I can sympathise with the casual crowd that was alienated by this, I understand SRB2 Kart was largely famous for being a game that people can quickly pick up and stream, and mod to have any character they like, so I understand that brutally difficult Kart racer was probably not something they had any interest in, but man, this pushes all the right buttons for me.

Is it flawed? Undeniably. I'm sure you've already read that the tutorial is dogshit, and the items and CPUs can definitely be a bit much to handle. But in my opinion, it's super compelling. Substantial and fun singleplayer content, countless secrets, incredibly engaging races (NONE of them feel like autopiloting which is what I find a lot of Kart racers fall into) all compliment an incredibly fun to control driving system that, while yes is poorly taught to you, clicks faster than you'd think.

If you are a casual who just wants this game to be Mario Kart but with any character then you've probably already made up your mind and that's fair, I get why that's a desirable experience. For anyone else who has perhaps grown a bit tired of modern kart racing offerings feeling samey I implore you to give this a shot. Try to do at least the first few cups. I honestly kind of wanted to put this down after the first cup but I absolutely got hooked after I tried another cup and things started to click. Also, don't be afraid of the easy mode, it's there for a reason!

Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is a mixed bag. A lot of reviews act like this game is awful, but I don't think it is; I find the game very fun, and it does improve on issues that I had with Sonic Robo Blast Kart 2, its predecessor. However, the developers have made questionable decisions that have turned a lot of players off from it.

To begin, Ring Racers is fundamentally inaccessible, in multiple senses of the word. The game is mechanically dense, which can be a turn-off. I personally enjoy the complexity of it, as it makes this game truly one of a kind. I also feel that the mechanics can be explained to a new player quickly and easily, despite the tutorial's best efforts.

Speaking of which, we come to most folks' chief complaint: The restriction of the game's content. Unlike SBR2K, you can't just install the game and hop online with your friend. The game starts up with a setup sequence which I found to be charming, if not a touch long-winded. Following that was the tutorial, which is a unskippable 30-minute stage that still fails to cover core mechanics of the game. Once you clear that, you get access to the main menu finally.

You still need to unlock the tracks and most of the characters, as well as key features of the game. This content is presented through a Super Smash Bros.-style unlockable gallery. The gated features include basics like online play, time trials, and loading mods. This makes the game effectively impossible to get quickly set up for a game sessions with a friend, unless you provide a list of the cheat codes the devs mercifully provided, or send over a save file with the needed content unlocked (Google is your friend for both of these). This is... egregious, to put it lightly. I understand and respect the desire from the devs to ensure players appreciate every bit of their 5 years of hard work; however, most players, including myself, find this to be an unwelcome change, if not a dealbreaker.

Beneath the complexity of the mechanics and the headache of getting started, is the game fun? Yes, it is. It's still a kart racer, with all the glorious chaos that entails. It can be overwhelming even by the standards of the genre though. Some mechanics shine while others are underutilized. The tracks also vary in quality. The AI is difficult, with rubberbanding that brings to mind racing games from the late 90s and early 00s. Getting hit with items leads to the harshest punishment I've seen in any kart racer; on multiple occasions, I'd be hit by an item in first place and by the time I recovered, I found myself in the last place. The handling is very slippery, adding to the chaos of the game.

Ring Racers does improve over its predecessor in two key ways: first of all, I feel the track design is more readable in this game. While playing SRB2K, my friends and I have run into several cases where we got confused on where the track expects us to go next. This game remedies that with redesigned tracks from the first game. The second improvement is the addition of a proper local multiplayer mode. In SRB2K, the local multiplayer almost feels like an unintended feature. However, this game supports local multiplayer naturally. I know this is a more niche features among the game's target audience, but it is something I sorely missed in SRBK2.

To conclude, Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is a very promising game. The game is uniquely complex by kart racer standards, both to its benefit and detriment. The gameplay is fundamentally fun, building off a solid base, but still needs fine-tuning. The core issue with the game is its gating of so much of its content to newcomers. Even without the flawed physics and irritating onboarding, I still wouldn't say this is a game for everyone, and that's okay: SRB2K, its predecessor, isn't going anywhere. It released in a flawed state, but if AAA games can recover from rough launches, I don't doubt this can too.

It's absolutely wild to go from the simple, multiplayer focused SRB2 Kart to this mechanics-rich racer with a metric ton of singleplayer content. Like, holy shit, they actually made a mascot racing game with more mechanics than Sonic Riders. I think I'm in love!

Don't get me wrong, the mandatory, hour-long tutorial is very unwelcoming and the fact that you need to unlock online play and mods via singleplayer content is absolutely baffling. Even so, there's so much to enjoy here and it's all presented with so much charm and style. It's going to take a good amount of time to fully digest all the mechanics and unlock all the secrets, and I think that's really refreshing for a racing game, much less a (free fan-made) kart racer.

A lot of the whining this game gets mainly comes from people who treat games like these as fun little timewasters instead of full fledged games, this was never meant to be a replacement for SRB2K like so many people keep insisting (the devs have said that the master server for SRB2K will be kept up) if you wanna play a fun basic MK-Like kart racer then SRB2K is still right there! This game is NOT SRB2K however.

I don't think gating online behind completing (you don't even have to beat it!) a cup is unreasonable at all and the whole "you need 80 spray cans to unlock time trials" is straight up a lie, all you need to do is beat all first page cups with a bronze medal minimum (completely reasonable since you can get all unlocks on any difficulty unless its specified otherwise)
The tutorial WAS pretty terrible since it emphazises too much on mechanics you won't use normally during a race (unless im wrong none of the first page levels have any shortcuts involving the switches, only secrets) and it completely glosses over important mechanics unique to this game like the start position change, tether system, and the drift you can do after hitting a boost panel. I did like the way it was presented though and the interactions between tails and eggman were cute and well written.
There are also some problems with the AI being WAY too rubberbandy, I understand its needed for games like this but sometimes due to the tether system your "rival" in second place can sometimes get an invincibility powerup and theres not really anything you can do to stop them from passing you.
The presentation of EVERYTHING in this game is gorgeous and the amount of love this game has for everything Sonic and SEGA related is incredible (there are entire zones based on levels from fangames!) Just an incredible looking game.

Overall I think with a few tweaks this could easily be one of the greatest kart racers of all time, just hope the devs don't over correct due to all of the mostly misplaced negative feedback.