Sonic Superstars

Avatar allows you to create clones of your character and send them speeding across the screen, defeating nearly any enemy in their path. This is particularly useful when outnumbered by badniks or overpowered by a challenging boss. In my experience with Avatar, saving it for a boss' final form is extremely wise. 

"Avatar has the most visual impact of any of the ideas," Iizuka says. "It calls on various avatars, you know, other Sonics or other Tails are going to come in and defeat all the enemies when you use it. And it can be used to get yourself out of trouble if you're about to die, just to get past that enemy to make sure you're living longer. It's really one of the more fun Emerald Powers to use."

Bullet allows you to blast your character in a specified direction. I found this helpful in both tricky platforming sequences as well as boss battles where your goal is just out of reach.

"Bullet, just as the name is, it's being able to shoot or project Sonic in midair," Iizuka says. "When you jump in midair using the Bullet Emerald Power, you can stop and make a decision midair what direction you want to launch yourself into. And then, you can change direction or you can go in a different direction, or continue forward in the direction you want to go in and shoot your character further in that direction. It's an extremely useful action; it's probably the most useful action for this kind of game."

Using the Water Emerald Power, characters can more easily traverse underwater areas and even climb up waterfalls. While not applicable in every zone, using this in appropriate places could yield amazing results.

"Water turns the player character into water, and once you're in that water form, you can swim up waterfalls, or if you land in water, you'll be able to run around freely in there because you are water along with the water," Iizuka says. "It does help out not only getting up waterfalls but also when you're in these underwater areas. One thing to note is there are some levels that don't have water, so it's not going to be a really useful power everywhere."

Ivy lets you grow vines from where your character stands to help you reach new areas. You can direct where they grow, and if you're playing co-op, your teammates can use your ivy to reach new areas as well. 

"Just like the name says, when you use the Ivy power, an ivy vine is going to grow out of the ground and start growing upwards," Iizuka says. "It allows you to get to higher places that maybe you couldn't get to just by jumping. But what's really interesting about it is using it in multiplayer mode. You can use the Ivy power to help your cooperative teammates get to the places that you can get to. And by using the Ivy, you can cooperate and get to places together."

As teased in an earlier trailer for Sonic Superstars, players can activate Vision whenever they have a sneaking suspicion that there might be something beyond what is currently visible. In a previous trailer, we saw Vision reveal hidden platforms and rings. Iizuka says this power will really play into the replayability aspect of the way these stages were designed.

"I really like Vision," Iizuka says. "It allows you to see the unseeable or see things that you couldn't see without using the power. When using Vision, you'll notice that before, where there wasn't a platform to jump on or rings to get, there is now a platform you can see and land on, and there are rings that you can jump and collect. It's really great for stage exploration, so even after you've gone through the game once, going back and playing again with Vision allows you to see places you didn't know existed before and find these new areas and locations to get because you're using the Vision Emerald Power."

Since the Emerald Power is built around seeing hidden objects in the environment, players might have a challenging time knowing when to use the power. However, the developers have already thought about this. "Obviously, if you can't see it in the first place, you don't know to use it," Iizuka says. "It's kind of making sure people understand how to use the powers. This is something that the team went in and said, 'You know, we really want to make sure people are aware of the times when they should be using something, especially if it's like Vision and you can't see it in the first place.' So automatically, there will be an indicator that pops up that will tell you, 'Oh hey, if you use Vision right now, there may be something around here that you can find. This kind of auto indicator will pop up and let you know or give you a good sense of when you should be using some of the Emerald Powers."

Slow, as the name implies, slows down everything on screen. This could be used for tricky boss battles or just difficult platforming sequences where you need more time to react.

"Slow is exactly what it says it is; it's going to slow down everything on the screen," Iizuka says. "You enter this slow-motion kind of moment, and because you're not moving in slow motion, you get to look at things that maybe are moving very fast and get a better sense of the timing of when you want to be reacting to traps, or if a boss is attacking, you can use slow, and you can slow the boss' attack down and really get more comfortable with how to strategically avoid or attack or action around these things that have been slowed down. It really slows down the game to allow you to play at a pace that's maybe more comfortable."

Though all Emerald Powers are universal, the final unlock opens up a character-specific ability. "All of the characters use the Emerald Powers in the same way, and all of the Emerald Powers react to the characters in the same way, but Extra is different and special in that depending on what character you're using, Extra allows a different kind of action for those specific characters," Iizuka says. "Because of this, you can choose what character you're going to play with, and when you use the Extra power, that power will be unique to that character."

Sonic – Homing Attack

When the Extra Emerald Power is active for Sonic, players can move one of Modern Sonic's most iconic abilities to Classic Sonic's repertoire. "Classic Sonic does not do the Homing Attack, but when he has the Extra Emerald Power active, Classic Sonic now has a Homing Attack," Iizuka says.

Amy – Hammer Throw

Amy's Extra Emerald Power plays off one of her defining gameplay characteristics. "For Amy, when she uses the Extra power, she is able to throw her hammer and attack enemies by throwing the hammer instead of just hitting with the hammer."

Knuckles – Punch

Knuckles' use of the Extra Emerald Power transforms perhaps his most defining visual characteristics into gameplay within the Classic series. When active, the red echidna can add punches to his already larger set of abilities.

Tails - Tornado Spin

When Tails uses Extra, he gains an ability called Tornado Spin. When I heard that name, I thought it could mean he spins really fast and whacks enemies with his twin tails, or maybe he summons his iconic plane to do something. However, it's neither of those. "Tails will actually create a tornado," Iizuka says. "The tornado will follow the ground and just continue on that path and take out enemies in the way."

The Extra Emerald Power must still be selected and activated the same as the other powers, so if you don't want to use, for example, Sonic's homing attack, it is completely optional.

As with most games that include the Chaos Emeralds, once you collect all seven of them, you gain access to the ability to turn into a Super version of your character. Each character can turn Super, and their movesets remain the same (for example, Tails doesn't gain super-powered Flickies as he did in Sonic 3 & Knuckles). Instead, each character turns invincible and becomes faster, with rings depleting over time.

"What's going to be a little bit different is usually in the Classic series, you get all seven Chaos Emeralds, and then, when you have a certain amount of rings, and you're double jumping, you're automatically transformed into Super Sonic, but we're changing that up a little bit, and once you get all seven Chaos Emeralds, you can still choose what power you want to be using," Iizuka says. "You can select from the selection wheel what Emerald Power you want to use at that specific time, not necessarily automatically turning into Super Sonic or Super form."