Sonic Superstars (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.1.8 Update + All DLCs

Sonic Superstars is a 2023 platform game developed by Arzest and Sonic Team and published by Sega. It features side-scrolling gameplay similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis in the 1990s. As one of four player characters—Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose—the player completes side-scrolling levels as they set out to defeat Doctor Eggman and Fang the Hunter. Superstars introduces power-ups that the player can obtain by collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds and four-player local multiplayer.

GAMEPLAY

Sonic Superstars is a side-scrolling platform game similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis in the 1990s. The player must complete a series of levels across several zones, presented from a 2.5D perspective, to defeat Doctor Eggman, who has hired Fang the Hunter and Trip the Sungazer to capture the North Star Islands’ giant animals so he can build a powerful army.

There are four initial player characters, each with their unique abilities: Sonic the Hedgehog can roll into a dash after a jump; Miles “Tails” Prower can fly; Knuckles the Echidna can glide and climb; and Amy Rose can attack enemies with a hammer and double jump. Players unlock an additional character, Trip, by completing the main campaign once; her move set combines Amy’s double jump with Knuckles’ climbing.

The North Star Islands comprise 12 zones, which house 26 levels (“acts”). The number of acts in a zone varies between one, two, and three. Each contains elements such as springs, vertical loops, and collectible rings that serve as health, and shield power-ups. Some zones feature unique elements, such as a jungle with vines the player can grind on and a futuristic zone where they transform into a voxel creature and some features act exclusively to the selected character.

Each act ends with a boss that the player must defeat while dodging attacks. In between levels, the player explores a 2D hub world where they can select a zone and change or customize their character. The campaign takes four hours to complete as a single character, and about 15 hours as every character. Unlike previous 2D Sonic games, Superstars does not feature lives, so the player will never receive a game over. Completing the main game will unlock “Trip’s Story”, a more difficult campaign in which Trip is the only playable character.

SETTING AND STORY

Dr. Eggman travels to the Northstar Islands, an uncharted archipelago that is home to a variety of traditional critter fauna, such as the Flickies, that are larger than normal. Eager to make use of such large critters for his mechs, Eggman hires Fang the Hunter, a mischievous mercenary, to help him secure such creatures and bring them to his newly established base, along with tracking down a creature he had drawn from an ancient mural during his research of the new lands. Along the way, the pair take in assistance from a local native of the island known as Trip the Sungazer, a female lizard who fails to recognize how troublesome they are, to help guide them around Northstar, and whom Fang is partnered with.

Sonic, along with his friends Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, learn of Eggman’s operations on Northstar, and so travel to the archipelago to stop his latest scheme and free the captured critters. Along the way, they deal with a variety of new hazards, repeated trouble from Fang, and collect the Chaos Emeralds, which bestow the group with special abilities for their task.

Eventually, the group finds Eggman operating at his base and defeats him, freeing the critters who kindly thank the group. Meanwhile, Trip finds herself questioning her involvement with Eggman and Fang, and starts to have doubts she is doing the right thing, eventually realizing how the pair are causing absolute trouble in her homeland. She promptly leaves after being forced to fight against Fang, focused on protecting Northstar’s critters and gaining Sonic’s approval for her actions.

Although Eggman and Fang are defeated, things on Northstar change, when the very creature the pair sought out, emerges without warning – the Dark Dragon: a monstrous dragon that soon threatens the archipelago. Sonic swiftly becomes Super Sonic to battle the dragon, and defeats it easily with assistance from Trip, ending its threat and bringing peace back to Northstar. The pair swiftly receive further thanks from the local critters.