There've been numerous reports that the physics in Superstars are exactly identical to the way they were in Mania. Along with side-by-side comparisons, The Taxman has also confirmed this.
When you said that he's "lost it", I was expecting some sort of meltdown tweet of his. The insider trading thing, I was completely unprepared for. I'm pretty much speechless at this news.
Apparently, having Yuji Naka removed from the project was a joint decision, since multiple employees complained about him. According to some ex-Sega employees (particularly those from the American division), Naka was "an arrogant pain in the ass" to work with. Considering the way he acted towards the X-Treme developers (even to the point of reveling in the game's cancellation), along with what he said about Hirokazu Yasuhara (the lead game and level designer of all four Genesis titles; he was also responsible for keeping Sonic alive during the Saturn era while Sonic Team was focusing on NiGHTs) in this quote:
Quote
What do you think of the way the Sonic games have evolved; was it a problem when one of your team members left to work with Sony?
Yuji Naka: Yeah, one of the guys from our team went to work on Jak and Daxter! As for the original titles, I was involved from the beginning, the creation of the game. The character was born in a kind of stream of creating, so I'm involved from the very beginning of the character. I gave the game direction, and I was the main programmer also.
So I was involved with every aspect of the original Sonics. Some of the details, like making a map, quite straight-forward stuff, was done by the guy who's working on Jak and Daxter right now. He was involved until Sonic 3, and after that for eight years he didn't do anything in Sega, so he was quite useless in Sega. We really didn't need him. He was really doing nothing with Sonic.
Yeah, I think you've hit the nail right on the head. In fact, it's been pretty much confirmed, or at least heavily implied, that the Michael Jackson/Brad Buxer tracks have been replaced. I already halfway expected this would happen from the beginning.
While I don't outright hate the prototype/Sonic & Knuckles Collection tracks, I still prefer the Genesis tracks, and I feel as if things just won't be the same without the latter, since that's what I grew up with. Ah, well. I guess this is what mods are for.
I'm not overly impressed, but it looks okay so far. Hopefully, this'll finally break the trend of only Sonic being playable. With few exceptions, they've been doing that since Secret Rings (not counting its "Party Mode"), which came out all the way back in 2007, and I'm beyond sick of it at this point.
Sadly, this was one of the very few worthwhile things shown at E3 this year. I swear, E3 just isn't what it used to be. I miss the days where Nintendo would go all-out during their presentations, instead of just showing a select few things.
In addition to Sonic Colors Ultimate and unnamed new game that's coming out next year (which is presumed to be called "Sonic Rangers"), there's also a new collection game that's been announced:
By the looks of things, these may actually be the 2011/2013 Stealth/Taxman remakes. I say this, because aside from end of the trailer playing the same sound effect as the one heard in those versions, the games have also been shown to have widescreen display, along with Sonic's shoes having the white stripe on them while bouncing on a spring in Sonic 1 (which was not the case in the Genesis original, and was corrected in the 2013 remake).
In regards to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, however... While they did show an emulated version in the trailer, it's been hinted that this does not represent the final product. There was a Sega representative on Twitter who confirmed that it will have widescreen like the other three games. Plus, it should also be taken into account that Stealth and/or Taxman started on a proof-of-conceptSonic 3 & Knuckles remake about seven years ago, almost, which may have finally gotten a greenlight.
Meh. Unlike a vast majority of the fandom, I've never been a huge fan of the Wii version of Colors. I find it to be overrated beyond belief. I'm not necessarily saying it's a terrible game; I'm just saying that I don't think it's anywhere near as good or flawless as so many people make it out to be. I personally preferred the DS version, but maybe that's just me. Speaking of which, it's also been rumored that this so-called "Ultimate" version of Colors is going to contain content from both the Wii and DS versions of the game. If this is true, then I'm all for it.