Ahead of the launch of Sonic Origins Plus later this month, Sega has officially lifted the lid on the multiplayer platformer Sonic Superstars. It transports Sonic and his friends to a brand new mystical location known as the North Star Islands.
While the gameplay mostly aims to maintain the "classic" feel, the environments will be made up of various "never-before-seen" zones. Speaking to IGN recently, Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka elaborated on this, explaining how players won't be seeing iconic zones like Green Hill or Chemical Plant in this upcoming side-scroller.
"In Sonic Mania, Green Hill Zone changed up a little bit. And even Sonic Origins, we did have Green Hill as part of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what we wanted to do with Sonic Superstars is really create something new and go in there and create these brand new islands that you get to explore as Sonic… We wanted to take Sonic to [the] brand new North Star Islands and have Sonic run around in this new environment. So we wanted to make brand new places for Sonic to go in this new title."
So basically don't expect to see any familiar zones, or classic levels similar to what we saw in Sonic Frontiers' cyberspace sections or more recent 2D Sonic releases by the sounds of it. Iizuka also highlighted how the team has prioritised the "classic" gameplay feel:
"The very first thing the team did was went and replicated that classic gameplay down very precisely. So when you're playing Sonic Superstars, you're going through the core classic Sonic game loop. You're running, you're jumping, you're getting into a ball, you're defeating enemies and you're continuing forward."
This classic gameplay will incorporate 3D-style action from time to time, with Iizuka using a boss battle in a "kind of 3D space" as an example of this. And there'll be some extra abilities on offer, like Amy's hammer.