thank you nintendo life!

i (sammy) see v hasn't played sonic superstars in a while. plus it looked like a pretty fun game so i wanted to check it out! last where he left off, he landed in lagoon city zone with 3 emeralds collected. my plan? add the 4th to our collection.

lagoon city is what it sounds like. it's a very atlantic, splash zone type of area. i went with knuckles to play as given the theme of the previous 2 sonic superstars streams. the layout of this zone is simple and pleasant. there are some geysers that have a bouncy top and past that, some fun water slides that really zip you across! i get an invincibility power and zip across some more water slides. and they are really strong. you can't go back up them. unless you had tool assisted powers maybe. throughout the level there are tubes, different from the traditional slides you can ride through. these are actually enclosed. the first one i rode, i could see the emerald ring as i was being blasted through it. the only question became, how do i get to it? at the end of the tube ride, i collected a medal and then went through another tube ride. i try to go back to see if i can get to the emerald ring yet it doesn't seem like i could. so i decided to restart the level. this time it seems like i take a different route. there's a weird specific cube rock looking thing but it doesn't seem like i could do anything with it. and some robo-seal looking things chucking eggman barrels at me. the barrels don't break the cube rock. and there are some weird looking clear blocks with triangle hooks you can grab on to. my first time seeing them, i didn't pull on the hooks. after jumping across some more geysers, i take a ride on some powerful water blasters that really boost me all around. i can't control myself while i'm being blasted. after some more slides and geysers and blasters, i just restart the level again because it doesn't seem like i can go back enough to get to the emerald ring. i think i am so far away from it at this point. i try once again a different route. i find myself in a donkey kong kind of area with more of those robo-seals chucking the barrels toward me. i guess i felt myself very attracted to them... in a magnetic way because i just kept running into them and losing all my rings. oh yeah this game is a troll too because i got hit by a barrel that was behind a water tube that obstructed the view. what a dingus!

i take another ride down another tube. i don't see the big ring on this ride. after i got out, i was met with these see-saw looking platforms. seems like this aquatic landscape is just trying to be creative with what kinds of obstacles you come face to face with. i grab some coin monitors and take a dip in the water. not much down here besides some robo-fish, bubbles, shields, spikes that catch me off guard and didn't give me enough time to react to them. oh and electric eels that also hide behind the water tubes. i do some backtracking to see if i can find the emerald ring. i can't. but i do find those clear blocks again. when you latch to a hook you have to press jump 12 times and when you do, you get the rings hidden in that block. after i ride the giant upward wave, i am brought to the boss area which is where i don't want to be. i can find everything else but the emerald ring which is what i want. i dabble in some bonus stages for rings and medals. one of the medal special stages being based off the original sonic 1 special stage. nice! but no emerald ring. despite all the times i saw it. and it seemed like no matter where i tried to go, i just couldn't seem to get to that ring. i was at some point given an indicator for me to use the vision ability. i did but all that led me to was some more rings and a magnet powerup. but that didn't get me to the emerald ring. but hey, at least i did get to see how cute knuckles looked when he tried to keep his balance! eventually i was getting frustrated with not being able to find the emerald ring. so i eventually looked it up thanks to a guide through nintendo life. i'm sad i didn't figure it out sooner given the emerald ring is close to the start of the level. remember the cube stone? to the left of that there is a crumbling platform. if you hold left when falling, you access a secret passage. be careful not to be blasted away through the water jet and you will get to the ring! did i get it my first try? absolutely not. there were these bouncy walls that stopped me from going straight to the emerald. thankfully i got it on my 3rd try! i got the 4th emerald plus the water ability!

with the water ability, i can turn into a glob of water and ride up waterfalls. now that is what we call... cool! now i can face the boss. mr. giant robo-squid. robo bugs and electrocuted waters galore. when it gets on the ground is your time to attack it. doesn't take very long before i free the giant walrus trapped from within it. after i beat the level, we meet with fang who seems to have a robo partner with it. but the robo guy traps itself after it opens the trap door under it. after that, the robo guy is quite emotional about the situation. poor guy. looks like amy rose will be the one to save it. as in lagoon city zone act amy, you play as... well... amy! she doesn't like fruit obviously. given all the fruit placed in this level that she blasted away with her hammer! she may also need to use carts with fruit in them to create platforms for her. there's also a counter at the lower left that shows how many fruits i have blasted. i don't know if that does anything good for me. watch out for the watermelons though. they're bad news. the grapes too. i do try an emerald special stage but for medals. didn't get it. oh well. what really matters is saving little robo guy. who is really bawling out at this point. dang now i really feel bad for it! thankfully, robo guy and i unite. and holy crap that dude is heavy. but with the extra weight i am able to open the stone door that is hiding a medal! and now these fruits ain't playing around. they want me dead now. especially huge... very huge apples rolling down a hill trying to squash me. while they didn't, i apparently just fell down a pit containing a couple blasters. i guess i was too far from them to have them detect my presence. thankfully i got past it the next time and beat the level! and that's where i ended the stream. yeah it's only 2 levels but then again i took so long trying to find the emerald ring on act 1. i wanted so bad to find it on my own. but sometimes... you need a little extra help.

thank you again nintendo life! #notasponsor