History VideoGame / SonicRoboBlast2Kart

** Fire Shields, introduced in V2, are based on the Bullet Bill item, differing in that it is manually controlled, giving the user great speed at the cost of handling. It is not an autopilot item ala the Bullet Bill and it has a limited, always consistent fuel gage instead of lasting different durations based on how much progress it has made.
** The Water Shield, also introduced in ''Ring Racers'', replicates the Bubble from ''Diddy Kong Racing'', trapping the victim in a large bubble and preventing them from moving until they get out. Unlike the ''Diddy Kong Racing'' bubble, the player can use it on themselves as an offensive weapon instead of a trap.

** The first track of the Invincible Cup is based on Desert Palace Zone, also from the Competition Mode of ''Sonic 3 and Knuckles''. ''Ring Racers'' features an entire cup, the S.P.B. Cup based on the mode's levels; the aforementioned Desert Palace, Balloon Park, Endless Mine, Chrome Gadget and Azure Lake. Endless Mine gets a second track in another cup further along.

** Among the tracks in the Swap Cup are Balloon Panic from ''Sonic Drift 2'' (albeit with the random balloon effects replaced by simply launching the racer upward) and a repurposed Special Stage 3 from ''VideoGame/SonicMania''. ''Ring Racers'' adds all '''seven''' of Mania's Special Stage courses in under the Phantom Cup, two of which are Battle/Prison Eggs stages.

** In ''Kart'', a boost is given at the beginning of a race by holding down on the accelarator at the right time. In ''Ring Racers'', you need to hit the forcefield that normally traps you for a foul after the countdown has ended, but before any other racer does..

# [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Green Hills Zone]]

* FragileSpeedster: Class C characters (7 to 9 top speed and 1 to 3 weight) like Sonic (8 top speed and 2 weight), Blaze (7 top speed and 3 weight), Jet (7 top speed and 2 weight), Shadow (9 top speed and 2 weight), Flicky (8 top speed and 1 weight) and Bomb (9 top speed and 1 weight) are among the fastest characters and have very precise controls, but they're as vulnerable to off-road as they endure heavier racers' attacks.

* JackOfAllStats: Class E characters (4 to 6 top speed and weight) like Knuckles and Emerl (both 5 top speed and 5 weight), Rouge (4 top speed and 4 weight), Tikal (6 top speed and 4 weight), Honey (5 top speed and 6 weight), and Sakura Shinguji (5 top speed and 4 weight) are more or less perfectly balanced regarding top speed, acceleration, weight and handling.

* LightningBruiser: Class I characters (7 to 9 top speed and weight) like Metal Sonic (8 top speed and weight), Metal Knuckles (7 top speed and 8 weight) and Mecha Sonic Mk. II (9 top speed and weight) can knock other racers around while also maintaining high speed, albeit at the cost of Acceleration and Handling.

* MightyGlacier: Class G characters like Eggman and Eggrobo (both 2 top speed and 8 weight), Chaos Zero (3 top speed and 8 weight) and Heavy (1 top speed and 9 weight) are among the heaviest (tied with Metal) and have impressive drift spark charge rate, but endure a very low top speed. [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] due to the fact that a low top speed also means a high acceleration and the ability to charge boosts faster while drifting, meaning they can reach said speeds faster and recover better than most other racers.

** [[WeakButSkilled Class A characters]] (1 to 3 top speed) are to this game what characters like Peach and Toad are to ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': they have a great acceleration to recover from off-road and they're easy to control for newcomers, as they can take sharp turns without drifting, don't lose any when drifting, and benefit huge boosts at the exit, but otherwise, they're slow on straight lines, and they are vulnerable to heavier and / or faster racers' attacks. While Tails (2 top speed and weight) is the standard for this class, Silver (1 top speed 2 weight), Tails Doll (2 top speed and 1 weight) and Chao (1 top speed and weight) are more extreme examples.
** Class B characters (4 to 6 in top speed) like Amy (5 top speed and 2 weight) and Cream (4 top speed and 1 weight) are also beginner-friendly, as they can take turns relatively easy without relying on drifting, not losing too much speed from turns and off-road, and being able to recover fairly easily. The biggest downside is, once again, their lightweight that makes them easy for heavier characters to drop out of the race (Cream especially, as she's among the lightest characters in the game, while Amy still has extra weight), and being balanced also means that they're not as efficient as fast characters on straight lines, nor as fluid as slow characters on sharp turns.
** [[FragileSpeedster Class C characters]] (7 to 9 top speed) like Sonic (8 top speed and 2 weight), Flicky (8 top speed and 1 weight), Shadow (9 top speed and 2 weight) and Bomb (9 top speed and 1 weight) are the best choice to benefit top speed when you start the game, as their lightweight allows them to take sharp turns without drifting, but if they do drift, they lose a lot of speed and their boosts are not as impressive as the class above, they endure hard times to recover from off-road, and they are still vulnerable to heavier karts.

** [[GlassCannon Class F characters]] (7 to 9 top speed and 4 to 6 weight) like Fang (8 top speed and 5 weight), Mail (8 top speed and 4 weight) and Espio (8 top speed and 6 weight) have the former category's top speed and a good balance between smooth controls and a good weight to resist opponents' attacks.

** Class A characters (1 to 3 top speed and 1 to 3 weight) like Tails (2 top speed and weight), Bean (1 to speed and 3 weight), Silver (1 top speed and 2 weight), Nights (3 top speed and weight), Tails Doll (2 top speed and 1 weight) and Chao (1 top speed and weight) are the slowest and lightest of the default characters, but their high acceleration allows them to quickly recover from spinning out, and their excellent handling makes it easy to zip around corners while chaining boosts.
** In a similar way, class B characters (4 to 6 top speed and 1 to 3 weight) like Amy (5 top speed and 2 weight), Cream (4 top speed and 1 weight), Charmy Bee (6 top speed and 1 weight), Jack Frost (6 top speed and 2 weight) and Carol (4 top speed and 3 weight) are very easy to control and benefit of both decent boosts and top speed, though not at the same extent as class A for the former and class C for the latter.