Video Game / Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a Sonic the Hedgehog fan game built using the 3D Doom Legacy engine and is regarded as one of the finer Sonic fan games to have ever hit an official release... And then someone wondered what would happen if you programmed a kart racer using Sonic Robo Blast 2's code base as a foundation.

The result is the aptly titled Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A Doom engine-powered kart racer starring Sonic and his friends, his enemies, and numerous Sega guest stars racing and battling it out on 100 maps. Or at least, only Sonic and his friends and only 100 maps to start with, as the game was designed with game mods in mind and even starts every player with some bonus characters to show off what can be done. The game allows for up to 4 players to play offline or go online for up to 16 player online matches, though it currently lacks any form of AI racers (well, not officially). It was officially released on November 16th 2018.

A sequel to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart, titled Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers^note formerly known as Version 2.0, was released on April 24th 2024.

Playable Characters

• Default: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Eggman, Metal Sonic
• Bonus:
  • Classic Era: Flicky, Motobug, Mighty the Armadillo, Ray the Flying Squirrel, Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile^note While Sega considers the latter two as Modern Era characters, they appear in their Knuckles Chaotix design
  • Dreamcast Era: Amy Rose^note While Amy normally is a classic character, she appears in her Dreamcast Era design while her Classic Era design appears as "Rosy the Rascal" in the upcoming Version 2, Chao, E-102 Gamma, Chaos 0, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Hero Chao, Dark Chao, Cream the Rabbit, E-123 Omega
  • Modern Era: Blaze the Cat, Silver the Hedgehog
  • Guests: Wonder Boy (Lizard-Man), Arle, NiGHTS, Sakura Shinguji, Ulala, Beat, Vyse, AiAi, Kazuma Kiryu, Aigis, Hatsune Miku, Doomguy
• To be added in Version 2/Ring Racers:
  • Classic Era: Rosy the Rascal^note a.k.a. Classic Amy, Cluckoid, Eggrobo, Mecha Sonic, Heavy, Bomb, Fang the Sniper, Honey the Cat, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles
  • Dreamcast Era: Big the Cat, Tikal the Echidna, Maria Robotnik, Emerl, Jet the Hawk
  • IDW Comic Series: Tangle the Lemur, Whisper the Wolf, Surge the Tenrec
  • Guests: Jack Frost, Ecco, Zylo, Headdy, Vectorman, Vanessa Lewis, Orta, Samba de Amigo, Rappy, ChuChu, Gum, Billy Hatcher

---

This game contains examples of the following tropes:

• Alternate Self: Ring Racers will include two different versions of Amy: Rosy the Rascal from the Classic Era (named after Amy's subtitle in Sonic the Fighters) and Amy Rose from the Dreamcast and Modern Eras.
• Always Night: Roughly 20 race tracks and at least 4 battle courses take place at night.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • This game's version of the dreaded Blue Shell, the Self-Propelled Bomb, doesn't necessarily mean certain doom for the racer targeted by it — skilled players can easily outrun it, so much so that they can even complete the race without being hit by it.
  • Players who drag items behind them are slowed down a bit, meaning that they can't just hold onto them to use as a cover against incoming attacks without risking their speed. Items are also dragged behind/orbit the player by default, meaning they can't just not place the item out to circumvent the speed decrease. (This swings both ways though, as the speed decrease is not significant to the point that players will simply want to just place their items the second they get them.)
  • The main way to get the various unlockable tracks and modes in game is through Record Attack, but for those who aren't skilled enough to unlock everything can instead unlock them simply by playing enough matches. Even Free Play counts. Unfortunately, the Map Hell levels can't be unlocked this way.
  • Those who want to play the Map Hell levels but are struggling to earn the necessary amount of Record Attack medals (110 out of 115) can type "banana" into the developer console to instantly unlock them all.
    • Alternatively, one can download a mod created by one of the game's developers to freely access all of the cup's maps, including those which have been removed in certain patches.
  • As of Version 1.2, Record Attack skips the track introduction and goes straight to the starting countdown. It's also possible to instantly retry without pausing the game by pressing the select button (or any binded equivalent). These two features will especially come in handy if you're spending multiple attempts beating a difficult staff ghost or grinding for a good time.
• Amazing Technicolor Battle Field: MKSC Rainbow Road is an available course. SMK Rainbow Road can also be found in Map Hell.
• April Fools' Day: In 2020, a stealth-rerelease of Super SRB2 Kart Z with some alterations was made available on April 1st, masked as the long-awaited Version 2. It was functional, albeit noticeably broken in certain parts due to it being a test build, including all of the original Kart Z cast being broken by the transition to new sprites with new animations.
• The Artifact: Certain tracks, such as Sapphire Coast Zone and Toxic Palace Zone, have large windows partway through the track. In Super SRB2 Kart Z, players could earn a Whirlwind Shield powerup from crossing the finish line (among abilities based on the other monitors in Sonic Robo Blast 2) and use it to jump through these openings and achieve huge skips. This power was since given to the Battle Mode-only Spring item as the ability to jump in regular races was deemed too broken and easy to exploit the tracks' intended pathing with.
• Art Shift: As the Bonus Characters pack contains characters made by various authors, some vary slightly in their art style. Beat, in an attempt to mimic his home series' Cel Shading, has sharper outlines and shading.
• Balance Buff: Many of the new racing mechanics in Ring Racers including the tether, were created to allow high acceleration, low top speed drivers like Tails, the Chao, Motobug, Ray, Eggman, and Gamma to compete more reliably against racers with high top speed and low acceleration on a wider variety of tracks.
• Breakout Mook Character:
  • In Super SRB2 Kart Z, Robo-Hood, one of Sonic Robo Blast 2's Badniks, could be added via the "misc characters" file that came with the game. Similarly, there was Crawla Honcho, a Crawla with a honcho getup that spoke in The Soldier's voice.
  • This role would eventually go to Motobug in SRB2Kart proper (later joined by Cluckoid in Ring Racers) while the aforementioned Robo-Hood and Crawla Honcho were scrapped from the playable roster and reduced to cameos throughout the various courses.^note There do exist community addons to return Robo-Hood to the playable roster, as well as two different varieties of Crawla.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The aptly-named "Map Hell" cup, which you can rarely come across online if someone votes the "random track" option, and is not available for singleplayer until you collect 110 of the 115 medals. Not all of the maps in the cup are difficult, but many stand out:
  • Septic Quarry's layout mostly lacks guardrails and typically has at least one side of the track surrounded by pits, reminiscent of Colorado from Mickey's Speedway USA. As of the 1.0.2 update, it has been Dummied Out of the official track rotation.
  • CK Cloud Tops 1 almost completely lacks guardrails and features some tight turns, making it all too easy for an inexperienced player to fall off the course.
  • CK Dungeon Maze works less like a track and more like... well, a dungeon; all kinds of obstacles and traps appear to potentially ruin the racers' day.
  • CK Death Town has a very unforgiving layout, mostly featuring turns that can have you careening into a pit if you mess up. One particular turn near the end happens to be much narrower than usual, making drifting around it very risky in comparison to just slowing down and taking it cautiously. Like Septic Quarry, it has been removed from rotation as of the 1.0.2 update.
  • Silence from F-Zero makes an appearance here. While it doesn't have any hazards itself, the map only has 90-degree turns and barely has breathing room for driving, making a race between several players a claustrophobic nightmare.
  • The infamous five-lap smaller-scaled SNES Rainbow Road from Super Mario Kart also shows up here (instead of the larger-scale version from Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8). Expect players to constantly fall off the track, especially if items are cleverly (or poorly, in the case of speed-up items) used.
  • Crystal Abyss is one of the game's longest tracks, even though it only lasts for two laps, and is peppered with tricky turns to boot. In addition, the level is arguably the most visually-detailed in the entire game, thus it can (and likely will) cripple performance with weaker computers, especially in multiplayer. Crystal Abyss was actually the very first track to end up in Map Hell; the aforementioned issues meant that having it only appear occasionally worked best.
• Build Like an Egyptian: Ancient Tomb Zone is a sprint track taking place in a pyramid.
• The Cameo: In addition to being one of the bonus characters, NiGHTS appears on a poster in the Dark Race and Twinkle Cart levels.
• Casino Park: Casino Resort Zone is a casino-themed race track, featuring slot machines and giant poker chips along the edges of the main path, and even a giant roulette wheel as part of the track itself.
• Character Customization: Players can select from a wide array of colors/palettes to help identify each other online, with a total of 90 selectable colors. Very useful as by default there are only 5 characters.
• Chest Monster: The Eggman Monitor appears as one of the items. It resembles an item monitor (only with an Eggman logo instead of a star inside of it) but acts like a time bomb, blowing up the unfortunate sap who picked it up after a few seconds. However, the explosion can actually be used to the victim's advantage; it affects anyone else caught in the blast, possibly even the player who set the trap in the first place.
• Competitive Balance: The character select screen outlines the two mutually exclusive stat pairs for players: top speed vs acceleration and handling vs weight. These points are stressed with the bonus characters Gamma, Chao, Omega and Flicky (or Aigis before 1.0.2) who are each put in a different corner of the grid. This allows 81 combinations of speed and weight in total to be added to the roster.
• Continuity Porn:
  • The roster of the game, especially Ring Racers, includes a large number of one-shot Sonic characters that had only one key appearance and never showed up again. This includes the robots Heavy and Bomb from Knuckles Chaotix, Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles of Sonic R fame, Honey the Cat from Sonic the Fighters, and Emerl from Sonic Battle.
  • The non-Sonic cast also gets a lot of love as both current and obscure Sega properties are represented- including most of the ones featured in Sega Superstars and then some.
• Crystal Landscape: The Map Hell track Crystal Abyss, as its name suggests, takes place in a dark, mysterious realm surrounded by crystals.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite both Vector and Espio of the Chaotix being present and accounted for, Charmy Bee does not appear in the base roster and doesn't seem to be planned anytime soon.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Do you have an habit of mashing your item button to get an item faster, like in Mario Kart? Doing so here will give you an item faster as well... but you will also get a significantly worse item in return^note Specifically, your chances to get a Power Item will be divided by two. Power Items include items such as Invincibility, Grow, Triple Sneakers, Ballhog, Double Jawz, and more., represented by the item flashing red.
• Death Mountain: The sprint level Canyon Rush Zone, which takes place in a rocky canyon littered with crates and falling rocks to slow down racers.
• Demoted to Extra: Robo-Hood went from a playable racer in Super SRB2 Kart Z to a background prop in Eggman's Nightclub Zone.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In Desert Palace, there's a red button which temporarily removes the shortcut over a certain pit. When pressed, however, the button cannot reset itself until the player who activated it completes a lap; this stops potential Griefers from just camping at the button and using it to mess with other players.
  • In multiplayer, a Map Hell level is guaranteed if everyone chooses the "random" option in the voting menu. In the singleplayer Free Play mode, where the same vote window appears, choosing the aforementioned option instead loads a random regular level, thus you are forced to unlock the Map Hell cup for singleplayer the hard way. You can, however, play multiplayer matches privately with only one player active, finish a race, and trigger a Map Hell selection to race on them freely.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Heavyweight racers (7 weight or higher) in general get this as they cannot turn as sharp as the lighter racers and must rely on drifting to get through tight turns or combine drifting with breaking to maintain control through even tighter turns. Your reward for choosing a heavyweight over a lightweight with 3 weight or lower and drifting around corners optimally means you get a racer that can preform better in races than lightweights as they can obtain drift boosts faster and don't have to get worried about being knocked around the track by the bigger racers since they are the bigger racers.
  • For a specific example: Metal Sonic is as fast as Sonic but trades handling for weight, making him harder to control but much more powerful with drift boosts. Vector and Omega take this even further by being opposites to Blaze and Flicky respectively, taking their Weight stats and "reversing" them for worse control in exchange for superior Weight and DSR.
• Diminishing Returns for Balance: How the game's stat system works. Play a character with more speed and their acceleration suffers, play a heavier racer and their handling drops steadily. The player's Drift Spark Rate also increases the more Weight the racer has and further increases the lower the racer's Speed Stat gets.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Subverted with the Self-Propelled Bomb. It targets the player who has a significant lead from everyone else, but unlike the Blue Shell of Mario Kart fame, it slows down once it reaches the race leader and will only catch the racer if they spin out or drive poorly, meaning that they should play perfect to keep it away as long as possible. Played straight in the way it's summoned: If the frontrunner is too far ahead, a SPB is immediately put into the hands of the second-place racer on the next Monitor they break to give the frontrunner more pressure and a chance for the other racers to catch up.
• Eternal Engine: Comes in two flavors: Petroleum Refinery Zone, which is barren save for the occasional ball and chain obstacle, and Red Barrage Area, a much busier track that doubles up on spiked balls (with or without chains) and even has switches that can enable or disable boost panels. Map Hell adds a third flavor in the form of Chemical Facility Zone, which is surrounded by hazardous chemicals and filled with conveyor belts that are all too happy to drag you into the toxic pool.
• Expy: All of the items racers obtain from monitors are based on some form of item used in the Mario Kart series and several other kart racers:
  • Bananas are the only item shared between games, except the SRB2Kart variety slows down the user if dragged behind for too long.
  • Sneakers are pulled directly from Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, once again functioning like Mushrooms by granting a one-time speed boost. The Rocket Sneakers likewise are based on the Golden Mushroom used in the 3D Mario Kart games but on a fuel limit to encourage more strategic usage instead of Button Mashing.
  • Eggman Monitors are the stand-ins for Fake Item Boxes. Instead of blowing up on impact, they take a page from the TNT Crates of Crash Team Racing and place a ticking bomb on anyone unfortunate to collect one before exploding three seconds later. Unlike the Fake Item Box, players can use the delayed explosion to catch other drivers in the explosion (setting it off manually if they must), and unlike the TNT Crates, they cannot be shaken off.
  • Mines are based on Bob-ombs, differing in that they cannot explode until after they activate, and the activation is delayed further if the bomb is placed down behind the user instead of thrown forwards. It also slows the user if dragged behind.
  • Orbinauts serve as the non-homing projectile item, similar to the Green Shell. The heat-seaking Jawz emulate the Red Shell but function more like the Homing Rockets from Diddy Kong Racing and the Missiles from Crash Team Racing (they only aim for the targeted driver and can be cut off by terrain if not fired close enough).
  • Invincibility and Grow serve as counterparts to the Star and Mega Mushroom respectively.
  • Shrink acts like the Lightning item, but instantly shrinks down all rival racers without causing a spinout instead of striking them with a bolt of thunder.
  • Hyudoros turn the user invisible, ala the Boo item, but also lets the user drive in off-road without losing traction or speed (a feature not every Mario Kart game that featured the Boo item has included).
  • The Pogo Spring is the Cape Feather, exclusive to Battle Mode just like the Feather was when it returned to the Mario Kart series in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
  • The Ballhog is based on the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! version of the Fireball item, lobbing forwards five bouncing orb-shaped projectiles at once.
  • The Self-Propelled Bomb mimics the legendary (Spiny) Blue Shell, targeting the racer in first place and stunning them for a prolonged period (as opposed to simply exploding) if it connects. Unlike the Blue Shell, the frontrunner can attempt to evade the SPB by driving well.
  • Thunder Shields are based on the Super Horn, triggering an Area of Effect attack as well as serving as the only force for stopping the frontrunner-targeting item (the Self-Propelled Bomb in SRB2Kart's case)
  • 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.
• Floating Continent:
  • Silvercloud Island Zone is a floating island track that even has a small town.
  • Cloud Cradle Zone K, a sky-high temple of sorts that's slightly less safe than Silvercloud Island.
  • CK Cloud Tops 2, which is less populated than Silvercloud Island or Cloud Cradle, and much easier to fall off of. This applies to Map Hell's CK Cloud Tops as well.
• Fragile Speedster: Sonic is naturally one of the fastest characters, but he's also pretty light. Bonus characters Blaze and Flicky (Aigis before 1.0.2) have stat combinations close to Sonic's, with Flicky taking this the furthest by being both one of the two fastest characters and one of the four lightest.
• Game Mod: SRB2Kart is an open-source mod of an open-source mod of Doom Legacy. It also supports the option to add new characters, levels and even modified game modes, and includes a few bonus characters as an example (though it is impossible to unload mods without restarting the game, as is the case with Sonic Robo Blast 2 itself). Adding in characters is also the only way to get certain stat combinations that don't exist among the main roster.
• Glacier Waif:
  • While not that heavy, Miku is still rated 6 on the weight scale, making her the heaviest female racer in the base game, only slightly lighter than the likes of Vector.
  • Mighty also manages to be as heavy as Eggman despite being the same size as Sonic and lacking Metal Sonic's, well, metal excuse.
• Glass Cannon: Characters with overall high top speeds (either an eight or a nine in said stat) are some of the quickest racers in the game in the right hands, but their acceleration leaves a lot to be desired. One mistake or an incoming attack aimed right at them will send them much further back before they can catch up.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Sonic and friends can go kart-racing with the villainous Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic.
• Green Hill Zone:
  • As one would expect, the Trope Namer is the first level, though it takes its style and theme after Green Hills Zone from the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
  • Paradise Hill Zone also qualifies, though it is much larger than Green Hills (to the point where it only has two laps).
  • Sonic Speedway Zone fits the trope as well, but it also serves as an equivalent to Mario Circuit, Royal Raceway and other "circuit" tracks from the Mario Kart series.
• The Grim Reaper: Appears as a hazard on the Mementos arena.
• Guest Fighter:
  • Many of the game's base roster comes from other Sega properties and games they published, as detailed in the characters folder.^note Despite having a crossover game with Sonic, Mario is ironically not included due to being owned by Nintendo, as well as to limit the influence of Mario content in the game. He and many other Nintendo characters are available as a fanmade addons though.
  • 1.1 added Doomguy as a bonus character; especially notable as he's the only bonus character not to have any proper ties to Sega whatsoever, more likely being included due to the mod being based on the Doom Engine.
  • In SRB2Kart's predecessor Super SRB2 Kart Z, Waluigi in his Brawl in the Family design was present in the bonus add-on file (misc.kart) bundled with the game, but to limit the influence of Mario content in SRB2Kart and since the skin was never updated to match the standards of the other characters for SRB2Kart, he was ultimately dropped.
• Guide Dang It!: While the game's manual explains various advanced mechanics like slip-tiding, it does not cover everything:
  • Did you know you can cancel Grow while it's active, by holding the item button? Neither the manual or the game explains this mechanic proper. This is incredibly useful, as you can cancel it as you pass an item row to keep getting items to help you catch up.
  • The Drift Spark Rate mechanic which decreases the amount of drift needed to build boosts as slower and heavier drivers goes completely un-mentioned in the manual.
  • The Kitchen Sink has a lot of behaviors that are simply not explained, not to mention that the manual does not acknowledge its existence, perhaps because of its status as a Joke Item and an Easter Egg. Unlike the banana, it will not defend you from hits taken from behind, and it cannot be placed behind you, while still slowing you down if dragged. If you miss the throw, it will not stay on the ground, meaning you can only hit with it dead on. However, to compensate, it has two possible arcs, the default, wide banana-like arc (by simply pressing Item) or a more horizontal and powerful trajectory (by pressing forward and Item), and if you hit anyone with it, they are forced to respawn and lose a lot of time.
  • Rainbow boosts. While the manual bothers to explain that blue and red mini boosts exist, rainbow boosts are also possible by drifting for a significant amount of time, as it takes twice as long to build a rainbow boost after getting a red one. This gives heavier racers an edge over lighter ones, with a boost that rivals a Sneaker in duration.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Bonus character Aiai stands out as being the only one of these.
• Home-Run Hitter: In Ring Racers, Invincibility, Grow, and a new item called the Land Mine now send players on the receiving end of one flying across the map, while also putting them in a Tumble damage state that extends the launch with a few extra bounces.
• Hornet Hole: Honeybee Industry Zone, a drive through a giant beehive with sharp turns and wide roads without rails. The racers even start the track inside a wall of honeycombs.
• Interface Spoiler: The existence of CK Cloud Tops 2 should clue you into finding a CK Cloud Tops 1 buried within the Map Hell tracks.
• Jack of All Stats: Knuckles is placed perfectly in the middle in both speed and weight. To a lesser degree, Aigis, Beat, Espio, and Sakura Shinguji qualify as well, with each having a stat combination only slightly different from that of Knuckles.
• Joke Item: Very rarely, the item monitors or the Hyudoros will grant you a kitchen sink. A successful hit with the sink will force the victim to respawn as if they fell into a pit, and announce to the server that the attacker landed the hit. However, the sink does nothing else and will simply despawn if it misses, thus having no benefit if the wielder can't aim a perfect throw.
• Left It In: One of Darkvile Garden Zone's staff ghosts involve the developer boinciel standing still on the 1:30 minute mark, and not moving until 2 minutes later, finishing in under four minutes in a map that's usually finished in a minute and forty seconds. It was left in because it was funny.
• Lethal Joke Character: Despite being just one of the many tiny animals Sonic rescues on a daily basis, Flicky can be a formidable opponent in the right hands, being maxed out in both Handling and Speed. Before 1.0.2, these stats belonged to Aigis (who is now closer to a Jack of All Stats).
• Lethal Lava Land:
  • Volcanic Valley Zone, a level filled with volcanoes and erratic rocky terrain, with Lava Bubbles and small eruptions blocking the path. Unsurprisingly, this also applies to its Classic version in Map Hell.
  • Boiling Bedrock Zone, which isn't as close to volcanoes, but is still surrounded by lava, with steam and rings of fire appearing without warning.
  • Crimson Core Zone, a heated factory-like track with flames erupting from the pits.
• Level in Reverse: The unlockable Encore Mode, which mirrors the track and also gives it a palette swap, obtained from getting 70 medals or playing 300 matches.
• Lightning Bruiser: Metal Sonic is as fast as he is heavy, letting him knock other racers around while also maintaining high speed, albeit at the cost of Acceleration and Handling. Bonus characters Vector, Omega, and Vyse also qualify, with Omega in particular having the highest possible top speed and weight.
• The Lost Woods: Midnight Meadow Zone, a nighttime track taking place in a forest with falling apples as obstacles.
• Made of Explodium:
  • Last place simply explodes once everyone else crosses the finish line, F-Zero style. Anyone who doesn't cross the finish line before time runs out after over half of the racers had finished the race will explode as well.
  • Hitting the Toads in Arid Sands sends them flying a short distance before exploding spectacularly.
• Marathon Level:
  • Sprint tracks, which are tracks so large that they forgo the typical looping track layout in favor of a drive to a definitive ending point, with laps simply indicating how far into the track the racer is. Sprint tracks in the base game include Twinkle Cart, Canyon Rush Zone, Ancient Tomb Zone, and Kart Airlines Zone.
  • Aside from sprint tracks, there's Crystal Abyss Zone, a two-lap track that takes about three minutes on average to complete. Its length is one of many reasons why it's the first track in Map Hell.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Not in the default cast, which only includes 5 Sonic characters, but among the 30 bonus characters, 12 of them are from other games. All of these characters (with the sole exception of Doomguy) are actually from Sega's other franchises, making the complete roster very reminiscent of the Sega Superstars racing games. And that's not even getting into mod support, which allows for virtually any character to be made playable.
• Mighty Glacier: Eggman has one of the highest weights in the base game (tied with Metal) and has the highest drift spark charge rate, but has very low top speed. Among the bonus characters, there's Chaos Zero, who's slightly faster than Eggman but also slightly heavier, and Gamma, who takes this to the extreme by having the highest weight, but also the lowest top speed. 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.
• Multiplayer Difficulty Spike: Inevitable in v1, given that its only single-player mode is Record Attack. Playing multiplayer races is a whole different beast because, unlike Record Attack, you have to deal with a lot of items whose behaviors you might have never seen until now, not to mention player collisions. Even once you get over this hurdle, it's not enough to take advantage of shortcuts - it becomes a lot more important to perform star boosts (which is a two frame window during the race's countdown) and take better racing lines in order to keep your advantage... But once you have enough of it, the Self-Propelled Bomb will start chasing you down, meaning that playing perfectly effectively becomes enforced. It's not uncommon for very good players to take an advantage early from lap 1, get a Self-Propelled Bomb on their tails and either slip up and have said slip-up cost them the entire race (either through player error or a stray item/enemy player knocking them into the SPB) or win while racing against it for 3 laps straight. In addition, there is a lot of nuance behind item usage, not to mention many little behaviors that can be exploited. And if you join a server with custom levels...
• Mythology Gag: Several nods to both the Sonic franchise in general and Sonic Robo Blast 2 specifically are scattered throughout the game:
  • Most items available in Item Boxes are available in monitors from the official Sonic games as well. Aside from series mainstays such as Invincibility and the Eggman Monitor, several come from more obscure sources:
    • The Power Sneakers are among the most common power-ups in the series, but this game's implementation of them is specifically based on their appearance in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, being an item that gives you a short burst of speed and can come in a set of three.
    • The Banana and Self-Propelled Bomb items both come from the Competition Mode of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
    • The Rocket Shoes and Pogo Springs only had two prior appearances: Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos and Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble.
    • The Grow and Shrink items were only ever seen in Knuckles Chaotix (though Shrink affected the player in that game, while the SRB2Kart version affects opponents).
    • The Mine is actually from one of Sonic's earliest racing endeavors, Sonic Drift.
  • 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 will feature an entire cup based on the mode's levels; the aforementioned Desert Palace, Balloon Park, Endless Mine, Chrome Gadget and Azure Lake.
  • Numerous tracks are based on Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Notably, almost all Sonic Adventure 1 levels are named after the song that plays in the area they're inspired by, as opposed to the name of the level itself.
    • Dark Race, the second track in the Ring Cup, is inspired by the Chao Races from Sonic Adventure 2.
    • There are four levels based on Twinkle Park: two of them (Twinkle Cart and Pleasure Castle) appear as the final two tracks of the Water Cup, while the other two (Fakery Way and Bumper Carts) appear as battle courses.
    • Red Barrage Area, the penultimate track of the Invincible Cup, is based on E-102 Gamma's version of Hot Shelter.
    • Egg Quarters is the third track of the Egg Cup.
  • 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 Sonic Mania.
  • One race track in Map Hell is based on Arid Sands.
  • Among the many Battle Mode maps are Marble Zone, Death Egg's Eye, Power Plant, Colosseum, Tails' Lab, and the first special stage from Sonic CD, with the latter 3 courses lifting their layouts straight from their original games.
  • Badniks from Sonic Robo Blast 2 appear in the background of several tracks. One of the selectable palettes, "Robo-Hood", is even named after one.
  • Frozen Night from Robo Blast 2 appears as a Map Hell race track, and Meadow Match appears as a Map Hell battle course.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • Certain mods aren't allowed in Record Attack, as the staff ghosts were all designed with the default cast and systems in mind. As of 1.0.3, the only exceptions are custom characters who don't use lua and custom tracks that don't replace existing tracks in order to allow for players to try racers with stat combinations that go unused by the default cast in the case of the former.
  • It is possible for characters with low enough speed and high enough weight to perform the snaking tactic made infamous in Mario Kart DS. However, certain countermeasures are put in place to make it not viable for racing: Firstly, characters lose speed while drifting, meaning that while they can easily gain the speed back by firing off a blue mini-turbo, the offset between the loss in speed while drifting and the gain in speed while boosting means simply driving straight is faster overall. Secondly, many of the characters capable of snaking already have average to high acceleration (max acceleration in the case of Motobug and Gamma), so using a blue mini-turbo to recover is, under most circumstances, not preferable over simply using the racer's natural acceleration. Thirdly, Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart uses the automatic boost buildup from Mario Kart Wii onwards during drifts instead of the manual boost buildup from DS and the two console 3D entries (64 and Double Dash!!) that preceded it.
• Nostalgia Level: Map Hell includes several levels from earlier incarnations of SRB2Kart that were removed from the main map rotation:
  • The Peach's Castle race and battle courses date all the way back to when the mod was just a mode for the SRB2 Riders mod.
  • Black Bliss and Chemical Facility both originated in the Super SRB2 Kart Z version of the game.
  • "Classic" versions of Volcanic Valley, Diamond Square, and Blue Mountain based on the aforementioned Kart Z versions are also present.
• Off the Chart: In earlier versions of SRB2Kart, it was possible to make racers that had stats higher than 9 or lower than 1 that would shoot off the chart on the character select screen. This wasn't reflected in gameplay, as a character with 0 in either stat would round up to 1, while a 10 or higher rounds down to 9. Later versions fixed the graph to show the actual stat, regardless of what speed or weight the character was assigned.
  • It is, however, possible to create characters that go off the stat chart using lua scripts. It doesn't work as well as one would expect, however, as speeds higher than 10 usually result in the characters not being able to accelerate at all, and weights higher than 10 may cause characters to barely make sharp turns and maintain speed at all or drift the opposite way.
• Palmtree Panic: Sapphire Coast Zone and Aurora Atoll Zone both take place in tropical environments, with Sapphire Coast taking place during the day and Aurora Atoll taking place at sunset.
• Player Elimination: Elimination mode. Instead of racing a fixed amount of laps, the racer in last place is eliminated after a set amount of time. This goes on until one racer remains.
• Put on a Bus: Jet the Hawk and Wave the Swallow were part of the main cast in Super SRB2 Kart Z but did not return for SRB2Kart. Jet has been confirmed to return for Ring Racers.
• Retraux: While the whole game, being based on the Doom Engine, is this, the Dreamcast and Modern Era characters like Shadow or Blaze are also redesigned in a rounder and cuter way to make them look like Classic Era characters.
• Rubber-Band A.I.: In Ring Racers, players now all have a tether, which causes them to drive faster based on a speed and distance determined by their stats. This also serves as an interesting inversion, as the player can instead rubber-band off of CPU players.
• Shifting Sand Land: The tracks Sand Valley Zone, Desert Palace Zone, Barren Badlands Zone, and Egg Quarters all take place in deserts.
• Shout-Out:
  • The game contains quite a few nods to the original F-Zero: Sand Valley and Blue Mountain use the themes of Sand Ocean and White Land respectively, Silence appears as a Map Hell course, and if a driver fails to place, they explode like a F-Zero machine, complete with the same explosion sprites and camera movements.
  • Misty Maze Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog Megamix appears as a track, even using its remix of "Industrial District" from Columns III instead of the slower-paced original composition.
  • The final track of the Invincible Cup is the Midnight Channel. Its Encore Mode palette also gives it a Persona 5 red-and-black look as well.
  • One cup (aptly named the SMK Cup) exclusively features tracks from Super Mario Kart. The game's four Battle Courses are available in Battle Mode as well.
  • A few other levels from the Mario Kart franchise can also be found elsewhere in the game, including the Mario Kart: Super Circuit version of Rainbow Road and two battle maps from Mario Kart 64.
  • On top of the several Mario Kart racing tracks, Lava Bubbles appear as obstacles in Volcanic Valley Zone, and in the background of Boiling Bedrock Zone.
  • Peach's Castle is an original track found in Map Hell. Toads with sprites ripped from Super Mario All-Stars also appear in Arid Sands, using Toad's Mario Kart 64 scream when they're blowed over.
  • Ganbare Dochu 2 from Konami Krazy Racers appears as the first track in the Chao Cup.
  • Map Hell includes a few more race tracks from other games, namely Retro Maze from Pac-Man World Rally, Silence from F-Zero, and Rainbow Road from the original Super Mario Kart.
  • Among the battle courses are Armored Armadillo, Trigger Happy Havoc, and Mementos.
  • One Map Hell battle arena level features Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff as wall textures.
  • The "Plague" color available for use on characters is styled directly after Plague Knight's colors.
  • The sound for starting a race is taken from Diddy Kong Racing.
  • If you happen to throw a banana directly at another racer before it lands or hit someone with a banana at point blank, you'll hear a faint ping sound effect.
  • Community Cup's Opulence Zone^note which replaces Honeybee Industries Zone from Version 1.4 onwards has various internal shout-outs to very popular community levels and authors as represented in paintings and hidden cameos, alongside references to other tracks^note including Liquidation Circuit Zone, Canyon Cascade Zone, Wave Dimension Zone, Ballistic Reef Zone, and Splashdown Zone designed by IvoYaridovich.
• Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: In Ring Racers, Zylo and Vanessa Lewis are the main representations of their respective universes instead of their leads Max and Akira.
• Skill Gate Characters:
  • Chao is very beginner-friendly and will have an easy time staying on track. However, he is extremely slow and light, limiting his potential. Dark Chao, Hero Chao, and Tails are one step up from Chao, with Dark Chao being 1 point heavier, Hero Chao being 1 point faster, and Tails having a point greater in both speed and weight.
  • Faster lightweights such as Cream, Sonic, Amy, and Flicky are also beginner-friendly as they can take turns relatively easy without relying on drifting while also having average to great top speeds. Their only downsides are their poor acceleration combined with the aforementioned lack of weight, and the faster lightweights having a harder time building up drift boosts on turns (with Flicky having it the worst).
• Skyscraper City: Grand Metropolis, a level taking place atop incredibly tall city buildings with no ground in sight.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Race tracks Sub-Zero Peak Zone, Blue Mountain Zone, and SMK Vanilla Lake 2 take place in icy areas with slippery terrain, as does SMK Battle Course 3. In Map Hell, there's also SRB2 Frozen Night and Blue Mountain Classic.
• Stone Wall: Characters with overall low speed stats (1 or 2 speed) can use their high acceleration to quickly gain speed, recover from attacks, and correct driving errors much more quickly than faster racers. They also tend to have above average Drift Spark Rates for their weight class. Despite this, and true to their norm, they have lower top speeds overall and need to rely more greatly on drifting, boosting, and knocking away other racers to overtake opponents and stay ahead.
• Strong and Skilled:
  • While they are on the Glass Cannon side, characters with a great top speed but low weight, as long as they stay on the road and avoid heavier characters, are the fastest on straight lines and take the sharpest corners with ease.
  • Despite being the exact opposite, heavy characters who focus on acceleration fit this trope too considering they can push lighter characters and can spam powerful boosts as soon as you master their handling handicap.
• Theme Naming:
  • As a Sonic fan game, many of the tracks and arenas end in "Zone", though some exceptions apply.
  • Most of the Cups are named after item box items, with the Water, Lightning, and Fire Cups being named after the shield types from Sonic 3 and Knuckles. The exceptions are the Emerald Cup (not counting its appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, though it is still an iconic Sonic item), the Chao Cup (named after an iconic Sonic species instead), the SMK Cup (named after the game its tracks are based on, Super Mario Kart), and the Community Cup (named for its tracks being creations of the game's community).
• Toy Time: Megablock Castle Zone is constructed from colorful blocks, and features jack-in-the-boxes as obstacles and various giant block soldiers watching over the race.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Characters like Metal Sonic lack acceleration to recover from spinning out and precision to take sharp corners precisely, but their heavy weight allows them to knock lighter drivers off-road and once they reach their top speed and anticipate sharp turns, they are nearly unstoppable.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential:
  • You can run into Toads standing in the middle of the track in Arid Sands, causing them to get launched and self-destruct as a result. They provide no penalty for doing so and running them over has no impact on the overall race, but it slows you down slightly and the explosion can spin out racers that drive into it.
  • A more intentionally implemented example is with the battle mode. After running out of Bumpers, you turn into a Self-Propelled Bomb (styled after the Bomb Kart from Mario Kart 64) and can drive your kart into other racers still in the game to destroy one of their bumpers. Destroying a certain amount (or simply striking the player marked as "Wanted") will award you with an extra one of your own and put you back in the game.
• Weak, but Skilled: Tails is the slowest and lightest of the default characters, but his high acceleration allows him to quickly recover from spinning out, and his excellent handling makes it easy to zip around corners while chaining boosts. Bonus characters that also fit the role include Chao, who takes Tails's stats to their extreme, Dark and Hero Chao, who are a single point lower than Tails in speed and weight respectively, and Motobug, Ray (Rouge in 1.0.2), and Ulala, wh similarly have a low Speed stat but are heavier.