Pretty harmless but very repetitive and lacking in substance for a young children's game, I can't help but compare it to edutainment-adjacent games I would've had and lament the overall lack of things to do and experience. I think games for 3-5 year olds thrive when they present a lively assortment of settings, sensory experiences and interactivity types, but this is just basic platforming in the same flat-looking kitchen.

The music's pretty good tho, and there's some funky stuff going on with the sound processing for pre-recorded voices. If it's too hi-spec to run on an AtGames, it has to be noteworthy, right?

This was awful wtf

So, Mania's strengths come from being a celebration of Classic Sonic's greatest hits, and then building off that. I had this expectation in my head that Superstars could be similar, but not from standpoint of celebrating Sonic itself, but the people who contribute to it - a new title across two developers with a soundtrack featuring old and new artists across the series. Even if the weak links refused to bring their best game (cough cough), there would be something creatively valuable about the grab-bag nature of the final product. And even if it wasn't complex or cinematic in the way 3K and Mania are, it could still be a nice comfort food game, like the 8-bit titles.

The first four zones of Superstars are good, with only a few hangups. And then Lagoon City hits, and the money runs out HARD. The visuals lose all their post-production VFX and lush topology, leaving a naked 3D tilemap and a ugly blurry skybox behind. The level design drops from that golden balance of rolling hills to fangame-tier boxy rooms with nothing but moving platforms and instant death crushers. The 2.5D loops from Bridge Island disappear for the rest of the game until Frozen Base for some reason. The already-sluggish bosses turn into auto-scrollers, the already-terrible boss theme gets replaced with the most embarrassing try-hard drivel I've heard in my life, level mechanics that were already stolen from other Sonic games start getting re-used in later levels (there are FIVE acts in this game with pinball mechanics), and so on.

And I have a right mind to blame Arzest for this side of the shit, cause everything in this game that feels miserable is a flavor they would've saved for whatever shovelware Nintendo would commission them for. The auto-scrollers, earthquake effects that are visually disconnected from the foreground playfield, the re-using mechanics across zones to pad out time, the random shmup section (i say this out of hyperbole but fr the fantasy zone reference is really cute), a final zone that makes you play the same act twice in reverse - tell me this isn't shit that would pop up in a no-name Yoshi outing. I'm a firm believer Sonic needs to diversify its inspirations if it wants to keep flourishing as a franchise, but all of these ideas feel totally incompatible with the structure, expected length and flow of a Sonic game, let alone one with consistently middling/bad level design. The only thing I can't hold against them, is knowing that even if they had better ideas, Sega-Sammy wouldn't have given them the resources to fully-realize it anyway.

If I can be generous, I'll rapid fire a few things I like:
+The snake that weaves across all of Sand Sanctuary is super cool, def my favorite new stage gimmick
+Emerald powers are a great new concept, they just need to replace the overly-context-sensitive ones. Fire/Timestop/Clones/Vines can stay, Vision/Water can go
+Trip's cute and really fun to play as and I look forward to fans injecting her into a better game

(side note - out of all of Jun's songs, most songs with good melodies are arranged mostly fine here (i like sky temple and press factory 1), and the ones that sound like ass aren't good compositions in the first place, so, my condolences to fan remixers trying and failing to salvage them)

Maybe I would've liked this more if I played it at a different time. I'm working on a vaguely Sonic-styled platformer as I write this, and who's to say that's not making me pickier about what 'belongs' in a game like this. I look at 3K, and I look at the sense of impact and propulsion that goes on in the balancing act of automation and platforming, and I really want to replicate that in a different structural context - so when I play this, and that philosophy is absent, it pisses me off. I could easily see myself replaying this in 2-3 years and coming out with a glowing smile.

But on the other hand, everything I liked here is done equally good in other Sonic games too.

And sixty fucking dollars holy SHIT-

I played 8 on Anniversary Collection as a kid with no real understanding it was a port of an old game, but it had a huge effect on me. Felt so beautiful and brimming with life, I distinctly remember being taken aback when I got to X4-6 in my middle school years and the animation and polish was so stilted by comparison.

Mega Man always strived for the playable shonen experience but they really hit the nail on the head here imo, maybe because it leans into the more eclectic side of the series' vibe. Excellent house-synth soundtrack, great gamefeel, very strong stage and boss designs, you can feasibly beat everyone with a buster - everything '& Bass' wishes it could be. And the best Roll design!

You all know the weakpoints, nobody wants to deal with Wily stage 1 or the capsule, but that's mostly it. I guess the situation also feels underdeveloped, but it's hard to notice through the bad dub. For being last mainline entry for a little over a decade, its setup feels very weekly, like it's just an isolated event that comes and goes. 7's introduction of Bass is really strong, as-is the whole 'I am more than a robot' shtick at the end (with burning Wily castle!!); Duo's place in the story really can't compare, you could remove him and nothing about the conflict would change.

I wish 9 and 10 continued elaborating on this gorgeous 2D artstyle and further innovation of mechanics and incidental quirks instead of regressing to the NES era. Even 11, for as good as its 3D art is, doesn't have the emotional resonance this game has.

You better have something cooking Capcom, 11's been a half-decade old now!

Been playing this off and on when perusing the everdrive, and it's pretty novel. Pac-Man with Fantasy Zone's mechanics sewed in: Collect all the coins in the maze while avoiding enemies. The shop system - and by extension, weapons, - have been brought over from FZ, and the collectibles count towards your cash to spend on them. Killing enemies isn't mandatory to get a board clear, but you're encouraged to with how aggressive they become if you keep letting 'em spawn. On the flipside, item prices still permanently increase each time you invest in them, so if you grab items willy-nilly, you'll price yourself out as the levels get harder. It's that push-pull of 'can I beat this maze without using the Invincibility grab?', which makes it all the more beautiful when you optimize your run to perfection, reap huge cash bonuses, and get to spend like it's your last day on earth.

I think my main grievance with this game is the double-edged sword of having dedicated worlds and levels to clear. The fun of something like Pac-Man or Dig Dug is that there's no pressure from the game to complete everything here - you just gotta do the best you can and see how your scores improve. But Fantasy Zone: The Maze has a traditional 3-stage world structure, featuring locales from FZ1, and that puts on the pressure to see and do everything, which makes the end of a premature run feel sour. You can technically jump ahead to the later levels from the start - not dissimilar to Atari era games like Tempest or Black Widow, - but my brain couldn't muster up the energy to spoil the levels for myself. I'll get there when I get there, y'know.