Game Informer has revealed that they will be extensively covering the upcoming Sonic Superstars, Sonic’s latest classic style game featuring the returning and familiar cast of Sonic, Tails, Amy , Knuckles and Dr. Eggman alongside the long dormant Fang the Sniper (or should we say, Hunter?) and the brand new, mysterious female antagonist, Trip!
Game Informer spent a couple of days over at Sonic Team’s studio in Burbank, California, where they got to play six of the zones that will be in the game. Because of this, the game will be extensively covered both in their latest magazine issue and on their website throughout the coming month.
Check out the awesome hand-drawn cover from their latest issue below!
The cover was drawn by Mark Hughes, who fans know mostly for his work for the IDW Sonic comics and the recently released physical version of Sonic Origins Plus.
The issue contains a 12-page cover story that will showcase an in-depth look into the game’s new Emerald Powers, new never-before-seen zones, and the return of Sonic’s co-creator, Naoto Ohshima.
Talking with Takashi Iizuka, he reiterates that the team’s first priority was to faithfully recreate the classic physics in Sonic Superstars and the level design.
It really started with recreating those Classic physics and making sure the game had the Classic physics in there. After we got the physics working right, we said, ‘Okay, now we need to work the level design,’ because the level design is very specific, and we needed it to feel like a Classic game from a level design standpoint. After studying the level design, after getting the physics in, and both of those were working together, then we started saying, ‘Okay, now what can we do new and how can we implement that in?
Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka
The Chaos Emeralds are once again collected in the game’s Special Stages, and in Superstars, you have to swing from floating bubbles, that either carry your momentum, send you flying towards the goal or stop you in your tracks. If you enter the Special Stage through a Giant Gold Ring similar to those found in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Mania you can get a Chaos Emerald, but if you enter via a Giant Blue Ring, you can earn medals.
So what was the inspiration for the game’s Emerald Powers? Iizuka explained that it came from the desire to reward players for finding a Chaos Emerald and to make them feel excited about the prospect of finding more and discovering what new power they unlock.
We wanted to say, ‘How can we reward someone for getting just one?’ And if we reward someone for getting just one, that will motivate people to get each individual one and see what they are. So, part of the new ideas and how Emerald Powers started was in that process of trying to get people excited about getting each individual Emerald.
Takashi Iiizuka
As for the powers themselves, Iizuka-san explains that their inspiration came from the Wisps, which debuted in [Sonic Colors](https://sonic-city.net/games/sonic-colors/), where each kind of Wisp had their own game-changing power-up. However, he clarifies that unlike the Wisps in that game, the Emerald Powers are not mandatory to beat the game.
In Colors, you need to use the Wisps in order to get around in the level and complete the game, but we didn’t want that to be a part of the Superstars game. We wanted the Classic Sonic gameplay to still remain true, so when we were looking at the Emerald Powers and the Wisps, we wanted to make sure you could still beat Superstars without having to use any of the powers, which is what we needed to balance during game design.
Takashi Iizuka
Each Emerald Power can be selected with the right stick and operates on a cooldown, with each star post checkpoint replenishing your cooldown meter.
Here is the full list and description of each Emerald Power:
Avatar: Unlocked by collecting the Blue Chaos Emerald.
Avatar has the most visual impact of any of the ideas. It calls on various avatars, you know, other Sonics or other Tails are going to come in and defeat all the enemies when you use it. And it can be used to get yourself out of trouble if you’re about to die, just to get past that enemy to make sure you’re living longer. It’s really one of the more fun Emerald Powers to use.
Takashi Iizuka
Bullet: Unlocked by collecting the Red Chaos Emerald.
Bullet, just as the name is, it’s being able to shoot or project Sonic in midair. When you jump in midair using the Bullet Emerald Power, you can stop and make a decision midair what direction you want to launch yourself into. And then, you can change direction or you can go in a different direction, or continue forward in the direction you want to go in and shoot your character further in that direction. It’s an extremely useful action; it’s probably the most useful action for this kind of game.”
Takashi Iizuka
Water: Unlocked by collecting the Cyan Chaos Emerald.
Water turns the player character into water, and once you’re in that water form, you can swim up waterfalls, or if you land in water, you’ll be able to run around freely in there because you are water along with the water. It does help out not only getting up waterfalls but also when you’re in these underwater areas. One thing to note is there are some levels that don’t have water, so it’s not going to be a really useful power everywhere.
Takashi Iizuka
Ivy: Unlocked by collecting the Green Chaos Emerald.
Just like the name says, when you use the Ivy power, an ivy vine is going to grow out of the ground and start growing upwards. It allows you to get to higher places that maybe you couldn’t get to just by jumping. But what’s really interesting about it is using it in multiplayer mode. You can use the Ivy power to help your cooperative teammates get to the places that you can get to. And by using the Ivy, you can cooperate and get to places together.
Takashi Iizuka
Vision: Unlocked by collecting the Purple Emerald
I really like Vision. It allows you to see the unseeable or see things that you couldn’t see without using the power. When using Vision, you’ll notice that before, where there wasn’t a platform to jump on or rings to get, there is now a platform you can see and land on, and there are rings that you can jump and collect. It’s really great for stage exploration, so even after you’ve gone through the game once, going back and playing again with Vision allows you to see places you didn’t know existed before and find these new areas and locations to get because you’re using the Vision Emerald Power.
Takashi Iizuka
Obviously, if you can’t see it in the first place, you don’t know to use it. It’s kind of making sure people understand how to use the powers. This is something that the team went in and said, ‘You know, we really want to make sure people are aware of the times when they should be using something, especially if it’s like Vision and you can’t see it in the first place.’ So automatically, there will be an indicator that pops up that will tell you, ‘Oh hey, if you use Vision right now, there may be something around here that you can find. This kind of auto indicator will pop up and let you know or give you a good sense of when you should be using some of the Emerald Powers.
Takashi Iizuka
Slow: Unlocked by collecting the Yellow Chaos Emerald
Slow is exactly what it says it is; it’s going to slow down everything on the screen. You enter this slow-motion kind of moment, and because you’re not moving in slow motion, you get to look at things that maybe are moving very fast and get a better sense of the timing of when you want to be reacting to traps, or if a boss is attacking, you can use slow, and you can slow the boss’ attack down and really get more comfortable with how to strategically avoid or attack or action around these things that have been slowed down. It really slows down the game to allow you to play at a pace that’s maybe more comfortable.
Takashi Iizuka
Extra: Unlocked by collecting the White Emerald
All of the characters use the Emerald Powers in the same way, and all of the Emerald Powers react to the characters in the same way, but Extra is different and special in that depending on what character you’re using, Extra allows a different kind of action for those specific characters. Because of this, you can choose what character you’re going to play with, and when you use the Extra power, that power will be unique to that character.
Takashi Iizuka
When you collect the White Emerald, Sonic can use the homing attack. Amy is able to throw her hammer similarly to her Hyper form in Sonic Origins Plus. Knuckles is able to punch, and Tails can create a tornado that will follow the ground and just continue on that path, taking out enemies in the way.
Worth noting that the Extra Power is activated the same way as the others, so if you don’t want to use any of the aforementioned abilities, you’re free to do so.
When you finally collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, you can unlock Super Sonic, Super Tails, Super Knuckles and Super Amy!
What’s going to be a little bit different is usually in the Classic series, you get all seven Chaos Emeralds, and then, when you have a certain amount of rings, and you’re double jumping, you’re automatically transformed into Super Sonic, but we’re changing that up a little bit, and once you get all seven Chaos Emeralds, you can still choose what power you want to be using. You can select from the selection wheel what Emerald Power you want to use at that specific time, not necessarily automatically turning into Super Sonic or Super form.
Takashi Iizuka
That’s it for now, but no doubt more info will be coming out in the following days! So if you don’t want to miss a beat of Sonic Superstars News and Updates, don’t blink, don’t think, just subscribe to Sonic City!
