Sonic Superstars Preview – Exclusive Look At Every Emerald Power

The announcement of Sonic Superstars sparked excitement among the fan base thanks to the return to the 2D style of gameplay found in the beloved retro entries in the franchise but complemented with gorgeous modern visuals. Sonic Superstars is a tribute to the Genesis games, with a few new features to enhance the gameplay that fans have been waiting for. 

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“It really started with recreating those Classic physics and making sure the game had the Classic physics in there,” Sonic Team creative officer Takashi Iizuka says. We said that after we worked on getting the physics to work, it was time to tackle the level designing. Because the Classic level design is so specific, we wanted to make sure the game had a Classic feel. We started by studying the level designs, getting the physics working, and then implementing them.

Emerald Powers are introduced in Sonic Superstars, along with new features like cooperative four-player play and new tricks throughout each zone. Sonic Superstars introduces Emerald Powers, which grant Sonic’s friends and him special powers for Chaos Emeralds that they collect through Special Stages. Sonic Superstars’ Special Stages have you swinging from bubbles towards your target. If you entered through a giant gold ring (like Sonic 3 & Knuckles), your reward is a Chaos Emerald. You can also earn medals if you enter through the giant blue ring. The mission remains the same, regardless of prize: swing from the floating bubbles towards the moving goal. Most of the floating bubbles are based on your speed and release point, but some can cause you to stop dead in your track. 

Emerald Power Inspiration

Unlike past entries, where you only receive the benefits of collecting Chaos Emeralds once you gather all seven, Sonic Superstars gives you shorter-term satisfaction. “We were trying to figure out how we could reward someone who only got one Chaos Emerald.” Iizuka says. We can reward people for getting only one. This will make them want to collect all of the Emeralds and find out what each one is. Emerald Powers was born out of the desire to make people want to collect each Emerald. 

All Emerald Powers are accessible to all playable characters. The powers can be selected using the right stick. They have a cooling down period, and each checkpoint will replenish your cooldown. 

Emerald Powers takes its inspiration for the Wisp mechanism from Modern, which began with Sonic Colors. Emerald Powers does have one important difference. Iizuka explains that in Colors you have to use Wisps to complete the levels. We didn’t think this should be part of Superstars. We wanted Classic Sonic to remain the same, so we looked at Emerald Powers and Wisps to ensure you can still beat Superstars if you don’t use them. This is what we had to balance in the game design.

Sonic Superstars Emerald Powers – Full list

Sonic Superstars has Emerald Powers that are tied to specific Chaos Emeralds. While we do not know their exact unlocking order, we can tell you which Emerald Powers Sonic and friends will be able to use.

Sadly, there are only seven Chaos Emeralds, and Iizuka shoots me down when I float the idea of Super Emeralds enabling them to expand the arsenal, so several ideas were left on the chopping block. Iizuka says, “We had a lot of different ideas for what powers to add into the game.” We had to choose only seven of them because there were only seven Chaos Emeralds. “We had to choose only seven ideas out of all those we came up with. We did come up with some very interesting ones, but they would have exceeded the seven.”

Below you can see the power that made it to the final match.

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