Unfortunate that SEGA is asking $60 for a WiiWare-quality title, but here we are.
The gameplay of this one is a real mixed bag. The stages are typically serviceable, if fairly uninspired on their face. More often than not, they feel the need to throw a gimmick at you in their second act, just to make sure you're not falling asleep at the wheel. The jungle zone is hidden by a fog of war that narrows your view, the factory stage has a self-destruct timer in the background that needs to be reset by hitting certain switches — hindrances that discourage you from seamlessly coasting along the best path, while disincentivizing taking your time exploring wide areas. Overall, this is a tough balancing act to pull off, and Superstars rarely handles it with grace.
Thankfully, giant rings aren't too tricky to track down this time around, in part because the game wants you to play around with the powers you get for clearing special stages. Those stages themselves are among the franchise's jankiest (particularly the fifth one), but they're generally inoffensive. These new powers are situationally useful at best and actively intrusive at worst, especially on the Switch, where they're liable to tank the FPS. More likely than not, you'll find an ability you like and forget that you have it until you're in an annoying spot — or, maybe you'll grab the water ability, only to find that it has little use outside of Lagoon City. Mileage varies.
There are also four unique stages that force you to play as each cast member. While these seem tailored towards their character's platforming on paper, they often don't do enough to lean into what makes their movement options unique — Knuckles's stage puts too much emphasis on scaling walls, and not enough emphasis on his glide. You get the sense that with the emerald abilities, any of the characters would be able to clear these stages (and to an extent, this is proven post-credits). The addition of a playable Amy is welcome, and her double jump is immensely practical, both in navigating frustrating bits of verticality and, occasionally, in skipping segments where other characters would be unable to hit a boss.
On the topic of bosses, they're extended waiting games. Far too often, they hang in the background or just out of reach, looking for you to take advantage of a short window where you hit a blue projectile back, only to make you wait for them to take the shot again. These are exercises in tedium, and the emerald abilities don't do enough to quicken the pace.
Music is another dud, which is a real shame, because there are some competent compositions here; they're often just obscured by that weird Sonic 4/"classic Sonic" soundfont they insist on using for these 2D entries. Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue have both made some decent songs for this game, which would sound much better if they weren't held back by god-awful instrumentation. The real crime, however, is the sound direction. Enemy lasers are ear-splitting, Sonic jumps out of water with an obnoxious crash, and turning down the volume of the sound effects does little to remedy the mixing. Not sure what they thought they were cooking up here.
Once you clear the eleven zones in the main campaign, you unlock a new one with a fifth character — think the Sonic & Knuckles approach, where the acts and bosses change ever so slightly to accommodate a different playstyle. Unlike Sonic & Knuckles, the true final boss is locked behind this second campaign. Be prepared to play through twice if you want to see everything.
But to end on a positive note, at least you get to play Fantasy Zone twice. That's worth half a star alone.
The gameplay of this one is a real mixed bag. The stages are typically serviceable, if fairly uninspired on their face. More often than not, they feel the need to throw a gimmick at you in their second act, just to make sure you're not falling asleep at the wheel. The jungle zone is hidden by a fog of war that narrows your view, the factory stage has a self-destruct timer in the background that needs to be reset by hitting certain switches — hindrances that discourage you from seamlessly coasting along the best path, while disincentivizing taking your time exploring wide areas. Overall, this is a tough balancing act to pull off, and Superstars rarely handles it with grace.
Thankfully, giant rings aren't too tricky to track down this time around, in part because the game wants you to play around with the powers you get for clearing special stages. Those stages themselves are among the franchise's jankiest (particularly the fifth one), but they're generally inoffensive. These new powers are situationally useful at best and actively intrusive at worst, especially on the Switch, where they're liable to tank the FPS. More likely than not, you'll find an ability you like and forget that you have it until you're in an annoying spot — or, maybe you'll grab the water ability, only to find that it has little use outside of Lagoon City. Mileage varies.
There are also four unique stages that force you to play as each cast member. While these seem tailored towards their character's platforming on paper, they often don't do enough to lean into what makes their movement options unique — Knuckles's stage puts too much emphasis on scaling walls, and not enough emphasis on his glide. You get the sense that with the emerald abilities, any of the characters would be able to clear these stages (and to an extent, this is proven post-credits). The addition of a playable Amy is welcome, and her double jump is immensely practical, both in navigating frustrating bits of verticality and, occasionally, in skipping segments where other characters would be unable to hit a boss.
On the topic of bosses, they're extended waiting games. Far too often, they hang in the background or just out of reach, looking for you to take advantage of a short window where you hit a blue projectile back, only to make you wait for them to take the shot again. These are exercises in tedium, and the emerald abilities don't do enough to quicken the pace.
Music is another dud, which is a real shame, because there are some competent compositions here; they're often just obscured by that weird Sonic 4/"classic Sonic" soundfont they insist on using for these 2D entries. Tee Lopes and Jun Senoue have both made some decent songs for this game, which would sound much better if they weren't held back by god-awful instrumentation. The real crime, however, is the sound direction. Enemy lasers are ear-splitting, Sonic jumps out of water with an obnoxious crash, and turning down the volume of the sound effects does little to remedy the mixing. Not sure what they thought they were cooking up here.
Once you clear the eleven zones in the main campaign, you unlock a new one with a fifth character — think the Sonic & Knuckles approach, where the acts and bosses change ever so slightly to accommodate a different playstyle. Unlike Sonic & Knuckles, the true final boss is locked behind this second campaign. Be prepared to play through twice if you want to see everything.
But to end on a positive note, at least you get to play Fantasy Zone twice. That's worth half a star alone.