Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers (Sequel to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart) officially released!!

How people are supposed to complete these with only 3-5 tries is beyond me. I used a cheat for unlimited lives and the 2nd special stage took 45 tries alone. They demand perfect play via memorization and require precise platforming skills/aiming/item luck. Stuff like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna be the Guy is far more forgiving with their unlimited lives.

Each new special stage keeps throwing in new gimmicks too, unlike classic Sonic special stages that presents the gimmicks all at once and scale the difficulty from there.

 

If they insist on keeping the lives system then they need to rebalance the difficulty because this ain't it. They should do it anyway, but the lives system just makes it worse. I know old Mario Kart games and the original F-Zero used lives but they were way more tolerable than this even with Mario and Luigi pulling infinite Stars out of their asses.

 

Update 2.2 is out.

Lots and lots of welcome changes.

 

Definitely a step in the right direction. Being able to unlock all of the cups on easy, nerfing slopes, a more balanced AI difficulty scaling, and having damage done to the emerald in special stages carrying between tries addresses a ton of the issues I had. The game's future is looking much brighter!

 

The explanation of the dynamic difficulty definitely explains why the rival AI turned into a cheating bastard even on what's now called Relaxed mode.

 

None of these changes would have been possible if people "kept an open mind" about it. The critiques weren't just on Retro, it was everywhere. They wouldn't be reacting this fast to resolve these issues if they weren't valid.
Bad games deserve to be dunked on regardless of the effort put behind it. It's up to the devs if they decide to do anything about it with the feedback.

 

This patch is definitely better, but I did hop online with some folks for it and while it is more bearable now I still feel like a lot of the game is just unnecessarily complicated. Maybe it's just not for me I keep feeling like im struggling with things that are so far out of my control, and not in at least a fun way like mario kart can be. Lost about 4 races to what felt like bugs before i gave up for the night.

Still, very glad they are making some very good changes with whats here. The special stage changes are INCREDIBLY helpful.

 

I gave this ago before the patch and agreed with a lot of what people were saying - post patch I have to admit I've enjoyed it more, and I am interested to see what happens next.

 

One change I can think of that I would like to see is the whole Item Box -> Ring Box thing. Rings are plentiful, item boxes are not. I'd probably understand it if it was like SRB2 Kart where tracks are sometimes littered with item boxes. I feel like it gives those in the front a bit of an advantage since it makes it difficult (or in some cases, impossible) for players in the back to get any items, especially if all the racers are together. Also it takes quite a while for ring boxes to turn back into item boxes.

Maybe either make it an option in Matches and Online or separate them into their own thing scattered across the track like the capsules. I would say get rid of it altogether, but I won't deny they can be helpful considering how vital rings are in the current game.

Also the Top sucks. Maybe someone can tell me why it's good, cause I don't see it.

EDIT: I guess making it an option could be a problem what with that stun mechanic. I'm just spitballing ideas.

 

Oh lovely! A lot of these changes sound really good. The auto-ring usage alone sounds really nice since I found it rather difficult to tell in what areas it was ideal to use Rings (on Easy/Relaxed Mode as Eggman I slowed down in Green Hills frequently and could not figure out when it was best to use them - kinda cost me the race). My only request at that point would be to give the player a 'free follower' on a fresh save. Unless I'm mistaken, all followers still have to be unlocked. So the player still has to participate in at least a couple of courses before they're given a tool that can help the mental load. Perhaps courses could be adjusted to offer more visual cues on when it's best to use Rings? Something like a flying monitor that basically just says 'Use this here silly'. Think the Type Monitors in Heroes.

The Sealed Star changes are also wonderful too. I actually got my first Chaos Emerald back in 2.1, but I'll also echo thoughts here and say it took me multiple tries. I had to kinda bank on praying I got the Shark homing missile thingies on nearly every item roulette and had to keep a very close eye on the Emerald Capsule. I literally got it just as the level ended (and have a screenshot of that happening). I uh...don't think I would've faired much better on the later Emerald courses based on posts here. The 'fakeout' the claw did near the Springs in the first Special Stage was already pretty nasty. I did take a screenshot of me winning the cup as I felt pretty proud at that moment:

Spoiler

(I also kinda lucked out on this run as I faulted Sonic at the start of Green Hills. This somehow significantly messed up his AI routing so he got stuck until I was in the middle of Lap 2 or so. He placed extremely low as a result. Kinda wish I recorded it or had a screenshot of where he ranked just because it was so funny. Definitely saved me a continue.)

The new Sealed Star health system makes it a lot easier for newcomers/lower skill level players to unlock most of the content while still providing a 'slap on the wrist' for choosing to reset (they're locked out of an S rank). I think this is a pretty fair compromise now!

My only other requests for this section of the game at this point would be to add a couple of sprites for the glass of the Emerald Capsule that show cracks so the player has visual feedback of how close they are to freeing the Emerald. Unless I missed something, I don't think there's any visual feedback for how close you are to freeing the Emerald and you have to know the number of hits necessary.

I also think allowing the player to try the Sealed Star stages on Relaxed would also be fair (I'm not sure I entirely agree with the player being locked out of them if they choose Relaxed). I actually was not even aware Emerald stages were a thing until I read some forum posts, so at least a 'YOU DID GOOD! TRY AGAIN ON A HIGHER DIFFICULTY FOR A SURPRISE!' message would be beneficial to clue in blind players such a thing exists.

The Spindash buffs also sound really good as someone who hasn't tried the update yet. They were way too situational and only really seemed best suited for the 'POSITION' period of a race. I still feel like I would probably adjust them to remove the overcharge scenario and have them behave more akin to the Sonic titles. Maybe the Spindash simply provides the same speed as pressing the accelerate key with a slight delay in going forward if you overcharge it? Along with some sort of visual cue (like your model becoming becomes darker with a 'bad' sound effect) to indicate you goofed.

In it's current state, I think the penalty for overcharging is odd. It feels like it's mostly there to provide a punishment for overcharging your kart at the start of a race, similar to the accelerated start trick both SRB2Kart and Mario Kart have. While it's fine in that context, it makes using the Spindash in the actual race far too risky. I basically started training myself to never really think about it after the initial start of a race and couldn't really figure out when it's best to use it past that point.

 

Now I've spent quite a bit of time with this, I have some further comments/opinions -

- The special stages are just infuriating, made much worse by the rough floor which can almost end an attempt instantly.
- From what I've played, most of the tracks are decent but there are some which are just plain shit (Collision Chaos and Marble Garden spring to mind). I know there are more, and some really awkward bits in other stages, but so far the tracks are overall good with some real stinkers thrown in.
- I'm still not sold on the ring mechanic. My issue is if you run out, or get hit and lose them, recovery is a pain and you are just laughably vulnerable. Maybe not having attacks drain rings would help this?
- I do like the scale of the unlockables.
- Is there an actual point of the companions outside of the assists in the new patch? Not saying they are bad or anything, just curious.
- The mini sections in the Grand Prix's blowing up the Egg Canisters....again, the point of these?
- Character stats in the select screen would be nice.
- I think it looks quite good overall, and the soundtrack is quite good too.

Overall it definitely needs further work and tweaking, but I have enjoyed my time with it so far.

 

they're cosmetic

 

They also provide different horn sounds that play when you look behind you!

The Egg Prisons drop music CDs every 15 kills, and also provide an extra life if you destroy them all. (I think? I'm not certain how that triggers yet)

Also, you can view speed and weight values by pressing RB while hovering over a character.

 

Played more since the AI is less insufferable. Lol who even thought Marble Garden Zone would be fun. I figure that doesn't get voted on in online lobbies very much.

Edit: As for the Ring system, I'm fine with it but I'm not really seeing too much point in items other than for the CPU to snipe you with something with perfect accuracy or get invincibility in 2nd place. Yeah yeah, the "strategy" of the Roulette but it sucks when you can't use rings so why even.

Edit 2: I actually beat the first cup on "intense" and it was...alright I guess. I purposely no contested on Green Hill to nerf the AI because it was being a major asshole, but I somehow got the Emerald even. I don't know, maybe it would be best to have a mode between Relaxed and Intense for people to get used to Gear 2 being much faster.

Edit 3: They made unlocking Jack Frost not as easy in the newest patch, RIP. You could force the game to crash by not naming a replay, which they fixed in 2.2.

 

Regarding jack frost, ive heard from friends that trying to load any SRB2K add ons will also cause a crash and unlock mister hee ho himself, in case anyone was struggling with it post patch!

 

Did the first page of cups and...I am never doing Egg Cup again so forget about the Emeralds (they just unlock master mode anyway so not like I want CBT anyway). Whoever designed Lost Colony and Death Egg is a miserable person who wants everyone else to be as miserable as they are.

 

2.2 is a great step in the right direction.

The improvements to heavy weights make Mecha a greater joy to play.

 

yeah, having played 2.2 more i'm really enjoying it. I feel like we're a few patches away from the game being perfect.

 

I honestly wonder what made them choose one of the slowest ARK levels from Adventure 2. Crazy Gadget, Final Rush, and Final Chase are right there.
There's definitely some odd choices and track designs in the game...

 

The choice of setting is weird yeah, but the real issue is that it makes you sit there and ride an elevator as well as the flying gimmick at the start that is nowhere else in the game. As for Death Egg...it's just a lot of BS thrown at you. It also doesn't work very well at Gear 1 speed, which yeah the default is 2 but...you really should be making sure everything works at every speed, that's like Kart Racer 101.

Azure Lake is also bad for Gear 1 but that's it's only real issue where as the other 2 I mentioned are just oddly designed for Lost Colony and maliciously designed for Death Egg. Carnival Night is also very bad.