Game Designer Explains: Why Sonic Mania Succeeded, where Superstars Failed

People who think Mania is worse because it has less original zones have no idea how quality works 😂

The best way to describe Superstars is that it feels like a lost 3DS game. Had it released on the handheld in like 2016, I don’t think it would be getting dogged on as much, even when it has a $60 price tag and is an overall below average experience.

And it wasn’t like they needed Headcannon or Evening Star to develop it. Mania was the perfect blueprint to make a brilliant successor that was more than just Mania with new levels and 4-player co-op. It feels like they knew that people were gonna buy it because of Mania’s success and cranked it out to try and rival Mario Wonder.

I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Sonic Mania, but I can already see which one will age better.
Sonic Mania is a game that can be enjoyed from beginning to end, while Sonic Superstars can hardly be enjoyed for more than two stages without interruptions.

This video is called "Game Designer Explains" so I was expecting you to talk more about game design.
Most of it is about aesthetic and concepts. The music commentary is also lacking knowledge about the subject (i.e. what soundchips are)
For me, the title really lead me to except something else. If it had been "my thoughts on superstars" I think I would have more prepared for this kind of video.
Your video is perfectly fine! Just know that a title like that can lead to a certain expectation different from the actual content.
Have good day and keep at it! 🙂

The Shocking Thing is that Mania sold around one million copies while superstars sold around 4.3 million copies

the catapillar boss aside, i'd argue that in Mania, even all of the bosses that make you wait to hit the boss easily makes up for it by still making playing the game entertaining during that window of time.

Personally, Maina has more replay value than Superstars, people like to harp on Mania for not having more original zones (which was because Sega wanted them, not the devs) but those zones are much much better quality-wise than Superstars. That's not to say Superstars itself is a terrible game.

Sonic Superstar brings that sonic 4 vibe to the function nobody asked for.

The thing about Fang's theme is that, while it doesn't sound "bad" to me, what it does sound like is... confused. Were I to hear it without that context, I would not be able to tell what it's supposed to be for, and the last thing I'd guess is "bounty hunter boss music". Considering my view of what makes music significant in the first place? That's an even worse failure than sounding bad.

Sonic Mania started as a passion project primarily produced by known members of the Sonic ROM hacking community. Superstars is a corporate product.

Christian Whitehead seemed to want to make more original stages for Mania, but Sega mandated his team bring back classic stages, and that he include the Phantom Ruby to tie into Sonic Forces. So he did his best to put a new spindash on each of those stages and wrote a better story than Forces involving the Phantom Ruby and the origin of the Hard-Boiled Heavies.


Side note: The Hard-Boiled Heavies are some of the most well-thought out and cool designed baddies since Mephiles, Chaos, Metal Sonic and even Shadow.


Infinite, The Generic Deadly Six, and The Amorphous Purple Asteroid from Frontiers got nothing on The Heavy King.


Whitehead did an interesting interview on the Heavies and how their names and personas were manifested by the Phantom Ruby. The animal in Heavy King’s Egg Robo saw itself as a king, hence the name, personality and appearance. Brilliant!

The genesis sound isn’t even bad, it’s just that whoever is in charge of using it, doesn’t know how to use it

I said ina different comment section that Sonic Superstars feels like an upscaled/remaster Wii game and they jumped me. I still stand by my word 💯

sonic superstar has that sonic 4 kinda vibe

I don't think Superstars is evn half as bad as this essay try to depict it. Mania is the better game yes, but Superstars is enjoyable at least

sonic superstars failed for stupid reasons honestly its not even because people are tired of classic sonic gameplay

I don’t like Superstars because of it’s bosses they take WAY to long to beat and the final bosses of each story are unreasonably difficult having 2-3 phases all taking at least 7 hits to beat before the next phase and it takes so long to hit between attacks they also have instant kill attacks they drag on too long.

I am in the wrong for enjoying both? Like... by equal? 😞

You DO know that the classic forces tracks use a real SEGA Genesis right?????

A local theater should do a production of "Waiting for Godot", except this version would be "Waiting for the Opportunity to Attack the Sonic Superstars Boss".