Created by glaber, Sonic Robo Blast 2: The Past
is a mod of Sonic Robo Blast 2 that aims to recreate the many areas of past content seen throughout the game's development for over 20 years.
This mod contains examples of the following tropes:
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: After beating the final level of Metal's Challenge, the robot shows himself to be a Sore Loser and plans to trap the player there. Once glaber chimes in to get the player out, Metal Sonic stops that plan directly, forcing MANY maps to be loaded in at once. This, of course, creates "History Clash Zone", a level fusing many of the mod's recreated levels into one VERY long Marathon Level that makes Aerial Garden pale in comparison (including Haunted Heights and the Tutorial Zone, which only got added to the base game in v2.2, and two levels from the Match roster, with their ringslinger components still there), culminating in a final fight back at the Colosseum against Metal Sonic (his 2.1, 2.2 and Earless incarnations) before he finally surrenders the emblem for overcoming his challenge.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- In every zone hub, there's always a room with teleporters to move between all nine of them save for the NiGHTS Hub.
- A couple apply when nearing the true finale of the mod.
- If attempting to reach the Sonic Doom 2 entrance in the old museum without having opened it first, the camera will show the unlock method to access Wizard Needs Food Badly. The method needs to be done here, albeit using Earless Metal Sonic instead.
- Due to the Sonic Doom 2 campaign being very long, it's worth it to have a save file handy in case you need to go off the game, so that you don't have to start it all over again.
- All rings collected in previous stages of the Sonic Doom 2 campaign carry over to upcoming levels to use as ammo against the many enemies encountered on the way.
- After finally overcoming the campaign, the True Final Boss and Creative Closing Credits can easily be accessed again from the old museum's cafeteria.
- Back for the Finale: After overcoming either the Egg Rock Boss Gauntlet or the Harder Than Hard Everyone Boss Gauntlet, a ship pulls up alongside 2.0 Brak Eggman's arena to take the player back to earth. And the pilot is Earless Sonic, the one that started it all.
- Bait-and-Switch: This happens quite a bit in the mod.
- When taking on the Greenflower Boss Gauntlet, it seems at first to be a ploy, with only the Demo 2-4 Eggmobile being fought. And then the 2.2 boss theme kicks in as walls around the central arena open, revealing the other four Eggmobiles! Funnily enough, this happens again in the Everyone Boss Gauntlet.
- The reveal of Amy being unlocked. See Your Princess Is in Another Castle! below.
- At the very end of both the Egg Rock Boss Gauntlet and the Everyone Boss Gauntlet, Brak Eggman is defeated as per usual, and the player books it via an escape pod. However, an alarm suddenly blares during said escape, and then Brak Eggman's laugh is heard, showing you're not quite done just yet!
- The Big Race: Unlockable after unlocking Metal Sonic, Metal's Challenge involves the player racing against Metal in 20 different levels, with one more available after beating them to truly prove your worth.
- Blackout Basement: A few levels in the Demo Quest campaign certainly qualify, especially with the tight corridors for the time. A hidden and ruined version of the Museum also counts, feeling literally abandoned with damaged exhibits and doorways.
- Boss Rush: In the Colosseum at the back of the Museum hub world, players can take on different boss rushes for every boss throughout the game's history, separated by the different eras. Beating them all allows the player to take them all on back-to-back, akin to the True Arena from Kirby games.
- Breather Episode: Of the available campaigns, the Halloween Demo is only two levels long, and neither level is really tough to overcome.
- The Cameo:
- Owing to their secret appearance in v2.1, Team Lilac can be found by embarking on a secret path with Knuckles in the v2.1.8+ version of Deep Sea Act 1.
- Checkpoint Starvation:
- Downplayed for the TGF and TGF Christmas campaigns and levels, which both have fairly short levels to go through.
- Justified for all levels prior to the Version 1 levels, since said checkpoints were non-existent back then.
- Played with for Metal's Challenge, where there are no checkpoints outright for the races, but plenty along the way in the Marathon Level.
- Thankfully averted for a few variants of the Boss Rush, especially the Everyone Boss Gauntlet, where there are opportunities to go back to the Museum if the ordeal is getting too stressful, each placed at the end of each part of the final gauntlet.
- Creative Closing Credits: While overcoming the Boss Gauntlet and Metal's Challenge provide credits for the mod itself, these are not this trope, but this kicks in once the True Final Boss is defeated. Credits are shown for every version of Sonic Robo Blast 2 over the years, with quite the montage shown of the zones (in full 3D as well) and other characters (such as the full 2.2 playable roster, RedXVI and even Earless Sonic), all to the v2.2 credits theme (the complete soundtrack version, to boot)!
- Dark Reprise: During the first part of the ending, a sadder version of the iconic Greenflower Zone theme plays, indicating the weight of what you think you might have caused. See No Good Deed Goes Unpunished below for why.
- Developer's Foresight: In the ending, during the ceremony for the Sonic Doom 2 campaign, all six of the base game characters will show up, and whichever ones are not being played as will be at the back. Alternatively, all six will be at the back if you're playing as a different character (be it an unlockable character exclusive to this mod or a modded character). Interestingly, modded partners aren't accounted for, who won't show up with their leader.
- Dual Boss: The "Vs. Everyone" Boss Gauntlet pairs up certain bosses that have multiple similar versions, like the 2.0 and 2.1 incarnations of the Sea Egg from Deep Sea Zone.
- Early Instalment Weirdness:
- In earlier versions of this mod, the Single Player and Multiplayer sections were split into separate mods. Come the 2.0 release for Version 2.2 of Sonic Robo Blast 2, however, and this has finally been rectified, with both in one package and the Colosseum serving as a way to easily create a lobby for Multiplayer games.
- Prior to the 2.0 update, the Games Factory stages used the Demo 2/4 Robotnik for the boss fights, though that version adds in recreations of that game's boss fights.
- Once more, prior to the 2.0 release, the Demo 4 RedXVI Easter egg was narrowed down to the link to the old game he made. Once that update came for the base game's 2.2 release, it was fully implemented back in, albeit without the game crashing. Instead, provoking him too much makes the pop-up appear in-game before sending the player back to the Museum.
- Game-Breaking Bug: At the end of Metal's Challenge, Metal Sonic himself introduces this by causing far too many maps to be loaded in at once. The command log even acknowledges this, though doesn't know who caused the map overload. Downplayed in that the game is not truly broken as a result.
- Guide Dang It!:
- This is averted for the majority of the mod's secrets, with Emblem Hints being unlocked as soon as the first emblem is found, clearly-listed emblem requirements for certain secrets, as well as a whole room dedicated to hints as to where to find secrets.
- However, this is played straight when it comes to accessing the Sonic Doom 2: Bots on Mobius campaign, as there is little to no information provided on how to get there overall. Simply put, the player must have completed both every Boss Rush, as well as all of Metal's Challenge, including the Marathon Level. Returning to the Hints exhibit afterwards reveals that a vent panel had come loose, leading straight to the path needed to access that campaign and truly finish the game.
- Holiday Mode: The Halloween Demo and Christmas Demo campaigns, of course, fit this perfectly. After beating the latter, Christmas-themed versions of Greenflower, Techno Hill, Castle Eggman and Spring Hill can all be accessed from their respective hubs. The SRB2 TGF Christmas campaign could also count, though isn't much aside from being a reskin of all the levels save for Deep Sea Zone and the Adapted Out boss fights.
- No Ending: At first, it seems like your hard work in the Sonic Doom 2 campaign amounts to this, with you being met with a simple credits room and an exit back to the Museum. But once you take that exit, the space ambience returns, the voice chimes in, and you're sent to a textureless version of the museum, showing that you are close to the game's True Final Boss.
- No Fair Cheating: Pandora's Box, the cheat menu that is present in the base game, can be unlocked after performing a series of tasks related to RedXVI involving the Chaos Emeralds and three of the v1.09.4 stages. However, as per the norm, unlockables and emblems will not be marked if anything in the Box is used, and the game must be restarted to track progress again.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After surviving the Sonic Doom 2 section, glaber finds out and plans to punish you for going into unauthorised territory. However, due to the player's long efforts to wipe out the Robotnik Virus, the actual Sonic Doom 2 exhibit is able to be reopened in the newer museum, the punishment being to do the first run of the exhibit before anyone else goes in.
- Nostalgia Level: Of course, this is a given, seeing as how the original levels are recreated as accurately as possible within 2.2's engine.
- Optional Boss: In the v2.2 Boss Rush, the scrapped Egg Rock Zone 3 boss is present, but can be skipped to go straight to Metal Sonic's battle. However, it's worth the effort to fight Eggman here if you're looking to snag another emblem.
- Secret Character: There are six of these to unlock in total, including the three already unlockable in the base game.
- Amy: Beat Mario Koopa Blast all the way to the end.
- Fang/Nack: Beat the Development Boss in Arid Canyon Zone.
- Metal Sonic: Beat him in 2.1 Egg Rock Act 3 or find him in the first stage of the Wizard Needs Food Badly campaign.
- X-Treme Placeholder Sonic: Beat the Halloween and Christmas campaigns.
- Mega Man, Chao and Sinossu: Beat every Demo 3 stage.
- Zim: Find all the Easter egg emblems in levels for v1.01 to v1.08.
- Time Crash: Metal Sonic causes this at the very end of Metal's Challenge, creating a stage that's a deadly fusion of most of the others.
- Walking Spoiler:
- The eventual reveal that Egg Rock Zone is indeed covered in this mod, as the mod's page on the SRB2 Message Board only mentions the first six levels of the game. The unlock method is hinted at in the Hints room of the Museum, however.
- Metal Sonic dragging out his challenge for longer than agreed on, prompting Glaber himself to intervene.
- The way to access the abandoned museum, and by extension, Sonic Doom 2: Bots on Mobius for the first time, which is only available after fulfilling certain requirements.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: This seems to be the case at the end of Mario Koopa Blast Zone Act 3, with Toad saying that your Rose is in another castle... except this is quickly subverted as Amy busts through the wall to give the character a surprise hug, in turn unlocking her to be playable and allowing her to show up in the Museum from then on.
