YMMV / Sonic Robo Blast 2

• Awesome Video Game Bosses:
  • For its difficulty, the race against Metal Sonic is an awesome moment as it serves as an extremely tense test of your platforming skills, and for its awesome music track. The ring battle that follows counts as well.
  • The final boss is Black Eggman/Metal Robotnik, from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. It can either be awesome or hard or both.
• Awesome Video Game Levels:
  • The massive Marathon Level that is Castle Eggman Zone 2.
  • For those who can look past its difficulty, Egg Rock Zone 2 is an amazing final level and a pretty linear, but well-made gauntlet that balances speed, platforming, and a few puzzles for good measure.
• Broken Base:
  • Not everyone will agree with some of the major changes 2.1 brought into the table, with the more relevant victims being the level revamps (especially Techno Hill Zone 2 for being a massive shift from the original design) and the new NiGHTS-styled Special Stages, though these changes can be agreed to have been for the better. Both were retained in 2.2.
  • 2.1 also changed the Thok to go in the direction that Sonic is facing to going in the direction the camera is facing, with some preferring the easier keyboard-and-mouse controls while others are disliking the more difficult gamepad controls. 2.2 later addressed this with alternate control schemes, including one for gamepads that makes the Thok go in the direction Sonic's facing.
  • The removal of Circuit maps has left a sour taste in the mouths of some. While there are some that enjoyed them, others feel like they needed to be removed as Sonic players who Thok forwards repeatedly and Metal Sonic players that can charge up to travel even faster than any other character gave them more of an advantage compared to Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Fang players.
  • The Thok Debate. Sonic's Thok had garnered controversy, as in addition to breaking competitive balance it was deemed unintuitive for beginners, and conflicts with the physics changes set to be added in 2.3, though many veterans love it precisely for being so powerful. The Thok is planned to be replaced with an unknown ability in 2.3.
  • The change of the Black Eggman/Metal Robotnik battle may also be this depending on who you ask. Some prefer the new battle feeling more climactic over the older version, while others preferred the original for being more fast-paced.
  • Some players are not happy with the fact that by default, the only players who are given Super Forms for collecting all the Chaos Emeralds are Sonic and Metal Sonic. You'll typically see most co-op servers running some form of the All Characters Super wad for this reason. In V2.2.5, Knuckles was given the ability to transform as well, slightly alleviating the issue.
  • With the release of the SRB2 Battle Mod which changes the game's Match game mode to play more like a traditional Sonic game with characters using their respective abilities to fight each other, there have been some debates as to whether or not it is a superior form of PVP gameplay to Ringslinger.
  • What is the ideal way to play the game? Keyboard and mouse or a traditional controller? While many swear by the keyboard and mouse combo, arguing the game was designed with it in mind (since it was built off the Doom engine), others prefer to use a more traditional controller instead, finding the idea of controlling a 3D platformer (especially one with Sonic) with a keyboard and mouse to be too cumbersome and uncomfortable. While the game does provide options to accommodate both control styles (even if it favors the keyboard and mouse combo), that has done little to stop debates over which control scheme is better.
  • The presentation overhaul in 2.2 was very enthusiastically received and helped to draw many new players into the game, though some veterans missed aspects of the old style. The music for Egg Rock was the primary point of contention, as unlike most other tracks in 2.2 the composition departs considerably from the original.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Meadow Match Zone is easily the most-played of all the multiplayer maps for its simplicity, wide-open areas, and lack of hazards, especially in free-for-all games with no time or score limit.
  • The Rail Ring is most players' preferred tool of destruction, for reasons described under Game-Breaker below. It's also great for Meadow Match, as it's a very open map with many opportunities for sniping.
• Demonic Spiders: Dragonbombers in Red Volcano Zone are very fast and have a tendency to hover just out of reach, and the nature of their Zone makes it highly likely their bombs will launch you into something else.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • With Castle Eggman Zone, despite being only the fourth zone, the fact that you're on Eggman's turf means there's plenty of traps — spikes on chains, pits full of thorns, and two of the game's toughest/smartest Badniks. Plus, the two Acts require maneuvering through lots of tricky platforming segments.
  • Egg Rock Zone counts as a spike up the unsuspecting player's rear end, as you leap from the sixth zone to the eighth/ninth zone in an instant. In this sense, Red Volcano Zone is something of a Breather Level before the game starts trying out dozens of ways to destroy your sanity.
  • The sixth Special Stage, Magma Caves Zone, is an enormous leap in difficulty compared to the relatively hazard-free first five (except for the fifth Special Stage's abundant cacti infestation and somewhat low time limit).
• Disappointing Last Level:
  • Both Acts of Egg Rock Zone were left basically untouched in 2.2, outside of the removal of one short section in the second Act. As such, they are noticeably outdated compared to the previous zones, which had all been revamped in some fashion. Luckily, the Zone is planned to receive a proper remake come 2.3.
  • The last bonus level, unlocked by collecting 100 emblems, is Techno Legacy Zone, which is essentially a port of Techno Hill's original 2.0 incarnation. Not only does it have almost no differences from its original release, unlike Forest Fortress (which means that it is thus rather short and has embarrassingly bad level design), but they also changed the toxic waste color from purple to green, which, although done to establish consistency with liquid properties, has led some to accuse it of not even being a faithful port.
• Epic Riff:
  • Both acts of Techno Hill Zone use a very distinctive keyboard riff. This riff is what ties the two act tunes together; besides the percussion line and the general musical style, virtually everything else about the music is different^note Each act uses a completely different bass line, for example.
  • Arid Canyon Zone's theme has a distinct and complicated but instantly recognizable melody that carries through both acts, but it's most prominent in Act 1.
• Fridge Horror: When a Deton crashes into a wall, the animal is released. But in earlier versions, if it hits the player or another Deton, there is no sign of the animal inside.
• Funny Moments: The closed captions in 2.2 have hilarious descriptions for certain things. Drowning prompts [Aquaphobia] and [Thinking about air], the dynamite sticks in Arid Canyon Zone are described as [Advanced tech], and the sound for an Eggrobo attacking you in Castle Eggman 3 is oddly out of place ([Home-run smash]).
  • Blink and you’ll miss it, but when Fang tail-bounces out of the arena after being defeated in Arid Canyon 3, he crashes into a sign and falls off screen in his death animation sprite.
  • The absolute absurdity of the Disco Room easter egg in ERZ2, which even has Eggman hanging out in it with Greenflower Zone's Eggmobile for some reason. And to make it even funnier, if a character mod has dialogue, chances are your character will comment on it — Samus and Susie both respond with a Flat "What" if you enter the room while playing as them.
  • At the end of the credits, there is the little nugget displaying the publisher, a 28k dial up modem.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Tails can easily fly through irritating bottomless pit sections… But even he has trouble in Egg Rock Zone.
  • Knuckles's gliding and climbing abilities can similarly be used to bypass a lot of platforming sections. It's actually worse with him, since the levels are rarely, if ever, designed against him, and there's no timer for either of his abilities.
  • If you master it, the Rail Ring effectively becomes one in multiplayer, since it can be fired from any distance while standing still, running, or jumping — making instant contact with any unfortunate soul that's on the receiving end. The amount of Knockback one character can take from being damaged by a Rail Ring is also extreme compared to those of the other ring types.
  • Sonic can be this in multiplayer, especially races. Due to an oversight (specifically, the "thrust factor" each character has), Sonic doesn't actually have any disadvantages to his speed, and accelerates faster than Knuckles and Tails. Even the disadvantages he's supposed to have — slippery controls and slow acceleration — are negated by his thok move, which instantly propels him above top speed in any direction.
  • Version 2.2 has three Secret Characters whom can be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions, and two of them can be considered Game Breakers, though one of them can only be considered as such in Multiplayer.
    • The first, Amy Rose, unlocked by clearing Frozen Hillside Zone (which itself is unlocked by acquiring five emblems), at first seems like playing hard mode, given how they don't spin while jumping and require manually attacking. However, every time you use her hammer attack on the ground, it will send out a small shockwave. Allies who get hit by that shockwave will gain a Pity Shield for free, making her very valuable in Multiplayer, as, as long as they are kept alive, they can provide infinite shielding for their teammates.
    • The other Secret Character who can be considered as such is Metal Sonic, who you unlock by completing the game. They play much like Sonic does, but trade off the Speed Thok for two abilities. The first allows them to enter Boost Mode after accelerating for a long enough time, which further boosts their top speed beyond even Sonic's and lets them blow clean through spikes. The second is the ability to hover in mid-air while moving, an ability previously exclusive to Super Sonic. Metal Sonic also has his own Super Form, too.
    • The third secret character, Fang, trivializes most bosses in the game because they can just shoot them from a safe distance, making getting most of the score and time attack medals in Record Attack a cakewalk.
• Genius Programming: Just the very fact that the developer took an engine made for First Person Shooters, and made a Third-Person 3D Platformer out of it.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Spincushions. They are blue hockey-puck things that turn red with a loud noise when they see you, and then they chase after you at very fast speeds while invincible, and the whole "get hurt and attack with temporary invincibility" thing won't work. They turn blue again after a while, but you're probably still collecting your spilled rings.
  • The Buzz enemies from Techno Hill Zone are also fairly annoying, with their tendencies to pop up out of nowhere and knock you off platforms.
  • Jetty-syns are infamous for their ability to harass players with their unpredictable flying patterns and tendency to attack without warning. Their appearances have been reduced with each update, to the point where they now only appear in Egg Rock Act 2 and Aerial Garden.
  • The annoying crab Badniks from Metropolis Zone return in Deep Sea Zone, and they are just as annoying as you would expect to be in a 3D environment. The best way to kill them is to attack them while their claw is out, which requires careful timing.
  • Green Snappers in Arid Canyon can be obnoxious to deal with, as their spiky exteriors mean that it is difficult to destroy them without using an Elemental Shield or abusing invincibility frames. The only characters who can deal with them safely are the unlockable Amy and Fang.
• Goddamned Boss: Techno Hill Zone's boss. He flies around in circles, splattering around a lot of harmful goo that takes a very long time to disappear. If you don't defeat him quickly, you're going to have a hard time stepping around the gunk. It's also difficult to hit him because he may suddenly change directions as you jump.
  • What makes him a Goddamned Boss instead of That One Boss is that once you calm down and figure him out, you can easily kill him by standing still in the right place and jumping.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Remember the bad ending of Knuckles Chaotix? The one where Metal Sonic Kai burned down an entire city? That very scene became this prior to 2.2, where in the pre-2.2 intro, Eggman does the exact same thing to Greenflower City. Later averted in the 2.2 intro, where Eggman just carves his face onto Greenflower Mountain.
• It Was His Sled: The three secret characters introduced in Version 2.2 were one of its biggest surprises, since the base game had only Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as playable characters for most of its lifetime. By now though, their presence is so widely-known that they're featured in promo materials.
• Memetic Badass: Due to his Game-Breaker status, Fang became this after players discovered he can bounce on lava.
• Moe: Amy, especially when she covers her eyes in fear at the edge of a cliff, or whenever she jumps in the air and smiles while looking at the sky. In the latter case, you can almost hear her say "Whee!"
• Moment of Awesome: One of the most lauded mods in the game replaces the 2D character sprites with low-poly 3D models, and it looks amazing in action! And there's multiple packs by different people, complete with support for some custom characters, so there's a bit of choice in there.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The original intent for Space Countdown sectors was to turn off all sound effects and change the music to TUNES 20. This was cut for numerous reasons, Nightmare Fuel being just one of them...
  • Incidentally, the sound effect came from MDK2, during a brief trip outside your pressurized space station, the Jim Dandy. It wasn't quite as terrifying there.
  • The infamous drowning theme makes a comeback and is, as usual, quite terrifying. Not even Metal Sonic is safe from it.
  • One earlier version of the opening prior to 2.2 was Eggman destroying all of Greenflower City, which Sonic and friends arrive at only to find charred corpses of the animals that used to live there. It's so dark and bleak that not many people complained when later releases removed that part altogether, and ultimately 2.2 changed it to Eggman harmlessly defacing a mountain in his own image before his world domination attempt, which falls much more in line with the classic doctor's hubris.
  • TUNES EF from before 2.2, a creepy remix of Greenflower apparently intended for "Evilflower Zone". Whether it's a simple Easter Egg or upcoming content is yet to be seen.
  • The laugh of the final boss, Black Eggman, can easily be this. And if that wasn't bad enough, its death cry is even worse!
  • The "Buzz" enemy. That annoying insect that appeared in Techno Hill Zone shows a somewhat scary face◊ when it stares at you and as a form to show when it is close to you, it makes a sound.^note Non-included in early versions It also feels very creepy to see it far away from you and slowly flying close to you. Fans like to create stages with a lot of those "buzzes" (most probably) to invoke Paranoia Fuel.
  • While this example is from a mod, it's from one of the most notable mods and caused a bit of controversy on the game's forums, requiring content warnings and with a console command to optionally hide it. Metroid Vanguard has a unique version of Arid Canyon Zone 3 that is an incredibly creepy atmosphere in the lead-up to the boss fight with Dark Samus, and right before the boss room, you will likely encounter the corpse of Fang the Sniper, body still twitching but his face mostly melted from Phazon exposure, having spent his last moments writing a message of warning to "beware the blue". Yikes.
• Obvious Beta: Acts 2 and 3 of Red Volcano Zone are still missing, and the increase in difficulty from Red Volcano to Egg Rock is at least partly due to the absence of Dark City Zone Acts 1-3 & the Grand Eggship Zone. Earlier releases were even more blatant about this trope.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The game's old, outdated, and noticeably flawed network system. In net games, there is noticeable input lag which can get worse if a server's ping is high enough, alongside the pauses and lags that occur when the netcode is pushed to its limits and forced to keep track of many players/objects in a level (mostly notably in Marathon Levels like Castle Eggman Zone) that lead to attempted resyncs.
  • The in-game file downloader. When joining a server, the game will attempt to download files the player does not have in their game files. The problem arises in that the downloads — if exceeding several hundred kilobytes in data — will frequently pause and stop mid-download, forcing the player to press Esc and return to the main menu in order to restart the sever join process and try again. If the player already happens to have one of the files a server uses but is not the exact version, the downloader will delete it in order to download the version the server uses, which is a problem if said file is massive in size. And if the file is not present on the message boards or another file hosting site? Good luck locating the exact file yourself.
• Sequel Displacement: So much to the point that the original Sonic Robo Blast doesn't have its own page on TV Tropes. Odds are the only reason you suspect the first one even exists is because this game has a "2" in the name.
• Squick: The intro for Version 2.1 and early builds of Version 2.2, where Eggman eats an entire truckload of lard.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The original Sonic Robo Blast was among the first Sonic fangames created, and a very ambitious one at that. It was also very primitive (the graphics were all made in MS Paint) and glitchy (it was made in Clickteam's "Klik & Play" and "The Games Factory" engines, both of which were early game engines and very primitive compared to the later "Multimedia Fusion" line of engines).^note The Sonic fangaming scene has overall evolved significantly since its infancy, effectively being one of the biggest fangaming scenes out there, partly out of a desire to prove that good Sonic games are still doable in the wake of Sonic's questionable quality track record, and also Sega being quite friendly towards fangame makers, to the point where Sonic Mania was made by several fangaming alumini, and some fangames have gone on to become original projects, such as Freedom Planet. One of the biggest breakthroughs was the Sonic Worlds engine for Multimedia Fusion, which successfully recreated the gameplay and physics of classic Sonic games significantly more competently than even Sega has themselves before the aforementioned Sonic Mania. These days, decent physics are a prerequisite for any Sonic fangame being taken seriously nowadays, whether it be in 2D or 3D, but SRB2 has mostly been given a pass due to the grandfather clause and how it was designed to play well even without them due to the engine's inability to use slopes until 2.2.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The original Special Stage theme from pre-v2.1 builds sounds similiar to the Replay theme from Mario Golf.
• That One Boss:
  • Castle Eggman's boss in 2.2 - There's now an audience of Egg Robos that will boot the player back into the arena if they get too close, along with gradually-growing pits of brambles in the arena itself. Compounding this, the player is forced to be more mobile, as raising the Eggman cage now requires the press of multiple buttons scattered around the arena. Even Tails, arguably the game's easiest character, has a difficult time with this boss.
  • Metal Sonic appears as the penultimate battle before the Final Boss, and just like Egg Rock Zone before him, he's utter hell. You have to race him to the end of the stage, but unlike Sonic CD where the course was mostly just filled with obstacles and ramps intended to slow you down, this race is a full-on death course with pits below precision jumps, obstacles and conveyor belts intended to knock you into said pits, a gravity-switch gimmick which makes it extremely easy to fly into yet another pit, and other such issues. This can easily be the most life-expending part of the game, and if you get a game over here, you have to start the entire zone all over. Thankfully, in v2.2, the game now saves per act, and the race and battle against Metal Sonic have been split into the first two acts of Black Core Zone. The fight itself is as brutally difficult as before, though.
  • The actual Metal Sonic boss has manageable enough attacks, but the problem is hitting him. Metal will Flash Step out of the way if jumped on, and that's when he becomes vulnerable. Naturally, he will avoid the player as much as possible (and his small hitbox/dodginess is even more of a problem in modern versions thanks to Sonic and co's speedier and more slippery physics) and trying to corner him next to the electric edges of the platform is a dangerous maneuver. He may even pick the opposite side of the arena to get dizzy on, making it difficult to hit him in time. Alongside this, his energy attacks have deadly accuracy, so the player will spend more time reclaiming lost rings and less time cornering Metal Sonic.
  • Black Eggman in earlier versions was this incarnate. Not only was he massive and forced the player to constantly avoid aggressive attacks between four platforms over a bottomless pit, but the way to damage him after the halfway point was a Guide Dang It! of riding one of his projectiles right back at him. The more finalized version of the fight is less ridiculous, but you still have to deal with fast attacks that can hit you at a moment's notice and his basic Doom engine enemy pathfinding occasionally refusing to walk into the green slime that makes him vulnerable.
  • As Amy Rose, Greenflower's boss becomes this. While the fight is the same, due to her not being able to jump on enemies to defeat them, she has to use her hammer to even deal damage. All the while, Eggman's constantly attacking you with lasers from afar, most likely damaging you, even when trying to attack him. It gets worse when he has a few hits left, as he'll begin firing three at once.
• That One Level:
  • Castle Eggman Zone in version 2.2 is where many players will end up spending their first continue, and the crumbling bridge in Act 1 is even preceded by a Dark Souls bonfire to set the mood. The second act, however, is That One Level for a different reason — it is so expansive and detailed it is likely to lag to unplayable proportions to less fortunate players, who'll end up cheating the level with Tails' flight to advance to Arid Canyon Zone.
    • In the 2.2.1 patch, the level design in the second act has been slightly tweaked to increase performance for low-end devices.
  • Egg Rock Zone involves very difficult platforming with many instant kill hazards, and the second act is particularly long even after version 2.2 cut out some sections regarded as unappealing. Justified, in that it's supposed to be preceded by two more acts for pre-existing zones, another zone, and a possibly one-act zone. As it stands, the absence of those four zones makes it a jarring Difficulty Spike. The game is still in development, but priorities shifting to the multiplayer aspect put single-player stages on low priority. But even after that, ERZ will still be the hardest level in the game, unless it somehow turns into a Breather Level...
    • Word of God has stated that ERZ is supposed to be that hard.
  • Egg Rock Zone indeed becomes a Breather Level compared to the Metal Sonic race that follows. The level lasts for just one minute and a half and isn't unfair or anything, but the sheer Platform Hell involved requires near absolute mastery of the game's controls. Originally, this and the two final bosses were still part of Egg Rock, but became a separate zone, Black Core, in version 2.2 due to fan demand.
  • Even by the standards of challenge levels and the game's high difficulty, Aerial Garden Zone is an utter nightmare of hopping platforms over massive bottomless pits, solving puzzles, running along slippery conveyor belts, being chased forever by bee Badniks, and frequently struggling to find out where to go next. And this goes on for an average of 9-10 minutes.
  • Even when you finish the level mentioned above, Azure Temple isn't much better. It's essentially Labyrinth Zone brought into 3D with only a few changes to make it more fair. It's entirely underwater and you basically have to stop to grab every bubble you see. There are large bottomless pits that are difficult to traverse, the lighting is dim, and tight turns through narrow passageways only slow you down. Don't even get started on the fire-shooting statues.
  • Nimbus Ruins Zone, the tenth and final Capture the Flag zone, is perhaps the most difficult of all the current CTF stages, since it is a series of platforms floating above a bottomless death pit. Since flag carriers cannot use their special jump abilities (thoking, flying, or gliding), they must rely on nothing but standard jumps to return to their base.
• That One Puzzle:
  • Deep Sea Zone Act 1 has an emblem that requires you to open all three paths to the exit. This involves backtracking through path splits twice, and the large number of drops makes this especially hard for Sonic.
  • Aerial Garden Zone's emblems are all pretty aggravating by virtue of the level design, but the worst is the one that requires navigating four massive chambers of bottomless pits to reach switches that open the way to the emblem. Tails can make this much easier, but good luck doing it as any other character.^note Fang is required for one of the emblems, so if you don't want to do this stage twice you'll have to go about it the hard way.
  • Azure Temple Zone's final emblem is obtained by using an Armageddon Shield to light multiple crystals at once. This puzzle is all the way at the end of the level, and the only Armageddon Shield appears very early on, forcing you to make it through most of the level without the benefits of infinite oxygen from a Bubble Shield and without being hit once.
• That One Sidequest: Getting A-ranks on all the NiGHTS stages is likely to be the largest hurdle for completionists, since you have to complete multiple laps on a strict time limit and ideally never drop your link to reach the requisite score.
• Unexpected Character: Almost nobody expected Fang the Sniper to show up as a boss. Even less expected was that he'd also be a playable character.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Even after twenty years in development, the game's graphics hold up strikingly well, and have only improved with time. Of special note is the Jeck Jim's 3D models, which are so great that they will be made an official part of the game as of ver.2.2.7, with the original sprites still available for players who prefer the original graphics.

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