Well, after around a month later, I have finally sat down to write a proper review of Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers, a game that I had admittedly been eagerly awaiting for the five years it took to release, ever since its inception as SRB2Kart v2 and its previews.

Just to give a proper prelude of my track record before getting here, I have a noticeably varied history with racing games of many kinds, except for the strictest of sim racers.

I've played many racing games like Burnout 3, Wipeout Pure, BallisticNG, Daytona USA, Daytona USA 2, Need for Speed Most Wanted, several Ridge Racer games, almost all F-Zero games [X to Climax- got to complete SNES yet and haven't been able to play 99]and even Gran Turismo 2 as the singular outlier of a simcade racer that I've played extensively AND completed. And I'm eagerly awaiting to see how Victory Heat Rally and Nightmare Kart will be when they get fully released, although I already had my fair amount of grinding for time attack in VHR's last demo.

Point being, I've driven through many types of racing games, and even managed to complete most of them. F-Zero GX in Master in particular I remember being grueling in Diamond Cup but I still locked it in by a hair, and in a similar way remember grinding for almost 3 hours just for a first place finish in Scud Race's Beginner Day track due to how fickle it is.

And obviously, I've played SRB2Kart for quite a long time, even if I didn't end up properly making any racing montages like many other players have, going through most Gold Medals of its time attack mode back in the day, and probably something you know already if you know me in the first place from Kart, had made a big track pack for it.

With all of this said, now its time to kickstart these gears.

A joyful love letter to SEGA's legacy

The presentation on its own is something of absurd polish that has to be highlighted, but a good chunk of what feels like carefully crafted attention to detail for the levels, menus and even songs are also coming from the choice of honoring so much of the blue blur's classic legacy and even SEGA's more classic franchises that aren't given as much if noy any spotlight officially anymore.

The profile cards you have for starters are based off the game cards for the Japanese equivalent of the SEGA Master System, the SEGA Mark III, the menus being mostly based off Sonic 3's except with the relevant Eggman [oh, apologies, I meant to say Dr. Robotnik] and Tails decoration, and a loads of characters and tracks from both well-known and obscure SEGA titles.

And when I mean obscure, I mean not just taking from the lesser known yet beloved classic-era characters from Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R, but along with more modern yet neglected characters or exclusive to the comics [Emerl, Jet, Blaze, Silver, Surge and Whisper], and the range of time that the SEGA selection has is also impressive.

Like, having Genesis/MD reps such as Ecco, Headdy, Rappy, Vectorman, Pulseman, Arle [in her classic design] in the same game of not just a wide range of Sonic characters, but also taking from SEGA's entrance and time in the new millenium with NiGHTS, Sakura Shinguji, ChuChu, Gum, AiAi, Billy Hatcher, and even Orta from Panzer Dragoon Orta.

One of my impromptu favorite characters in the game is a Knuckles Chaotix badnik that appears in a single stage named Gutbuster. I didn't know what it was supposed to be until I looked it up, but if without context it was already amazing to see this kitchen pot with a chef hat and googly eyes on a Kart, its made even better by the fact that it's an official badnik from an official game that's officially anything but forgotten.

The track selection is also full of references, interspersed with both fully new track ideas and designs that were updated or overhauled from vanilla SRB2Kart tracks and several custom tracks made by mappers that would join the dev team during Ring Racers's development. Some tracks are directly based off official Sonic stages, while others are either referencing specific SEGA related media [such as Popcorn Workshop being a reference to Sonic's popcorm machine from the 90s] or referencing other fanmade works for Sonic and custom SRB2 stages [such as Gust Planet from Sonic The Next Level].

There's a lot to unpack in references themselves, but there's more that can be left to be uncovered by players not only by the surprise factor...but also by the sheer size of stuff to list that might as well be describing the entire game. But at least going from early game stuff like the beautifully rendered Emerald Coast from Sonic Adventure, Green Hills from 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Regal Ruin from Sonic R, and that last map showcased long before RR's eventual release: Joypolis, a map based off a certain Sonic the Screensaver artwork which is made justice with the bright colors and details fitting with a fun-filled mall of a race track.

And then there's some of the original music made specifically for this game, such as the energetic tune for the game's first GP race with Robotnik Coaster, remixes of certain classic Sonic songs for some tracks, a singular yet spectacular cover of a well known theme that is so good that its better you happen to discover it on your own [but if you know, you know- and I'm still flabbergasted they even did that], and all of this alongside the choice of many remixes and original music from other sources that still make for BANGERS in most of these racing tracks, as well as making Fluvial Beat Deposits, the theme used for SRB2Kart's title screen and brought back for Ring Racers, more prominenet as the game motif with some menus and the invulnerability theme being based off it.

A different style of racing

I've said to myself before that Ring Racers made me feel like if I was playing a classic SEGA arcade racer again, not only by the spectacular visuals and music choices, but also by the drive of trying to get through the tough challenges that bots put up in the Grand Prix mode, getting to enjoy a satisfying feeling of mastery when getting to win races...and the road of learning that it took to get there.

Track Name	Date	Download
Daytona USA Advanced / Dinosaur Canyon	February 6, 2016	[FZEP]
Charos - Rail-less Madness	February 4, 2016	[FZEP]
Sector Terminal - Shifting Road	February 12, 2016	[FZEP]