It's such a cliché phrase, but it's true. Sonic Robo Blast 2 is truly a diamond, but there is a lot of rough to it—and the first time you play the game, the rough is pretty much all that you're going to see. "Sure, it's okay for a fangame," you think. "But the camera is awful, there's no air control at all, and the controls are so slippery it makes platforming impossible!"

As you play SRB2, however, the diamond glimmering beneath will slowly start to shine. You begin to get accustomed to the gameplay and the rather odd physics, the level design becomes more interesting, and the things you initially wrote off as bugs may turn out to be features. Slippery controls? Bah! Those are momentum-based controls, and once you get used to them they allow for precision platforming at both low speed and high speed, something few games get right.

Levels in this game are huge and have many multiple paths and secrets within each one, leading to plenty of replay value. While exploring the stages looking for secrets and alt-paths can be fun, I suggest avoiding doing this within a level until you have beaten it once, as the downside to having large levels is that you can become lost if you don't stick to the main path.

SRB2 has three characters to choose from: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. When playing SRB2 for the first time, it's highly recommended you begin playing as Knuckles. He has by far the best handling and his glide and climb abilities let you avoid difficult platforming sections, which is helpful when you're still learning the ropes of the game.

Tails is the easiest to use character in theory, but his flying mechanics can be tricky for newbies. Tails is best used for exploring stages after you have already beaten them once.

Sonic is the best and funnest character to use once you're good at the game, mostly due to all the levels being designed specifically with him in mind. However, his speed and hyper-mobility make it very hard for a new player to play as him.

All in all, SRB2 is an excellent, if somewhat rough, fangame, and is even on my list of favourite games ever due to its well-designed levels and fun gameplay—not to mention its online mode and expansive community. The game is free to download, and can run well on even low-powered machines. Try it.