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New Super Sonic Bros. 3 - 4 Super Stars

SEGA's attempt to make the next generation 2D Sonic game had great intentions with some good things going for it, but ultimately falls short of greatness.
When it comes to the play control and game feel, it's pretty much spot on. If you've played the classic Mega Drive games or Mania, you should know exactly what to expect. Rolling down slopes feels natural, you gain speed from momentum and I had no issues lining up jumps. It all works and feels great.
This game has four playable characters. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles I have zero complaints with. They play exactly how you expect them to, complete with their signature moves and abilities. Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and climb walls, while Sonic can drop dash. All three provide some variety to the game with each having their own pros and cons while keeping the core focus of the game intact.
Amy Rose, much like in Origins Plus, is the worst character in this game and lacks everything that made her unique back in Sonic Advance. In that game, she could use her hammer to attack enemies but couldn't spin jump into them, changing the way you approach the game's levels. Here, all she has going for her is a double jump, an ability Sonic could do with the lightning shield, and holding jump when you land lets you use her hammer. Even Mighty and Ray in Mania had more unique abilities that made playing as them worthwhile.
One of the new additions to this game are the emerald powers. For each emerald you collect, you'll gain a new power you can use once per checkpoint such as slowing down time, creating clones of yourself or shooting like a cannonball. While a cool idea, I rarely ever used them. The liquid power is almost useless as there's very few places you can actually use it in the whole game, creating a vine felt very situational and I never used the Might power once. Selecting powers barely works - my selection wheel often gets stuck when I let go of the right stick, preventing me from using them.
The co-op is insanely broken. The camera always follows whoever's towards the right-most side of the screen, with any straggling players automatically being ejected from play until they press the jump button to return to the action. Given how fast these games play, this will happen constantly and it doesn't make for a fun time if you're playing with family or friends. This has nothing on Advance 3's co-op where everybody had their own screen and only got called to the other player when needed for tag actions.
This modern Sonic game released in 2023 has no online co-op whatsoever for the entire campaign, which is inexcusable as Sonic 4 Episode 2 had this feature back in 2012. Granted, it wasn't great in that game either but at least it was an option. Not that it matters much anyway as this game features levels you can only play as one character with no co-op, and all the post-game content can only be played solo. Co-op was one of this game's main selling points; why even make it co-op when you can't even play a good chunk of it in co-op at all?
I never tried the online Battle Mode for this game, which nobody is playing anyway. This is the only part of the game that can be played online, which makes me question even more why online co-op in the main game isn't possible. This is the whole reason for the Epic Games account requirement to play this game when it launched; it has since been updated to remove the requirement, but even after that they still didn't add online co-op.
The music is a very mixed bag. About half the music is awful and suffers the same problem as Sonic 4's OST in that it tries way too hard to imitate the Mega Drive sound hardware. I wish Sonic Team would stop doing this for their modern Sonic games considering other side-scrollers with modern graphics don't try to sound retro for nostalgia. The main menu and HUB area music are the worst tracks to listen to with their short 10 second loops and ear piercing instrumentation.
The best tracks in the game are when it's not trying to sound like the Mega Drive. Bridge Island and Lagoon City are great highlights for me and makes me wish the entire OST sounded like this. Also, what exactly was wrong with Mania's OST? That game had 2D pixel art but its music sounded nothing like a Mega Drive game, and it was much better off for it as its entire OST was fantastic. Same goes for the Sonic Advance trilogy - they sounded like actual GBA games rather than trying to imitate the Mega Drive.
These are also among some of the worst bosses in the entire franchise. Almost all of them just consist of waiting around and dodging their attacks before finally hitting their weak points. They're not fun at all and can easily drag on for 2-3 minutes which is far too long. I don't mind them being challenging so long as they're actually exciting the entire time. Golden Capital Act 2 is especially bad with how long it takes between phases just standing on a platform avoiding obstacles, which gets boring real quickly. They fail to understand what made the bosses in the classic games or the GBA trilogy fun in the first place.
It's a shame too, because I thought the level design wasn't too bad. Sure, it won't give Mania a run for its money, but they do offer plenty of alternate routes and secret areas to uncover that can make repeat runs enjoyable. There's some cool ideas like the pump in Press Factory Act 1 bouncing you if you're on the ground, Egg Station Act 2 having you play the entire Act 1 backwards under a time limit and Cyber Station as a whole. It's just that I rarely ever want to replay them because the bosses at the end ruin them. Good thing then that Time Attack doesn't feature bosses at all.
That said, it's not without issues. For some reason, some zones only have 1 act, while others have 3 (one act is character specific). Frozen Base Act 2 is wasted by a weird Phantasy Zone shooting level that plays nothing like the rest of the game and should've been an optional mini-game instead. This game also features a HUB area that may as well not even exist. It's just a glorified level select that adds nothing to the game whereas Advance 3 actually required players to explore the HUBs to find different acts and bonus stages to play.
Had this been a A$60 instead of a A$95 game, maybe I wouldn't call this amazing or anything, but I would've given this a cautious recommendation at least. This game is just... okay, but very overpriced. Charging as much as Sonic Frontiers and other AAA games is highway robbery if you ask me considering this feels more like a budget title that can be finished in 3 hours to tide fans over until the next big Sonic game. Those with a Switch should pick up Mario Wonder instead - it had far more content with a lot more originality and actually had online co-op, all at a cheaper price tag than this. Even Mania was priced much more fairly.
If you only have a PC, here is just a short list of great 2.5D platformer alternatives you can pick up on Steam for cheaper:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/35700/Trine_Enchanted_Edition/
The entire Trine series (except 3) allows you to play the entire game in online and offline co-op as well as solo, with tons of secrets to find and multiple playable characters.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/846870/YookaLaylee_and_the_Impossible_Lair/
This game does a lot more to innovate the 2.5D platforming genre, has more content to keep you occupied and with so much more personality throughout.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1730680/Klonoa_Phantasy_Reverie_Series/
Two remastered games for less than the price of one, with captivating stories, well made puzzles and fun boss encounters.
If you're a Sonic fan, I guess it wouldn't hurt to give this game a try. Just wait for a massive sale if you're still interested. For everyone else, give this one a pass. This won't make you a fan of the series at all. Try Mania instead.