Trivia / Sega Superstars

All games

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Tennis was meant to be a Sonic-only game, but Sumo believed it would be more interesting to use various Sega franchises. And as their philosophy to recreating some games which haven't been seen in a long time is "what you remember most about them", this results in a TON of fanservice and attention to detail. While they admit they do keep turning a profit in mind, they also look at what franchises can bring to the table to create a fun and memorable game. Both fans and Sega have been impressed by their passion; it was reported that when the team showed their recreation track of Skies of Arcadia in Transformed to the game's original producer, she came close to tears due to how faithful and nostalgic the result was.
• No Export for You: Superstars Tennis and All-Stars Racing never received a Japanese release. Transformed was originally stated to get one because Sega noticed the high Japanese import rates for All-Stars Racing. Sega finally announced its Japanese release of Transformed on May 15, 2014. Changes for the JP version include Mr. "DAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAA" himself, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, as the voice-over, and a garbage Puyo Puyo playing the role of the blowfish◊. It also refers to House of the Dead under its original name rather than as Curien Mansion.
• Promoted Fanboy: Sumo Digital are huge Sega fans, evident from how much detail and love gets put into the crafting of the IP environments and characters.
• Screwed by the Network: Since Samba de Amigo relied heavily on licensed music, tracks were limited for the stages in the racing games. In the first All-Stars Racing, the songs consisted of ones done by Bellini and Wave Master (the latter being Sega's in-house composing team). Most of Bellini's music was never in a Samba de Amigo game, and one of Wave Master's songs only appeared in the Japanese only Mission-Pack Sequel. Transformed removed the Bellini songs altogether.
• What Could Have Been: There were plans for a Mascot Fighter and soccer Sports Game, but they were left at concept stage.

Sega Superstars Tennis

• The Other Darrin:
  • Ryan Drummond is replaced as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog by Jason Griffith, following the recasting of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters with the 4Kids/Sonic X cast in 2005.
  • Beat and Gum sound completely different from their original actors.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The game originally started off as a Wii version of Virtua Tennis. Sumo Digital made the game more cute to appeal to the casual audience. However, it didn't look right. When Sega saw this, they recommended they made the game around Sonic. While Sumo liked this idea and agreed, they also suggested looking at including characters from all of Sega's IPs. And the rest is history.
  • Likewise, Svend "Dreadknux" Jocelynde of the Sonic Stadium wrote a story behind the game, which was also scrapped. His treatment stated that Eggman entered the tournament in order to benefit his plans for world domination, others wanted fame or objects of value to them, while the main Sonic cast (minus Eggman) just want to stop Eggman.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

• The Cameo: Ristar appears hidden in the Death Egg Zone track, waving at the player.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Game On! 2016 claims that the game uses vehicles that transform for land, air, and water travel. Actually, its sequel uses such mechanic.
• Dummied Out:
  • The Final Fortress tracks reference laser gates and a cameo in Dark Arsenal that are no longer there. It's speculated that the laser gates were taken out because they messed up the game's pace, and the cameo was Metal Sonic, who was instead turned to DLC.
  • Banjo-Kazooie's files are left on the other versions of the game, but they're only playable on the Xbox 360 version.
  • The announcer has several lines that are hidden in the game but aren't ever used. One in particular has him sarcastically congratulate Sonic for coming in second place.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Zobio and Zobiko, a pair of in-love ex-humans, from the Japan-only arcade game House of the Dead EX "HOTD EX" debuted in this game.
• Role Reprise: Oliver Wyman reprises his role as Big the Cat, being the only Sonic actor to provide new dialogue for his character; everyone else reuses archive audio.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Toe Jam And Earl could have been in the game if Sega got proper licensing with the series' developers in time. They couldn't. They aren't in the sequel either, and even though they got lots of votes for the sequel's DLC poll, they never ended up being added.
  • Mario was originally considered for the Wii version early in development, but this was scrapped to avoid cross-contamination with the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series.
    • On a similar note, Sony were approached about Ratchet & Clank making an appearance in the same vein as Banjo & Kazooie, but refused to loan them out as they (Sony, not Ratchet and Clank) had their own kart racer coming out a few months afterwards. Reportedly, Sony did change their minds on the matter, but it was too late in production to add them to the game.
  • Also on the list in the above link: Vyse, who was one of the first characters implemented into the sequel instead.
  • Also considered, Nei.
  • Gilius Thunderhead was playable in the prototype version of the game, but was axed from the final version. He also ended up in the sequel.
  • Segata Sanshiro was seriously considered for this game.
  • A Space Channel 5 track was in the pipeline, but got cut because the dev team weren't impressed with its quality.
  • Weapons from Puyo Puyo were originally in the game, but removed. This ended up being implemented in the Japanese version of Transformed, which replaces the Blowfish item with a Garbage Puyo.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed

• Ascended Meme: The Spy occasionally does the Spycrab atop his plane if you are doing well in the race.
• Blooper: The announcer occasionally mispronounces Danica Patrick's name.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Steve Lycett voices both genders of the Miis. Same with the Avatars.
• Defictionalization: One of the main premises of Wreck-It Ralph is the eponymous character's jumping between video games. His presence in this game means he's now done it for real, and on a console. (One could say this can also qualify for the Heavy, as he has his own analogue to Ralph's Game Central Station.)
• Dummied Out: The PC-exclusive characters Team Fortress, Shogun and Football Manager still have a lot of their files in the console versions. Billy Hatcher can also be found on the disc, but in an unfinished state.
• Executive Meddling: Adding Simon Lane to the game was entirely a Sega decision after they put the game (and Napoleon: Total War) in the Humble Bundle tying in with Yogscast's annual charity drive. The meddling part came when Sumo, realizing how divisive the character would be, tried to suggest they release one of the poll winners for the tie-in instead; Sega vetoed them down, as they absolutely insisted on Simon. They eventually compromised by releasing the character as paid DLC instead of a mandatory free update A. because of the base breaking factor and B. so that all profits go to charity.
• Fandom Nod:
  • The Pyro pilots the team's car, essentially making him a literal Pyrocar.
  • Ralph asks the age-old question the fans have been asking since way back in Sonic Drift: "Why does Sonic need a car?".
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The first print run of the Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS versions is a bonus edition including Metal Sonic and a track based on OutRun, which are otherwise DLC for PC and second+ print 360/PS3/3DS runs and on-disc/cart starting materials for Wii U and Vita.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and Shadow all have new voice actors following the majority of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters being recast after the first All-Stars Racing was released in 2010.
  • Vyse manages to avert this trope and play it straight at the same time. Christopher Sullivan reprises his role from the original game over a decade earlier, replacing Roger Craig Smith, who had voiced Vyse during his cameo in Valkyria Chronicles.
  • Wreck-It Ralph and Pyro, Heavy, and Spy sound a bit... off.
• Role Reprise:
  • Anyone who's actually had a Japanese voice actor will reprise their role here in the Japanese version. Alex Kidd's a special case since he actually has his Japanese voice reprised from Segagaga.
  • Sumo went above and beyond in the case of Vyse, actually managing to get his original voice actor from Skies of Arcadia back to record new dialogue for him in All-Stars Racing Transformed. This is especially notable, as during his cameo in Valkyria Chronicles, Vyse was voiced by Roger Craig Smith, the current voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A Daytona USA track was considered (specifically Three Seven Speedway), but was scrapped as Sumo realized it wouldn't take advantage of the transformation mechanic, and was subsequently replaced with an OutRun track.
  • Sony were approached about Sackboy making an appearance in the same vein as the Team Fortress 2 classes, but refused to loan him out as Sackboy had his own kart racer coming out two weeks beforehand.
  • A Virtual-ON character made it to the modeling phase, but was shot down from the game due to "ownership issues".
  • Orta made it to the shortlist, but concerns arose about vehicle concepts with wings clipping through other characters and she was dropped.
  • Billy Hatcher was planned, but was dropped because Sumo couldn't decide on a design for his car. Time ran out and they were forced to not include him. His incomplete files still exist on the game's disc. In hindsight, this would explain why he doesn't even have a cameo in neither Race of Ages alongside the other removed racers of the previous game nor in the track of his game alongside his friends.
  • Sumo also considered Sakura Shinguuji, but in their own words, "with the tone of the game we're making, and considering the type of vehicle it would probably need was already covered elsewhere, [we] decided against it this time."
  • Had Sonic Colors not been created, Word of God states the space themed track would have been either Space Channel 5 or Phantasy Star Online.
  • The executive developer stated that had they asked Nintendo for an exclusive character for the Wii U version of the game besides the Mii, his personal choice would have been Kirby.
  • Classic Sonic was considered, complete with concept art and vehicle designs. However, Sega said no to Sumo because they didn't want Classic Sonic to appear alongside Sonic in a game without a specific time travel explanation.
  • Aika was on the original shortlist, but because she lacked a model for the crew to go from (unlike other secondary characters such as Pudding and Reala since they were in Sega Superstars Tennis), she was cut.
  • They considered adding Bayonetta in the retail roster, but she was later cut because they felt they couldn't keep her in-character and still keep the rating at E10+/7+. She did come in 4th place in the DLC poll, however, and her appearance in the E10+-rated Super Smash Bros. shows that it wasn't totally outside of the range of possibility.
  • Illustrated sticker sets similar to the ones for Jet Set Radio were made for NiGHTS, Skies of Arcadia, and Burning Rangers, but ultimately fell to the wayside.
  • The Yogscast DLC character was going to be a number of the Yogscast crew crowded in a single vehicle a la the Ant Hill Mob. This was amended to just Simon Lane for unknown reasons.
• Sonic Team is the only division of Sega to have an IP included in every GP of the game.^note Sonic is in four of them if you count the fifth GP comprised of old tracks, and is joined by NiGHTS into Dreams… and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg in Emerald Cup. The only GP Sonic isn't in is Arcade Cup, where Burning Rangers reps Sonic Team. As you can glean from the above, Jet Set Radio is the only IP in Emerald Cup not hailing from Sonic Team.

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