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Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers (2024) ⭐

6 min read

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Log

2024-04-29

paralogue: hello world

srb2kart 2 is finally out… i’m excited to see how much of my life it sucks up. seeing as how i put many hundreds of hours into the original srb2kart, my feelings are complicated. like, there are the ones i have about the game itself, but those shouldn’t matter right now since i’m still going through the five stages of grief over subtle mechanical changes. but there are also the thoughts i have about the fate of srb2kart itself… will ring racers completely supplant it and everyone will be moving over to the new game before too long? or will there be a dedicated sub-sub-subculture that sticks around, devoted to the original kart? after all, we’ve seen that happen with other online games… though maybe not when there were only ever 150–200 active players at the height of its popularity.

2024-05-16

paralogue: What are you playing?

right now it’s ring racers, and it’ll probably be ring racers for quite some time.
currently i’m 36 hours into the game and still have one emerald left to go until i’ve got them all… on normal speed. i’ve spend the past hour or so just practicing that special stage while backgrounding the summoning salt nes tetris docu and i finally got it once. so now i just need to do it for real!
and then i get to do it all on fast speed, and then do all the time trials, and then start playing online and see if i can make a few friends this time too.
(hopefully i don’t end up attracting a colombian boyfriend this time, though i dunno, he was kinda sweet…)
 
i made it through my grief stage and hit a point where suddenly everything clicked for me and… i might even like it more than srb2kart?
but i don’t deny that it takes a certain kind of freak to get into this game. it almost feels like it’s ideally made for people who are already familiar with the modded srb2kart experience and it keeps piling features on from there. but that also makes it fun for a certain sort of neurodivergent (me) who notices all the callbacks to those community mods and gets a thrill out of seeing them “officially” recognized.

today?

i guess i never got back to this one, about a year after getting all collectables and all-emeralding each cup on vicious with at least an A rank. i thought about doing that for master mode too, but the thought of playing against an ai that cheats even more didn’t really appeal to me.

total playtime: 130 hours. somehow, only a few of those hours went into the actual online mode… and none of them went into battle mode.

  • it feels way harder to control online than locally. to be fair, kart was also like this, but kart also expected less of the player in terms of apm. but now, not only is there more to do, but netplay lag also needs to be factored into account when performing these actions
  • i’ve honestly grown attached to the special stages. they’re all like their own mini-puzzles both to learn and to optimize, and they’re surprisingly comfy to play
  • i’ve also started to develop some pretty strong rsi flareups in my right wrist (or is it normal to feel like it’s constantly burning?). maybe part of it is my fault, since i bound the item button to a face button instead of keeping it on the default left bumper, which makes playing the game one of steering with the left hand and performing carpal tunnel-jutsu with the right.
    • autoaccel helps a lot though, and i’m so glad it’s built into the game instead of being a server mod that most owners didn’t bother enabling

2025-10-14

ever since i heard that 2.4 is coming soon i downloaded a release candidate and have been keeping up with the changes, and i think i want to love it for real this time, you know? it still feels so good to play – arguably even better now. and though it feels like the new changes are them doubling down on what made the original so polarizing, i’m honestly alright with that. despite everything, ring racers managed to foster a small-but-passionate fanbase who likes what kart krew was able to deliver… and i like it too.
there are more choices then ever when it comes to finding a kart racer to love, so it’s ok if the sickos get to have one to themselves. think of it like a tryhard gamer quarantine!

  • did the mechanic changes make the game even faster?! it feels like it’s easier than ever to pick up incredible amounts of speed, even on gear 2
  • i think that ratcheting down the item roulette to eight or so dynamically-generated ones is perhaps the best thing they could’ve done so long as they were set on allowing players to choose what they want. before, it felt like you had to memorize the starting reels for every position you could be in; now, you can either mash to quickly get something you can hopefully use or keep track of the item you want so you can nab it on the second go-around.
  • i’m happy that they added the acid drop! it makes quarter pipes make more sense!
  • the decision to now score races by how players perform at each checkpoint is… it feels weird, but it makes sense. it might even be more forgiving this way?
  • i’m kinda glad they removed ring box stacking, as silly as omnichao was
  • do the new balance changes make sliptiding more powerful than ever before? or is this a sign that i’m still getting better at the game?
  • ring bail is a silly mechanic but it does look and sound cool…
  • oh lordy i can’t even imagine what voice chat is gonna turn into here… then again, some of my favorite moments from playing srb2kart were from when i was hanging out in mocha’s vc…

Notes

Sequel to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart (2018)

Currently at 130 hours into the game, with all items on the Challenges board unlocked, all cups cleared and emeralds obtained on Vicious mode with either a rank of A or S, and a few hours dumped into the online mode before I realized that online mode just isn’t for me.

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