- Ascended Fanon: The tie-in comic Fang's Big Break confirms the long-standing fan theory (already referenced by Fang's wanted poster in Sonic Generations) that "Nack the Weasel" is an alias that Fang took to avoid the law, and also explains that his previous names — Jet the Jerboa and Fang the Sniper — were also false aliases.
- Author's Saving Throw:
- A common criticism aimed toward the otherwise acclaimed Sonic Mania is the fact that two-thirds of the zones are taken from previous games in the series. More generally speaking, fans were tired to see Green Hill Zone and other pre-existing zones reused again and again in recent games. This time around, Takashi Iizuka confirmed for IGN that Superstars will primarily consist of brand new levels and locations
, with the aim to create something new to the franchise. The multiplayer trailer does show that Green Hill will be returning yet again, but this time around, it's relegated to the side multiplayer mode alongside opening cutscene for Amy instead of being a main zone. - Another criticism with several modern games (barring Mania) is that they had lacked the iconic momentum-based physics the early games featured, with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and the Classic Sonic stages in Sonic Forces being the most notorious in this regard. That same article revealed that Iizuka made sure that the Genesis games' physics and controls were the very first thing they replicated, and pre-release gameplay footage has shown that the game's controls are indeed accurate to the original games.
- A common criticism aimed toward the otherwise acclaimed Sonic Mania is the fact that two-thirds of the zones are taken from previous games in the series. More generally speaking, fans were tired to see Green Hill Zone and other pre-existing zones reused again and again in recent games. This time around, Takashi Iizuka confirmed for IGN that Superstars will primarily consist of brand new levels and locations
- Content Leak:
- Similar to the last few games in the series, the game ended up getting its street date broken a week before release, causing much of the game's content to become prematurely leaked onto the internet.
- In an update released for the game in December 2023, there were references to "Shadow the Hedgehog" and "IHOP Amy" costumes left in the code a few months before the costumes were officially added to the game. The Shadow the Hedgehog-themed costume was added in February, while "IHOP Amy" was added as part of a Dualvertisement in collaboration with the restaurant chain.
- Creator's Favorite Episode: Naoto Ohshima has stated this to be the best Sonic game he has worked on in one interview.
- Demand Overload: The game's sales were initially slow until it received a price drop on Black Friday, at which point it became very difficult to buy physical copies.
- Development Gag:
- The maze bonus stages are shown to have a multilayered appearance identical to the scrapped bonus stages that were originally planned for Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
- One of the DLC costumes included in the Digital Deluxe Edition is known as the "rabbit skin." This is directly based on Sonic's pre-hedgehog design (known informally as "Feels the Rabbit"), where Ohshima originally designed him as a rabbit wearing a bow tie and long ears that could throw objects.
- One of Fang's previous aliases in the prologue comic is "Jet the Jerboa", which was a name seen in early promos for Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble.
- Golden Capital Zone features a golden loop with a stylized sun emblem at the top, calling back to a similarly designed loop featured in concept art◊ for Sonic the Hedgehog.
- The maze bonus stages are shown to have a multilayered appearance identical to the scrapped bonus stages
- Dueling Games: Super Mario Bros. also has a new 2D installment, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, coming out around the same time. Much like Superstars, it also features new powerups, form-changing mechanics, four-player co-op, and a female character being playable on a 2D home console game for the first time in years.
- Kids' Meal Toy: Between late 2023 and early 2024, McDonald's released a set of toys featuring featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow on cardboard skates (designed after the Extreme Gear from Sonic Riders) with rubber wheels in certain European territories. Despite the toys using modern Sonic designs, commercials denote the promotion as being a tie-in to Sonic Superstars.
- Pre-Order Bonus: The ones included with the physical versions of the game includes an acrylic stand, reversible cover and bizarrely, an in-game skin for Eggman that's literally his LEGO Minifigure design.
- Promoted Fanboy: After getting a shout-out in the Sonic Twitter Takeover as the Sonic Lore Master, Sega eventually hired the popular Sonic YouTuber Cybershell to promote this game with a video about the history of Fang, making him the official Sonic Lore Master.
- Refitted for Sequel:
- Takashi Iizuka revealed in an interview that Sonic Team wanted to add Amy as a playable character in Sonic Mania, but they were unable to due to time constraints. Besides Sonic Origins Plus, they're finally able to for this game.
- Golden Capital Zone is based on concept art for a zone◊ that didn't make it into Sonic 1. The loops in this stage are identical to the loop seen in the lone concept art.
- The True Final Boss being a dragon was originally planned for Sonic 3 & Knuckles (and traces of the idea can be found in Sonic 3's Japanese manual), but the dragon idea was scrapped in favor of the fight against Eggman in Doomsday Zone. The dragon idea would be revisited in this game nearly 30 years later in the form of Black Dragon.
- Sequel Gap: Not counting Classic Sonic's appearances in games like Sonic Forces or Sonic Origins, this game comes six years after Sonic Mania was released in 2017.
- Teasing Creator:
- While Ian Flynn has confirmed he has nothing to do with the game, he still put in a #KnowingSmile in the tweet, which is his usual way of teasing that he's still got something in mind, even if it's not in the game directly. He was eventually revealed to have been responsible for writing the animated prologue Trio of Trouble and the comic prologue Fang's Big Break.
- The reveal trailer ends just before Fang enters Bridge Island Zone, denying a glimpse at his updated look, which the official website eventually revealed.
- What Could Have Been:
- An interview with Iizuka by VGC reveals that he had planned on collaborating again with Christian "Taxman" Whitehead and the Sonic Mania team on whatever the next 2D Sonic game would be, but plans ultimately fell through. A later interview with GameInformer goes into more depth on why a direct sequel to Mania did not happen, with Iizuka and Whitehead explaining that it was not due to a fallout between Sonic Team and the Mania team, (which was a popular urban myth), but rather, it was because Sonic Team wanted to take Classic Sonic in a different direction from Mania and Whitehead wanted to shift his focus away from Sonic in favor of developing an original IP with his studio Evening Star, which became Penny's Big Breakaway.
- According to an interview with Iizuka from Shacknews, the devs originally considered having the game be done in a 2D animated frame-by-frame art style (akin to games like Wario Land: Shake It! and Rayman Origins), before deciding to go for 3D graphics instead due to the devs feeling they better conveyed certain elements of Classic Sonic and his gameplay style than traditional 2D graphics would.
- Per the digital art book, apparently there were plans to incorporate the Tails Doll into the game, possibly as a Battle Mode character, but it didn't pan out. It still makes a cameo in Pinball Carnival Act 2, though.
- There may also have been plans to incorporate all of the giant animals into the game as well. All of them except two made it in.
- An unused design for the True Final Boss heavily resembles Trip's Super Form, implying a much greater connection between the two than what was presented in game.
- An interview with Iizuka by VGC
- Word of God:
- According to Takashi Iizuka, Superstars takes place between Mania and Adventure.
- According to Sonic Frontiers' writer Ian Flynn, the purple moon in the background of Egg Fortress Zone is not THE END.
- According to Flynn on an episode of the BumbleKast, the unnamed black gem seen throughout the game and is used to seal the Black Dragon during the Last Story mode is called the Black Onyxnote . This item and a lot of lore related to the game was also not mentioned in-game, much to Flynn's surprise.
- Working Title: Sonic Orion, which was accidentally revealed through the thumbnail of the announcement trailer on the game's website.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/SonicSuperstars
FollowingTrivia / Sonic Superstars
Go To
