Sonic Superstars called on series veteran after potential Mania follow-up fell through

Sonic Mania brought a fresh look to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog formula right as the franchise was turning a new corner at full speed, and fans have been waiting for some kind of follow-up ever since. So when Sega dropped the surprise reveal of Sonic Superstars during Summer Game Fest, connections were drawn very quickly to the 2017 hit—only for hopes to be dashed by the head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka.

During previews for Superstars at the Summer Game Fest Play Days, fans noticed a few things about the game, namely the new studio listed as the title’s developer—Arzest.

Arzest is a Japanese studio founded in June 2010 and developed a number of games such as Yoshi’s New Island, Hey! Pikmin, and, everyone’s personal favorite, Balan Wonderworld. And, while those titles might not give fans hope Superstars can flourish, you have to remember that among Arzest’s top brass is Sega legend Naoto Ohshima.

Ohshima is credited as the creator of Sonic, Dr. Eggman, and other classic characters, serving in various roles on Sonic titles up through ​​Sonic Adventure—now, he is back working with the blue blur directly for the first time in more than 20 years. Notably, if Arzest is developing the game, that means the Mania team likely has very little to do with Superstars. 

Iizuka noted that Sonic Team was originally planning to go ahead with members of the Mania team again, including director and fan game designer Christian Whitehead, according to a June 11 interview with VGC. Concepts were thrown around when Mania finished development about future 2D Sonic projects, but they ended up falling through for reasons the studio head did not mention.

At some point post-Mania’s launch, Iizuka was talking to Ohshima and brought up the idea of Arzest potentially working on a Sonic game, asking if he would be interested.

“So there were ideas with Chris and the team that fell through,” Iizuka said to VGC. “Sonic Superstars is really all developed by Arzest, but Sonic Team in Japan is working with them on design and some other elements. Arzest and Ohshima-san are 100 percent developers of the game.”

That might bum some fans out since this means many people from Whitehead’s team PagodaWest Games are not involved and takes this from a Mania follow-up into completely uncharted waters. But it looks like Sega and Sonic Team are embracing that fact. 

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We know that Superstars won’t feature many of the iconic locations Sonic fans are used to seeing in most games—especially 2D ones—and is introducing new Emerald Powers alongside features like four-player co-op.

Iizuka and his team have full faith in Arzest’s capability to deliver a new Sonic title with that classic flair—in large thanks to Ohshima. 

“This is a brand new classic Sonic game that’s been developed,” Iizuka said to Eurogamer on June 11. “And in order to recreate that classic Sonic gameplay, we needed someone who understands the classic Sonic series and understands that gameplay format, in order to really execute well on the final product.”

Who better to take a shot at another new 2D iteration of Sonic than someone who created the character and worked as a level designer on the original title back in 1991?

Mania fans do get a win under their belts anyway since Iizuka confirmed composer Tee Lopes is returning to work on the game alongside Sonic 3 original composer Jun Senoue and the internal audio team at Sega. Now, we just need to wait for that Fall 2023 release date—hopefully, confirmed soon.