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"You were certainly on the ball today Captain Ginyu. If you were a dog I would scratch your belly, if you were a cat I would feed you warm milk until you started to purr, but since you are neither of those things I will just congratulate you on a job well done."
"You were certainly on the ball today Captain Ginyu. If you were a dog I would scratch your belly, if you were a cat I would feed you warm milk until you started to purr, but since you are neither of those things I will just congratulate you on a job well done."
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If Mario, then only Bros!
This is another really solid and fun 2D Sonic game with a lot of fun stage gimmicks, fantastic controls, engaging level design, and endless replayability. In my eyes this would be up there with some of the best Sonic games...if not for a few glaring problems.
First off the elephant in the room is the music. I love Sonic music to an obsessive degree so when I heard this game's soundtrack I often found myself very confused and underwhelmed by some of the tracks and inconsistencies with how each track presented itself. One moment you would have a track with live instruments, bright synthesizers, and atmospheric melodies and the next you have a gritty FM imitation larping on classic Sonic's past with repetitive melodies and questionable production quality. This doesn't mean the soundtrack is ALL bad, but it's by far one of the more forgettable soundtracks from Sonic in recent years.
Second while I do love the level design for most of the game some zones especially leaning into the second half of the game are very strange and their gimmicks become a detriment. You will see yourself going from a homage to Sonic 1 with bumpers and flippers to a floaty automated side scroller or a pretty forgettable and flat stage that plays itself in both directions making it not as ripe for replayability as some of the other stages in this game.
Next the bosses. I've seen many people complain about the bosses in this game and I'm mostly inclined to agree with how lengthy they can get, BUT while this is true the game's emerald power gimmick really speeds up a lot of these bosses and helps to make their design shine rather than being a slog. This doesn't save all the bosses the game has to offer and this games bosses can be seen as the worst we've had if you go into the game doing no emerald runs, but playing off the game's gimmick of emerald powers these game's bosses are mediocre at worst.
One of this game's biggest gimmicks is the co-op and multiplayer modes. While I think the multiplayer is fine and mostly inoffensive the co-op can get really cluttered, especially with 3-4 players on screen at once which isn't great for a fast-paced Sonic game like this. 2-players on the other hand seem pretty manageable for the most part which imo should have been what the game should have been balanced around anyway.
This isn't the most in-depth review of the game I can give, but these were mostly my own observations and what I could type in my own time so bare with me, but Sonic Superstars despite it's shortcomings the core of the game is still a really fun classic Sonic game. If you want to try it out Black Friday is right around the corner and I'm sure by that time some patches to fix up some bugs will be around in that time frame anyway.
First off the elephant in the room is the music. I love Sonic music to an obsessive degree so when I heard this game's soundtrack I often found myself very confused and underwhelmed by some of the tracks and inconsistencies with how each track presented itself. One moment you would have a track with live instruments, bright synthesizers, and atmospheric melodies and the next you have a gritty FM imitation larping on classic Sonic's past with repetitive melodies and questionable production quality. This doesn't mean the soundtrack is ALL bad, but it's by far one of the more forgettable soundtracks from Sonic in recent years.
Second while I do love the level design for most of the game some zones especially leaning into the second half of the game are very strange and their gimmicks become a detriment. You will see yourself going from a homage to Sonic 1 with bumpers and flippers to a floaty automated side scroller or a pretty forgettable and flat stage that plays itself in both directions making it not as ripe for replayability as some of the other stages in this game.
Next the bosses. I've seen many people complain about the bosses in this game and I'm mostly inclined to agree with how lengthy they can get, BUT while this is true the game's emerald power gimmick really speeds up a lot of these bosses and helps to make their design shine rather than being a slog. This doesn't save all the bosses the game has to offer and this games bosses can be seen as the worst we've had if you go into the game doing no emerald runs, but playing off the game's gimmick of emerald powers these game's bosses are mediocre at worst.
One of this game's biggest gimmicks is the co-op and multiplayer modes. While I think the multiplayer is fine and mostly inoffensive the co-op can get really cluttered, especially with 3-4 players on screen at once which isn't great for a fast-paced Sonic game like this. 2-players on the other hand seem pretty manageable for the most part which imo should have been what the game should have been balanced around anyway.
This isn't the most in-depth review of the game I can give, but these were mostly my own observations and what I could type in my own time so bare with me, but Sonic Superstars despite it's shortcomings the core of the game is still a really fun classic Sonic game. If you want to try it out Black Friday is right around the corner and I'm sure by that time some patches to fix up some bugs will be around in that time frame anyway.
This review contains spoilers
Sonic Frontiers is a game I went in with very little optimism. I was starting to see the positives in the game close to release day and I still think the game is rather fun at points, but it doesn't hit the mark in the ways I would have wanted and felt rather disjointed.
This game establishes a new "open-zone" formula which essentially acts as large hub worlds to explore. It's an interesting concept on paper, but to me personally, I don't find much reason to go back and replay the game after my initial playthrough because of the way the formula is structured. The ways platforming challenges function or puzzles are designed come off as either too simplistic and repetitive or entirely too restrictive. Often the camera and perspective of certain parts of these worlds will lock and it comes off feeling janky and doesn't reward the player to try and use the controls in fun or interesting ways. I would often find myself getting lost and trying to do old platforming sections not knowing which ones I had already completed. The only real guide is the map and story missions while you just had to go looking around for missions to complete to fill out the map. The cyberspace stages have some interesting designs at points, but the overall theming and design is mostly ripped from older games and in some situations, the design is not correctly modified to suit the new controls so running into corners is a common thing.
The controls in the open zone are pretty fantastic overall. For the first time ever in a boost game, Sonic can actually move 360 degrees in larger spaces with feels extremely freeing especially after Forces which are comprised mostly of empty hallways with lines of enemies. Just moving around in this game feels like a lot of fun. Despite this, there are quite a few moments where the movement can feel a bit jank where Sonic will bounce off corners randomly into tricks or run up walls and steep inclines with no real feeling of momentum. The cyberspace controls while in some cases feeling fine just comes off as buggy and poorly thrown together. Sonic has moves like the slide and drop dash in these stages but they never get used even in the reused stages the moves like the slide would be used in. The 2D levels are especially janky with Sonic rolling into loops and dropping all speed halfway through or even when rolling down the hill there will be a complete halt in speed. It doesn't feel great, especially in contrast to how tight the controls of the open-zone portion of the game are.
The combat is fun for a while but I often found myself easily clearing enemies when reaching a certain point early in the game. The moves oftentimes feel too basic and stringing moves together can often be too simplistic. Fighting the unique mini bosses of each island was mostly the highlight and was a very rewarding way to progress and get portal gears. It's better than previous games like Sonic Heroes where the combat boils down to each character having 1 specific special move or attribute, but with a game nearly 3 times longer in playtime it does start to get monotonous.
The music and boss fights in this game might just be some of the best this franchise has to offer. The techno DNB Cyberspace music is extremely exhilarating and catchy and the heavy metal vocal tracks of the boss fights pump you up and perfectly fit the visuals and set pieces. I did find myself enjoying some of the open-zone music, but personally, it's not really my cup of tea and really didn't fit with the high action and speedy nature of the game.
SPOILERS!:
The story is a huge step up from the previous entries in the franchise, but a lot of the plot points and details of the story oftentimes felt confusing. We learn about an ancient civilization of water aliens similar to Chaos, but they rarely get mentioned in the story and only make brief appearances in small cutscenes or in a big exposition dump on the fourth island. You do get cutscenes and dialogue you can hear that is scattered around the islands, but it feels way too hidden and tucked away. And when the story of the ancients is brought up in the main story of the game it oftentimes feels too vague and rushed and more so playing second fiddle to SAGE and Sonic's antics. The main antagonist of the game is barely developed and is only really placed into the story as this evil big bad boss with no personality or backstory to make it interesting. Aside from the shaky story, the writing is pretty solid overall. I like the character interactions and it feels like a Sonic game from the 2000s like Black Knight or Unleashed where dialogue was often times taken somewhat seriously, but also still kept lighthearted and fun. The only minor gripe I have with the writing is it can feel like it's trying to clean up the messes of previous games and not really dedicating itself to its own. Sonic and friends will always reference past games and places that can come off as very foreign to newcomers such as solidifying comic book characters into the canon which no one else aside from die-hards and comic book readers will really understand and mentioning locations from past games that not many people aside from fans will recognize.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is an interesting demonstration of a possible entry into the franchise. It has lots of fun moments, but most of those moments are often contrasted with confusing design choices and make the player feel more like a test subject than giving us a fully fleshed-out idea with a clear direction. It tries to appeal to everyone, but oftentimes can leave me feeling left out with parts of the game and falls flat in that regard. The future for the franchise is bright because if this formula can be streamlined in the next entry I think it could be something very special.
This game establishes a new "open-zone" formula which essentially acts as large hub worlds to explore. It's an interesting concept on paper, but to me personally, I don't find much reason to go back and replay the game after my initial playthrough because of the way the formula is structured. The ways platforming challenges function or puzzles are designed come off as either too simplistic and repetitive or entirely too restrictive. Often the camera and perspective of certain parts of these worlds will lock and it comes off feeling janky and doesn't reward the player to try and use the controls in fun or interesting ways. I would often find myself getting lost and trying to do old platforming sections not knowing which ones I had already completed. The only real guide is the map and story missions while you just had to go looking around for missions to complete to fill out the map. The cyberspace stages have some interesting designs at points, but the overall theming and design is mostly ripped from older games and in some situations, the design is not correctly modified to suit the new controls so running into corners is a common thing.
The controls in the open zone are pretty fantastic overall. For the first time ever in a boost game, Sonic can actually move 360 degrees in larger spaces with feels extremely freeing especially after Forces which are comprised mostly of empty hallways with lines of enemies. Just moving around in this game feels like a lot of fun. Despite this, there are quite a few moments where the movement can feel a bit jank where Sonic will bounce off corners randomly into tricks or run up walls and steep inclines with no real feeling of momentum. The cyberspace controls while in some cases feeling fine just comes off as buggy and poorly thrown together. Sonic has moves like the slide and drop dash in these stages but they never get used even in the reused stages the moves like the slide would be used in. The 2D levels are especially janky with Sonic rolling into loops and dropping all speed halfway through or even when rolling down the hill there will be a complete halt in speed. It doesn't feel great, especially in contrast to how tight the controls of the open-zone portion of the game are.
The combat is fun for a while but I often found myself easily clearing enemies when reaching a certain point early in the game. The moves oftentimes feel too basic and stringing moves together can often be too simplistic. Fighting the unique mini bosses of each island was mostly the highlight and was a very rewarding way to progress and get portal gears. It's better than previous games like Sonic Heroes where the combat boils down to each character having 1 specific special move or attribute, but with a game nearly 3 times longer in playtime it does start to get monotonous.
The music and boss fights in this game might just be some of the best this franchise has to offer. The techno DNB Cyberspace music is extremely exhilarating and catchy and the heavy metal vocal tracks of the boss fights pump you up and perfectly fit the visuals and set pieces. I did find myself enjoying some of the open-zone music, but personally, it's not really my cup of tea and really didn't fit with the high action and speedy nature of the game.
SPOILERS!:
The story is a huge step up from the previous entries in the franchise, but a lot of the plot points and details of the story oftentimes felt confusing. We learn about an ancient civilization of water aliens similar to Chaos, but they rarely get mentioned in the story and only make brief appearances in small cutscenes or in a big exposition dump on the fourth island. You do get cutscenes and dialogue you can hear that is scattered around the islands, but it feels way too hidden and tucked away. And when the story of the ancients is brought up in the main story of the game it oftentimes feels too vague and rushed and more so playing second fiddle to SAGE and Sonic's antics. The main antagonist of the game is barely developed and is only really placed into the story as this evil big bad boss with no personality or backstory to make it interesting. Aside from the shaky story, the writing is pretty solid overall. I like the character interactions and it feels like a Sonic game from the 2000s like Black Knight or Unleashed where dialogue was often times taken somewhat seriously, but also still kept lighthearted and fun. The only minor gripe I have with the writing is it can feel like it's trying to clean up the messes of previous games and not really dedicating itself to its own. Sonic and friends will always reference past games and places that can come off as very foreign to newcomers such as solidifying comic book characters into the canon which no one else aside from die-hards and comic book readers will really understand and mentioning locations from past games that not many people aside from fans will recognize.
Overall Sonic Frontiers is an interesting demonstration of a possible entry into the franchise. It has lots of fun moments, but most of those moments are often contrasted with confusing design choices and make the player feel more like a test subject than giving us a fully fleshed-out idea with a clear direction. It tries to appeal to everyone, but oftentimes can leave me feeling left out with parts of the game and falls flat in that regard. The future for the franchise is bright because if this formula can be streamlined in the next entry I think it could be something very special.