Sega Superstars



A series of Massive Multiplayer Crossover games, each of a completely different genre, published by Sega and, except for the first one, developed by British company Sumo Digital. As the name implies, they feature a good deal of Sega's major and Cult Classic franchises.

Sega Superstars: The first one, a 2004 Minigame Game by Sonic Team for the PlayStation 2 EyeToy accessory. It's 12 simple minigames in one, using (as with every other EyeToy game) your body to control them. Descriptions of the minigames are forthcoming.

Also notable is that it isn't a crossover in the proper sense. Each series is sequestered to its own minigame, with no interaction otherwise save for the opening cutscene.

Sega Superstars Tennis: In which Sumo Digital picked up the mantle and followed suit with. Building on their own experience with the Virtua Tennis series, the game is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Also features a bunch of Sega-themed tennis minigames.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing ("With Banjo-Kazooie" on the Xbox 360 version, at Microsoft's request): The one game that made the series stand out, and thus the most likely reason you are on this page. Released in February 2010, it can be easily described as "Mario Kart meets Sumo's OutRun games". That is, you get the item-filled Wacky Racing of the former combined with the arcade racing action, handling and speed of the latter.

While All-Stars Racing might be completely shameless about its inspirations, it does its elements so well (and to some, the actual racing gameplay is better than that of Mario Kart; a given when one considers Sumo's resume) that, to the surprise of just about everyone, it received a very high amount of praise for that reason alone, joining the likes of Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing in that regard.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed: Inexplicably dropping the 'Sega' from the title, Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed is the sequel to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, set for release on Xbox 360, PS3, Vita, and 3DS in late 2012. Featuring a gimmick similar to Mario Kart 7, Sonic and crew's vehicles will now be able to traverse different racing environments, such as water, by having their crafts morph to meet the demand.

See also Fighters Megamix, an earlier, unrelated Sega crossover game.

The series features a large stable of series and games produced by Sega over the years (and in one case, a series bought out after the death of its original publisher, and in another, a non-Sega franchise tossed in All-Stars Racing after Microsoft was impressed with the game). Here's what represented in at least one of the four games, including those with just mere in-game cameos:
 * After Burner
 * Alex Kidd
 * Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox 360 only)
 * Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
 * Bonanza Bros.
 * Crazy Taxi
 * Chu Chu Rocket!
 * Fantasy Zone
 * Golden Axe
 * House of the D--- uhhh, we mean "Curien Mansion"
 * Jet Set Radio
 * NiGHTS Into Dreams
 * Out Run
 * Panzer Dragoon
 * Puyo Puyo
 * Ristar
 * Samba De Amigo
 * Shenmue
 * Shinobi
 * Skies of Arcadia
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Space Channel 5
 * Space Harrier
 * Super Monkey Ball
 * Virtua Cop
 * Virtua Fighter
 * Virtua Striker
 * Technically speaking, any Xbox 360 game that has related Avatar gear.
 * Not to mention, any Wii game that has Miis in it. Let alone any Mii that ressembles someone from other works of fiction or real life.

The series provides examples of:

 * Go-Karting with Bowser: Uhh, Eggman. And playing tennis with Reala. And go karting with Metal Sonic and the Bonanza Bros.
 * Never Say "Die"/Getting Crap Past the Radar: Yes, it's possible for the same case to embody these two conflicting tropes at once, the case being all references to House of the Dead being labelled as "Curien Mansion" or abbreviated as "HOTD".
 * The Never Say "Die" portion comes from the fact that Sumo aimed for these games to be family-friendly. (This is now Hilarious in Hindsight, as the last Curien Mansion track in All-Stars Racing is called "Deadly Route".)
 * The Getting Crap Past the Radar bit is because HOTD is Banned In Germany. They didn't feel like making a special localization just for the Germans, so...
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover
 * Super Mode/Limit Break: Super Sonic and Super Shadow in the original's Sonic the Hedgehog minigame, Superstar Mode in Tennis, All-Star Moves in Racing.


 * Minigame Game

Sega Superstars Tennis provides examples of:

 * Go-Karting with Bowser: Sonic can play against Eggman, Ni GHTS can play against Reala, and Ulala can play against Pudding. So far, the only one that doesn't have a great deal of fun doing so is Pudding.
 * The Cameo: Chao, Morolians, Nightopians and zombies all appear from Sonic, Space Channel 5, Ni GHTS and House of the Dead respectively. Many Sonic characters like Knuckles and Metal Sonic appear on the court as well. Others include Professor K from Jet Set Radio and even the Outrun Flagman!
 * The Voiceless: Amigo somehow communicates through random music that comes out of nowhere, mostly songs from the soundtrack of his game. This account for many a funny splurge of terrible trumpet music whenever he does something wrong.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing provides examples of:
"Announcer: I wish there was an All Star on the track! What's that? There is!? SAH-WEET!!"
 * Announcer Chatter: He's quite hungry for intense racing action. He's also quite a Jerkass.
 * He also has a thing for Ulala.
 * Ascended Extra: The chuchu pilots' only appearance prior to this game was the instructions manual to both versions of ChuChu Rocket!. They're mentioned briefly on one page to add a little spice to the Excuse Plot and nowhere in the game itself.
 * Ascended Meme: The loading screen blurb: "Sonic Says...". See Loading Screen below.
 * Brick Joke: An early mission has Robotnik finding Chaos Emeralds hidden in Seaside Hill. A late mission has Sonic take back those Chaos Emeralds from Final Fortress.
 * The Cameo: Ristar can be seen on the side of the Death Egg track waving at the racers.
 * Also, for those with the Wii version and PC versions, there is also some art of Sonia of Sonic Underground seen briefly during the Casino Park level.
 * Originally these were to be Amy, the Sonia image was mistaken as official artwork while being used as a place-holder image.
 * Casino Park: Three tracks based on the Trope Namer!
 * Comeback Mechanic: As is standard in a kart racer. It's not as strong as in Mario Kart, but it's made up for by All-Star Moves, at least in offline play.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Zobiko.
 * Deadpan Snarker/Large Ham: The announcer.
 * Demoted to Extra: NiGHTS, who is reduced to flag gir-... bo-... waver in this game.
 * Downloadable Content: For the 360/PS3 versions. So far includes:
 * An unlock key to let the player select Ryo Hazuki driving his forklift from the get-go.
 * Metal Sonic and a Death Egg racetrack (with a Ristar cameo and music from Sonic the Fighters and Shadow the Hedgehog).
 * Dummied Out: The Final Fortress tracks reference laser gates and a cameo in Dark Arsenal that are no longer there. It's speculated that the laser gates were taken out because they messed up the game's pace, and the cameo was Metal Sonic, who was instead turned to DLC.
 * Eternal Engine: The Final Fortress levels.
 * Forklift Fu: Ryo Hazuki's All-Star move causes him to get off his motorcycle and get in a forklift. The forklift knocks enemies behind Ryo by flipping them. There's also an achievement where you have to use it to take out Jacky and Akira.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: They forgot to censor the word "ass" out of the song "The Concept of Love". The game got rated E anyway.
 * Until the radar finally caught up.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser: Eggman is just driving alongside.
 * Guest Fighter: Banjo in the Xbox 360 version returns to his roots as a guest star.
 * For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: Opa-Opa, the most expensive of the buyable racers, has no vehicle to drive in. Rather, being a sentient starship, he flies as himself.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: With the exception of Mike Pollock, this game marks the final vocal appearances of the 4Kids cast for the Sonic characters.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Zobio & Zobiko; made more apparent during their All-Star.
 * Interface Screw: A few of the powerups. One of them flips your screen upside-down, while another covers the screen with a rainbow that can barely be seen through (Beat's All-Star has a similar effect, covering you with graffiti).
 * Jungle Japes: Treetops.
 * Lethal Lava Land: Lava Lair, naturally.
 * Loading Screen with a Mythology Gag: "Sonic Says..." At least they're not And Knowing Is Half the Battle here.
 * Captain Obvious: Thanks to Sonic, we'll be able to figure out such ingenious strategies as hitting an item capsule to get an item.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: Zobio and Zobiko, a pair of in-love zombies ex-humans, from the Japan-only arcade game  House of the Dead EX  "HOTD EX" debuted in this game.
 * Not Using the Z Word: "Curien Mansion" is a popular (and narmy) Sega series where you shoot at "Creatures". And the series representatives are "Ex-Humans".
 * Palmtree Panic: All three Seaside Hill courses, as well as Monkey Target.
 * Retroactive Wish: Occasionally when a racer has an All-Star move ready:


 * Scenery Porn: Lampshaded in the profile for one of the Casino Park maps, telling you to not get too distracted by the environment while you're racing. They're not kidding.
 * Shifting Sand Land: Sandy Drifts.
 * Shout-Out: Ristar in Egg Hangar.
 * Shown Their Work:
 * A great deal of the achievements/trophies/challenges' names fall under this.
 * The four Chuchus have individual names in their in-game bio. Those names are brought up in nowhere else but the ChuChu Rocket! instruction book.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The first two Billy Hatcher tracks.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: In the Billy Hatcher tracks-- "Volcanic Orchestra" and "Billy's Courage" can be played in Icicle Valley or Rampart Road, while the other three songs ("Tumbling Xylophone", "Bossa Nova of Briny Air", and "A Jack-in-the-Box!") can be played in Lava Lair.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Title
 * The Voiceless: The Bonanza Bros., the ChuChus, Amigo, Opa-Opa, and Metal Sonic only make sighs, chirps, maraca shaking, retro-sounding beeps, and robotic noises respectively.
 * If you want to get technical, Akira and Zobiko actually don't have any voice clips for their characters at all; Jacky and Zobio do all the talking when you're playing as them.
 * Who's Laughing Now?: Metal Sonic's All Star move gives him the same laser wall that he was scrapped by in Sonic CD AND speed boosts whenever he desires.
 * Wolverine Publicity: No doubt justifiable, but yes, Sonic's name is separate and unique from the "Sega" banner in this game.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed provides examples of:

 * Convection, Schmonvection: One track has the racers boat over scorching hot lava.
 * Guest Fighter: Professional NASCAR racer Danica Patrick. Also counts as The Unexpected.