Skip to main content

Sonic Superstars brings the series back to 2D with co-op

Multiple Sonics fight a robot in Sonic Superstars.
Sega

Sega revealed the next installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic Superstars is a co-op-focused title that’s coming this fall on consoles and PC.

The news comes from this year’s Summer Game Fest kickoff stream and it’s notable considering that Sonic Frontiers was a no-show at the event’s 2022 stream, despite teasing it beforehand. This year, though, Summer Game Fest made up for that by nabbing the surprising reveal.

Sonic Superstars - Announce Trailer

A trailer for the game showed classic 2D Sonic gameplay in a modern art style We see Sonic zipping around familiar zones, including some of the series’ classic bonus stages. It looks like a throwback to the series’ Sega Genesis days with some modern twists.

Most notable is that the game features co-op. Players can control Sonic, Tails, Knucks, and Amy, working together in stages. The trailer ended with a tease that more characters might be playable too, as the trailer ends with Fang appearing on screen.

The news comes as a bit of a surprise considering that Sonic Frontiers, the series’ most recent installment, just launched last November. Last year, director Takashi Iizuka told Digital Trends that the game would mark the start of the “third generation” of Sonic games, implying that future games would follow its open-zone template. Sonic Superstars isn’t going in that direction though, instead going back to traditional 2D gameplay.

Sonic Superstars will launch this fall on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Editors' Recommendations

Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
Sega is putting all of its chips on the table with Sonic Frontiers
Sonic grinding on a rail.

Back in May, I wrote about how Sonic Frontiers miraculously avoided the controversial Sonic Cycle by keeping updates dry between its first teaser trailer and its official announcement trailer at The Game Awards last year. Now the game is less than two months away from release, and with the reveal of four more trailers, two alternative rock songs taking us back to 2007 (Vandalize by One OK Rock and I'm Here by To Octavia's Merry Kirk-Holmes), and Super Sonic making his triumphant return at the Tokyo Game Show, Sega seems confident that it will be a big deal for the franchise. Hell, I'm feeling more confident about this game than I ever felt for some of its predecessors. And that's saying something.

In fact, Sega is so sure about Sonic Frontiers that it's pricing the game at $60 -- or in the case of the Digital Deluxe Edition, $70 -- and putting it in direct competition with God of War: Ragnarok and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet in November. It's a big gamble to go all in on, but also a sore point for some Sonic fans. Most current-gen AAA games are priced between $60 and $70 due to enhanced graphics, controls, and the engines they run on, but some have balked at Frontiers’ price tag not only because it's "too expensive," but because they can't remember the last time a Sonic game cost that much.

Read more
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will speed into theaters in 2024
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stand beside each other in team formation in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

It seems the Sonic cinematic universe is sticking with the pattern of releasing a Sonic film every two years. Paramount Pictures and the official Sonic movie Twitter account announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be coming to theaters on December 20, 2024.

https://twitter.com/SonicMovie/status/1556795919688798208

Read more
Sonic Frontiers will kick off the “third generation” of Sonic games
Sonic stares at a landscape in Sonic Frontiers.

Considering that Sonic has a need for speed, it’s rare that you ever see the blue blur standing in one place for too long. That trait seems to have rubbed off on the series’ developers, Sonic Team, who seem averse to the idea of comfort zones. Rather than finding one formula that works and sticking to it, the studio has always kept the franchise on its feet by zooming straight ahead. Sometimes, that attitude leads to positive results. Other times, it’s a recipe for disaster. But for what it’s worth, you can’t accuse the Sonic franchise of being boring.

Sonic Frontiers is set to continue that trend. The “open-zone” game is incredibly experimental by Sonic standards, trading in linear levels for an expansive 3D world. It’s a strategic shift that throws decades of Sonic history out the window, a move that’s led to equal parts excitement and confusion among the hedgehog’s most faithful fans.

Read more