Not gonna give a rating yet because I've only just begun with this one but I really wanna get my thoughts on the game out there. Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is the most difficult kart racer I've played ever and it's not close at all.

And I'm really enjoying it!! While this game has already kicked my ass in some pretty frustrating ways (which is definitely a thing with kart racers in general, tbf), the successes I've had have been incredibly satisfying. Everything about this game is a lot less straightforward than, say, Mario Kart, but once I started figuring out the nuances of the gameplay it made a lot more sense. Also, I'm definitely a sucker for the Air Ride-esque challenge board, I've always loved filling these out in other games that have them. Overall, Ring Racers is a demanding but still highly enjoyable kart racer that I'm sure will only get better with time. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of the genre--it's free, after all!

...The tutorial absolutely needs to be reworked, though. Everyone's definitely right about that lol

Perhaps, if this game wasn't dogshit, it could be the best kart racer ever made!
Unfortunately, the devs (who are a bunch of stuck up, brainrotted asswipes), forgot to playtest their game with people who aren't themselves, so we're left with AI that blatantly cheats, special stages that require a LOT of trial and error, worse controls and game feel than SRB2 Kart, and a bunch of tedious achievements to unlock.

Shame, too, cuz most of my issues could be fixed if the devs got their heads out of their asses, and fixed the AI. Unfortunately, it probably won't be addressed.
I'd love to eat my words, though.

Wish this game didn't feel like winning or losing was luck-based.

2.1
They got rid of a lot of the handholding with the tutorial, which is great! You can outright skip it now after a point, and my issues with the challenge race seem to have been addressed. You still gotta do some setup before starting but at the very least it doesn't feel like you're being forced to understand every little thing about the game with exhaustive detail. It's ok to not know every little thing and get lost in a game. You also unlock addons at the same time as online now, which is nice. The "Wi-Fi Warrior" and "McDonalds" passwords will still get them both unlocked if you just want to get things going asap with some friends though.

Overall I've been playing the game some more and a lot of the mechanics I was iffy on are warming on me. As I've said the tumble state still feels extremely punishing but you have a good amount of tools to get back into the race. My biggest issue with the game at this point is how much slopes will slow you down if you don't have any rings to boost up them. Like yeah it makes sense that they would slow you down a bit, but most of the time the amount they can slow you makes it feel like you're going up a much steeper surface than what you're looking at.
Also the rubberbanding in singleplayer is just a little absurd, I could get it on the higher difficulty but even on normal it really feels like you're better off playing from the middle and trying to boost into first at the last minute with how aggressive the AI gets.
If the minutiae of new features and adjustments aren't your cup of tea, SRB2K isn't going anywhere though I don't blame people for feeling divided on all the new stuff, it really does feel like a totally new game at this point, even if previous knowledge of SRB2K will still get you pretty far.

It's also kinda unfortunate that addons from SRB2K aren't forwards compatible at all. I want to play as JP Arle :(