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  10       content="SRB2 first came out when I was five. I've been playing it since I was 12. It still rules."
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  34               <h3 class="blog-title">The Twenty-Seven Year Old Fangame</h3>
  35               <h3 class="datestamp">20/02/2025</h3>
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  38               <p>
  39                 I'm transgender, I'm autistic, and I was born in the early 90s.
  40                 Naturally, this means I have formed a lifelong attachment to
  41                 Sonic the Hedgehog.
  42               </p>
  43               <p>
  44                 It started with Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive, which I played
  45                 basically all the time. My dad had written down the cheat codes
  46                 for level select, debug and all emeralds in the back of the
  47                 manual, and I spent tens if not hundreds of hours messing with
  48                 the object placement mode. My first experience getting in the
  49                 guts of a computer, even if it was in a relatively safe way.
  50               </p>
  51               <p>
  52                 I was lucky enough to get a Gamecube at launch in May 2002, with
  53                 Sonic Adventure 2. You could probably really pinpoint that as
  54                 the end for me. Sonic Adventure 2 was so <i>cool.</i> It still
  55                 <i>is</i> cool, despite being (in the cold, modern light of day)
  56                 really only about 1/5th good game and 4/5ths shite.
  57               </p>
  58               <p>
  59                 But it's a game that feels cohesive. It builds up a strange
  60                 world through the action stages, the Chao garden, the
  61                 multiplayer stages... it feels like a whole. It's unsurprising
  62                 that it too sucked me in, as it did many many others.
  63               </p>
  64               <p>
  65                 I continued playing different Sonic games throughout my
  66                 childhood and, still, into adulthood. One of my fave games of
  67                 last year was Shadow Generations, for god's sake. It's the most
  68                 uneven series I still stick with, but it's hard to quit Sonic.
  69               </p>
  70               <p>
  71                 Sometime in my teenage years, around when I was 12 or 13, I
  72                 started digging into Sonic fangames. I played the demo of the
  73                 very first version of the Retro Engine, which would eventually
  74                 by used by its creator, Christian Whitehead (among others) to
  75                 make Sonic Mania. I fooled around with romhacks a lot. I spent a
  76                 lot of time browsing Sonic Retro and Sonic Cult (deep cut!),
  77                 digging through all sorts of info about sonic betas, And also
  78                 learning what the words 'hentai doujinshi' meant. Some of my
  79                 first porn was Sonic art. Probably explains Why I'm Like This.
  80                 <a
  81                   href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071205021426/http://www.sonic-cult.org/siteparts/hentai/doujinshi.html"
  82                   >That page is on the internat archive, if you're curious.</a
  83                 >
  84                 Relive my sexual awakening with me. The warnings for Furry Bomb
  85                 said to only download if I promised I wasn't a minor, which I
  86                 dutifully ignored. Wonder if I can get a copy of one of these
  87                 from Mandarake one day.
  88                 <a href="https://imhentai.xxx/gallery/4195/">#5</a> was my
  89                 favourite.
  90               </p>
  91               <p>
  92                 ANYWAY, I DIGRESS. What were we talking about? Fangames, right?
  93                 OK so yeah, Sonic has had a fantastic fangame scene basically
  94                 from its inception, right to the present day. I look forward to
  95                 SAGE every year, an event that started in humble sonic hack
  96                 beginnings and is now a celebration of hacks, fangames and
  97                 original indie titles inspired by Sonic. I usually tweet about
  98                 some of the games I sample, so look out for that in June.
  99               </p>
 100               <p>
 101                 But when it comes to fangames, there's one that really stands
 102                 out, above all others. It's older than most of them. It's
 103                 definitely been in development longest.
 104               </p>
 105               <p>It's Sonic Robo Blast 2.</p>
 106               <a href="../img/entries/srb2.png">
 107                 <img
 108                   class="blog-img-lrg"
 109                   src="../img/entries/srb2.png"
 110                   alt="A screenshot of the SRB2 title screen, featuring Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in an emblem, against a Sega Blue Sky background."
 111                 />
 112               </a>
 113               <p>
 114                 SRB2 is, flatly, bananas. It's a 3D Sonic game that
 115                 <i>predates</i> Sonic Adventure. (Technically. SRB2 started off
 116                 as a 2D fangame in early 1998, then moved to 3D engine in 1999.
 117                 So it didn't beat Sonic Adventure to the 3D punch really, but it
 118                 was damn close.) It's built on a fork of the Doom engine, with
 119                 slopes and room-over-room (something that is still rare in
 120                 modern doom source ports!) as well as more conventional
 121                 platformer mechanics. It has its own interpretation of how Sonic
 122                 should feel in 3D, heavily inspired by the physics and
 123                 momentum-based structure of the 2D games. The cornerstones of
 124                 how SRB2 feels to play have gone on to influence countless other
 125                 3D Sonic fangames.
 126               </p>
 127               <p>
 128                 I started playing it in the 'Final Demo' era, which despite the
 129                 name was not in fact the final demo before its full release. In
 130                 fact, SRB2 is still not finished. it's now at version 2.2, with
 131                 6/8 zones done. Which I guess sounds like it's taking forever,
 132                 but it should be noted that SRB2 isn't just an ordinary
 133                 singleplayer fangame. It's actually chock full of an insane
 134                 amount of features. At current blush:
 135               </p>
 136               <ul>
 137                 <li>
 138                   Singleplayer campaign with 6 complete zones, one incomplete
 139                   zone, and one final boss zone.
 140                 </li>
 141                 <li>6 playable characters, each with unique movesets.</li>
 142                 <li>5 Bonus single-act zones.</li>
 143                 <li>
 144                   8 singleplayer Special Stages - implemented as a full
 145                   recreation of NiGHTS into Dreams (!)
 146                 </li>
 147                 <li>7 multiplayer blue-sphere-esque Special Stages</li>
 148                 <li>4 NiGHTS bonus stages</li>
 149                 <li>
 150                   <i>An entire Doom-inspired FPS multiplayer mode</i> with CTF,
 151                   and Deathmatch gamemodes, with 37 maps.
 152                 </li>
 153                 <li>
 154                   1 bonus level that utilises a special 'Mario Mode,' that
 155                   emulates Mario-style gameplay.
 156                 </li>
 157                 <li>
 158                   1 special legacy zone that serves as a playable museum of the
 159                   'final demo' version of the game.
 160                 </li>
 161               </ul>
 162               <p>That's a lot of game for the low low price of free!</p>
 163               <p>
 164                 Playing this game on and off for years, it's amazing to see both
 165                 how the game's grown, but also how it feels so similar to the
 166                 game I played at 13 or whatever. I have no doubt since the
 167                 'final demo' that the physics have been tweaked and rewritten
 168                 multiple times, but the coolest thing about SRB2 is playing it
 169                 now, it feels how I remember, unlike, say, Sonic Adventure. The
 170                 hazy, rose-tinted specs of youth make you forgive a lot of sins
 171                 in games, so it's really neat that SRB2 manages to feel great
 172                 while not betraying how you remember it being.
 173               </p>
 174               <h3>BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!</h3>
 175               <p>
 176                 Because SRB2 is built on Doom, it itself is extremely moddable.
 177                 And, like Sonic, the community around SRB2 has been extremely
 178                 active since day 1. There's a veritable bonanza of custom maps
 179                 and characters, with bespoke art and movesets and even brand new
 180                 mechanics to support them. As a kid I dove deep into this,
 181                 having fun with tens of weird different characters from all
 182                 across the Sonic canon and beyond. Now I'm revisiting, I've only
 183                 touched one (a fantastic Modern Sonic implementation) but god,
 184                 what depth.
 185               </p>
 186               <h3>BUT THAT'S STILL NOT ALL!</h3>
 187               <p>
 188                 SRB2 has itself spawned some fabulous total conversion mods, the
 189                 most well-known of which is SRB2 Kart, and its sequel, DR.
 190                 ROBOTNIK'S RING RACERS!
 191               </p>
 192               <a href="../img/entries/drrobotniksringracers.webp">
 193                 <img
 194                   class="blog-img"
 195                   src="../img/entries/drrobotniksringracers.webp"
 196                   alt="Cover art for Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers, featuring Tails and Robotnik and a racing track."
 197                 />
 198               </a>
 199               <p>
 200                 That's right baby, I bamboozled you again! This entire blog post
 201                 was here to advertise DR ROBOTNIK'S RING RACERS to you! Ring
 202                 Racers is a highly technical kart racer, that (in my humble
 203                 opinion) unseats Mario, the king of karts, with absolute ease.
 204                 Over 230 tracks! 63 characters! 22 power ups! A Smash Bros style
 205                 unlock wall (fantastic to see this mechanic outside of a Sakurai
 206                 game!) Battle mode! Boss battles!?
 207               </p>
 208               <p>
 209                 Ring Racers really feels like it took the precedent set for
 210                 exceeding expectation by SRB2, looked at it, and went "yeah,
 211                 that's small fry. Here's how you actually do it."
 212               </p>
 213               <p>
 214                 And fuckin' fair play to 'em! I <i>love</i> Ring Racers, I think
 215                 it's fantastic. Driving is a joy in it, the drifting is absolute
 216                 perfection and the ring management mechanic is sublime.
 217                 Basically you collect rings on the track, up to a maximum of 20.
 218                 Getting hit loses rings, like in a regular Sonic game, but you
 219                 can also use them one-by-one to get a momentary boost of speed.
 220               </p>
 221               <p>
 222                 Driving is momentum-based - it's hard to build speed, and the
 223                 whole aim of the game is maintaining it. And that's pretty damn
 224                 tricky! And with that in mind, maybe you hold on to your rings
 225                 while you're ahead in case you scupper a corner and need to
 226                 spend them to bring yourself back up to pace later!
 227               </p>
 228               <p>
 229                 This turns every race into a fine balancing act. It pushes you
 230                 to learn the track layouts and learn them well, evaluating where
 231                 you can use rings, when you're gonna get more, whether you
 232                 should diverge from the main route to go down a side road and
 233                 grab a powerful item. Each track has multiple routes through it,
 234                 like a classic 2D Sonic level (and SRB2's levels too, of
 235                 course). Some are faster, some are slower, some are only
 236                 accessible with certain items. Every lap ends up different as a
 237                 result as you experiment. It's <i>joyous.</i>
 238               </p>
 239               <p>
 240                 Then there's the trick system. The tutorial teaches you about
 241                 it, and then the game proceeds not to use it for around 8 cups.
 242                 But it's another element of this really elegant puzzle. Tricks
 243                 can only be done on specific ramps and stage elements, and if
 244                 performed correctly give a momentum boost in a specific
 245                 direction. This can lead to new routes, to boost pads, to
 246                 special secrets!
 247               </p>
 248               <p>
 249                 It's a game that is packed to the gills with <i>stuff,</i> and
 250                 it's bloody lovely.
 251               </p>
 252               <p>
 253                 So yeah. Play Ring Racers. It's available on all PC platforms,
 254                 with full controller support. The tutorial is famously long
 255                 (around 40 minutes NO IT'S OK COME BACK) but it's worth
 256                 persevering through, I promise. PLAY IT I LOVE IT!!
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