I found out that the story of Ring Racers takes place in an alternate timeline where Shadow stays dead in SA2 which somehow causes Eggman to go good and team up with Tails. If you talk to Jack Frost as Shadow he heavily implies that Ring Racers is caused by his death. The game taking place after SA2 would explain why Eggman and Tails team up.
This also explains the beginning of the game, as Metal Sonic was restrained thanks to Tails and Eggman before MS could fully betray the latter, meaning the events of Sonic Heroes never happened as well. (Something that Jack Frost also heavily implies if you talk to him as Metal Sonic) It also helps that choosing the black spray can in the tutorial will have Tails mention the ARK, with both of them not really having any witty banter but instead have them be really melancholy about it, implying that the both of them still haven’t fully moved on from Shadow’s death.
@@ubermaster1The first seven arent too bad from my experiance. I think I only had to redo a cup for the later ones in that set. Its the second set of emeralds that are a bitch to get imo.
14:23 That's Las Vegas from Phantasy Star Online 2. There was an entire episode of the game where you go to Earth and fight absolutely wild enemies like a 3-headed dragon made of subway trains, the Statue of Liberty riding a Sphinx holding the Eiffel Tower as a weapon, or the Battleship Yamato complete with WW2 aircraft escort.
I love how the music changes to the battle version when you perform a COOOOL trick and enter lap 2 This was one of my favorite tracks in PSO2, so I'm happy to hear it again in RR
The mechanics of ring racers didn't click with me.. Until I made the connection that the rings are the same as your health in F-zero, the dots just connected and suddenly the game WORKED
Its cool to see how people first connected with the game, i managed to go into it on Gear 2 from the go, but its interesting to see you had to go by gear 1 yourself to figure things out! Everyone experience is different and im glad theres actual single player content for people to go through and discover at their pace! Also fun fact, everyone's placement on the challenge board of each challenge is different, so unlocking one thing might reveal a completely different thing from playee to player, which is rad
I'm new to the channel but I gotta say, this video was pretty well done! I had only heard about the game, not really knowing what it was, but after seeing this I definitely want to try it out for myself now! I absolutely ADORE the plethora of references to different SEGA games and characters, and the one you unlocked named Sakura is actually from Sakura Wars.
If you struggle with slopes or offroad areas after getting hit without rings, do a spindash on the lowest charge. Any spindashing will apply Spring Grease, and like springs, you will ignore offroad and more easily climb up slopes. This'll save you quite a lot.
This game is also as moddable as SRB2Kart. One week after the launch they released the updated Kart Maker for it (included with the files, just check the install folder for Ring Racers) and they released a few days ago the map creator/editor for that game too with some setup instructions and a beginner tutorial. And let me tell you, creating map for that game is like night and days compared to creating one for SRB2Kart. It's a lot faster and more user-friendly. One example: Now terrain types are not tied to sector tags (where you had to select by hand all of the sectors and tag them correctly), but are now tied to the texture! Now you just have to select the texture and the terrain type will be automatically applied to it and with a bit of ACS you can change the texture and it will also change the terrain type automatically!
I was never able to get into SRB2K. I didn't like how it felt so I never played it. Fast forward to now, multiple friends are playing Ring Racers, so I gave it a go, and wow is it fun. Every race is thrilling to me, that's the best way to describe it. Take it from someone who is playing a technical racer for the first time. I'm not the best at the game, but even after a few cups, I feel that improvement, and I learn one thing more about how I can use a mechanic. I'm having a great time and I'm looking forward to gradually improving.
I'm the opposite, I played kart so much and loved it, but the mechanics from ring racers legitimately made me never want to touch it ever again which is sad, because I was really looking forward to playing it
Great video. I agree there’s definitely a learning curve, but damn, once you get past that it’s so good. And I really resonate with the point about the importance of unlockables. That’s what really drives me to keep coming back to the game (aside from the great gameplay) - knowing I still have more stuff I can try to unlock. It’s a great motivator
The reason Las Vegas is in this is because it was an Expedition in Phantasy Star Online 2. That's why you unlock a Rappy for finishing in the top 4 on it in Grand Prix.
As someone who knows the game well enough, I want to correct your assumption regarding the Sealed Stars. It's not 'finish with 50+ Rings', it's 'finish with enough score for an A rank at the end of the last race' (or, in Master, just 'finish in first place') to get to them. Also, Las Vegas is the version found in PSO2, hence the additions to it.
I assumed that rankings had to do with it, and I also assumed Las Vegas was actually based on something, I just found it infinitely more hilarious to say it was from real life. I also had zero idea how to look into it.
@@Gabri_Lovecraft Well, it's true that it's from real life. Because PSO2 took it from real life. I only know that because I was looking into the song that plays on that track, and specifically the original one it's a remix of - and that's where I found it's from PSO2
For me the best part of the game is how it feels balanced yet unbalanced in a fun way, I love a fair experience as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's fun to revel in the chaos as you are ping ponged across the track from a pile up, makes winning feel more fruitful as well.
For your pop quiz, I managed to recognise Popcorn Workshop's origin the first time I saw it! Ring Racers is definitely a great game to play. Sure, it had a rough launch, but the updates show that Kart Krew are looking out for the game's players and easing some issues out. I'll admit I did use passwords to unlock most of the stuff, but it felt satisfying unlocking some things all on my own (like a secret course in Mystic Cave or a hidden boss fight in Espresso Lane). Plus, there's great music choices AND the originally-composed music SLAPS! In addition, the different single-player content has been keeping me hooked (like breaking the Prison Eggs in their own dedicated Time Attack mode or racing around tracks solo with no opponents). If you do plan to look for that boss fight, there WILL be a lot of trial-and-error involved. Just make sure to pause and restart the map if you get blown up by the boss, or you'll have to start the puzzle to reach it all over again. (Yes, it took me over half-an-hour to make this comment, because of a LOT of slow-down on my end.)
I have been blessed by the TH-cam algorithm! :D And to think that 3 hours ago I could have been living my life without Gabri Lovecraft's content. Truly a terrifying reality to think about... 0.0
oh hell yeah, wonderful to see a video actually talking about how fantastic this game is, picked it up day one and have been having a blast the whole time, and you can imagine how frustrating it is to fall in love with something and have 99% of the discussion around it be about how hard it is and how much they don't like playing it. It's definitely not above criticism obviously, but any game that lets me play as surge and gives me a ton of unlockables through single player gets a pass from me. Also, the story was mentioned briefly (and man I love the writing so much I want an actual story mode), specifically about why Eggman and Tails teamed up, and we have gotten a *few* possible hints as to what happened through some dialogue? (spoilers for certain secrets) if you pick black for your first spraycan, Tails mentions it reminds him of the arc, which immediately seems to make eggman's mood sour, and if you talk to Jack Frost on frozen night as Shadow, he mentions being the ghost of Christmas future showing Shadow how much better everything is with him dead, so maybe this is a timeline where shadow didn't survive SA2, and it impacted Eggman so much he turned good? unclear if thats actually the case but I like speculating
If you backtrack around the spring section of the ring tutorial, you also get a bit of dialogue where Tails and Eggman talk about it a little bit more directly, with the implication that Eggman had a change of heart between SA2 and Heroes due to finding Shadow's diary (and further implying that Shadow died for real).
Awesome video! I've never really been into racing, but ring racers changed that It's loads of fun and I super hope for more cups and unlocks in the future Ring racer devs did amazing and deserve the shout out 👏
Honestly, Las Vegas is one of my favorites just because not only is it the PSO representative in terms of tracks, but the music there is the ballin Neon Lights remix by SiIvagunner.
One thing that's weird to me is how there's mechanics they don't explain despite putting in a lot of effort into a tutorial. Like, the character selection screen shows you speed and weight, but there's like 8 stats that they affect. Higher speed increases top speed but reduces acceleration and higher weight gives wider drifts with looser handling (also you can push people around). Both of the stats combined affect tethering and using rings, with a higher total resulting in a higher max boost and a lower total making it faster to reach max boost.
I believe that the tutorial could be much more expanded if it wasn't mandatory on your first play. Just the fact that the current tutorial is incomplete and takes FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to complete denotes that a game rich in mechanics like this shouldn't have a mandatory tutorial to be played in one sitting. In my opinion, this game should have the same approach as modern fighting games, for example: it should be free to play on the first boot, but with a warning for newcomers that it is extremely recommended to go through the tutorial to better understand the game, and whoever refuses and decides to try the game will understand how brutal it is. And without being mandatory, the tutorial could be expanded, with several modules and quests that teach players about the nuances of the game.
@@xycord2770 I was taking into account that even though the game gives the option to take a test to skip the tutorial, it was designed to be played right at the beginning of the game. This is the point I wanted to raise about the fact that it is incomplete and does not cover even a third of all the game's mechanics, because the devs wanted you to learn everything at once. Complex games shouldn't have a single-visit tutorial and run the risk of being oversimplified. Ring Racers would benefit much more if the tutorial had just that option within the Extras menu that the game has for you to revisit the tutorial. Without having to play it all at once, you could take your time and learn the mechanics one at a time and in certain scenarios. And with that, the game could expand the tutorial section much more with the mechanics that were left out, since you wouldn't need to do everything at once.
A developer has stated on the discord that they did want to have a set of advanced tutorial stages that would be unlocked after playing more of the game, most notably for the Sliptide mechanic, but ran into time constraints and had to cut them so the game could actually be released. There *might* be a chance that those could be added in a future update, but we'll see. Definitely a shame that the game lacks those, but I can see why they had to cut it down to just what was in the actual release. I do think they should at least make it clearer how speed/weight class affects gameplay, since as it is you kinda just have to experiment with different characters to realize the scope of the differences if no one else informs you of them. (On that note, it's kinda funny that the tutorial exclusively hands you high acceleration characters, which makes sense from the perspective of acceleration characters having easier handling, but does mean you're in for a bit of a rude awakening if you proceed to pick one of the high speed characters for Grand Prix.)
great video, man. i went through the same process of warming up to this game. also to clarify a little bit: im not sure about the others but i do know that mega green hill and mega bridge zone are just straight transformations of super mario kart tracks.
Great review! I've been both a huge Sonic/SEGA fan as well as Super Mario Kart fan since I was a kid, so this sounds like my ideal game! I have heard some negative aspects of it due to the huge difficulty curve. However, it sounds like once you get a handle on the game's mechanics, it becomes incredibly fun! I'll definitely check this out. It looks so well done with a lot of content to enjoy!
In the version 2.2 I managed to crash the game fiddling around with the music player and the game actually rewarded me for crashing the game and unlocked new content and played a loser theme in the menus! I've played games from the 80's and this is the first time I've seen anything like this.
I feel like DRRR muddies a lot of the simplistic but effective nuance to SRB2K's driving. This is amplified even more so in multiplayer, which is primarily where SRB2K shines and DRRR sorta stumbles. Some people I know that run and play on custom servers are working on toning down a lot of the obnoxious qualities and eccentricities of Ring Racers, like slope slowdown, bounce, and hitstop, which would drastically improve the experience. I actually agree with you that the game has a ton of love, care, and polish in regards to its presentation, secrets, progression, and references, which carries the game far in single player, but all kinda falls short when you are primarily interested in just racing with your friends and strangers online. At least they had the forethought to release the cheat codes to everyone near launch. Hopefully overtime Ring Racers can find itself in a better place, but for the time being I think I'll rely on a chunk of the SRB2K community to modify it into something that isn't so chaotic and annoying.
YES! I was a massive fan of kart, and was looking forward to this game, but it feels like someone lubed my wheels with grease and lotion and added about 600 pounds worth of bricks in my kart because man this shit is slow and slippery. Not just that but the rings being an extra NESSICARY resource turned me from being hyped for the game to never wanting to touch it again. My group played kart like once a week until ring racers came out, we played it like 3 times and dropped it all together because of how strange it felt
I almost beat the whole first section of the cups and I have to say: It's like Chaos. No. Not that Chaos 0 from Sonic Adventure. THIS IS PERFECT CHAOS FROM SONIC GENERATION! (Sorry for anyone who doesn't like Perfect Chaos in Sonic Gens.) It's so chaotic, but in the most fun way possible. It's like you're in war, but instead killing people, you are racing and minefield is your track. It's so much fun.
Hey thanks for uploading this, I agree with many of your points about SRB2 Kart and couldn't really get into it trying more than once. I saw the game soundtrack on TH-cam and had no idea what it was about until this. I appreciate the tips and tricks you shared and I hope to play this soon when I have the time.
Or fire the ring shooter if you're really buggered out. There's a flame shield tucked away there though. Personally, I like going into match races with the flame shield and roll around at max speed as I look for sprays.
My biggest complaints for this game is that we don't have a Daytona or Virtua Racing character and that when you lose lives in the chaos emerald stages, it counts as restarts which detract from your final score, other then that it's probably the most fun I've had with a kart racer
I literally haven’t thought of Illbleed since Consolevania reviewed it in an episode when it came out (I forget which video it was and I’m not about to look through their TH-cam channel to find the episode, but regardless I remember being both interested and amused by the game and their somewhat affectionate take on it.) Great review btw, you’ve actually gotten to the heart of this game and met it on its own terms. It’s crazy this game is free, and I hope a good number of people will play it for many years to come.
Really glad that there is a video that tells people how to play the game properly and tells people to take it slow. While I do think the game could have curated some of its content more and saved it for later updates. (Some levels feel like they weren't super play tested well, and I don't really think there needed to be 60+ stages at launch) I like a lot of the concepts and ideas in the stages. I just feel like a lot of the gimmicks and the controls themselves could be more intuitive.
Gust planet is so cool! It’s based off of a rom hack for the original Sonic games called “next level” and as a kid, it was so cool to me that I wrote a comic about it and with DogMan no less! It was such a callback to see it during my stream.
14:16 I think you're right with that, the joke I've noticed with the Mega Cup is that the tracks on those cups are literally like the SNES Super Mario Kart tracks, as if there was a Super Mario Kart for Sonic in the MegaDrive, if you notice all those tracks have a simillar level design and aesthetic to SMK stages, and it even has all the tracks having 5 laps, just like the SMK Tracks in SRB2Kart from the SMK Cup, it would even match the name "MEGA Cup" since the console is called "MEGADrive" just like the "SUPER Nintendo" which has every game starting with the word "Super" But yeah, Ring Racers rocks
Honestly, I'm a little sad I got fed up and used codes to unlock everything. I feel like I deprived myself of some serious dopamine from unlocking characters because I couldn't stand seeing all those "???"... only for most of them to turn out to be actually way more easily accessible than I thought. On the bright side, I can kinda still do the challenges since all the cheated unlocks are greyed out and doing them will still turn them white. I just have to compile a list of challenges to do and turn as many of them white as I can.
This video is great and i hella agree with it! the game art first was kinda weird and hard to get use to but once ya do it justt feels so good! like, i love going back to tracks i had a hard time on and just destroying it once i got to know it better! been going through and getting S ranks on all the cups and its fun as! The character i like to play is Whisper with the Mauve colour and with the Ticktock pet (cos i EARNT that joypolis gold metal) also with the Mauve colour i really hope you make more content like this cos this was fun as to watch! When you mentioned pizza tower i went lookin to see if you did a video on it... sadly there wasnt but i say you 100% completed THREE at least theres ceda cedovicsave file you MAD PERSON
I agree! A lot of the talk about the game being "too difficult" and "too complicated". Very specifically, I've seen folks say "kart racers should be like Mario Kart 8," to which I replied a full list of kart racers that are *not* like MK8 that were successful. Their response was "those games are old." My examples were all newer than MK8. Edit: Perhaps you can be the Nostalgia Critic in Ring Racers soon too. Folks are already working on mods.
I had a realization while playing and that it's actually very similar to F-Zero with the ring management and the fact that your karts can fucking blow up. I am by no means a racing game expert, I am an FPS nerd, but the game felt very very intentional. It isn't Mario Kart and I'm glad it isn't but here I am just repeating the same points of the vid LOL
@@MrGamelover23 I had used Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled and Chocobo GP as examples of newer kart racers, was told they're "older" than MK8. So I expanded the list to include kart racers that are older - Digimon Racing and Diddy Kong Racing. The important part is that none of them play like MK8 and most of them were successful (sorry Digimon Racing but being on the GBA was a bad idea)
I partially need to make a video just to articulate my thoughts but Sonic Battle is the most polarizing game ever made. It has one of the best Sonic stories but also some of the worst characterizations (it's amy i'm talking about amy). It has one of the most unique and awesome ideas for a fighting game's story mode being a character that can learn everyone else's moves and gets stronger as the story progresses, but also you have to grind. SO MUCH. To use ANY of your cards. In a fighting game! They want you to grind for stats in a fighting game! The actual battle mechanics are fun and have some strategy but actual combat is a game of "who can find the cheapest move the fastest." Also yea Illbleed rules :P
9:00 Really important thing to clarify, you do NOT unlock a special stage by having 50 rings. Instead you need to achieve an A Rank which requires 425 points, this generally requires good placing throughout the whole cup, full completion of the capsule stages alongside hoarding as many rings per race as possible for that ring bonus also.
I know it's not a Sonic game but..people REALLY need to play Spark the Electric Jester 3. It'll all but replace Sonic for you, you'll still like Sonic.. but Spark just embodies what Sonic USED to be and not a Corporate Icon/Mascot. Spark is Spark and he doesn't give a fark what anyone else thinks, he just vibes his own way.
Getting to the special stage is triggered by having enough score for an A rank overall at the end of the grand prix (>= 425 points). Note that this isn't the same as the score you will have at the podium; if you use continues in the special stage, that will still lower your score.
9:36 same. I got past villa eventually and I wish it and Church (special stage 4) were swapped place wise at the time. This eventually happened but I had to do villa twice. End me.
I love playing the game, but going after the Super Emeralds makes me want to rip my ding dong off, and yes, I know they're optional, but if there's content in the game to be had, why wouldn't I go after it? What am I supposed to do, just end all my lives if I happen to do well enough at the end of the last race? Feels pointless, and frustrating.
I really, REALLY want to love this game, but it's really fighting me. I'm halfway through this game's cups and I still have no idea how to properly use the ring burning mechanic works - my kart is always slowing to a crawl even when I immediately burn them after picking them up. Are you supposed to not drift unless absolutely necessary in this game?
That Las Vegas track is less from real life and more from Phantasy Star Online 2. It’s my favorite track! I was playing PSO2 EN when Las Vegas was current content, so part of that is nostalgia factor, of course, but…
i'd say you kinda ignored some flaws and i say this as somebody who enjoys the game like for instance, too much is unlockable, like for instance, you're telling me i gotta unlock the color i want to use since the one i used in srb2kart is now gone (flame) also, rings are too powerful even if it is the central mechanic, because you're incentivized to waste items so you can use more rings, meaning items like the thunder shield that don't have both an immediate use and a lasting effect are completely useless if you're in first because you need to use rings another thing is how the game has mechanics that punish you even more for getting hit other than the tumble, for instance, if you try to recover by spindashing, you lose MORE rings i feel like the 5 year long stun is enough of a punishment in short, my complaints are that rings killed itemplay, the game loves to kick you while you're down and WHY ARE COLORS UNLOCKABLES
OK, but can we talk about how with all those obscure, sometimes with little connection to SEGA, characters they still didn't include Ristar? This is a sin!!!
13:05 Ah, a fellow Gust Planet Enjoyer, I see! I kid you not, I painstakingly recreated that entire track in Star Racer (a really fun indie F-Zero clone with an inbuilt level editor); that's how much I loved it!
I was... NOT READY for the Dhali-lovania bit, but like SHIIIIT dude good vid! Like- I genuinely love this game, hate the FUCKIN' EMERALD STAGES ESPECIALLY SUPER EMERALD 4 THAT ONE CAN GO DIE IN A HOLE but I genuinely do love it, like it just feels so fluid like CTR but has MORE shit to play with! Like seriously, the modding scene is cool, modding the game myself with Silence 2 from the BS F-ZERO GP2 broadcast is hell but fun once you can fast track it, like seriously hiding dev textures with ACTUAL textures is funny :), AND just- it's such a damn fun name... Also, SRB2K still exists and I'm sad that everyone jumped ship since Ring Racers was suppose to be a sister game :\ I'm mad, but understandable
14:23 Looks like the Las Vegas interpretation from Phantasy Star Online 2…Which is also a SEGA game 🤔…Nvm another comment beat me to it sharing this info but I just found your video today 😭
I played a SHIT ton of srb2k, but this game feels worse to me in every way (rings being required is the dumbest shit ever why add resource management to a game that already has that [items] ). I just dont understand the appeal of ring racers. I get that it is personal preference talking, but srb2k just felt better mechanically to me, but this game has the content i wish the og kart had. I really wish they just added the solo content from this to kart and called it a day, idk. I really REALLY hate the rings 😅
I found out that the story of Ring Racers takes place in an alternate timeline where Shadow stays dead in SA2 which somehow causes Eggman to go good and team up with Tails. If you talk to
Jack Frost as Shadow he heavily implies that Ring Racers is caused by his death. The game taking place after SA2 would explain why Eggman and Tails team up.
This also explains the beginning of the game, as Metal Sonic was restrained thanks to Tails and Eggman before MS could fully betray the latter, meaning the events of Sonic Heroes never happened as well. (Something that Jack Frost also heavily implies if you talk to him as Metal Sonic)
It also helps that choosing the black spray can in the tutorial will have Tails mention the ARK, with both of them not really having any witty banter but instead have them be really melancholy about it, implying that the both of them still haven’t fully moved on from Shadow’s death.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "TALK TO JACK FROST"?
@@Saxjon yep, Jack Frost is unlockable.
Find him in one of the maps or crash your game by any method.
I'm sorry, but did you just say that CRASHING THE GAME is an unlock method?!
@@snives2378 makes me wonder what would happen when Black Doom returns to Earth with Shadow being gone
Ring Racers is a lot like the Sonic Advance trilogy. It's all fun and games until you decide to go for those Chaos Emeralds.
LOL thats funny but true
The Emeralds in those games were actual torture LMAO
Did you get all those chaos emeralds?
@@ubermaster1The first seven arent too bad from my experiance. I think I only had to redo a cup for the later ones in that set. Its the second set of emeralds that are a bitch to get imo.
says earless
Ring Racers is like if video games were good forever instead of sometimes being bad
14:23 That's Las Vegas from Phantasy Star Online 2. There was an entire episode of the game where you go to Earth and fight absolutely wild enemies like a 3-headed dragon made of subway trains, the Statue of Liberty riding a Sphinx holding the Eiffel Tower as a weapon, or the Battleship Yamato complete with WW2 aircraft escort.
I'm getting a ton of people telling me this exact thing but I'm hearting this one specifically for the extra info that sounds absolutely demented LOL
@Gabri_Lovecraft I mean, PSO in itself is pretty sketch, ngl
I was going to comment this but I’m 2 months late 😂
I love how the music changes to the battle version when you perform a COOOOL trick and enter lap 2
This was one of my favorite tracks in PSO2, so I'm happy to hear it again in RR
The mechanics of ring racers didn't click with me..
Until I made the connection that the rings are the same as your health in F-zero, the dots just connected and suddenly the game WORKED
Its cool to see how people first connected with the game, i managed to go into it on Gear 2 from the go, but its interesting to see you had to go by gear 1 yourself to figure things out! Everyone experience is different and im glad theres actual single player content for people to go through and discover at their pace!
Also fun fact, everyone's placement on the challenge board of each challenge is different, so unlocking one thing might reveal a completely different thing from playee to player, which is rad
I'm new to the channel but I gotta say, this video was pretty well done! I had only heard about the game, not really knowing what it was, but after seeing this I definitely want to try it out for myself now! I absolutely ADORE the plethora of references to different SEGA games and characters, and the one you unlocked named Sakura is actually from Sakura Wars.
If you struggle with slopes or offroad areas after getting hit without rings, do a spindash on the lowest charge. Any spindashing will apply Spring Grease, and like springs, you will ignore offroad and more easily climb up slopes. This'll save you quite a lot.
This game is also as moddable as SRB2Kart. One week after the launch they released the updated Kart Maker for it (included with the files, just check the install folder for Ring Racers) and they released a few days ago the map creator/editor for that game too with some setup instructions and a beginner tutorial.
And let me tell you, creating map for that game is like night and days compared to creating one for SRB2Kart. It's a lot faster and more user-friendly. One example: Now terrain types are not tied to sector tags (where you had to select by hand all of the sectors and tag them correctly), but are now tied to the texture! Now you just have to select the texture and the terrain type will be automatically applied to it and with a bit of ACS you can change the texture and it will also change the terrain type automatically!
I was never able to get into SRB2K. I didn't like how it felt so I never played it. Fast forward to now, multiple friends are playing Ring Racers, so I gave it a go, and wow is it fun. Every race is thrilling to me, that's the best way to describe it. Take it from someone who is playing a technical racer for the first time. I'm not the best at the game, but even after a few cups, I feel that improvement, and I learn one thing more about how I can use a mechanic. I'm having a great time and I'm looking forward to gradually improving.
I'm the opposite, I played kart so much and loved it, but the mechanics from ring racers legitimately made me never want to touch it ever again which is sad, because I was really looking forward to playing it
Great video. I agree there’s definitely a learning curve, but damn, once you get past that it’s so good. And I really resonate with the point about the importance of unlockables. That’s what really drives me to keep coming back to the game (aside from the great gameplay) - knowing I still have more stuff I can try to unlock. It’s a great motivator
aaaaand immediately subscribed as soon as i heard "all up ons". homestar runner references are a good way to gauge someone's *coolitude.*
The reason Las Vegas is in this is because it was an Expedition in Phantasy Star Online 2. That's why you unlock a Rappy for finishing in the top 4 on it in Grand Prix.
As someone who knows the game well enough, I want to correct your assumption regarding the Sealed Stars. It's not 'finish with 50+ Rings', it's 'finish with enough score for an A rank at the end of the last race' (or, in Master, just 'finish in first place') to get to them.
Also, Las Vegas is the version found in PSO2, hence the additions to it.
I assumed that rankings had to do with it, and I also assumed Las Vegas was actually based on something, I just found it infinitely more hilarious to say it was from real life. I also had zero idea how to look into it.
@@Gabri_Lovecraft Well, it's true that it's from real life. Because PSO2 took it from real life. I only know that because I was looking into the song that plays on that track, and specifically the original one it's a remix of - and that's where I found it's from PSO2
For me the best part of the game is how it feels balanced yet unbalanced in a fun way, I love a fair experience as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's fun to revel in the chaos as you are ping ponged across the track from a pile up, makes winning feel more fruitful as well.
Agreed,sometimes is even chaotic
got this game bc it had ecco the dolphin as a kart racer. glad i did; its very addicting
4:02
Literally my entire experience with Robotnik's Ring Racers.
It looks like something that would have a fun modding scene
For your pop quiz, I managed to recognise Popcorn Workshop's origin the first time I saw it!
Ring Racers is definitely a great game to play. Sure, it had a rough launch, but the updates show that Kart Krew are looking out for the game's players and easing some issues out. I'll admit I did use passwords to unlock most of the stuff, but it felt satisfying unlocking some things all on my own (like a secret course in Mystic Cave or a hidden boss fight in Espresso Lane). Plus, there's great music choices AND the originally-composed music SLAPS! In addition, the different single-player content has been keeping me hooked (like breaking the Prison Eggs in their own dedicated Time Attack mode or racing around tracks solo with no opponents).
If you do plan to look for that boss fight, there WILL be a lot of trial-and-error involved. Just make sure to pause and restart the map if you get blown up by the boss, or you'll have to start the puzzle to reach it all over again.
(Yes, it took me over half-an-hour to make this comment, because of a LOT of slow-down on my end.)
15:17 She's from a Sega Saturn game called Sakura Wars. Haven't played it myself, but it has a nice anime opening.
And a anime adaptation
I missed your well edited videos Gabri-heads eating well tonight
Eating well so good smile grins
Yours is the only opinion that matters to me NutterButter
I have been blessed by the TH-cam algorithm! :D
And to think that 3 hours ago I could have been living my life without Gabri Lovecraft's content. Truly a terrifying reality to think about... 0.0
oh hell yeah, wonderful to see a video actually talking about how fantastic this game is, picked it up day one and have been having a blast the whole time, and you can imagine how frustrating it is to fall in love with something and have 99% of the discussion around it be about how hard it is and how much they don't like playing it. It's definitely not above criticism obviously, but any game that lets me play as surge and gives me a ton of unlockables through single player gets a pass from me. Also, the story was mentioned briefly (and man I love the writing so much I want an actual story mode), specifically about why Eggman and Tails teamed up, and we have gotten a *few* possible hints as to what happened through some dialogue? (spoilers for certain secrets)
if you pick black for your first spraycan, Tails mentions it reminds him of the arc, which immediately seems to make eggman's mood sour, and if you talk to Jack Frost on frozen night as Shadow, he mentions being the ghost of Christmas future showing Shadow how much better everything is with him dead, so maybe this is a timeline where shadow didn't survive SA2, and it impacted Eggman so much he turned good? unclear if thats actually the case but I like speculating
If you backtrack around the spring section of the ring tutorial, you also get a bit of dialogue where Tails and Eggman talk about it a little bit more directly, with the implication that Eggman had a change of heart between SA2 and Heroes due to finding Shadow's diary (and further implying that Shadow died for real).
i dont even care for cart racers but u make this game sound super fun
11:57 I literally told my friends about how mystic manor could work so well omg.
Never heard of ring racers but after watching this video I might play it
Awesome video!
I've never really been into racing, but ring racers changed that
It's loads of fun and I super hope for more cups and unlocks in the future
Ring racer devs did amazing and deserve the shout out 👏
Agreed
This is one of the best ring racers review vids. This game is soo goood :3
Also I like the editing of this segment 4:03
Honestly, Las Vegas is one of my favorites just because not only is it the PSO representative in terms of tracks, but the music there is the ballin Neon Lights remix by SiIvagunner.
One thing that's weird to me is how there's mechanics they don't explain despite putting in a lot of effort into a tutorial. Like, the character selection screen shows you speed and weight, but there's like 8 stats that they affect. Higher speed increases top speed but reduces acceleration and higher weight gives wider drifts with looser handling (also you can push people around). Both of the stats combined affect tethering and using rings, with a higher total resulting in a higher max boost and a lower total making it faster to reach max boost.
I believe that the tutorial could be much more expanded if it wasn't mandatory on your first play. Just the fact that the current tutorial is incomplete and takes FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to complete denotes that a game rich in mechanics like this shouldn't have a mandatory tutorial to be played in one sitting.
In my opinion, this game should have the same approach as modern fighting games, for example: it should be free to play on the first boot, but with a warning for newcomers that it is extremely recommended to go through the tutorial to better understand the game, and whoever refuses and decides to try the game will understand how brutal it is. And without being mandatory, the tutorial could be expanded, with several modules and quests that teach players about the nuances of the game.
@@mayconlcruz 2.2 makes it possible to skip the tutorial with a cpu race, but you have to know the mechanics well to pass.
@@xycord2770 I was taking into account that even though the game gives the option to take a test to skip the tutorial, it was designed to be played right at the beginning of the game. This is the point I wanted to raise about the fact that it is incomplete and does not cover even a third of all the game's mechanics, because the devs wanted you to learn everything at once.
Complex games shouldn't have a single-visit tutorial and run the risk of being oversimplified. Ring Racers would benefit much more if the tutorial had just that option within the Extras menu that the game has for you to revisit the tutorial. Without having to play it all at once, you could take your time and learn the mechanics one at a time and in certain scenarios. And with that, the game could expand the tutorial section much more with the mechanics that were left out, since you wouldn't need to do everything at once.
A developer has stated on the discord that they did want to have a set of advanced tutorial stages that would be unlocked after playing more of the game, most notably for the Sliptide mechanic, but ran into time constraints and had to cut them so the game could actually be released. There *might* be a chance that those could be added in a future update, but we'll see. Definitely a shame that the game lacks those, but I can see why they had to cut it down to just what was in the actual release. I do think they should at least make it clearer how speed/weight class affects gameplay, since as it is you kinda just have to experiment with different characters to realize the scope of the differences if no one else informs you of them. (On that note, it's kinda funny that the tutorial exclusively hands you high acceleration characters, which makes sense from the perspective of acceleration characters having easier handling, but does mean you're in for a bit of a rude awakening if you proceed to pick one of the high speed characters for Grand Prix.)
i like hidden game mechanics, but with a tutorial as lengthy and tedious as this one, it might as well cover all bases
great video, man. i went through the same process of warming up to this game.
also to clarify a little bit: im not sure about the others but i do know that mega green hill and mega bridge zone are just straight transformations of super mario kart tracks.
Yeah,is just Mario Circuit and Donuts Plains,also Ice Cap is kinda like Vanilla Lake.
Great review! I've been both a huge Sonic/SEGA fan as well as Super Mario Kart fan since I was a kid, so this sounds like my ideal game! I have heard some negative aspects of it due to the huge difficulty curve. However, it sounds like once you get a handle on the game's mechanics, it becomes incredibly fun! I'll definitely check this out. It looks so well done with a lot of content to enjoy!
In the version 2.2 I managed to crash the game fiddling around with the music player and the game actually rewarded me for crashing the game and unlocked new content and played a loser theme in the menus! I've played games from the 80's and this is the first time I've seen anything like this.
i actually found the tutorial concise enough for me to hop straight into normal mode when doing the Cups also we do not deserve Kart Krew
I feel like DRRR muddies a lot of the simplistic but effective nuance to SRB2K's driving. This is amplified even more so in multiplayer, which is primarily where SRB2K shines and DRRR sorta stumbles. Some people I know that run and play on custom servers are working on toning down a lot of the obnoxious qualities and eccentricities of Ring Racers, like slope slowdown, bounce, and hitstop, which would drastically improve the experience. I actually agree with you that the game has a ton of love, care, and polish in regards to its presentation, secrets, progression, and references, which carries the game far in single player, but all kinda falls short when you are primarily interested in just racing with your friends and strangers online. At least they had the forethought to release the cheat codes to everyone near launch. Hopefully overtime Ring Racers can find itself in a better place, but for the time being I think I'll rely on a chunk of the SRB2K community to modify it into something that isn't so chaotic and annoying.
YES! I was a massive fan of kart, and was looking forward to this game, but it feels like someone lubed my wheels with grease and lotion and added about 600 pounds worth of bricks in my kart because man this shit is slow and slippery. Not just that but the rings being an extra NESSICARY resource turned me from being hyped for the game to never wanting to touch it again. My group played kart like once a week until ring racers came out, we played it like 3 times and dropped it all together because of how strange it felt
It took me until watching this to realize I literally was playing on 2.1... ALL WEEKEND
I almost beat the whole first section of the cups and I have to say: It's like Chaos. No. Not that Chaos 0 from Sonic Adventure. THIS IS PERFECT CHAOS FROM SONIC GENERATION! (Sorry for anyone who doesn't like Perfect Chaos in Sonic Gens.) It's so chaotic, but in the most fun way possible. It's like you're in war, but instead killing people, you are racing and minefield is your track. It's so much fun.
Hey thanks for uploading this, I agree with many of your points about SRB2 Kart and couldn't really get into it trying more than once. I saw the game soundtrack on TH-cam and had no idea what it was about until this. I appreciate the tips and tricks you shared and I hope to play this soon when I have the time.
you can just spindash through that section of marble garden btw
Or fire the ring shooter if you're really buggered out.
There's a flame shield tucked away there though. Personally, I like going into match races with the flame shield and roll around at max speed as I look for sprays.
us gabri-gals are having the most delectable feast
It would be cool to see modern level being translated into the artsyles
Dude this video is Amazing 👏 Glad someone loves the game as much as me!
My biggest complaints for this game is that we don't have a Daytona or Virtua Racing character and that when you lose lives in the chaos emerald stages, it counts as restarts which detract from your final score, other then that it's probably the most fun I've had with a kart racer
hrmmm this kinda sold me.... i might play this whenever i get the time exclamation mark
Robi pleaseeeeee it'd be awesome to play tuoys together
I literally haven’t thought of Illbleed since Consolevania reviewed it in an episode when it came out (I forget which video it was and I’m not about to look through their TH-cam channel to find the episode, but regardless I remember being both interested and amused by the game and their somewhat affectionate take on it.)
Great review btw, you’ve actually gotten to the heart of this game and met it on its own terms. It’s crazy this game is free, and I hope a good number of people will play it for many years to come.
Really glad that there is a video that tells people how to play the game properly and tells people to take it slow.
While I do think the game could have curated some of its content more and saved it for later updates. (Some levels feel like they weren't super play tested well, and I don't really think there needed to be 60+ stages at launch) I like a lot of the concepts and ideas in the stages.
I just feel like a lot of the gimmicks and the controls themselves could be more intuitive.
Gust planet is so cool! It’s based off of a rom hack for the original Sonic games called “next level” and as a kid, it was so cool to me that I wrote a comic about it and with DogMan no less! It was such a callback to see it during my stream.
Ik the popquiz...
SegaSonic Popcorn Shop!
(I love all the references in this game)
Awesome sauce video :) Ive been really enjoying this game and its nice to see this game be talked about so indepth snile
Amber you made the thumbnail you don't have to act like you don't know me. I literally got you into the game
@@Gabri_Lovecraft i made most of the thumbnail and ive never played the game
14:16 I think you're right with that, the joke I've noticed with the Mega Cup is that the tracks on those cups are literally like the SNES Super Mario Kart tracks, as if there was a Super Mario Kart for Sonic in the MegaDrive, if you notice all those tracks have a simillar level design and aesthetic to SMK stages, and it even has all the tracks having 5 laps, just like the SMK Tracks in SRB2Kart from the SMK Cup, it would even match the name "MEGA Cup" since the console is called "MEGADrive" just like the "SUPER Nintendo" which has every game starting with the word "Super"
But yeah, Ring Racers rocks
And what about the Genesis cup?
Honestly, I'm a little sad I got fed up and used codes to unlock everything. I feel like I deprived myself of some serious dopamine from unlocking characters because I couldn't stand seeing all those "???"... only for most of them to turn out to be actually way more easily accessible than I thought. On the bright side, I can kinda still do the challenges since all the cheated unlocks are greyed out and doing them will still turn them white. I just have to compile a list of challenges to do and turn as many of them white as I can.
This video is great and i hella agree with it! the game art first was kinda weird and hard to get use to but once ya do it justt feels so good! like, i love going back to tracks i had a hard time on and just destroying it once i got to know it better! been going through and getting S ranks on all the cups and its fun as!
The character i like to play is Whisper with the Mauve colour and with the Ticktock pet (cos i EARNT that joypolis gold metal) also with the Mauve colour
i really hope you make more content like this cos this was fun as to watch! When you mentioned pizza tower i went lookin to see if you did a video on it... sadly there wasnt but i say you 100% completed THREE at least theres ceda cedovicsave file you MAD PERSON
I absolutely love the Genesis/SegaCD/Saturn look that this game has.
I agree! A lot of the talk about the game being "too difficult" and "too complicated". Very specifically, I've seen folks say "kart racers should be like Mario Kart 8," to which I replied a full list of kart racers that are *not* like MK8 that were successful. Their response was "those games are old."
My examples were all newer than MK8.
Edit: Perhaps you can be the Nostalgia Critic in Ring Racers soon too. Folks are already working on mods.
I had a realization while playing and that it's actually very similar to F-Zero with the ring management and the fact that your karts can fucking blow up. I am by no means a racing game expert, I am an FPS nerd, but the game felt very very intentional. It isn't Mario Kart and I'm glad it isn't but here I am just repeating the same points of the vid LOL
Shoot now I want to see this list... for kart science of course!
Please give me those examples.
@@MrGamelover23 I had used Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled and Chocobo GP as examples of newer kart racers, was told they're "older" than MK8.
So I expanded the list to include kart racers that are older - Digimon Racing and Diddy Kong Racing.
The important part is that none of them play like MK8 and most of them were successful (sorry Digimon Racing but being on the GBA was a bad idea)
Sonic Battle was peak for real but god is it messy in places.
Edit: YOOO I didn't think you would bring up Illbleed too, based lel.
I partially need to make a video just to articulate my thoughts but Sonic Battle is the most polarizing game ever made. It has one of the best Sonic stories but also some of the worst characterizations (it's amy i'm talking about amy). It has one of the most unique and awesome ideas for a fighting game's story mode being a character that can learn everyone else's moves and gets stronger as the story progresses, but also you have to grind. SO MUCH. To use ANY of your cards. In a fighting game! They want you to grind for stats in a fighting game! The actual battle mechanics are fun and have some strategy but actual combat is a game of "who can find the cheapest move the fastest."
Also yea Illbleed rules :P
@@Gabri_Lovecraft Than you'll be happy to see that Illbleed is indeed represented in Ring Racers, but I won't tell how.
9:00 Really important thing to clarify, you do NOT unlock a special stage by having 50 rings. Instead you need to achieve an A Rank which requires 425 points, this generally requires good placing throughout the whole cup, full completion of the capsule stages alongside hoarding as many rings per race as possible for that ring bonus also.
I know it's not a Sonic game but..people REALLY need to play Spark the Electric Jester 3. It'll all but replace Sonic for you, you'll still like Sonic.. but Spark just embodies what Sonic USED to be and not a Corporate Icon/Mascot. Spark is Spark and he doesn't give a fark what anyone else thinks, he just vibes his own way.
Movement games with steep, skill-dependent learning curves my beloved
2:07 bro it can't be commercially sold because you can't make money of a IP remember the Sonic Omens incident
I was like "why's no single player of Robo Blast 2 kart?"
10:32 It would be nice to know the flaws first so that the surprise of it already being fixed would make surprise more impactful!
Getting to the special stage is triggered by having enough score for an A rank overall at the end of the grand prix (>= 425 points). Note that this isn't the same as the score you will have at the podium; if you use continues in the special stage, that will still lower your score.
this is definitely one of the kart racers of all time
14:06 tbh my main from the large list of characters is Tikal, and I don't know why
gabri moment
Ring Racers is like if Mario Pinball Land was fun and also a Sonic themed Kart Racer
This game had 30 cups and the worst track in my opinion is Chemical Facility (idk why this track is back and not Ancient Tomb).
LOL yeah that one is CBT
@@Gabri_Lovecraft cbt?
@@sergiomendoza251cock and ball torture
This is what Sonic R should've been
holy shit sega rally 2 music at 13:10
this game, is CRAZY, shit is crazy, and i fuckin love it.
Ok, maybe i was too harsh on you, bloke. Robotnik Ring Racers is pretty cool.
0:49 that screen was a minigame the WHOLE TIME?
9:36 same. I got past villa eventually and I wish it and Church (special stage 4) were swapped place wise at the time.
This eventually happened but I had to do villa twice. End me.
I hope you talk about bring your own class of doom because it is mod perfection
*sees you list Azure Axiom as one of your favorites*
Ah, a man of culture, I see.~
The Mega cup is all tracks from Super Mario Kart reskinned
I love playing the game, but going after the Super Emeralds makes me want to rip my ding dong off, and yes, I know they're optional, but if there's content in the game to be had, why wouldn't I go after it? What am I supposed to do, just end all my lives if I happen to do well enough at the end of the last race? Feels pointless, and frustrating.
Curiosity is striking me
Is whisper the wolf perchance a playable character 🥺
9:29 I loved that Slowwaddle meme
I looked up "slowwaddle" and google images showed me an image of a pregnant fox
Lol, yeah that is the first image for some reason but I was just making a joke about the the Rainbow Dash song/meme thing "20 Percent Cooler."
is popcorn workshop a reference to that one sonic popcorn arcade game?
I really, REALLY want to love this game, but it's really fighting me. I'm halfway through this game's cups and I still have no idea how to properly use the ring burning mechanic works - my kart is always slowing to a crawl even when I immediately burn them after picking them up. Are you supposed to not drift unless absolutely necessary in this game?
That Las Vegas track is less from real life and more from Phantasy Star Online 2. It’s my favorite track! I was playing PSO2 EN when Las Vegas was current content, so part of that is nostalgia factor, of course, but…
i'd say you kinda ignored some flaws and i say this as somebody who enjoys the game
like for instance, too much is unlockable, like for instance, you're telling me i gotta unlock the color i want to use since the one i used in srb2kart is now gone (flame)
also, rings are too powerful even if it is the central mechanic, because you're incentivized to waste items so you can use more rings, meaning items like the thunder shield that don't have both an immediate use and a lasting effect are completely useless if you're in first because you need to use rings
another thing is how the game has mechanics that punish you even more for getting hit other than the tumble, for instance, if you try to recover by spindashing, you lose MORE rings
i feel like the 5 year long stun is enough of a punishment
in short, my complaints are that rings killed itemplay, the game loves to kick you while you're down and WHY ARE COLORS UNLOCKABLES
the Mega Cup is all Super Mario Kart tracks that's why. it's mega cause it's super
Also you didn't mention that you can change the character 2D sprites into a 3D models in the option menu
i thought i had to get big score to go into the special stages. only needing rings makes it easier 😮
OK, but can we talk about how with all those obscure, sometimes with little connection to SEGA, characters they still didn't include Ristar? This is a sin!!!
And Alex Kidd too
Yo. A new patch came out buddy! Time to rewrite this entire video-
Im hopin they add a pen pen triicelon track soon
13:05 Ah, a fellow Gust Planet Enjoyer, I see!
I kid you not, I painstakingly recreated that entire track in Star Racer (a really fun indie F-Zero clone with an inbuilt level editor); that's how much I loved it!
I was... NOT READY for the Dhali-lovania bit, but like SHIIIIT dude good vid! Like- I genuinely love this game, hate the FUCKIN' EMERALD STAGES ESPECIALLY SUPER EMERALD 4 THAT ONE CAN GO DIE IN A HOLE but I genuinely do love it, like it just feels so fluid like CTR but has MORE shit to play with! Like seriously, the modding scene is cool, modding the game myself with Silence 2 from the BS F-ZERO GP2 broadcast is hell but fun once you can fast track it, like seriously hiding dev textures with ACTUAL textures is funny :), AND just- it's such a damn fun name... Also, SRB2K still exists and I'm sad that everyone jumped ship since Ring Racers was suppose to be a sister game :\ I'm mad, but understandable
14:23 Looks like the Las Vegas interpretation from Phantasy Star Online 2…Which is also a SEGA game 🤔…Nvm another comment beat me to it sharing this info but I just found your video today 😭
popcorn workshop is based on segasonic popcorn shop 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I noticed your top 5 didn't include Sonic Unleashed. Try it if you haven't, it has some of the best 3d Sonic gameplay in the franchise.
GHHRRR WHSGWJSBSN I WANNA TRY IT SO BAD GURRR
las vegas is probably a track because it was a PSO2 level
I played a SHIT ton of srb2k, but this game feels worse to me in every way (rings being required is the dumbest shit ever why add resource management to a game that already has that [items] ). I just dont understand the appeal of ring racers. I get that it is personal preference talking, but srb2k just felt better mechanically to me, but this game has the content i wish the og kart had. I really wish they just added the solo content from this to kart and called it a day, idk. I really REALLY hate the rings 😅
Oh it's you!. Hiiii🙃
13:25 Hell yeah!!!
if drrr is kart racing perfection, then dmc2 is hack n' slash perfection