Video review - https://youtu.be/SGt0XlHGOW4

I'll be blunt - it could use some more polish, and the bosses aren't very good. I sincerely hope this gets a few patches to address the occasionally weird collision detection, inputs not registering, sound effect desync in cutscenes, and other things, but at its core, this is an incredibly solid momentum-based platformer.

Chaining together dashes, swings and rolling across these wavy, sloped levels is a blast. I think this is the first game I've truly wanted to try and time attack an entire game since Sonic Generations. It took me a little bit to truly "get" the movement, but once I did, I was loving every second of it. I think I'll be aiming for all the achievements in this one too. Why not?

Of course, the music is fantastic as always from Tee Lopes. Presentation is a little lacking in the visual department, especially in cutscenes, but I feel like the developers are probably even more frustrated than I am at some of these shortcomings, so I don't think it's worthwhile to point them all out.

I highly recommend this, but maybe wait a little wait for some patches if you're on the fence. Evening Star have proven their ability to make great stuff on their own, and I hope this game is enough of a success for them to continue their vision across new projects. Well done to the entire team!

It's alright. Unfortunately not as great as I was expecting. Core movement is solid but feels like it needs more, as you only really have a dash and a jump. I kept hoping I'd unlock more moves, or reach areas with a greater focus on building speed down slopes, but it never really happened. Maybe I'll watch a speedrun and realise I was missing out on some fun movement tech.

Early levels are way too basic and boring, but the later ones start getting more interesting, thanks to their smaller platforms, more frequent hazards, and funky gravity manipulation. The "bosses" are thankfully just more intense platforming, which I greatly approve of, but they still feel too simple.

Combat is just plain bad, and I started skipping through all narrative elements pretty quickly, which I don't do in most games. The main character is cursed with obnoxious game protagonist dialogue - "huh, I wonder what's over there. Better check it out..." That kind of stuff. It sucks, and I wasn't really interested in sitting through long conversations and audio logs to learn more about the world. Outer Wilds this ain't.

Again, it's alright. Oddly similar to Sonic Frontiers, but still better in every way.

I made it all the way to the final boss (and Malenia) and just couldn't be bothered anymore. Sekiro is still the best of these games, but the legacy dungeon areas are awesome. The open world is mostly meaningless, but I appreciate how it adds a little bit of downtime between each major area.

RPG mechanics continue to ruin this series. Game became way too easy later on, but then the bosses suddenly spiked in aggression and became super annoying to beat. Hard, yes, but mostly just annoying.

Maybe I'll go back and finish this when the DLC comes out. At the moment, I'm just so burnt out, and those final bosses just feel like a waste of my time. It's very rare for me to shelve a game like this, especially when I'm this close to finishing. I suppose that says a lot.

Shockingly excellent movement-based Metroidvania that I hope to see expanded into an even better sequel. Combat could use some work but it's thankfully very brief. Camera is wonky at a few points but seeing your character's silhouette through walls is a huge help.

I appreciate the trust in the player to find their own way forward, but I think a map of some kind would have been handy. It's a bit too easy to wander around between the same few rooms because I can't quite tell them apart. Aesthetics are my main grievance with this game, not the low-poly style or low-framerate animation, but the dreary, repetitive music and the bland environmental design.

But to be clear, the movement and exploration shine through, and I can't imagine how amazing this must be for speedrunning and sequence-breaking. The wall kick and long jump were such wonderful inclusions in the early game, I just wish I had more places to utilise the enemy bounce and wallrun as well, since they're a bit later in the adventure.

Highly recommend this, but I think there's a lot of things to improve for a sequel. Also, I immediately switched to Pants On, because I didn't want to look at that the whole time.

Really solid survival-horror game that reminded me strongly of REmake, although I'm sure there's a lot of influence from other horror classics that I've never played myself.

Puzzles felt consistently clever and balanced, the analogue aesthetic creates a lovely spooky atmosphere, and the inventory limitations are always keeping you on your toes, forcing you to make important decisions.

I probably shouldn't have played this on the hardest difficulty with the limited inventory on my first playthrough, because the enemies just became annoying after the halfway point. I found it to drag a bit around this same part, although again, this is probably because I had the difficulty cranked up too high because I was worried the defaults would be too forgiving. A good chunk of my deaths were on purpose so I could reset back to my last save after I made a tiny mistake, or I'd just quit to menu and reload to wipe away the bullets I might have just wasted.

The aiming can also feel a bit off sometimes, like I can't target the enemy I'm pointing at. I played with a controller, for the record. I would definitely recommend the "Revised" inventory option, which I switched to maybe 80% through the game once I realised it just saved me having to re-equip my two modules all the time. It doesn't take away from the strict inventory, as all other key items, weapons and ammo still take up space.

Glad I finally got to experience this for myself after hearing nothing but good things for over a year now. I'd sooner revisit REmake though, but that's a high bar to clear.

Bland, frustrating and sloppy. Poor presentation and level design sours the authentic feeling of Classic 2D Sonic movement mechanics. Bosses waste your time for minutes on end, and while I've yet to try the co-op, it seems to be completely broken. It's criminal that this is being sold for $95 AUD.

Emerald powers feel borderline useless outside of a few exceptions, and the Special Stages are just awful. They're a cool idea on paper - swinging around to build momentum towards the Emerald, but are just a chore to play.

Oh and also, the spindash doesn't work properly if your refresh rate is set to above 60FPS, so I had to turn off Vsync and change it manually in the options, only to suffer from screen-tearing. Very cool! And it's just running from an Epic Games Store version within Steam, I guess? Freaking epic.

Go buy Sonic Mania instead - it looks, sounds and plays better in every way. Even the reused levels are more original than just about anything in Superstars, except for maybe its final act. Glad I didn't buy this.

Levels are a bit too long and I think the game could have done a bit more to encourage players to use advanced strategies, but if you're already an experienced movement-shooter fan like me, you're in the perfect position to love this game.

The ability to slide anywhere - even in midair - for huge boosts of speed doesn't really get old. The weapons are mostly fantastic and versatile, but this still doesn't quite have that masterful, slick "dance" feeling of DOOM Eternal. I know this is extreme competition, but it's just how I feel.

I'm sure this would be amazing after a few repeat runs on even higher difficulties (I played on Hard, but there are two more above that), but again, the pacing of the levels kind of turns me off from wanting to do that anytime soon. Sometimes it's a bit hard to tell where I'm going, or where I've already been, too.

Overall excellent game that I'd highly recommend to any fans of intense movement and weapon-swap combos, I just hope any future games from this developer have some stronger level design.

It's pretty good, but lacks the enemy/boss/weapon variety required to sustain its full campaign and bonus challenges. It's also quite frustrating that the hardest available difficulty is essentially perma-death, and sends you back to the beginning of the stage after a single failure. I really liked the challenge of this mode, but when I had to redo an entire level, it made the game's general repetition feel much more noticeable. I don't really understand the point of only equipping a couple weapons and not allowing quick-swapping through the entire arsenal, I would have loved to have the skull, sword, shotgun, pistols, "rocket launcher" etc. all at the same time like some other FPS titles.

The rhythm elements are great, and I really felt myself getting into the groove when soaring (dash + jump) over enemies and rocket-jumping. Here's a tip - unlock Ghost Rounds (free ammo for the first few shots after changing weapons) and quick-swap between the shotgun and "rocket launcher" as much as you can, that was a lot of fun. The extra challenges are great for teaching some of the more advanced mechanics, although some of the later ones are a bit too strict and made me lose my patience. I was going to complete all of them, but gave up on the last few because it wasn't worth wasting my time. I also lowered the difficulty onto Medium for the last two levels because I just wanted the game to be over already, instead of restarting from the beginning after one annoying death.

Again - it was good! Great at times, I just felt it was a bit too simple for me after a while. Most of the enemies can be beaten in the same ways, the movement is alright but I've been spoiled by DOOM and Titanfall, and the bosses are almost entirely the same.