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Sonic Superstars Release Date May Have Been Leaked By Retailers
GameStop and Target may have leaked the release date for Sonic Superstars following the Sonic Central livestream.
As spotted by Wario64, GameStop and Target, where Sonic Superstars is up for pre-order, listed its release date as October 17 on their websites, a month earlier than most Sonic game releases. IGN, however, found that the release date was later switched to the placeholder date of December 31, 2023 on both retailers' websites.
Sonic Superstars releases Oct 17th according to GameStop and Target https://t.Co/W6sXUr6ARB
— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 23, 2023Sega of America did not respond to IGN's request for comment on the matter.
Sonic Superstars was revealed at Summer Game Fest earlier this month with a Fall 2023 release window. Given that the trailer for the game dropped so recently, it would mark a pretty quick turnaround to reveal its exact release date now.
General speculation, though, places the game somewhere between August and October. While August is techincally a summer month, Sonic Mania released at that time in 2017. And while November technically counts as a Fall month, typically, when Sega drops a new Sonic game trailer showing a Winter or Holiday release window such as Sonic Frontiers, the game gets a November release date several months later.
If Sonic Superstars is indeed slated to release on October 17, it would be in competition with Alan Wake 2, which comes out the same day. It would also be competing with Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, which come out October 20.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
Sonic Superstars: Release Date, Trailers & Everything We Know
Cassidy Stephenson❘ Published: 2023-06-24T14:57:12
❘ Updated: 2023-06-24T14:57:24
Sega revealed Sonic Superstars at the 2023 Summer Game Fest – here's all the information we know about the upcoming side-scrolling platformer.
In the past few years, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has received loads of new content in the form of movies, video games, and the animated series Sonic Prime. Now, fans of the Sonic games' 2D style can't wait to get their hands on Sonic Superstars.
The last completely new 2D entry of the Sonic series was the 2017 game Sonic Mania – which featured nostalgic retro graphics. The title received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with over a million copies sold worldwide within a year of release.
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Diehard 2D Sonic fans also have the recently released Sonic Origins Plus to tide them over with remasters of older titles in the series.
Following the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and Sonic Frontiers, fans are eager to play the next installment. Here's all the scoop on the Sonic Superstars.
Contents Sonic Superstars release date
SEGA While Summer Game Fest announced Sonic Superstars would launch in Fall 2023, its specific release date may have leaked. As first reported by Sonic Stadium, a listing on Target's website revealed Sonic Superstars would come out on October 17, 2023 – three days after Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
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Sonic Superstars platformsPhysical and digital versions of Sonic Superstars will be available to purchase for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
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Sonic Superstars trailersSonic Superstars' announcement trailer premiered at the 2023 Summer Game Fest. The video showed off the game's upgraded graphics and new abilities for players to try out.
During the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, Sonic Superstars received another trailer featuring more playable characters. Players can utilize Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy's different abilities in Sonic Superstars while completing levels.
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Sonic Superstars gameplayThe game's descriptions read: "Adventure through the mystical Northstar Islands in this all-new take on classic 2D Sonic high-speed action platforming. Play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose and harness all-new Emerald powers to move and attack in dynamic new ways."
"Navigate gorgeous, never-before-seen environments solo or with up to 3 other players and stop Dr. Eggman, Fang, and a mysterious new adversary from converting the islands' giant animals into Badniks before it's too late!"
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That's everything we know about Sonic Superstars. We will update this article once we learn more information.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2Assassin's Creed MirageThe Elder Scrolls 6GTA 6WolverineKOTR RemakeWonder WomanDokeVDragon Age 4Avatar Frontiers of PandoraMetal Gear Solid 3 RemakeCounter-Strike 2Mortal Kombat 1AEW: Fight ForeverStarfieldEA Sports FCAlan Wake 2
Pushing Buttons: Why Sonic And Mario Duelling It Out In 2D Again Will Be A Spectacle
Rivalry is a vital element of fandom. Whether its punks v rockers, Star Trek v Star Wars or Marvel v DC, subcultures have always defined themselves by what they're not as much as what they are. Which is why I'm secretly delighted that Sega and Nintendo are apparently releasing their new Sonic and Mario games within days of each other this October. Both Super Mario Bros Wonder and Sega Superstars are nostalgic callbacks to the era of 2D platforming. Both games allow players to select from a range of classic characters and take on the rich, lushly colourful environments in cooperative modes, and both supplement the retro aesthetics with new abilities. Mario can transform into an elephant and use his trunk to batter enemies. Sonic can harness chaos emerald power to, say, transform into a watery version of himself so that he can swim up waterfalls.
After visiting the Summer Games Fest in Los Angeles earlier this month, I am thrilled to hear other attendees vividly debating the merits of the two titles. At the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in 1991, Sega made its rivalry with Nintendo the theme of its stand, where the Mega Drive console (known as Genesis in the US) was being shown to American audiences for the first time. Visitors could watch a video demo of Sonic the Hedgehog playing side-by-side with Super Mario World on a big CRT monitor in the centre of the space. While the latter was sedate, comfortable and somewhat childish, Sonic pelted across the screen like a comet, synth-rock blaring. Famously, when tech reporters tried to talk to Sega about the much smaller colour palette of the Mega Drive hardware compared to the Super Nintendo, Sega's then head of marketing Al Nilsen would point at the games running side by side and yell: "Which has more colours? Can you tell? Nobody cares!"
For years, Mario has won this battle easily. While Mario games have consistently been wonderful explorations of design and technology – Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey – Sonic's back catalogue is … patchy. For every Sonic Rush, there's a Shadow the Hedgehog. (I can't go on, it's too painful.) Anyway, in 2023, where the companies have moved in very different directions, the arrival of Super Mario Wonder and Sonic Superstars (with Knuckles pictured top right) so close together feels more like a statement about the industry than an attempt to outdo each other. Game development has become bloated and ruinously expensive, with open 3D environments requiring years of work, vast teams and bleeding-edge physics engines. Taking these games back to their roots has no doubt allowed Sega and Nintendo to focus their efforts and produce gorgeous-looking games with smaller teams in shorter production cycles.
It's no coincidence that Ubisoft has also taken a similar route with its latest Prince of Persia title, subtitled The Lost Crown, due for release in early 2024. It's a multi-directional scrolling adventure taking in palaces, caves and dungeons, with lots of pixel-perfect jumping, and featuring a rewind mechanic for when you inevitably fall into a pit of spikes. I played a demo at Ubisoft's showcase in Los Angeles and the 2D visuals brought back the sharp precision of the original titles. It was a real pleasure. I think if this is a success, we're going to see the company bringing more of its titles back into 2D – some of my favourite Splinter Cell titles were the 2D adventures produced for early gaming mobile phones, by partner company Gameloft. I'd love to see something like those again. Interestingly, at the LA event, Ubisoft also showed Assassin's Creed Mirage (pictured below), the latest title in the open-world assassination sim – only this time, the whole adventure is confined to one city. Even with 3D games, publishers are looking at ways to rein in spiralling production costs.
Assassin's Creed Mirage. Photograph: UbisoftOf course, independent game studios have been exploring and experimenting with 2D visuals throughout the last decade, from the haunted realms of Inside to the colourful carnage of Super Meat Boy, and there are some treasures still on the way, including Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, Everdeep Aurora and Mineko's Night Garden. In the PC indie world, the key genres are roguelike fantasy adventures, deck-building games and "Metroidvania" platformers – all of which use 2D visuals in interesting, expressive ways.
But the return of Mario v Sonic brings with it a layer of reminiscence that will feel personal to a lot of veteran gamers. The pipes of Mushroom Kingdom, the pinball bumpers of the Green Hill Zone, the sound effects, the enemies – these are entrenched memories, as vital and emotional as pop choruses or Star Wars battle scenes. I sometimes wonder if it became harder to store visual memories of game worlds in the 3D era – too much space, too much to see and recall. You experienced 2D platformers like a book, from left to right, each discrete stage a single chapter. You didn't just play Sonic and Mario, you read them. I could probably play Green Hill Zone with my eyes shut, just as I can recall great chunks of the Shakespeare, Larkin and Fitzgerald I read at school and university.
Rivalry is a vital element of fandom, but so is community and shared memory. Sonic and Mario are replete with the stuff – they are memory machines. I'm happy to see them duel again, although this time, I won't have to stay on the Sega side; I can play both. Nostalgia is fine, but progress is crucial.
What to play Foggy with intrigue … Mask of the Rose. Photograph: Failbetter GamesI've only just started Mask of the Rose, a new narrative adventure from Failbetter Games, the ludicrously creative team behind Fallen London and Sunless Sea. It's part visual novel, part dating sim, set in the studio's vision of an alternate gothic London, foggy with intrigue and monstrous threat. Players craft their own stories and complex relationships while investigating a grisly murder. There are elements of Alan Moore and Sarah Waters in the writing and setting, which I love, and the way narrative is systemised is really intriguing. Give it a go, if you want to see how games can approach stories in a very different way to other media.
Available on: PC/Mac, Nintendo Switch (coming to PlayStation and Xbox soon)Estimated playtime: 20+ hours
What to clickFinal Fantasy XVI review – sophisticated spectacle is a breath of fresh air
Xbox chief Phil Spencer on AI: 'I'm protective of the creative process'
Super Mario leaps back to 2D as Nintendo goes retro
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What to read Investor super-fan … Splatoon 3. Photograph: NintendoThe most bizarre example of over-enthusiastic fandom seems to have taken place at a recent Nintendo shareholder conference call. The meeting was disrupted by a fan of Splatoon 3 who bought $3,500 in stock just to complain about the game's customisation options. Seems reasonable.
YouTube's parent company, Google, seems to still have cloud-gaming ambitions, even after the collapse of the Stadia streaming service in 2022. The Wall Street Journal has reported that YouTube is testing a games service that will allow users of the video-sharing platform to play games on its website or phone apps.
Call it Forza Horizon x Barbie. This is the kind of video game movie tie-in I can get behind: open-world driving sim Forza Horizon 5 is getting two free downloadable cars from the forthcoming Barbie movie. Fans will be able to drive Barbie's 1956 Chevrolet Corvette or Ken's Hummer. Meanwhile, Wimbledon and Nike have each announced new partnerships with Fortnite, creating their own branded environments for the still-popular battle royale game. For better or worse, the metaverse is already here.
If you're looking for a video game-themed comic to get into, I can recommend Arcade Kings from Image Comics. It's a bright, colourful family drama set amid the competitive gaming scene in the fictitious Infinity City. Great script and some interesting ideas.
This week reader Rob asks: Following the announcement that Starfield's "physical" edition won't come with an actual disc (just a code), are we increasingly heading towards a digital-only world?
As a quick clarification, Bethesda later confirmed that the Xbox version of Starfield will come with a physical disc, but it looks like it'll just be a code on PC. Anyway, to answer your question, digital-only is almost inevitable for the games industry: it's cheaper from a manufacturing and distribution standpoint, and it gives publishers complete control over the code and the way players experience it – it can be patched, altered, updated and even deleted without there being a physical artefact to worry about.
This is a concern for a lot of players, however, because as a consumer you don't own anything, you're at the whim of a corporation, and if the game requires online connectivity (which most digital games do), then you could lose the game and everything you've done in it if the company behind it stops providing support or closes or is bought by another company.
There are also concerns about preservation. Museums and academic institutions will find it immeasurably more difficult in a digital-only industry to build games collections. We've lost many hundreds of early mobile phone games because the original digital platforms they were on are now defunct. Will the same happen to Xbox and PlayStation games? This industry has an extremely poor record when it comes to preserving legacy hardware and software, and if the big corporations can cut costs and better control their products through digital-only distribution, that's what we'll get – perhaps with the odd overpriced limited edition physical release for fans. Depressing stuff.
If you've got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.Com
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