Sonic Superstars

Sonic Superstars
Developers: Arzest, Sonic Team Publisher: Sega Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch Released internationally: October 17, 2023 This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Marking Naoto Ohshima's return to the series that put him on the map, Sonic Superstars is the first 2D Sonic game since 2017's Sonic Mania, featuring entirely original levels, a new 2.5D art style, Fang the Sniper Hunter making his proper return after a very small cameo in Mania, and Rayman Origins-esque four-player co-op. It's notable for being the first mainline Sonic title to have been made with the Unity engine.

Also, Trip the Sungazer.

To do: Everything.

Sub-Pages

Unused Music There's a lot in here, for some reason. Sonic 4, anyone?

Debug Menu

To do: Test this on other platforms.

Finish Story Mode, then input one of the following button combinations on the main menu:

• PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5: Square, Square, Triangle, Triangle, Square, Square, Square, Square
• Xbox One/Xbox Series X: X, X, Y, Y, X, X, X, X
• Switch: Y, Y, X, X, Y, Y, Y, Y

It's a very basic debugging utility; don't expect to be placing objects in-level like in the older 2D Sonic games. It's a bit closer to the Level Select and Sound Test cheats from older Sonic games, but this was absolutely a developer tool that Arzest forgot to disable in the retail game, judging by it being called a "debug menu" and its basic appearance. There are two options you can select: "Stage Select" and "Sound Test".

Stage Select lets you choose any stage and any character, though trying to access the character-specific Acts with anyone else will instead have the game pick the character the stage was designed for.

Sound Test has no sound effects, just the zone music.

Internal Project Name

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: Is this image actually in the game files? If not, move it to Prerelease.

Sonic Superstars is named "Sonic Orion" internally, according to the name of the game's Switch save file. This title also appears in a few screenshots of an early logo on the game’s website (which was later removed).

Platform Differences

To do: More differences between platforms to document? Go into more detail and add sources: this info is mostly from the Digital Foundry video List any differences exclusive to the Xbox One and Xbox One X versions Get screenshots from each version.

• The game renders in 4K on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, 1080p on Xbox Series S, and 720p on Nintendo Switch.
• As with other 3D Sonic games on the platform, the Nintendo Switch version utilizes lower-polygonal meshes throughout the game, texture quality is reduced, and post-processing is generally simplified. (Most noticeably, bloom and depth-of-field are completely disabled). Characters, enemies, objects, etc. do not cast shadows in this version either.
  • The waterfalls in Bridge Island Zone are opaque in the Switch version. In all other versions, they're translucent.
• While all versions of the game target 60fps, the PC version has support for 120fps.
  • This introduces a bug where charging a spin dash feels somewhat slower than it would at 60fps.
• In terms of input response, the PC and Switch versions are the best in this regard, with the PlayStation 5 version being not far behind, only having slight input lag. The Xbox Series X|S version has noticeably more input lag for unknown reasons.
• The PS4 version has somewhat downgraded graphics and has/had various bugs.