History YMMV / SonicRoboBlast2Kart

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: ''Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart'' and its sequel are no strangers to this trope. A few standout examples include:
** Whoever comes in last in a race or doesn't cross the finish line in time after the top half finishes in both games will explode, ''VideoGame/FZero'' style. You're unlikely to expect it the first time playing this game blind.
** [[spoiler:The random, screaming Toads that you can run over in Arid Sands in Kart. They never respawn.]]
** [[spoiler:The "battal BOWL", a battle arena heavily based on ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'' that can be found in Kart's Map Hell.]]

* SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming: Both iterations are standalone mods for [[VideoGame/SonicRoboBlast2 a 3D platformer]], which in turn is a standalone mod for [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} a first-person-shooter]] which maps were programmed on a 2D map before being rendered into 3D. That says a lot about how flexible the ''Doom'' engine truly is, despite being three decades old.

* SurpriseDifficulty: Record Attack in ''[=SRB2 Kart=]'' might seem simple, but some of the silver medals can be pretty tough to earn. And then you usually have to shave about another 20 seconds for the gold medal. ''Ring Racers'' ups the antie by increasing the number of medals, which requires you to shave off at least 9% of the prior time to upgrade a medal, [[spoiler:and even includes Platinum medals which serves as the best time that one of the staff completes the course]]

* ThatOneSidequest: As mentioned above, getting all of the gold medals [[spoiler:and even the Platinum medals in Ring Racers]] is a tedious affair. At least part of the difficulty comes from the fact that the times for the medals are based off of staff ghosts, although it's very clear that some staff members were better at the game than others. This results in some SchizophrenicDifficulty; whereas some gold medal times can be accomplished just by racing relatively well, others require you to drive a near-flawless racing line, cut almost every corner, and use Sneakers at the right time to even come close to beating the target time.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: ''Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart'' is no stranger to this trope. A few standout examples include:
** Whoever comes in last in a race or doesn't cross the finish line in time after the top half finishes will explode, ''VideoGame/FZero'' style. You're unlikely to expect it the first time playing this game blind.
** [[spoiler:The random, screaming Toads that you can run over in Arid Sands. They never respawn.]]
** [[spoiler:The "battal BOWL", a battle arena heavily based on ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff''.]]

** At its core, ''[=SRB2Kart=]'' is primarily a successor to the first three ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' installments: ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'', ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', and ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit'', though it takes a number of cues from later installments as well.

* SurpriseDifficulty: Record Attack in ''[=SRB2 Kart=]'' might seem simple, but some of the silver medals can be pretty tough to earn. And then you usually have to shave about another 20 seconds for the gold medal.

* ThatOneSidequest: As mentioned above, getting all of the gold medals is a tedious affair. At least part of the difficulty comes from the fact that the times for the medals are based off of staff ghosts, although it's very clear that some staff members were better at the game than others. This results in some SchizophrenicDifficulty; whereas some gold medal times can be accomplished just by racing relatively well, others require you to drive a near-flawless racing line, cut almost every corner, and use Sneakers at the right time to even come close to beating the target time.

** Thanks to MemeticMutation brought on by the popularity of [=SRB2Kart=] compilations, you can expect almost any fully stocked room to be populated by at least a handful of Amys and Creams, with a lot of them parroting Amy's now-infamous "[[CondescendingCompassion I pity you]]". It helps that both characters are lightweight, making them easy to control for newcomers (Amy is as light as Sonic and Tails while Cream is as light as ''[[LethalJokeCharacter Flicky and Bomb]]'', to give you an idea), and that they are well-balanced regarding acceleration and top speed (even if Cream slightly tends towards the former).
* CreatorsPet: [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart SMK Vanilla Lake 2]] is a level example - the Kart Krew absolutely loves the level despite its [[TheScrappy scrappy]] status in the community for featuring slippery terrain, ice blocks, and a large amount of offroad. For ''Ring Racers'', there are plans to make a Sonic-based successor to it, alongside the rest of the base game's ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks.

** Class G characters like Eggman, Chaos, and Gamma/Heavy tend to get the short end of the stick due to their gameplay style, which relies around bullying lighter racers and abusing their fast drift spark rates to get huge speeds on turns (unlike Metal Sonic, Vector, Metal Knuckles and Omega/Mecha Sonic who are also heavy but naturally fast as well). This makes them harder to master compared to the likes of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and gives them a disadvantage on tracks with lots of straightaways and not a lot of turns.

* MisaimedFandom: [[spoiler: Map Hell]] eventually became this through [[GameMod custom level packs]].

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Both iterations]]

* SurpriseDifficulty: Record Attack in ''[=SRB2 Kart=]'' might seem simple, but some of the silver medals can be pretty tough to earn. And then you usually have to shave about another 20 seconds for the gold medal. And then there's the Time Trials in ''Ring Racers'', which adds in Platinum Medals on par with the fastest of the staff.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart'']]
* AbridgedArenaArray:
** Whenever Daytona Speedway appears on the voting window, you can bet that most if not all of the server's players will choose it, regardless of what the other map options are. Its simplistic layout and opportunities for shortcuts, combined with the iconic background music of "[[VideoGame/DaytonaUSA Let's Go Away]]", have made it a smash hit within the community.
** Hill Top Zone and Blue Mountain Zone are also definite favourites in the community, with Megablock Castle Zone, Petroleum Refinery Zone, Midnight Channel and Ancient Tomb Zone trailing not too far behind. The ChallengeGamer part of the community also greatly prefer Toxic Palace Zone, Volcanic Valley Zone, and Eggman's Nightclub Zone (the latter not only having bangin' music, but also being this game's answer to [[VideoGame/MarioKart Rainbow Road]].)
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: ''Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart'' is no stranger to this trope. A few standout examples include:
** Whoever comes in last in a race or doesn't cross the finish line in time after the top half finishes will explode, ''VideoGame/FZero'' style. You're unlikely to expect it the first time playing this game blind.
** [[spoiler:The random, screaming Toads that you can run over in Arid Sands. They never respawn.]]
** [[spoiler:The "battal BOWL", a battle arena heavily based on ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff''.]]
* BreatherLevel:
** 3 Color Drive is a smooth, nearly-flat track with no hazards to worry about, making for a less chaotic race than usual. But here's the catch: [[spoiler:This level is found in the [[BrutalBonusLevel notoriously difficult Map Hell cup]], which features plenty of tracks that have hazards and tricky turns.]][[note]]According to WordOfGod, the reason 3 Color Drive is in the Map Hell cup is because the stage is actually unfinished.[[/note]]
** Amusingly enough, [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Red Barrage Area]], the penultimate track of the sixth cup, is this in Record Attack. Since the gold medal time is ''less than three seconds faster'' than the silver medal time, racing well enough to gain the silver medal will more than likely net you both medals in one fell swoop.
** Compared to the rest of the tracks in the NintendoHard Egg Cup, Virtual Highway is fairly straightforward, with much less hazards and tricky turns to worry about.
* BrokenBase: The "SPB Tag" mechanic added into 1.0.2, which forces a Self-Propelled Bomb to whoever is in second place if the first-place racer even has the slightest lead gap ahead of the rest of the pack. Most players enjoy the feature as it serves as a useful ComebackMechanic, while others think the mechanic is unnecessary or activates too early, necessitating DoWellButNotPerfect so the first place racer stays within sight of the racer(s) right behind them.
* CreatorsPet: [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart SMK Vanilla Lake 2]] is a level example - the Kart Krew absolutely loves the level despite its [[TheScrappy scrappy]] status in the community for featuring slippery terrain, ice blocks, and a large amount of offroad. For ''Ring Racers'', there are plans to make a Sonic-based successor to it, alongside the rest of the base game's ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks.
* FanNickname: "Meme Rectangle" for KKR Ganbare Dochu 2, see TheScrappy below for details. Special mention goes to its "Meme Bridge" as well, infamous for being a huge chokepoint at the start of races, and very easy to trap as well. This nickname is so widely known by the community that the unofficial Time Attack leaderboards for the game refer to this map as such as well.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** This game was in development long before the announcement of an official [[VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing Sonic-Universe racing game]].
** Additionally, the game was released at least a good full week before ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled'' was announced at the Video Game Awards 2018.
* MisaimedFandom: [[spoiler: Map Hell]] eventually became this through [[GameMod custom level packs]].
** The category was intended as a way to get [[BrutalBonusLevel Brutal Bonus Levels]] like [[spoiler: Crystal Abyss Zone]], "Classic" versions of levels, and unfinished levels sparingly in multiplayer, that [[DummiedOut otherwise would or could not be in the game]] because of difficulty or their outdated or incomplete status, plus to provide a bit of a history lesson of ''Kart'''s more humble origins as ''[=SRB2 Riders=]'' and ''[=KartZ=]''. However, various modders eventually repurposed the category as a way to justify really out there track designs and gimmicks, specially "donut" levels[[note]]incredibly short tracks with more than 10 laps where racers often drift about 90% of the time, similar to [[VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash Baby Park]][[/note]] and tracks that would belong better if they were designed for Battle mode. If such track packs are being hosted, expect at least one player online inside a server to deliberately try to get entire servers to vote random to force one, sometimes failing (which ends up in them berating non-Random-voting players for preferring to play well-balanced levels), sometimes winning (which sometimes ends up with the server playing a "Classic" track or aforementioned [[BrutalBonusLevel Brutal Bonus Levels]] instead of the "meme" tracks provided by custom track packs), to the complaints of people in such a server who simply wish to play a kart racer. Expect insults being hurl, votekicking (if the server supports it), and collective groaning from either side whenever this happens in a public server, specially more casually-oriented ones.
** The developers seem to agree, which is why Version 1.4 of the game removed forcing such levels through having everyone in the server vote Random, while keeping the ~1% chance to get a [[spoiler: Hell Map]] on a successful Random vote, as well as eliminating the category entirely for ''Ring Racers''.
* NauseaFuel: Kodachrome Void's walls and floors are made up of pulsating black and white patterns, making for an extremely disorienting experience. It ended up being toned down in 1.0.2 to a grey and black gradient, and was retooled a second time to remove the pulsating gradients all-together.
* TheScrappy: Most tracks ported from other MascotRacer games tend to get a poor reputation for a number of reasons:
** The majority of the ports, thanks to being easy to re-create and/or originating from ''Super [=SRB2=] Kart Z'' ([=SRB2=] Kart's predecessor built from an earlier version of ''Robo Blast 2'', which had no support for slopped terrain), come from consoles that weren't able to provide much variety in layout and stuck to a single flat elevation. While some ports take creative liberties to alleviate this somewhat (with [[VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit MKSC Sky Garden]] slanting one part of the track upward and [[VideoGame/SonicDrift SD2 Balloon Panic]] being a full-3D remake not restricted to the ''VideoGame/PolePosition''-like gameplay style of the ''Drift'' series), the tracks otherwise feel bland when placed next to the more varied layouts of the original tracks. [[VideoGame/KonamiKrazyRacers KKR Ganbare Dochu 2]] became infamous for this, being a port of a very simple rectangular track containing some narrow roads that get cluttered quickly in multiplayer, earning it the title "Meme Rectangle 2" by the community).
** Other ports are cramped or filled with obstacles that are hard to avoid. [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart SMK Ghost Valley 2 and SMK Bowser Castle 3]] are prime examples of this thanks to coming from much slower racing games, with [[VideoGame/MarioKartDS MKDS Peach Gardens]] not too far behind.
** Even with their wider roads, [=SD2=] Balloon Panic and [=SMK=] Vanilla Lake 2 can easily send a player off-track, slowing them down in the process (Balloon Panic with its bouncy balloons, Vanilla Lake 2 with its icy road and the many ice blocks) and dragging out the race in the process.
* ScrappyMechanic:
** When the game first released, Battle Mode was not as well-liked by the community as Race mode was. Unlike modern ''Mario Kart'' titles which have a timer and multiple game modes to increase the variety and accommodate for big twelve-player battle sessions, the only available mode on offer is a simple survival-to-the-end mode, the same one used in earlier ''Mario Kart'' games (styled directly after ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit''), which means no time limit either. While matches in those games contained only two to four players, ''[=SRB2Kart=]''[='s=] can contain many more players--up to 16. Additionally, the resurrection mechanic (dubbed "Attack or Protect") can drag matches on for much longer as players fight for a chance of returning to the action while the currently active players attempt to defeat each other- which can take up to eight minutes tops on a server with lots of players. This led to Battle Mode getting an extensive retool in ''Ring Racers'' to increase the overall speed and pace of the mode and allow it to stand on its own alongside the Race mode.
** The Race gamemode itself, despite being the main mode, is not immune to these either, to the point that there is a mod (named [=KartMP=]) that addresses them and that it's omnipresent in all non-vanilla servers. For example, falling off usually puts you [[CheckpointStarvation very far away]] from where you went out of bounds, to the point that it can lose you the game outright or prevent you from catching up for entire laps. Orbinauts don't have a time limit (bouncing on surfaces causes them to lose speed instead), so if they don't hit anyone, they become almost permanent hazards in straights until they are eventually struck by a racer. The invulnerability period after being spun out is very short, barely 3 seconds, so it's possible to get dunked by items into off-road sections of a map constantly without any ability to defend yourself. It's impossible to pass by players who have 2x Jawz orbiting around them, as the orbiting time is infinite, and they'll deploy them on sight if you pass them, meaning you have to use items to either hit them and make them drop their orbiting defenses or destroy them slowly before you can go past them. Losing Drift Sparks when you bonk a wall is also a point of contention because sometimes you might lose them through no fault of your own, because someone bonked into you, and then made you bonk into a wall... The list goes on.
** The WAD/pk3 download issues[[note]]as in, the game frequently freezes when downloading large files and forces the player to try reconnecting[[/note]] from ''VideoGame/SonicRoboBlast2'' are retained in this game, and it's arguably worse here because the game greatly encourages the use of mods (especially since there's currently no single-player mode outside of Record Attack). Several heavily modded servers have worked around this by setting up external download sources and providing links to them via the servers' names.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers'']]
* ArcFatigue: ''Ring Racers''[='=] ForcedTutorial on release was slammed by many people online for being needlessly long, clocking in at around 40 minutes ''at least''. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if it didn't waste the players' time by recapping basic mechanics already known from other racers including ''[=SRB2K=]'' as well as talking about niche mechanics that are heavily situational at best, and the fact that you are required to do this to access the main game doesn't help matters. The sheer amount of mechanics the tutorial frontloads also makes it overwhelming for some players to digest. There ''is'' a way to skip the tutorial, but it requires [[GuideDangIt doubling back into a tunnel behind you]] and completing a race with hard [=CPUs=] at 4th place or higher, or being able to put in [[spoiler:gaster]] as a password. Thankfully, the very first patch only made the first two levels of the tutorial (Controls and Rings) mandatory, but also made the tutorial challenge race more visible at every step of the tutorial, as well as made the actual challenge much more in line with normal difficulty, and completing it unlocks online play, addons and time attack all in one go, while also making it easier to add in the password to skip the tutorial.
* FridgeBrilliance:
** The Extra Cup is initially set up to be the game's final Grand Prix cup, though it's shown otherwise once you've cleared it. This ultimately makes more sense upon looking at the courses in said cup; the last track in the Extra Cup is Launch Base Zone, the final level from the '''first''' half of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3AndKnuckles'', and with the unlocked cups, Death Egg Zone becomes the final track of the Egg Cup, that being the '''second''' half of the collection before the next 14 cups are unlocked.
** [[spoiler:Shadow and Maria being in the playable roster despite the latter's DeathByOriginStory and the former's DeathByAdaptation makes a whole lot more sense when you consider what Jack Frost says when you approach him as Shadow. The playable counterparts most likely come from alternate timelines (canon timeline in Shadow's case) where they survived.]]
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: As a ''Sonic'' fangame, and one that's full of in-jokes and references to the goofier side of the franchise, there's plenty to laugh at.
** Jack Frost is a hidden NPC on Frozen Night Zone, and he has a lot of choice words for the entire cast.
*** Playing as Heavy Magician - who switches her disguises and stats around every lap - will cause him to ask her to stay still before smacking her and asking why he only gets a good look at her when she's getting her ass kicked.
*** Approaching as Knuckles causes him to do his infamous "If you're such hot shit, crush this rock with your bare hands" dare. When Knuckles does so without hesitation and without effort, Jack reacts with utter glee.
*** He has no issue insulting children at all, and tells Maria to her face he needs a kid to watch over [[BlackComedy like he needs a hole in the head.]]
*** Jack is genuinely impressed by Metal Knuckles at first, though he needs to do research, even seeing that he appeared as recently as ''Sonic Superstars''. Then, after ten seconds of dead silence, Jack loses interest the moment he finds out he needs to log into an Epic Games account to even look at it and asks Metal Knuckles to introduce him to his "infinitely more relevant friends."
*** A modded character gets an immediate dismissal, because he doesn't even have time to workshop material for them given the healthy amount already in the base game.
* NightmareFuel: The process of erasing data can become this if a player isn't expecting it. To start with, the background loses all color until you leave the screen, and whatever main menu music was playing is replaced with the intense "Last Stand!" theme to hammer in how '''critical''' a decision the player's about to make. The info text above even makes it pretty clear, no matter what you're selecting, that whatever you erase '''''cannot''''' be recovered at all.
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Kart'' is a standard mascot racer game with an item roulette and drifting. ''Ring Racers'' is significantly less approachable and even insists to players that they must first learn the rules on a long tutorial and clear a Grand Prix cup to access Online mode. The game is centered around resource management, with rings being constantly collected and spent to move fast enough to drive up slopes. At zero rings, players become slow and vulnerable but can charge up a parrying slash against incoming racers. There are even skills like fast-falling, air tricks and both a Spin Dash ''and'' a manual teleporter for use in emergencies.
* TearJerker: A fairly subtle moment crops up should the player pick the black spray can in the Tutorial, where a mere ''mention'' of the ARK has Robotnik drop any of his usual quips and just give a straight-to-the-point response while his dialogue image looks downbeat. [[spoiler:Considering the implications that ''Ring Racers'' is an AlternateTimeline where Shadow '''stayed''' dead after ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', it's implied that the two geniuses are still recovering from the whole ordeal and that it remained a huge impact on them both. It may even have been part of the impetus for Ivo's HeelFaceTurn, considering [[BrokenPedestal the utter shock and disappointment]] of seeing his grandfather driven to madness and hate.]]
* ThatOneLevel:
** In SPB Cup, Balloon Park features a sharp turn into a pair of moving walls with a small gap in the middle. It is one of the most annoying and chaotic parts of the game. If you're happy to have escaped it, the other half of the track is an ascent of zigzagging turns with bumpers that send you ways behind, and balloons which make you do figures that can either fasten you... or make you fall from the ascent, forcing you to do it all over again. As it wasn't enough, the track doesn't have 3, but 5 laps.
** Flame Cup [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity starts on the suspiciously easy Trap Tower]] before going on three [[SlippySlideyIceWorld snow and ice tracks]] following each other, and if the game was tough but fair before, it takes off the gloves here:
*** First, Diamond Dust starts on a slide where you must be frozen in ice at least once, and the second half of the track is a long ascent to the finish line where you must endure freezing at leasy a second time. However, the electric barriers and the bumpers coupled with the ice physics mae it way harder to progress, and while the ice physics are a serious handicap for players, [=CPU=]s can use it at full advantage to go even faster.
*** Second, Blue Mountain Act 1, [[AbridgedArenaArray one of the favorite of the community]], is way less fun in a Grand Prix setting. The track has three caverns where you must roll on ice, the third being the most tedious as it forces you to zigzag between barriers. As mentioned before, the [=CPU=]s will abuse the slippery ice physics, and even worse, the game often tends to give them an unlimited amount of rings. Even worse, while you can destroy fir trees while invincible or giant, snowmen can knock you down if you roll on them.
*** Third, Blue Mountain Act 2 is probably the worst, as it is not a three lap turn, but the equivalent of [[VideoGame/MarioKart8 Merry Mountain and Mount Wario]] combined, as you have to ascend a mountain before descending to the other side. The second third of the track requires to ascend while crossing huge gaps at top speed to not fall down, and the last third has a descent and an ice corridor, and from the "final lap" sign to the finish line, the road is slippy in its entirety. As if it wasn't enough, this track also has the ridiculously tough snowmen.
** In Egg Cup, Death Egg is so long a course that its three laps count as 12 sections on the HUD. There are conveyor belts that push you out to the side and out of platforms, with some sections demanding precise control to gain enough speed to jump over multiple gaps. One wacky section launches you upside-down into the ceiling and then makes you and the other racers briefly ''drive backwards'' while you can't see behind you! Each lap also has an unique hazard: the first starts with the racers dodging the projectiles circling Red Eye, and in the latter two the Giant Mech appears near the end. The first time he tries crushing the racers with his palms, and in the second he fires his WaveMotionGun across a long straight road.
** In Bomb Cup, Chemical Facility Zone is an extremely fast-paced track with conveyor belts, crushers that can insta-kill you, a section with zigzagging sharp turns that [=CPU=]s seem to cross faster than you, a section where you have to go off-road and get drained of your rings before two big turns and two straight lines after each, and a final zigzagging portion where you can fall into a BottomlessPit.
* ThatOneSidequest: There is a wall of achievements which come in two sizes. While they can be unlocked using Chao Keys which are gained after completing enough races, the bigger achievements require not only all surrounding achievements (barring other Big achievements in v2.2 onwards) to be unlocked '''and''' require 10 Chao Keys to unlock.
** Among those achievements are [[spoiler:obtaining the Chaos and Super Emeralds, which can only be obtained from the Sealed Star Zones from the first 14 cups. But to even get the chance to get to a Sealed Star Zone, it is required to complete a specific GP with enough points from Rings, Lap Bonuses, Egg Prisons, GP Points and the final GP placement, while also not using too many continues - and then however many continues you have left is the number of chances you have to get the Emerald. Run out of chances during the Sealed Star stage, and you have to start all over again from the beginning of the GP just for another chance at the Emerald. You also can't access the Sealed Star Zones on the Relaxed (formally Easy) difficulty. Almost as if to rub salt in the wound, there's also a challenge to obtain all 14 emeralds '''AGAIN''' on the highest difficulty - although at the very least, the requirements to enter the Sealed Star Zones at that level are lessened from needing an A rank to only needing to finish the cup in first.]]
** The shrines from VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 appear hidden on certain stages and each one will unlock a character or follower. They can be really well hidden already but it's not enough to simply find them. Just as they originally did, they require the Mystic Melody to be played next to them before they'll activate. How do you get it? [[spoiler:Find it on a track... in the Egg Cup. The '''14th''' cup in the game]]. The game neither tells you that the Mystic Melody exists, how to obtain it beyond "find a secret", nor how to even use it once you DO obtain it.
** Accessing the game's OptionalBoss takes more work than you'd expect. [[spoiler:The boss itself is accessed via Espresso Lane, where you need a Spin Dash combined with a Power Sneaker to collect a Pogo Spring hidden behind a waterfall and use a Spin Dash to get on the bridge standing just past the starting line, which leads into a vertical tunnel that needs the Pogo Spring and a ''very''-accurate down trick to reach the top. Even after that, you still need to hit five switches using all five bananas presented to you, and both special items ''do not'' respawn, so this requires near-perfect precision to hit all five switches and raise the platforms needed to reach the other side. If you mess up on any of these parts, you have to start all over again to access the area and boss fight. And even after that, the Blend Eye itself doesn't pull any punches, meaning you need to be careful to survive the encounter against it to avoid being ejected out of the level. It's even worse in Encore mode, where the cave with the switches [[BlackoutBasement is dark]] and the Mean Blend Eye is more aggressive.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The initial boot-up sequence and tutorial establish that Eggman and Tails have become friends, developing the Ring Racer together using the power of the High-Voltage Ring. However, [[ExcusePlot this is the only context provided for the entire game]], with the rest of it playing out like a standard-fare kart racer. It's not explained how other characters have reacted to the partnership (besides Metal Sonic, who attacked Eggman before the game's events), how Eggman earned Tails' trust in the first place, or why [[spoiler:the player collects the Emeralds in the Sealed Star stages]].
[[/folder]]

* BrokenBase: ''Ring Racers'' is proving to be this by itself.
** As while many appreciate the introduction of new mechanics and items (rings, the Bubble and Flame Shield, [[ComebackMechanic tethering]], etc.), the new damage system has been a huge point of controversy, namely the introduction of fighting game-styled hitstun and a new "Tumble" damage type that sends your character flying as they [[PinballGag bounce across the map.]] One side considers the new damage system to be [[HilarityEnsues hilarious]] and a fresh change of pace, adding to the chaos and fun of an already wacky game, while others [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks utterly]] [[ScrappyMechanic despise]] the new system, stating that the hitstun is a sudden interruption of the game flow for spectacle that only ends up [[FakeDifficulty prolonging damage]], and that Tumble may [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption completely ruin]] a struggling player's chance of winning, while also encouraging losing players to [[{{Griefer}} grief]] instead of making the effort to win.
** Related to the rebalance of the damage system is the overhaul of the [[BottomlessPitRescueService respawning system]]. Rather than simply popping the character back on the track with a chance to get a Drop Dash, the new respawn system physically carries the player back to the track before spitting them out, with them retaining the damage state they had when they fell if applicable. Aside from being a bit slow and respawn points being unfairly far back or broken in certain cases (both of which have already been addressed by the community in various mods and tweaks), there wasn't that much outcry for an overhaul to respawning and as it is, it has been shown in testing to be almost hilariously broken in a worst case scenario [[CycleOfHurting with characters who were tossed into the pit while in Tumble being plopped back down in the perfect spot to be whaled on again]] or left to helplessly bounce back into a pit due to the physics of Tumble not playing nice with slanted ground. The respawn is also shown to be a bit too generous in some cases where it actually carries the player a bit farther forward into the track rather than setting them back near where they fell in the vein of something like a Bullet Bill. That being said, a lot of people do appreciate that it physically shows you where you're going to be dropped off rather than just picking a spot seemingly at random and being done in a more snappy manner so that players can get back into the race immediately instead of having to sit through lengthy DeathThrows and wait to be dropped back onto the track.
** The overhaul of the start of a race has also come under heavy scrutiny. Rather than having a traditional 3, 2, 1, GO, it instead does something similar to ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' where all the racers are free to move around, bump each other around and position themselves wherever they want on the starting grid for a few moments before the race begins. People in favor of it like how it amps up the chaos and wackiness and acts as a nice callback to one of Sonic's actual racing titles while those who aren't in favor of it see it as needlessly complicating and dragging out the start of the race and opening the door to even more excessive [[{{Griefer}} griefing]] before the race has even begun.
** The whole idea of locking a lot of its content behind an achievement system has led to mixed feelings amongst players. Whilst plenty of players enjoy this system, feeling that it increases the playability and longevity of the game in general (which attributes to players being rewarded characters, color palettes and companions for beating certain requirements), others haven't enjoyed how some key content that they came for, such as '''online play''' and '''mod support''', are also locked behind this system and require grinding through the Grand Prix cups to unlock. Fortunately, it's possible to unlock the latter two early on via inputting [[spoiler:"Wi-Fi Warrior"]] and [[spoiler:"[=McDonalds=]" / "mustard gas"]] respectively into the password system. [[https://www.kartkrew.org/news/2024-04-26_dr-robotniks-ring-racers-version-21.html The first patch]] also made the unlock system more forgiving as well as made it much easier to unlock online, addons and time attack just by completing the tutorial challenge, which in itself is much easier.

** Balloon Park features a sharp turn into a pair of moving walls with a small gap in the middle. It is one of the most annoying and chaotic parts of the game. If you're happy to have escaped it, the other half of the track is an ascent of zigzagging turns with bumpers that send you ways behind, and balloons which make you do figures that can either fasten you... or make you fall from the ascent, forcing you to do it all over again. As it wasn't enough, the track doesn't have 3, but 5 laps.

** Death Egg is so long a course that its three laps count as 12 sections on the HUD. There are conveyor belts that push you out to the side and out of platforms, with some sections demanding precise control to gain enough speed to jump over multiple gaps. One wacky section launches you upside-down into the ceiling and then makes you and the other racers briefly ''drive backwards'' while you can't see behind you! Each lap also has an unique hazard: the first starts with the racers dodging the projectiles circling Red Eye, and in the latter two the Giant Mech appears near the end. The first time he tries crushing the racers with his palms, and in the second he fires his WaveMotionGun across a long straight road.

** If most of the game's custom characters being gravitated towards such stat spread is any indication, most players prefer racers that lean into either being balanced or being fast and/or lightweight, picking characters with Speed in-between 5 and 9 and Weight in-between 1 and 6. It helps that these racers are prime examples of SkillGateCharacters from being able to move at good speeds unlike Tails and the Chao trio without sacrificing too much in their ability to steer well without needing to drift, especially Blaze, Sonic, and Flicky.

** Thanks to MemeticMutation brought on by the popularity of [=SRB2Kart=] compilations, you can expect almost any fully stocked room to be populated by at least a handful of Amys and Creams, with a lot of them parroting Amy's now-infamous "[[CondescendingCompassion I pity you]]". It helps that both characters are lightweight, making them easy to control for newcomers (Amy is as light as Sonic and Tails while Cream is as light as ''[[LethalJokeCharacter Flicky]]'', to give you an idea), and that they are well-balanced regarding acceleration and top speed (even if Cream slightly tends towards the former).

** Eggman, Chaos, and Gamma tend to get the short end of the stick due to their gameplay style, which relies around bullying lighter racers and abusing their fast drift spark rates to get huge speeds on turns (unlike Metal Sonic, Vector, and Omega who are also heavy but naturally fast as well). This makes them harder to master compared to the likes of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and gives them a disadvantage on tracks with lots of straightaways and not a lot of turns.

** At its core, ''[=SRB2Kart=]'' is primarily a successor to the first three ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' installments: ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'', ''Videogame/MarioKart64'', and ''Videogame/MarioKartSuperCircuit'', though it takes a number of cues from later installments as well.
** ''[=SRB2Kart=]''[='s=] encouragement of the creation and use of custom characters and tracks can also bring to mind ''Videogame/ModNationRacers'', another kart racer that allows (well, [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames allowed]]) designing and sharing characters and tracks.

** Whoever comes in last in a race or doesn't cross the finish line in time after the top half finishes will explode, ''Videogame/FZero'' style. You're unlikely to expect it the first time playing this game blind.

* CreatorsPet: [[Videogame/SuperMarioKart SMK Vanilla Lake 2]] is a level example - the Kart Krew absolutely loves the level despite its [[TheScrappy scrappy]] status in the community for featuring slippery terrain, ice blocks, and a large amount of offroad. For ''Ring Racers'', there are plans to make a Sonic-based successor to it, alongside the rest of the base game's ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks.

** The majority of the ports, thanks to being easy to re-create and/or originating from ''Super [=SRB2=] Kart Z'' ([=SRB2=] Kart's predecessor built from an earlier version of ''Robo Blast 2'', which had no support for slopped terrain), come from consoles that weren't able to provide much variety in layout and stuck to a single flat elevation. While some ports take creative liberties to alleviate this somewhat (with [[VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit MKSC Sky Garden]] slanting one part of the track upward and [[VideoGame/SonicDrift SD2 Balloon Panic]] being a full-3D remake not restricted to the ''Videogame/PolePosition''-like gameplay style of the ''Drift'' series), the tracks otherwise feel bland when placed next to the more varied layouts of the original tracks. [[VideoGame/KonamiKrazyRacers KKR Ganbare Dochu 2]] became infamous for this, being a port of a very simple rectangular track containing some narrow roads that get cluttered quickly in multiplayer, earning it the title "Meme Rectangle 2" by the community).

** Flame Cup [[SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity starts on the suspiciously easy Trap Tower]] before going on three [[SlippySlideyIceWorld snow and ice tracks]] following each other, and if the game was tough but fair before, it takes off the gloves here:

* FridgeBrilliance: The Extra Cup is initially set up to be the game's final Grand Prix cup, though it's shown otherwise once you've cleared it. This ultimately makes more sense upon looking at the courses in said cup; the last track in the Extra Cup is Launch Base Zone, the final level from the '''first''' half of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3AndKnuckles'', and with the unlocked cups, Death Egg Zone becomes the final track of the Egg Cup, that being the '''second''' half of the collection before the next 14 cups are unlocked.

*** A modded character gets an immediate dismissal, because he doesn't even have time to workshop material for them given the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters already in the game.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Version 2.1's entire reason of existing is this, as it fixes several of the most common complaints players had with this game such as giving more oppoturnities to skip the ForcedTutorial, making features like Online play, Addons and Time attack quicker to unlock and nerfing the RubberbandAI.

* TearJerker: A fairly subtle moment crops up should the player pick the black spray can in the Tutorial, where a mere ''mention'' of the ARK has Robotnik drop any of his usual quips and just give a straight-to-the-point response while his dialogue image looks downbeat. [[spoiler:Considering the implications that ''Ring Racers'' is an AlternateTimeline where Shadow '''stayed''' dead after ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', it's implied that the two geniuses are still recovering from the whole ordeal and that it remained a huge impact on them both.]]

* ThatOneSidequest: There is a wall of achievements which come in two sizes. While they can be unlocked using Chao Keys which are gained after completing enough races, the bigger achievements require not only all surrounding achievements to be unlocked '''and''' require 10 Chao Keys to unlock.
** Among those achievements are [[spoiler:obtaining the Chaos and Super Emeralds, which can only be obtained from the Sealed Star Zones from the first 14 cups. But to even get the chance to get to a Sealed Star Zone, it is required to complete a specific GP with enough points from Rings, Lap Bonuses, Egg Prisons, GP Points and the final GP placement, while also not using too many continues - and then however many continues you have left is the number of chances you have to get the Emerald. Run out of chances during the Sealed Star stage, and you have to start all over again from the beginning of the GP just for another chance at the Emerald. You also can't access the Sealed Star Zones on the Easy difficulty. Almost as if to rub salt in the wound, there's also a challenge to obtain all 14 emeralds '''AGAIN''' on the highest difficulty - although at the very least, the requirements to enter the Sealed Star Zones at the Lunatic level are lessened from needing an A rank to only needing to finish the cup in first.]]

** Death Egg is so long a course that its three laps count as 12 sections on the HUD. There are convenyor belts that push you out to the side and out of platforms, with some sections demanding precise control to gain enough speed to jump over multiple gaps. One wacky section launches you upside-down into the ceiling and then makes you and the other racers briefly ''drive backwards'' while you can't see behind you! Each lap also has an unique hazard: the first starts with the racers dodging the projectiles circling Red Eye, and in the latter two the Giant Mech appears near the end. The first time he tries crushing the racers with his palms, and in the second he fires his WaveMotionGun across a long straight road.

** Accessing the game's OptionalBoss takes more work than you'd expect. [[spoiler:The boss itself is accessed via Espresso Lane, where you need a Spin Dash combined with a Power Sneaker to collect a Pogo Spring hidden behind a waterfall and use a Spin Dash to get on the bridge standing just past the starting line, which leads into a vertical tunnel that needs the Pogo Spring and a ''very''-accurate down trick to reach the top. Even after that, you still need to hit five switches using all five bananas presented to you, and both special items ''do not'' respawn, so this requires near-perfect precision to hit all five switches and raise the platforms needed to reach the other side. If you mess up on any of these parts, you have to start all over again to access the area and boss fight. And even after that, the Blend Eye itself doesn't pull any punches, meaning you need to be careful to survive the encounter against it to avoid being ejected out of the level. It's even worse in Encore mode, where the cave with the switches [[BlacoutBasement is dark]] and the Mean Blend Eye is more agressive.]]

* ArcFatigue: ''Ring Racers''[='=] ForcedTutorial on release was slammed by many people online for being needlessly long, clocking in at around 40 minutes ''at least''. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if it didn't waste the players' time by recapping basic mechanics already known from other racers including ''[=SRB2K=]'' as well as talking about niche mechanics that are heavily situational at best, and the fact that you are required to do this to access the main game doesn't help matters. There ''is'' a way to skip the tutorial, but it requires [[GuideDangIt doubling back into a tunnel behind you]] and completing a race with hard [=CPUs=] at 4th place or higher, or being able to put in [[spoiler:gaster]] as a password. Thankfully, the very first patch only made the first two levels of the tutorial (Controls and Rings) mandatory, but also made the tutorial challenge race more visible at every step of the tutorial, as well as made the actual challenge much more in line with normal difficulty, and completing it unlocks online play, addons and time attack all in one go, while also making it easier to add in the password to skip the tutorial.

** Accessing the game's OptionalBoss takes more work than you'd expect. [[spoiler:The boss itself is accessed via Espresso Lane, where you need a Spin Dash combined with a Boost to collect a Pogo Spring hidden behind a waterfall and use a Spin Dash to get on the bridge standing just past the starting line, which leads into a vertical tunnel that needs the Pogo Spring and a ''very''-accurate down trick to reach the top. Even after that, you still need to hit five switches using all five bananas presented to you, and both special items ''do not'' respawn, so this requires near-perfect precision to hit all five switches and raise the platforms needed to reach the other side. If you mess up on any of these parts, you have to start all over again to access the area and boss fight. And even after that, the Blend Eye itself doesn't pull any punches, meaning you need to be careful to survive the encounter against it to avoid being ejected out of the level. It's even worse in Encore mode, where the cave with the switches [[BlacoutBasement is dark]] and the Mean Blend Eye is more agressive.]]

** Accessing the game's OptionalBoss takes more work than you'd expect. [[spoiler:The boss itself is accessed via Espresso Lane, where you need to use a Spin Dash to get on the bridge standing just past the starting line, which leads into a vertical tunnel that needs the Pogo Spring and a ''very''-accurate down trick to reach the top. Even after that, you still need to hit four switches using five bananas presented to you, and though the box respawns, you cannot pick up a box more than once in a lap, so this requires near-perfect precision to hit all four switches and raise the platforms needed to reach the other side. If you mess up on any of these parts, you have to start all over again to access the area and boss fight. And even after that, the Blend Eye itself doesn't pull any punches, meaning you need to be careful to survive the encounter against it.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Version 2.1 entire reason of existing is this, as it fixes several of the most common complaints players had with this game such as giving more oppoturnities to skip the ForcedTutorial, making features like Online play, Addons and Time attack quicker to unlock and nerfing the RubberbandAI.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** This game was in development long before the announcement of an official [[VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing Sonic-Universe racing game]].
** Additionally, the game was released at least a good full week before ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled'' was announced at the Video Game Awards 2018.

* SurpriseDifficulty: Record Attack might seem simple, but some of the silver medals can be pretty tough to earn. And then you usually have to shave about another 20 seconds for the gold medal.

* ArcFatigue: ''Ring Racers''[='=] ForcedTutorial on release was slammed by many people online for being needlessly long, clocking in at around 40 minutes ''at least''. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if it didn't waste the players' time by recapping basic mechanics already known from other racers including ''[=SRB2K=]'' as well as talking about niche mechanics that are heavily situational at best, and the fact that you are required to do this to access the main game doesn't help matters. There ''is'' a way to skip the tutorial, but it requires [[GuideDangIt doubling back into a tunnel behind you]] and completing a race with hard [=CPUs=] at 4th place or higher, or being able to put in [[spoiler:gaster]] as a password. Thankfully, the very first patch only made the first level of the tutorial mandatory, but also made the tutorial challenge race more visible at every step of the tutorial, as well as made the actual challenge much more in line with normal difficulty, and completing it unlocks online play, addons and time attack all in one go, while also making it easier to add in the password to skip the tutorial.

** Among those achievements are obtaining the Chaos and Super Emeralds, which can only be obtained from the Sealed Star Zones from the first 14 cups. But to even get the chance to get to a Sealed Star Zone, it is required to complete a specific GP with enough points from Rings, Lap Bonuses, Egg Prisons, GP Points and the final GP placement, while also not using too many continues - and then however many continues you have left is the number of chances you have to get the Emerald. Run out of chances during the Sealed Star stage, and you have to start all over again from the beginning of the GP just for another chance at the Emerald. You also can't access the Sealed Star Zones on the Easy difficulty. Almost as if to rub salt in the wound, there's also a challenge to obtain all 14 emeralds '''AGAIN''' on the highest difficulty.

** Among those achievements are obtaining the Chaos and Super Emeralds, which can only be obtained from the Sealed Star Zones from the first 14 cups. But to even get the chance to get to a Sealed Star Zone, it is required to complete a specific GP with enough points from Rings, Lap Bonuses, Egg Prisons, GP Points and the final GP placement, while also not using too many continues - and then however many continues you have left is the number of chances you have to get the Emerald. Run out of chances during the Sealed Star stage, and you have to start all over again from the beginning of the GP just for another chance at the Emerald. You also can't access the Sealed Star Zones on the Easy difficulty. Almost as if to rub salt in the wound, there's also a challenge to obtain all 14 emeralds **AGAIN** on the highest difficulty.
** The shrines from VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 appear hidden on certain stages and each one will unlock a character or follower. They can be really well hidden already but it's not enough to simply find them. Just as they originally did, they require the Mystic Melody to be played next to them before they'll activate. How do you get it? [[spoiler:Find it on a track... in the Egg Cup. The **14th** cup in the game]]. The game neither tells you that the Mystic Melody exists, how to obtain it beyond "find a secret", nor how to even use it once you DO obtain it.

** Among those achievements are obtaining the Chaos and Super Emeralds, which can only be obtained from the Sealed Star Zones from the first 14 cups. But to even get the chance to get to a Sealed Star Zone, it is required to complete a specific GP with enough points from Rings, Lap Bonuses, Egg Prisons, GP Points and the final GP placement, while also not using too many continues - and then however many continues you have left is the number of chances you have to get the Emerald. Run out of chances during the Sealed Star stage, and you have to start all over again from the beginning of the GP just for another chance at the Emerald. You also can't access the Sealed Star Zones on the Easy difficulty.

** Flame Cup has three [[SlippySlideyIceWorld snow and ice tracks]] one after the other, and if the game was tough but fair before, it becomes vicious with these three tracks:
*** First, Diamond Dust starts on a slide where you must be frozen in ice at least once, and the second half of the track is a long ascent to the finish line. However, the electric barriers and the bumpers coupled with the ice physics mae it way harder on practice.
*** Second, Blue Mountain Act 1, [[AbridgedArenaArray one of the favorite of the community]], is way less fun in a Grand Prix setting. The track has three caverns where you must roll on ice, the third being the most tedious as it forces you to zigzag between barriers. Also, while the slippery physics are troublesome for the player, the CPU will abuse these to go even faster, and even worse, the game often tends to give them an unlimited amount of rings. Also, while you can destroy fir trees while invincible or giant, snowmen can knock you down if you roll on them.
*** Third, Blue Mountain Act 2 is even worse, as it is not a three lap turn, but the equivalent of [[VideoGame/MarioKart8 Merry Mountain and Mount Wario]] combined, as you have to ascend a mountain before descending to the other side. The second third of the track may be the worst, as you have to ascend while crossing huge gaps at top speed to not fall down. This track also has the ridiculously tough snowmen.

** Balloon Park features a sharp turn into a pair of moving walls with a small gap in the middle. It is one of the most annoying and chaotic parts of the game. And this track has five laps. ''Of course'' it has five laps...