The Understated Legacy of SRB2Kart
A long history of community-powered multiplayer lifeblood
Ever heard of this game? You probably have if you are reading this, either as its own game or because of its sequel, Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers.
Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart, commonly shortened to SRB2Kart (also referred by some as "V1" since Ring Racers was meant to be "V2"), is a fangame that enjoyed quite the prime time not too long after its release thanks to many videos opening the floodgates to a wide audience, from dedicated Kart content creators cooking montages of the game, to well known people over Youtube taking a shot at the game.
But like many games do after enough years pass and a sequel also arrives, the tides of time slowly eroded the wide playerbase of the mainly online dependant game, as many moved on to other games or even to Ring Racers itself once that released.
Currently, there's a fairly dedicated set of players still maintaining their SRB2Kart servers being the ones that keep the flag flying today, whether playing both games or staying exclusively with SRB2Kart due to preferences.
That is what brought me to try and write about how, despite being forgotten by many, SRB2Kart offers way more than meets the eye in its natural habitat of online multiplayer, but also the ways the game's legacy transferred to quite a handful of things Ring Racers now includes.
Where does the need of online and custom content come from?
It may sound weird to start the journey with a question like that, but there's probably someone that may be wondering why the online and mods are so important and commonly seen used in this game in particular. And it's not just because it's based on Sonic Robo Blast 2, which is based on years of modifying the ever moddable Doom Legacy.
Well, while the base content included is comparable if not higher in amount than most retail kart racing games ever released, the first catch with trying out SRB2Kart from a fresh install is that there is no Grand Prix nor CPUs to race with. The only offline content you get is to either Record Attack on the included tracks for silver and gold medals, play alone in any track you wish in the Multiplayer menu, or play in up to four player splitscreen.
The split-screen feature is of course quite the highlight if you can get to play it locally with other players, but otherwise there isn't much to aim for unless you play the Record Attack mode for medals, learning to get used to the controls, but not getting to see any items in action outside of the sneakers you get in it...
This means that the only way you'll see true Kart action in this game is through split-screen, or if that is not an option, through the online multiplayer. It may sound obvious that a big appeal of modern kart racers is to play them online, but onboarding new players to the old SRB2Kart can be a bit tough without the option of practicing vs offline bots and giving them something to progress at through the usual Grand Prix mode.
The second catch is that most online servers for it nowadays could be said to be similar to, say, Garry's Mod, in that the experience varies depending of the server you join, not only through the selection of custom chars and tracks available, but also by the choice of game speed and especially whenever there often are gameplay mods involved along with a lobby of players already accustomed to them. You'll also have to be ready to wait until all the mods the server you try to join are downloaded as well.
...And the third catch, the biggest one with online, is that your controls will have input delay depending of your ping to the server. So if you are from US-East, you'll want to play in US East servers for low ping, and viceversa for EU players - otherwise needing to adapt to higher ping, meaning higher delay.
But any player that is willing to adapt to the controls, practicing offline, download as many mods as required to play online and even adapt to input delay
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ohohoho, delightfully devilish seymour (superintendent chalmers welcome, i hope you're prepared for an unforgettable luncheon)
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