying Battery before the Act 1 of a returning zone isn't just a better looking Act 1 and 2 of a previous game but I do think for the most part Mania's level design and gimmicks trump Superstars. Superstars also does have its merits as well actually having new zones all with their own ideas (not always *good* ideas but new ones) plus with most of the characters it feels like there's stuff for everyone instead of the zones feeling very Sonic centric like in Mania. The game still has its shortcomings. Even with 2 players it feels much worse, the bosses are...the bosses and I just don't think the Emerald powers were executed that well but overall, Superstars is a fun time that I might come back to every now and again. I might even practice the time attack.

Sonic Superstars? That's a weird way to call Sonic Forces. Edit:WHAT DO YOU MEAN KNUCKLES CAN WALL JUMP? To be real for a second,I wasn't really a huge fan of Superstars when I first played it.I felt the level design was too much like a generic platformer and less like Sonic, and it didn't have spark Mania had. Although I did take a bit of a liking to Time Attacking the levels,it makes these levels that are designed more like a traditional blocky platformer into something a bit more like Sonic

I really liked sonic superstars art style. My only issue was the backgrounds. I prefer its art to mania actually

Finally the definitive Sonic Superstars review. After all the trash reviews

I've had a fun time going through this game and mastering its learning curve, but I don't play it as much as I ideally would. Why? Because the Xbox version has severe input lag, and it's never been patched. It's almost a deal breaker for me

I said this before, I genuinely like Sonic Superstars, the only flukes in my opinion, are the inconsistent soundtrack, which can be fixed by modding. And the Bosses, which is something everyone can agree on. Trip is a welcome addition to the Sonic cast and I want her to be in the modern cast so badly. I'd still play the Final Fang Fight over the entirety of Sonic Advance 2. Lmao

The game itself doesn't seem terrible, but the biggest crime is charging $60USD for it.

Broke: "We got this game instead of Mania 2!" Woke: "We got this game AND Penny's Big Breakaway. Two Cakes!"

Hey pariah, i thought about it, and i whould really like you to make a video about Wario Land 4 and all of the games that took ispiration from it. You are gonna love those games

I am one of the people who like called the game trash because I played it in multiplayer. I think many others share this experience where because the multiplayer is bad and it is the "advertised mode of play" many players have such a bad taste for it in their mouths that they don't want to return to it. But seeing you liking it is eye opening, I don't think I will return to this game as I am not a "Time Attack" kinda guy, I prefer to just beat games and move on, seeing that this game does have this great plus is nice. That is something I always find nice about your videos, you just bring your opinion across and while you have very simple editing, I find your ability of speech alone to be enough to keep me listening, which is something I don't give every KZfaqr. Plus I am also a Pikmin fan, so seeing you talk on Pikmin is also great. P.S.: One thing you mentioned is how you are perplexed on why many Sonic fans love american sonic, I think it is because of those American Cartoons that did have passion, and because parts of American Sonic have passion, they think American Sonic as a whole has passion. Or maybe I just have it wrong since I wasn't alive during that time. But that is my best guess.

My friends and i had a blast playing this game, because it was hilarious how irredeemably hectic and broken it was. So much fun, just not in the way they intended.

I gotta be real. I like this game. It's no Mania but it still hits the gameplay itch for me. I was absolutely ready to write it off due to Arzest's reputation. Genuinely baffling boss design though.

Are you going to do a freedom planet 2 review , video or something, because you haven't talked about this amazing game yet and it would be kinda nice.

Good to know someone else likes Trip's campaign. I feel like people simply have skill issue and lack of patience. If you die because of a bottomless pit, just learn how to avoid it. I think it helps that Superstars doesn't have a life system so you're never punished too harshly for death. Personally, I prefer Superstars to Mania, but not over 3&K. You complained that Superstars lacks momentum segments like in Mania, but I'd actually say it's a good thing. Mania was so obsessed with letting Sonic roll through the stages that it made the game feel quite automated. I swear that 50% of the time the game was playing itself. If people call Forces "boost to win", I'd say Mania is "roll to win" (not as often as Forces, but still quite noticable). Superstars doesn't do that as often as Mania, which made it more fun for me. There's less momentum stuff, but the trade-off is that you get more platforming focused levels, while not sacrificing speed for skill players.

Wow, that Knuckles wall jump looks really fluid and fun, and I've never seen anyone mention it before. Kinda hoping that it just becomes a default part of his moveset in fan games from now on - similar to what happened with the drop dash.

Honestly this is a pretty great review, such an underrated game

You didn’t just skip forces did you ?

I didn’t get Frontiers at launch cause I didn’t think it looked great and your videos convinced me to give it a chance and I adored it and it looks like the same thing is happening with Superstars

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Gonna be looking forward for Knuckles to get a Superstars-setting in Forever/Absolute/Air now. Also, Trip is a character I feel would be a natural choice for a sidekick for Knuckles! Lone survivor of an ancient race, connected to ruins and the emeralds/Dragon egg(hello Sonic 3 manual-lore!) Plus- I have felt some time now that It would be logical for Knuckles to have some sort of guardian apprentice, it would instantly solve the "why isn't he watching the Master Emerald" question. His apprentice is filling in!

I noticed what I consider to be a small inconsistency in your reasoning. For Mania you complained that it doesn't do enough new things. That probably wasn't the intention anyway, but it's still justified to think like that, I think. However, here you said that fatigue with 2D games has set in, so they should have done something new. So Mania should have been different even though everyone was fine with it, but Superstars should have been different because that's what people want. It both makes sense in a way, but it's contradictory. At least I think that's what you meant. Anyway, I was surprised when you said you love this game, but it was a cool twist, I think. I also sometimes do time attack, although I lose interest rather quickly. So maybe I will buy this game after having watched this. But the run you showed at the end looked fairly unremarkable to me. Maybe it's more fun to play than to watch.

Sonic Superstars is so underrated…. for years Sonic fans complained about Green Hill and Chemical Plant levels and it being the same style, then a Sonic game finally comes along with different level designs, 2.5D, they make the chaos emeralds give u awesome special powers, yet folks 💩 on it. I thought Sonic Superstars was amazing, Only three critiques, 1 the OST is just a low 7/10 rather than its 9.5/10, 2 when playing co op the 2nd player doesn’t get much freedom cuz when u are off screen it picks u up and rubber bands u to the screen something Sonic 2 & 3/Knuckles did a lot better, but the biggest critique is number 3 the awkward limit time only costumes for cel shading skins etc. They should just make everything available on the store instead of getting folks to make a Kroger account. Despite those critiques Sonic Superstars is a lot of fun

I don't think there's enough substance for a Mania/Superstars story video, but I'd be really surprised if you could manage to tie in the first three game's canon and what the latter connect to.

I love time attacking Sonic games, but Sonic Superstars and Sonic CD made me love scavenger hunts via 2 specific achievements. One for finding the gold/special badnik in every level, the other for getting every badnik generator and Metal Sonic hologram in one save...which oddly is only for the unlisted version of CD on steam. Really just any incentive to replay levels exploring every route is nice.

I honestly haven't finished this game, got the emeralds, got to the final bosses but they're such a SLOG to play that i quitted and never played again because i had to do those awful long ass boss battles again I did had fun with it at some point, but it felt like: Stages :) and then Boss :( The music is very divisive, you have pretty great tunes and then you have what every people have been saying lately about Jun's Sonic 1 drums being everywhere... It's wild

*you are correct*

Honestly, if someone made a mod which removed the bosses I would come back to this game and enjoy it. But after a frustrating level was followed by a boss I kinda hated I had to put it down. Decent game, just not one I feel like beating 100%.

You're right about wonder. I find new ds more fun About the bosses, they should just make it into a competition. First one to get 8 hits kills it, either that or make it a requirement for everyone to get the 8 hits to kill it. That second one could be tedious, so make it the first one to get 8. The emerald powers are fun. Not amazing but fun. Water is really versatile. Frontiers and superstars have the reset button for time attack I agree it's a great system.

Are you gonna make one video for Sonic Mania and Forces' story, or will it be two?

I'm willing to acknowledge the flaws of this game and I do agree with you on most parts but I always thought it was REALLY visually pretty when playing through it. Using the walking animations in midair looks _really_ weird in 3D but other than that the characters are animated really well and the environments look incredible and there was rarely, if ever, a moment where Sonic, Miles, Knuckles, Amy, or Trip blended into the background.

These thumbnails are getting kinda weird. Like they still look good but they’re not like the main box art art anymore like the other videos in this series.

Hell yeah. This games great

I agree with you on your opinions on Superstars. Even the time attacking part. I just can’t agree with you 100% as I haven’t put as much as you.

to me i enjoyed sonic superstars but that is before Trip's mode. Because it really does control nice even more than Sonic Mania to me because the handling of the controls are more flexible. I can see someone's first game being Sonic Superstars, then cry when they try to beat Trip's mode. And the final boss.

Damn, never knew they even give knuckles a wall jump. Very surprising

14:35 for Pariah’s real feelings about Sonic Superstars

When I play Superstars, I tend to quit the level and move to the next one once I get to the bosses.

I like Super Stars. Not my favorite game, but I think it’s pretty dam good.

The biggest sin of this game (other than the horrible bosses) is that you can't have an idle companion of any kind following you like in the classic series. Like, it would've been at the very least ok if they'd give Sonic the option to have Tails follow you like the classics. For a game with the title "superstars" it really makes you feel very alone. If anyone has a mod for this, please let me know, this game really needs this.

Honestly my favorite zone in this entire game is Pinball Carnival! I love the aesthetics with a Carnival full of bounce balls, roller coasters, and Fire! I have never seen Fire in a carnival level. There are so many ways to get through the level. My least favorite or probably the one that I’m not really looking forward to playing on my next playthrough is the Water stage. While I love the underwater section, the ground sections just don’t really do it for me. I liked that water stage in Sonic Rush more than this one. Heck even the water stages in the advanced zones felt more satisfying to play through than this one. Every other stage was solid!

Thank you for defending sonic superstars. I also that the game was wonderful. In my opinion this is mania 2

Between this review and your mania/superstars stream, I now see what people mean about not watching reviewers to keep their opinion un-influenced. I don't have a switch and I refuse to financially support a game with denuvo; I could only watch reviews about this game and frontiers, which made me view these games in such a sour light that I failed to realize that reviewers seldom touched upon the level design of the former. Because of this, I will be sticking to your story videos for a while. BTW, will there be a story video for this game?

i think superstars did a fair amount of things to separate it from the other games classic, fangames or other ips, specially in the game design department, to start we have to adress the high level of verticality within this game, it even rivlas cd, but in a way that never feels flow breaking or like climbing a mountain, it feels natural, you are always going up,down,right,left, also another thing that sets this game apart from others are the new "common assets" wich are assets you will find across any level such as springs, monitors, speed boosters, etc., in this game they actually added a fair amount of them that i would love to see in future entries and become as iconic as the springs and monitors, the objects i am referring to are the blocky curved ramps, the bubble slingsot thing, the booster rings, the rainbow parts that give you MONEY and those countdown loops that are a pretty cool visual spectacle, i may be forgetting some but yeah i think this game made a good effort in actually understanding its inspirations and evolving them, another thing to note is the animation department is amazing in my opinion, and i would say that character animation RIVALS super mario wonder, and also, removing the air drag looks like a deliberate decision since the levels in this game are very open and some things that they did with its level design wouldnt have been possible with your average sonic physics, and i would consider that an improvement of the classic physics, if you read this, thanks for taking your time and have a good one :D

It would be amazing if Yuji Naka got his turn to make a comeback Sonic game. It will never happen for obvious reasons, but it would be awesome.

I’ll never get my fix on 2d sonic games fan made or official, I snort them up every single time

I think that a reason I thought that superstars was kinda mid to me was cuz levels like sand sanctuary and egg fortress that where just superblocky to where it’s just a standard platformer and not sonic anymore

Trip jump is from Vector in Knuckles Chaotics

Finally! Superstars is here!

I am not shocked that you appreciated the excellent things this game brings to the table 😊

This. Video made me wanna play superstars time attack 😊

Knuckles having a wall jump is crazy… this is a great not as broken alternative to his spindashing up walls in advance 3

Superstars is so underrated

Ahh man this game is underrated

I never knew about Knuckles’ wall jump. That’s legitimately really cool.

Love this game. Ohshima in interviews for Superstars would talk about how he wanted to bring back the "pinball action" quality of Classic Sonic, and this game felt very akin to the more workshop/gimmick-focused speed design of CD, which he directed. And originality problems aside, I think Superstars makes for an excellent counterpart to Whitehead/Mania's focus on constant momentum and slopes for Classic Sonic gameplay. Really love how winding some of the ways to speedrun were that didn't always rely on "just roll into a slope to go fast" or "just stay on the top path," especially in the character-exclusive acts and entire zones like Sky Temple.

I really enjoy this game and especially the time attack. I actually am around 4th worldwide for the first level as Amy on PS5.

Gonna have to do a playthrough of this game again with knuckles. Overall I like this game but some of the bosses and later stages are not the greatest. That trip boss especially was a nightmare to beat.

Christian Whitehead said on the subject of Superstars that the Sonic physics from Mania were fully translated to the 3D environment that's in Superstars, meaning that these are in fact Mania physics. So I'm pretty sure those differences you mentioned ARE intentional changes, especially the cap on badnik bouncing, given that everything else is accurate and those things aren't what you'd expect might change accidentally from such a translation. I'd guess the bounce was capped so as not to break these levels and maybe also to account for multiplayer. And as for the decreased air drag if it's really a thing, I guess maybe they thought it would make the game more fun and faster to play and overall just be an improvement? I mean Sonic fans certainly seem to hate air drag for some reason and say less is better, so it's certainly possible.

my only complaint about time attack is I can't play as my beloved rabbit sonic :

18:41 Excuse me, WHAT?! I've been playing this game for months and didn't knew Knuckles could do that!

I love Superstars too. I'd actually put it as my 3rd fav classic sonic game not countin Advance 1. I always felt Knuckles seemed off when he jumped off walls so it was a lil cumbersome to get used to at 1st but I DIDN'T KNOW U COULD DO ALLAT WIT HIM! I'm not too bothered by the bosses. They're mostly only troublesome the 1st time but once u know wut to do they're fine jus not somethin u'd think was made for a sonic game & that can lead to some incongruity dealin wit a 'New Super Mario Bros.' boss in a sonic game but it's fine. I didn't even have trouble wit the Supersonic boss fight & quite liked it(beat it on 1st try lol). There's also the fact that YE as u said u don't gotta deal wit em if u jus go on Time Attack mode & that makes it infinitely more fun afterwards so ye I adored this game & I beat the entire thing on launch. I hope they do a Superstars plus that'll get updates to fix/add some stuff cus that'd make it wonderful. When I tried some Time attack on it for the 1st time I knew u'd love it lol edit: I wanna add I'm not a fan of how Amy is here in comparison to Adv 1 in terms of gameplay but the story stuff makes up for it.