All of the Emerald Powers in Sonic Superstars have been revealed, as well as details on its Special Stages.
As with previous 2D Sonic games, Chaos Emeralds are acquired in the game’s Special Stages. Now, each Emerald will grant players a special ability to be used throughout the zones.
The idea behind this was to give players smaller rewards, where in previous games a reward was given only once all Chaos Emeralds are acquired (usually Super Sonic).
“We wanted to say, ‘How can we reward someone for getting just one?'” Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka told Game Informer. “And if we reward someone for getting just one, that will motivate people to get each individual one and see what they are. So, part of the new ideas and how Emerald Powers started was in that process of trying to get people excited about getting each individual Emerald.”
Again, as with previous games, Sonic Superstars has seven Chaos Emeralds and therefore seven Emerald Powers (listed in full below). The powers are usable by all of the four playable characters and are accessible with the right stick, operating on a cooldown replenished by star post checkpoints.
Emerald Powers were partly inspired by the Wisps of Sonic Colors, although Sonic Team didn’t want them to be necessary for level traversal.
“In Colors, you need to use the Wisps in order to get around in the level and complete the game, but we didn’t want that to be a part of the Superstars game,” said Iizuka. “We wanted the Classic Sonic gameplay to still remain true, so when we were looking at the Emerald Powers and the Wisps, we wanted to make sure you could still beat Superstars without having to use any of the powers, which is what we needed to balance during game design.”
As for the Special Stages, players will once again access through giant gold rings, like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Players will need to swing from floating bubbles towards a moving objective, with bubbles affecting momentum, stopping you completely, or sending you towards the goal.
The full list of Emerald Powers is as follows:
Avatar: create clones of your character to defeat enemies in their path
Bullet: blast your character in a specific direction
Water: traverse underwater more easily and climb up waterfalls
Ivy: grow vines to reach new areas – these are usable by teammates too
Vision: reveal hidden platforms and rings – an indicator will pop up to notify of its use
Slow: slow everything on the screen
Extra: unlocks a character specific ability:
- Sonic – Homing Attack
- Amy – Hammer Throw
- Knuckles – Punch
- Tails – Tornado Spin
Iizuka also confirmed that collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds will unlock a Super version of each character: they’ll become invincible and faster, as long as you have the rings.
Lastly, Iizuka has clarified that the squid characters shown in the reveal trailer are unique to a particular stage and not an Emerald Power.
Last week, Sega revealed the animated intro for Sonic Superstars and it’s giving all the right retro feels.
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