At Summer Games Fest, we got the reveal of a new entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise called Sonic Superstars. We got to sit down and play the game today and, though it’s not Sonic Mania, it is still an enjoyable venture into a new side scrolling  adventure for Sonic and his friends.

While the game can be played with up to four players, we were only able to play single player. We got to choose between two different levels with one being more of a straightforward classic Sonic momentum based level, and the other was more of a gimmicky level that featured vines grind on or grab and propel off of and poles to swing from. Of the two levels, the more that felt more like a classic Sonic level was far more enjoyable as the games are all about momentum and having to stop and shoot yourself up a loads of vines to the next area to finally get back to classic speed and and momentum the 2D games are known for.

The game feels like classic Sonic, and the new additions to level design such as half pipes, mid air platforms, and bouncing to the background or foreground don’t ruin your speed or anything. Thus, you can still zoom through a level if you’re good enough.  The chaos emeralds are still here for you to find in a level as well. This time though, finding the emeralds gives you an additional power. The one we found allows for your character to swim up waterfalls. Thus, it gave us new ways to explore the level.

We got to fight four different bosses with one happening at the end of each Act of the two levels. The first boss was an awesome chase sequence as this giant robot shark chases you across the screen while destroying the ground making us have to pay attention to what was coming up while not getting hit by the boss.

Overall, Sonic Superstars looks to be fun new entry in the franchise and hopefully it lives up to how good  the classic 2D games are. Sonic Superstars is set to release sometime this Fall on all platforms.