Arzest sought to replicate the Genesis Sonic gameplay while innovating with new game mechanics, with the Chaos Emerald powers introduced to encourage players to seek all seven.

Initial sales were slightly below expectations, attributed to competition from the similar platform game Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023), though Sega reported it had sold well by June 2024.

The player must complete a series of levels across several zones, presented from a 2.5D perspective,[1] to defeat Doctor Eggman, who has hired Fang the Hunter and Trip the Sungazer to capture the North Star Islands' giant animals so he can build a powerful army.

[2][3] Players unlock an additional character, Trip, by completing the main campaign once; her moveset combines Amy's double jump with Knuckles' climbing.

In the first, accessed through giant rings hidden in each act, the player swings from bubbles in a 3D environment to obtain one of the seven Chaos Emeralds.

[8] Collecting all seven emeralds allows the player to transform into their character's super form, granting them speed and invincibility at the cost of ring depletion.

[17] In the second special stage, accessed by passing checkpoints,[18] the player navigates a rotating maze, similar to those from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), to collect medals.

[26] Whitehead denied rumors that the decision was caused by creative differences and said that Evening Star's relationship with Sega remained friendly.

[28] During a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Iizuka and Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima held a drinking party over Zoom for fun.

[30][33] Several Sonic Team members, including Iizuka, flew from Burbank, California to Yokohama, Japan to assist.

[34] Iizuka wanted Superstars to be a faithful sequel to the Genesis games,[35] and described the goal as blending familiar gameplay with modern high-definition graphics.

[27] To ensure the character handling was accurate, Arzest recreated stages from prior Sonic games in the Superstars engine and overlayed gameplay footage for comparison.

[31][35] After working on the physics and level design, the developers began exploring new game mechanics,[37] as Iizuka felt it was important that Superstars be "new, interesting, and innovative".

[34] The developers introduced the Chaos Emerald power-ups to motivate players to seek all seven, drawing inspiration from the Wisps in Sonic Colors.

[44] They made the power-ups optional to avoid interfering with the classic Sonic gameplay,[43] and included visual indicators to signal when they would be useful.

[27] Iizuka wrote the story,[32] which, like the Genesis games, is told through character interactions between levels rather than through voice acting and text.

[43] Of the characters they considered, Sonic Team and Arzest thought Fang was the most well-known and that his characterization and design fit the direction of Superstars.

Iizuka wanted Trip to add story depth,[48] and he worked closely with Ohshima to define her character and appearance.

[49] Iizuka sought to distinguish Trip from previous games' powerful villains, such as Infinite from Sonic Forces (2017), with a backstory and characterization "that people can kind of relate to and empathize with and enjoy... because [she] mean[s] something to the world".

[48] Jun Senoue led a mix of internal Sega staff and external contributors to compose the Superstars soundtrack.

[44] Sega announced Sonic Superstars at Summer Game Fest on June 8, 2023,[19] followed by promotion at Gamescom in August.

[53] Players who signed up for a Sega newsletter prior to January 31, 2024 received a downloadable content (DLC) code that unlocks Amy's modern outfit seen in Sonic Adventure onward,[54] while those who pre-ordered the game received a reversible cover, an acrylic display stand, and a Lego Sonic the Hedgehog-themed Eggman skin.

However, he said Sega was spending 90% of the marketing budget during the Christmas and holiday shopping season and anticipated it would ultimately sell on par with Frontiers.

[78] GameSpot, Push Square, and TechRadar praised the visuals as colorful,[74][76][77] and Nintendo Life wrote Superstars "nails [Sonic's] overall aesthetic and art style.

[72] GameSpot and IGN praised the soundtrack, which they respectively called "delightful" and "phenomenal",[74][12] but Digital Trends and Eurogamer found it unremarkable.

[71][73][12] IGN wrote that Superstars focused more on exploration, which "create[d] a unique dynamic to each level" but failed to provide the speed they expected from Sonic.

[73][76] Push Square summarized Superstars as "[f]undamentally... a really enjoyable side-scrolling Sonic title, but the two big ticket features—chaos emerald powers and co-op—are arguably the worst parts of it.