Eighteen weeks of Sonic the Hedgehog, and I am going to settle on one final thought on the ‘hog.
Sonic’s greatest strength is that he makes it look easy.
We have played a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog! So I am going to crank out an immediate, no-frills list reviewing the games that were played. Pass or fail, Sonic? Go!
Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis) – Good
Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System / Game Gear) – Bad
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis) – Good
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System / Game Gear) – Bad
Sonic the Hedgehog CD – Good
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles – Good
Knuckles’ Chaotix – Bad
Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble – Good
Sonic Blast (Game Gear) – Bad
Tails’ Skypatrol – Bad
Sonic Advance – Good
Sonic Advance 2 – Good
Sonic Advance 3 – Good
Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure – Good
Sonic Rivals – Bad
Sonic Rivals 2 – Bad
Sonic Rush – Good
Sonic Rush Adventure – Good (in actual Sonic levels)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4- Bad
Sonic Colors (DS) – Good
Sonic Generations (3DS) – Good
Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal – Bad
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice – Bad
Sonic Mania – Good
(We are not counting any of the fan games. That would skew the percentages, as there are more Sonic the Hedgehog fan games than there are stars in the sky.)
And today’s game is Sonic Superstars, a 2023 release that was not part of the 2026 marathon because BEAT and I already played it just a little over a year ago…
And guess what? We quit after the fourth act, as neither of us were enjoying it. You can see (in real time!) as we both attempt to pawn off the next, solo level on each other. So spoilers for this article’s traditional “would I play again” question: that’s a no. Sonic Superstars falls into the “bad” category of 2-D Sonic the Hedgehog games.
What are our final percentages here? 25 games, 14 of them qualifying as “good”. Assuming my middle school math is mathing correctly, that is a 56% hit rating. Better than half! And those numbers get even better if we acknowledge nearly everything on the ol’ Sega portable was a desperately flailing attempt to exploit our favorite Hedgehog (or Mickey Mouse) and disqualify any and all Game Gear titles from the rankings. Either way, Sonic has more hits than misses in the 2-D department. That means that, statistically, if Sonic the Hedgehog is lending his name to something in the genre that launched him to stardom, there is a better than half chance that the game is going to be good.
So let’s look at what went wrong with the baddies.
To once again stomp on the Master System/Game Gear releases, the majority of those are obvious. Nobody could design a proper Sonic the Hedgehog level back on 8-bit hardware. Sonic the Hedgehog (GG) was extremely truncated compared to its larger cousin, but it ultimately shook out to be forgettable thanks to its stages amounting to literally nothing (and bonus points for terrible bosses). Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (GG) contained stunts like the hang glider and pipe maze that are now illegal under the Geneva Convention. Tails’ Skypatrol could have been a noble attempt at modifying Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay to a shoot ‘em up situation (which, I will remind you, is basically a whole act in the vaunted Sonic the Hedgehog 2), but it combined terrible level design with a hateful damage system. It would be the easiest (and most accurate) thing in the world to say “Sonic Blast (GG) is the worst Sonic the Hedgehog game to ever do it”, but the greatest sins of that adventure still come back to level design. Nobody wants to be stuck in an endless maze underwater while Sonic slowly drowns to death! For all the glitches and abhorrent graphics in there, the worst part of Sonic Blast (GG) was trying to steer Sonic through impossible labyrinths that were simultaneously confusing and boring. A teleportation maze is no place for a spiny mammal!
But looking at the one good Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog title, Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, I saw the light. I replayed a few levels for this article, and I suddenly realized the essence of what makes a good Sonic the Hedgehog game. It is something that was there all along. I should have seen it! It is part of nearly every article I have written for this site!
I wanted to play Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble again. That’s the secret! Actually wanting to play a Sonic the Hedgehog stage again!
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is easily my favorite game. I will admit that I have a certain level of apprehension when I think about playing Sandopolis Zone Act 2. I am also not particularly fond of Lava Reef Zone Act 2, mostly thanks to its boss. And, if I really think about it, those are the only areas of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles I would not want to play exactly right now. Oh my God I live in a society where I can play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles at nearly any time! Life don’t get much better than this!
Er-hem. Back to Sonic the Hedgehog globally, I realized that every game labeled as “bad” contains too much that I simply do not want to play ever again. Knuckles’ Chaotix? It is overwhelmingly boring with its sparsely populated levels. Sonic Rivals 1 & 2? I could go on about their many flaws, but the simple answer is their race-based levels are not all that interesting the first time, and then you are likely to have to repeat them ad nauseam thanks to the bizarre pass-or-fail AI of your opponents. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 feels more rote than anything, like Sonic is being forced to go through the motions of his earlier, better exploits. And the Sonic Boom 3DS titles are practically an entirely different, entirely boring genre with some Sonic the Hedgehog fragments sprinkled in to satisfy the license. I’m even looking at Sonic Rush Adventure on that list and thinking I would kill for a version that is all killer (level design) and no filler (material grinding).
The essence of the good Sonic the Hedgehog games is replayability every single time!
Now that we have a detailed explanation of what has gone wrong in various Sonic the Hedgehog games, let’s get back to Sonic Superstars. What went wrong this time? I am happy to say that the level design is at least interesting! It is not amazing, but this is no Game Gear slopfest. Also, by and large, Sonic Superstars sticks to being a Sonic the Hedgehog game over a shoot ‘em up, metroidvania, or boat maintenance simulator (though at least one of those genres does make a solid appearance). And the levels aren’t boring! There are plenty of badniks, traps, and the occasional gimmick to keep a player interested. There is a lot in the plus column for Sonic Superstars.
But boy do I never want to play any of these stages ever again.
Actually, let’s skip to the end.
So here is the final boss of the main campaign of Sonic Superstars. As per tradition, it is Eggman piloting a giant robot themed after himself, with the mech itself inside a space station themed after himself. The guy has got some narcissism going on. The initial gimmick of this fight starts well before this battle begins: at the end of the stage’s Act 1, Robotnik reveals he has some manner of time-reversing power. Thus, Act 2 is Act 1 in reverse, with all the collapsing platforms and exploding traps un-collapsing and un-exploding. That is a cool concept! Except for the fact that the Act 1 version of this stage wasn’t all that exciting in the first place, so “do it again, but mirror mode” feels more like a threat than a fun way to cap off the adventure. Oh, and it takes approximately seven minutes, too. There was probably a faster route somewhere around there, but even shaving off some time, this Sonic player doesn’t see any way this level is over in less than five minutes. And that is too long for a stage you technically already played!
But then you get to that boss. Everything about this Egg Robo is initially played straight (as in “not backwards”), and the gimmick is that it is one of those fights where your opponent lives in an untouchable background, and every once in a great while, it launches some missiles, and you can reflect one (specially designated) missile to do some damage. So most of the fight is dodging and waiting for the only time you can make progress. There are some frustrating traps along the way (like an attack that occurs in its second stage that is very likely to drop you into an instant-death pit on an initial encounter), but it is generally a straightforward “wait to counter” affair.
And upon walloping this machine enough times to make it explode, then the reverse time gimmick kicks in, and now there is an entire extra phase to this boss fight.
Now it is a 2-D furry versus giant robot battle akin to the final battle of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (well, one of them). You are being chased, the platform is continually collapsing behind you, and you need to find the right moment to strike back. But! Unlike the StH3&K fight of yore, there is exactly one moment when you can hit the mech in the head, and it is only after it whiffs one specific attack. So, contrasting the 30-year-old fight where you could balance the risk and reward of dodging and attacking at (roughly) any moment, you are now again stuck dodging and waiting for exactly one moment. It is, at its core, the exact same fight as the first phase, just with slightly different parameters (albeit with a higher likelihood of failure, as the constant scrolling forward is likely to mean lost rings or an inadvertent drop into a bottomless pit). You will eventually triumph over Eggman, but only through continual dodging and a whole lot of patience.
And I do not know how long this fight takes, as the timer ran past ten minutes. You are not punished for that, though, because the designers damn well knew this single Sonic the Hedgehog stage was going to take approximately fifteen minutes.
Oh, and defeating this final boss unlocks a new mode made for a different playable character. And beating that then that unlocks the opportunity to fight a new final boss as Super Sonic. And guess what! The Super Sonic boss spends most of its time in the background, and you have to wait around to launch a counterattack. Remember how literally flying through the sky in Doomsday Zone decades ago felt unerringly empowering? Well, it is like that, but you must collect rings to keep Sonic powered while you wait around for something useful to happen. It is exactly as fun as waiting for your name to be called at a doctor’s office. Maybe you will be able to counter your doc’s diagnosis on that horrible cholesterol!
But the whole thing does look “epic” to someone without a controller.
That is my final verdict: it is easy to make a Sonic the Hedgehog game that is fun to watch, but it is hard to make a Sonic the Hedgehog game that you would want to play again. Or maybe not that hard! It does happen 56% of the time. But the one thing that all of the bad Sonic the Hedgehog games have in common, Sonic Superstars included, is that they may look like they capture the spirit of Sonic, but they are not worth a replay.
The end always gives away the game. You did it. You outraced the whale, scrapped Metal Sonic, and beat Eggman. You are good. You did the Sonic thing, and now you can move on. If it is good, you come back and do it again. If it is bad, well, maybe you stream it once again in your life with some friends watching, and then you put it away forever. It looked nice, but it doesn’t need to be revisited.
Sonic the Hedgehog makes it look easy. But not every Sonic the Hedgehog can be Sonic the Hedgehog.
FGC #751 Sonic Superstars
- System: This may be the officially designated Classic Sonic, but he sure does get around like modern Sonic. Sonic Superstars is available for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox X|S. Just to further muddy the waters, I will note that the majority of these screenshots are from the Nintendo Switch 2.
- Number of players: Famously a four-player game. As is noted on our stream, it does not remotely feel right even with two players. I cannot imagine how poorly it works with four…
And on a related note: You already had Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Tails, guys! Why not just make the gameplay closer to one “leader” and up to three vaguely-invincible sidekicks running around? We already know that works for Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay! We have known that since 1992!- Favorite Character: Does Sonic even get a unique ability? Poor guy. We are going with, from best to worst, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic the Hedgehog, and then Tails. I conceptually like Tails, but his flight powers have always felt like cheating. Amy’s “easy” double jump is a fun way to game the system (the average Eggman-bot hates it so much), but it is not too game breaking. Knuckles just, as ever, feels good to glide.
- Favorite Chaos Emerald Ability: So you get a new skill when you earn any Chaos Emerald this time around. They are generally useless. Like the water ability is great when you are drowning, but, unless there is a waterfall in a space station, it is extremely situational. That said, I can always go for the “instantly grow a beanstalk” ability. Sonic’s greatest weakness has always been being at the bottom of a level with no easy route back up, and instantly growing vines really helps.
- The New Kid: Trip the Sungazer is our latest addition to the Sonic the Hedgehog cast. Her backstory is “Knuckles Again” (this generation’s defender of her island’s magical rock, initially tricked into fighting Sonic), but her personality skews towards “the klutzy one”. Generally being kinda silly has been the standard for nearly all women after Amy in this franchise (Cream, Marine, Sticks; but distinctly not Blaze), and Trip sets herself apart by… uh… Nothing. She can turn into a dragon, though! That’s neat!
- Aping the Best: As briefly mentioned in the article, Trip gets her own “mode” after completing Story Mode once. Like Knuckles before her, the story here is that this is all taking place after the events of the main story, and Trip is protecting her island against a very familiar badnik (and then Fang the Hunter). And this would all be very cool if anything about Trip Mode was all that different from regular mode. But it is mostly just the same game with extra spikey enemies. Also, you retain your Chaos Emeralds, so if you were good about collecting those, you can just go Super Trip the first time you get 50 rings. Really makes you ask what was the point of all this?
- Did you know? Trip transforms into a little donut when rolling/jumping instead of the traditional little ball. Apparently the ball thing is a mammal trait, and Trip maintains her lizard solidarity with Vector the Crocodile.
- Would I play again? We already talked about this!
What’s next? Random ROB is back to being random and has chosen… Rastan! We are… going to get a tan? I guess? Please look forward to it?
So long, and thanks for all the rings