Something I think I forgot to mention is that I feel like this game is worth trying for casual Sonic/platformer fans when it drops to $20-30. It’s just a dissapointing experience for $60 on release.

Let's just thank sega for releasing a physical so you can get your money back, if it was digital only kiss that 60 bucks goodbye

I have to agree I’m pretty disappointed with it after spending $60. The first 2 zones are pretty good but then things fall apart with levels that go on for too long with boring set pieces and level design. Bosses also take too long to defeat with 90% of the fights waiting and dodging for an opening. Felt like a slog to finish

"Why not make another Mania?" Funny you should ask that. The Mania Team turned down working on this project cause they and Sonic Team couldn't see eye to eye on where the project was headed. Fancy that...

What you described with the boss battles tells me exactly what the game is like because that is the exact opposite of how bosses work in classic 2d sonic games. In the og games, if you are skilled enough you can rush the boss by bouncing off Robotniks head repeatedly, it is actually really fun to do on repeat playthroughs.

I spent 8 hours on the final fight in sekiro and i was on the edge of my seat with excitement the whole time. I spent 10 minutes on a boss in sonic superstars and had an existential crisis about my limited time on this earth.

"The camera is really zoomed in" is the BIGGEST turnoff ever in the history of ever when it comes to these games. I understand it used to be a hardware limitation, but damn, it's 2023! Why is the camera zoomed in still? You wanna make a game where you "gotta go fast" but can't see what's in front of you, c'mon...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Pete. This has moved from my "wait until it's heavily discounted" list to "maybe check it out from my local library"

Fully agree. For £20 it would have been fair, but £60! I feel very ripped off. It's such a shame too. With a bit more polish in the animations, a little tweaking to the the physics (I have no idea why they nerfed the spindash and Knuckles' glide), and a bit more care put into cohesiveness like level transitions and the Act structure, this could have quite easily been a lot better. Glad to hear it looks quite bad on PS5 too. It looks very blurry and aliased on Switch and I was afraid I was missing out on a vast improvement on PlayStation.

Appreciate the insight! I, too, am a huge Sonic fan (first game I ever played 25 years ago was OG Sonic on the Genesis, and I've played the majority of the franchise), and I was genuinely excited about this release. Having seen stuff on it now though, I'll definitely wait for a deep discount before snagging it. Especially with how stacked 2023 has been for game releases, that $60 can go to something more worthwhile.

Finally, someone actually says exactly what I was feeling while playing the game. I felt like I was alone when I was playing and everyone was raving about Superstars and as I was playing I was just disappointed. I got about 80% done with the game then I decided to delete it off my console because I can't find myself to finish the game due to it not being fun, and it just frustrating to play. I'm just so disappointed with this release and I guess I'm also disappointed with myself for being hopeful that this might be a good title, but alas this is Sega we are talking about. They should have just brought the Sonic Mania team to make another Classic Sonic Title and it would have been WAY better than this garbage we got.

What a shame. The spark of Sonic Team has been absent for many many years. They are a poor quality developer that have been making poor quality games for longer than i care to keep track of. SEGA management not overruling Sonic Team after Mania's success and just handing the keys to Whitehead's team baffles me to this day.

Sonic Frontiers is the best Sonic game since Generations. Hope they focus on that kind of game moving forward.

Great game to play with your kids. Not “zoomed in” when you play multiplayer. Love it.

Nearly 25 years of watching PeteDorr, i don't think i've ever seen him more disappointed in a video game before. I ended up buying it at launch day just because im a collector and SOnic is my favorite Franchise of all time, however, you're right, Pete! It should've been priced at $30. Last time i get a Sonic game at release again.

Everything you felt with the game is 100% what I felt. Superstars is not a good game. Should've been a $30 release at the most. Absolutely the worst Sonic game I've ever played in a long time, and this is coming from a guy that had a somewhat decent time with Sonic '06. I absolutely adore all the 2D Sonic genesis games, and Sonic Mania is one of my favorite games of all time, but Superstars failed to recapture the magic on so many levels. All the Metacritic positivity is coming from bots and Sonic fanboys trying inflate the score to combat Super Mario Wonder. Hella childish IMO.

Sega made a tragic mistake when they didn't keep the Sonic Mania team onboard. Their new game, Penny's Big Breakaway, looks really great though. I'm looking forward to that. -Matt

Just beat the game about half an hour ago. The gameplay is good even if the different physics compared to 2/3&K/CD/Mania take some getting used to, the level design is mostly pretty solid, and the presentation is lovely with some gorgeous visuals, level themes, and music (though the latter lacks memorability) Would be a solid 7.5/10 game if the bosses weren't total garbage most of the time. That really bogs it down to being just okay. Definitely confirms my suspicions that it's certainly not worth the $60 they're asking for (very lucky/thankful to have been gifted the game instead).

SEGA need to treat Sonic the same way Activision treat Crash Bandicoot. Crash Team Rumble and Crash Team Rumble Nitro Fueled released at a lower price but still offered tons of content.

Wow, guess I dropped in on the stream at the exact moment before you started to not feel the sunshine, cause I thought you were having a great time. :p

Been watching you for years Pete and I agree that you are one of the biggest fans of Sonic out there. If your upset at it then it really means something. On that note what Sonic games do you recommend?

I thought this game looked really good, but I wasn’t going to pay $60 for it. To me this is a Black Friday purchase. Sonic frontiers saw a good discount last year so I’d imagine this will go on sale then for $35-40. After hearing your thoughts I will probably wait till it hits $30 or less. I have quite the backlog to get through anyways

The game isn't perfect. It definitely has its issues, but I don't know if its THAT bad. It's definitely geared toward a younger audience. My biggest gripe is the lack of content, this is a 4 hour game and they really had the balls to charge $60 at release, absolutely NOT worth it at that price. It'll be $20 before you know it (which is what they should have charged). Multiplayer is complete garbage and worthless, especially with no one playing. Its very evident Sega is on its high horse again with Sonic and they're definitely skimping on development resources/timelines. This game could have used another six months to a year to bake in the oven and added a bunch more content, but nope they had to shove this out for the holidays.

Regardless of whether Sega is embarrassed or not, I'M embarrassed for having _bought_ it at that price. -_- I impulse-bought this game solely due to peer-pressure-based fomo cuz my friends around me were buying it too. Now I wish i'd just pirated the Switch version initially instead. Especially after seeing that the Co-op has no online. >_> Unless some drastic miracle occurs, I am NOT buying the next 2D Sonic game. Sega's not swindling me again. High seas from hereon out.

Not a cash grab! Just a great game made for older fans. But being an old like game with up graded graphics I do agree that asking for $60 bucks for the game os way too much! Should be $40 dollars.

I balked at the 60$ price..and glad I did now.

Clicked this vid got a sonic superstars ad before it even played😂

Like you I’m also a hardcore Sonic fan, have been since the first game on Genesis. I also collect all the action figures, comics and DVD/Bluray releases. I also tend to buy every Sonic game that’s released and there’s only been a handful I didn’t care for but I still play them. Superstars however, I guess I’m on the other side cause I absolutely love it. Sure there are a few things here and there that bother me, but that’s pretty much any game for me, not just Sonic. My only real gripes with this one are some of the boss fights and their length, the price, and that’s really it for me. Other than that I’ve been playing and enjoying it everyday since I got my copy.

crazy how frontiers has all the free updates , what did you think of update 3?

I was pretty excited about this game until I saw the price point. So I figured I would check out some reviews and maybe wait for it to go on sale. I still might do that, but after watching this I think it would have to be a used copy for $20 or less lol

100% agree. I midly enjoyed the first few stages enough, but the second you start Press Factory, the game gets 100x worse and unenjoyable. Also glad to see everyone agree that the bosses are horrible. Constantly having to retry the final boss made me actually exhausted and sleepy, something that has never happened before when playing a video game lol. Also this game exists only because they couldn't make Mania 2. I've heard rumors of how they screwed over the Mania devs, but I'm not entirely sure.

This game DEFINITELY drove Me to the point of not wanting to buy another Sonic Game ever again. What was the point of them making Me collect the chaos emeralds when they gatekeep the final boss behind some stupid character's story???? I thought this was classic sonic game not fucking Sonic adventure. I ended up spoiling Myself because I was getting sick of the sodding boss fights (And putting up with the EXTREMELY SLOW super trip form.) only to find out it's just some stupid fat purple dragon with no backstory. Thanks alot Sega. The fact that You made Me pay 60 dollars for this alone makes Me hate sonic now.

I haven't played it, but I pretty immediately decided I'd wait for the game to hit the bargain bin when the 60$ tag was revealed despite being a Sonic fan. Sonic games (both 2D and 3D) have been less than MSRP for a long time, presumably in relation to content-to-cost considerations. With Frontiers, I can see why they'd go for a higher price, but Superstars' content on its face and the prior precedent of the price of 2D entries at a third of what they're charging completely pushed me out of the early purchase camp. Super Mario Wonder being announced sealed the deal, as 2D Mario games tend to have more content in about 2 Worlds than a 2D Sonic game has in its entire run time. Going from 8 to 12 Zones isn't enough to remotely offset that reality or justify what they're asking for. Maybe I'll grab it one day, but now? No thanks.

"There's something up with this game." Yeah, Arzest made it.

Sorry to hear about your experience with Sonic Superstars, Pete, but I'm loving the Halloween décor!

I agree with everything you said! I had the same thoughts, the chaos emerald stages are so bad!! I feel like Donkey Kong swinging on vines... Sega has F'ed up so much, I hope they get bought out soon and Sonic can be restored to his greatness.

Thanks for this, which of the previous Sonic's are recommended? I'm well out of touch

If you played Sonic Superstars, what did you think?

Thanks Pete, was gonna get this on steam but they yet again decided to use Denuvo which i don't support. So opted out and after hearing your thoughts on the game I'm glad i did. I loved Mania and that will last me another 10 years.

I work in a game store, I played it at PAX early on both the ps5 and switch oled, I had a pretty reasonable time playing those demos with the water ability being the only extra power you can use. I picked up the game on switch and played it in the comfort of my home. Played it for 45 minutes, about 7-10 stages and looked at the battle mode and felt so used. I didn't know how to describe it at the time, other than thinking that they made this game with Lego money, very quickly. And that it was wasting my time. The nail in the coffin was the 20 seconds I spent in whatever tf that battle mode was. I knew EXACTLY the kind of game I was playing when I saw those literal 20 seconds before I shut the whole game off and put it back in my bag ready to return. After around 10 main story stages, I found that I hadn't actualy used any of the powers from the gems in ways I thought i'd be able to use them. The water one in the demo gave me the idea that the game may be asking me to slow down and explore more and thiknk outside the box to find secret areas to break up the speed segments. This just.. wasn't the case? They're entirely optional power ups from what I saw, to the point that I just didnt use them because I forgot I had access, and that didn't impede my level progress?? Whats the point then?? I looooooooove so many aspects of the Sonic franchise. I've been a fan and also a collector of Sonic things for 20 years, and much like Pete, I haven't been this let down by a Sonic game in years. Entirely a quick holiday sales cash grab with little thought and care put in to the extra side parts of the game, let alone the base story mode. A shame really

I appreciate you sharing your opinion, which is different from a lot of the fanbase. There's been a lot of toxic positivity within the Sonic fanbase as of late. Frontiers was what I'd call a genuine embarrassment but the fanbase ate it up and attacked anyone who dared to criticize it. That all said, a few of your points seem weird to me. Admittedly, I haven't played the game yet (gonna wait till Black Friday at least) but your complaint about the camera being too zoomed in is very odd to me. All the footage I've seen, including reviews, shows a more zoomed out camera than previous 2D Sonic games. I also don't see the short length being an issue. I do agree that the game is way too expensive. It should've been $30 at most. Still, worse Sonic game since Ryse of Lyric? Frontiers was a complete shitshow to me. I can't imagine Superstars being worse. Also, gotta bring up how you defended the Godzilla PS4 game. Not saying that completely devalues your opinions here but you've defended some real hot garbage in the past so I'm a little confused why THIS is the game to really frustrate you. It looks like a pretty harmless, but overpriced game. The lack of new innovations and short length aren't an issue at all. If anything, the Sonic franchise is full of games that are TOO experimental and too padding for their own good. Still, it's nice to see an opinion that isn't "This game is peak and anyone that as an issue with it isn't a true Sonic fan!". 👍

It should've been $40

I just finished watching your playthrough of the main story. This game had the involvement of Naoto Oshima, who directed Sonic CD. So I can understand the reservations with the level design if people were expecting something simplistic like Sonic 2. It's closer to CD in a lot of ways than the Genesis games. The battle mode is no good, I agree. But that was never the main selling point, it was the local co-op. About the camera, it's supposed to scale Sonic to be pretty close to his size on the Genesis games. The replay value of those games to begin with was learning the levels and routing them to get through faster. The chaos emerald powers aren't necessary because the emeralds themselves have always been optional collectibles in these games. That doesn't make them useless or tacked on, they're an extra like always. The bosses were most likely designed the way they were to avoid cheesing through co-op. But they can still be significantly sped up through use of the emerald powers. It's cohesive, thought out design that takes into account all the features. I'd argue that the price is more about how they rearranged hazards and level design for Trip to make it a Hard Mode. The things they changed are pretty significant and I'd say it's worth it. Not to mention the level design in general makes me really think about how I want to speed through. About Fang, he becomes the final boss of Trip's story. A different boss from the one in the main story entirely. I liked it more.

I've been a Sonic fan my whole life and I can honestly say Sonic Superstars is Mid. Not horrible. Not great. Just mid. I still enjoyed it, yet I still had issues with it. I really wanted another Sonic Mania because that is honestly my favorite game in the entire franchise. But I guess Sega said, "Nah fam, we can do fine without Christian Whitehead." But the reality is no.....they can't. The fact that Iizuka said Pixel art is "outdated" troubles me even more.

I haven't played it yet, but it sounds like I might like it more than you did, Was looking for a simple platformer to play, but I'll find out how it plays when I get to it after I finish other games.

I'm more surprised about above average rating you gave it at the end, 6/10 after all that? I was imagining a 2/10 the way you described all the problems and none of the plus sides.

I really enjoyed playing Superstars, but I do agree the game should've been $40 at most given how quick you can complete the game. Honestly I feel like the odd one out for enjoying the game lol

I’m gonna wait for a steam sale when I buy it

I really thought in the beginning you're trolling lol

Pete, to be honest I was waiting for the price to drop on the game plus I was waiting for your hands on opinion I didn’t pre order it with upcoming Mario (x 2) DragonQuest & Prince Of Persia Switch games when it hits the $20 something price tag I’ll jump on it post 31 day’s of Hallowe’en I’m going to be curious if we see a massive price drop of Gollum proportions on the game if & when then that happens the game will get added to my collection….

I was keeping a far eye on this one, it looked crap to me and everyone was saying how good it was, glad your vid condirmed a lot of my feelings of it. Because i loved Frontiers!

Renting games should be brought up more. If you don't like a game enough to spend full price, rent it for a bit, give it back when you're done, and then rent more games to make up for it.

The game will probably be on sale during Black Friday and that is when I'm going to wait to buy.

Thank you for being honest, bro. I'm a huge Sonic and Sega fan but this is a step backwards

Seems obvious that Sega never put much budget towards a sonic game and why would they. It always sells loads and so they always make money. They are a business so at the end of the day thats all that matters to them

Yu are a real pioneer of the KZfaq retro gaming community pete

I saw on Steam they sent the game without denuvo to reviewers and then after launch they patched it in which made the performance worse. Modern sega are so greedy

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Is A CASH GRAB And Nintendo Should Be EMBARRASSED This Costs $60 (because no 2D platformer no matter which should cost fucking $60) I got Sonic Superstars for 51€ btw. and I love it. I also got Mario Wonder for 55€ and I will love it too!

i wonder what is your thought about frontiers final horizon?

Shocking! My opinions usually line up with yours Pete, but I'm having such a fun time with Superstars. Worth 60$? Absolutely not. Terrible music to boot. but the game itself has been such a blast for me

I'm glad i waited :) I had a feeling this was a 30$ game disguised as a premium release. The multiplayer looked so bland. At least some of the music is good. Might try to get it eventually for sub 20 or so. (or on ps+ extra) Thank Pete !

To think if SEGA just paid Christian White heads team the amount they were asking for, we could have had Sonic Mania 2 right now

Pete can you please do a room tour video? I remember watching the first one around 15 years ago. It would be awesome to get a new one for us subs who have been here since the beginning. Thanks!

I saw the stream and it definitely saved me some money 🤣

It is an okay game but I'd rather have a Sonic Mania 2 than this. The bosses kill off any replayabilty.

I kinda had the same impression looking from the trailers and other gameplay but there was alot of people saying it was decent so I might have tried it but yeah I think it isn't the greatest looking sonic or playing for that matter

You can use the Chaos emerald powers to hit the bosses when your not suppose to be able to hit ‘em

I thought it looked cool,looked ok. But i knew i wasnt buying it for 60 when.mario wonder is coming out. Ill maybe...maybe buy it later used or when its 20$

I should say I never expected it to beat sonic mania level so maybe my expectations were more or less where I expected really which made me enjoy it more.

The zoomed in camera is what caused me to put the game on pause, I've played a lot of bad platformers and a zoomed in camera in a 2D platformer is always a nightmare to play, certainly when it's a fast game.

Sonic Maker would be awesome.

Wow. I thought for sure you were going to say it was a joke and that you loved it. I've been keeping an eye on it and watching a lot of gameplay from it. I've felt that it looked kind of generic. The resolution looks good (on PS5 anyway), but I feel the art style is bland. I got Sonic 4 vibes. I'll pick it up eventually, when it goes on a deep sale.

I really appreciate your earnest thoughts, Pete, but boy is it disappointing to hear. I’m such a Sonic fan, and this almost struck me as a Mania follow-up from the most recent footage I saw, but I respect your tastes highly and definitely feel far more reserved. It’s too bad rentals aren’t available in my neck of the woods-I sort of want to ‘try before I buy’ now

I agree with you on a few points. It's definitely overpriced, should have been about half what they're selling it for. I hate the huge i-frames on bosses and some of the monetisation is really shitty (paying an extra £12 to get the digital deluxe stuff cause its not included in the physical edition) but I've gotta disagree with your overall impression. It's a really fun wee game with fun stage gimmicks and the multiple characters give it some good replay ability. Definitely more positives than negatives here. I'd recommend folk just wait til the price drops and you'll have a good time.

Completely agree with you pete. Wish you talked spoilers that second final boss was absolutely horrible

My rule is that any game in my collection that doesn't score at least a 7 in my opinion gets sold, so that someone else who'll enjoy it can have it instead.

The art direction is incredible.

I can see why Pete would pay full MSRP but we need to be more hesitant these days.

As much as I disagree with you it's on sale now for just 35$

I was so hyped and im so so glad this game leaked early otherwise i would have had some of the biggest buyers remorse of my life. AND THE MUSIC 💀 Why is Jun such a hack?

Wow at the decos, my gawd

I bought it yesterday for series x and I'm really enjoying it

I thought the Sonic 4 comparisons were surface level at first but this game genuinely feels like it was meant to be a far cheaper game and they just tried to make it come off as a actual big release when it just isn't.

Man... this game and Mario Wonder really shit the bed with bosses this time around...

Hopefully this game goes down in price for Black Friday or Christmas sales, definitely not worth full game price.

From what I've seen in the trailers they SERIOUSLY STILL CANNOT let the wisps power go can they? those chaos emerald powers is just the WISPS powers from colors AGAIN. So dumb. how much longer are they going to keep those stupid power ups around?

The game looks beautiful at least. Definitely a game I will wait for a big sale

No, he's right. This is just Sonic 4 part 3 with a new coat of paint and Wisp powers exchanged for Chaos Emerald power. Not worth $60 and I bought it (and Frontiers just in case you were asking). This doesn't come close to Sonic 1, 2 or 3

As someone whos has followed you for over a decade, I defer to you for any real opinions around sonic.

I feel this coming out before Mario wonder is key for sega putting this thing out

I started by not liking the game as much because I kept focusing on the negatives, but once I let that go tbh the game is very fun Its far from perfect but its classic sonic at its core, and good level layouts Level concepts/design and music arrangements could 100% be better though along with the graphics For sure not worth 60, probably 30-40 at most. It is still a very good game, and with proper budget I have faith on a better sequel

thanks for the heads up

Sounds like what you'd get if you asked an AI to make it. As for reviews, I just don't trust them as money talks right.?

Weird, I am about halfway through this game and liking it a lot. Also playing on PS5. I havent watched the video yet lol full disclosure

Seems like the ubisoft strategy of releasing for 60 bucks. Get the mega fans and suckered to buy it at full price. Then heavily discount after 2 months.

I canceled my preorder when I started seeing review and glad I did

Duddee just wait till you can get a pre owned copy & return it. Also the library would’ve had it

As soon as I saw the price I decided I wasn't getting it. More expensive than Sonic Frontiers when that released! At least where I live.

I live in Canada it’s $79.99 here.

That's kind of weird how a 'current' gen game is $60 and not the full $70. On top of that the game is short and the levels are not as good. I've heard similar things said about this from other videos. They should totally just do a PS5 port of Sonic Generations at least and a collection of Sonic 1 2 3 4.