If Imma be real, the only reason I can enjoy the game is because of how I learn things as a gamer. It's NOT great, not in the slightest, but I respect the effort put in.
The only
real good things of RR is the sprites and music. That's it.
Gameplay is... how do I even explain?
Complicated.
A tutorial should
not be presented as it is here, forced and a literal half hour. The unlock system is the literal bane of my existence. I can get unlocking characters or those pet/sidekick things, but
colors? Addons? ONLINE PLAY!? Genuinely one of the most baffling decisions I've seen. Chose to find a 100% file instead because I'm not grinding this out in the slightest.
The core mechanics are actually decent. You could chalk it up to a skill issue, but I
swear the drifting is significantly worse. The ring mechanic I actually like, not bad, although I was it made you a little faster. Spin dash is mid, but the power-ups are sorta fun. At least the ones I've never seen before, like the shrink rays and stuff. If you just do simple things like drift, use Rings and power-ups, then it's a solid experience. The problem is the extra stuff they added. But they're
really needs a separate button for rings and instawhip. I'm not using my Lightning Shield because I need to use my rings, and I'm
definitely not dropping my rings for a InstaWhip that most likely won't hit.
I've never really played SRB2K much, but after hopping in that compared to RR, it's so much simpler and easier on my mind. The amount of things in RR is annoying. If I remember right, there's:
Accelerating/Brake/Reverse (duh)
Drifting (also duh)
Spin Dash (useless except for the start of a race)
Rings/InstaWhip (the instawhip is the most useless thing ever)
Holding in place
Tricking (in a racer? why?)
and etc.
There's so much crap that you don't need to know in the tutorial that I swear never is put in the tracks. Although I haven't gotten far yet, so someone prove me wrong here.
Character roster (100% roster, not beginner) is honestly great! To see Shadow, Blaze, Chaotix, Jehht, even Whisper and that bird dude from TA who's name I forgot! Really well done sprites and music, each track feels unique with their associated music.
If you're a gamer who likes racers, RR is decent, although compared to even just V1, RR's positives are weaker than SRB2K's negatives, if any. However, if you have friends who don't play racers or play different genres,
DO NOT INVITE THEM TO PLAY RR. It is
way too complicated for your friend to understand in one session of RR. Invite them to play V1 instead, it's much simpler, and most likely has racer mods of chars they know.
TL;DR, RR is seriously flawed and needed either more dev time or more playtesters. It's way too complicated and does not outclass V1. Sprites and music are good, but nothing compared to gameplay, and while it's somewhat addicting, the skill curve is way too brutal and painful. If the devs remove the more arbitary mechanics, the some of the stupid unlock system (for me, the appeal of V1 is how you can do whatever you want as everything's unlocked), and maybe improved the drifting, RR would possibly be able to outclass V1. But for now, it's not worth investing my time of grinding. Glad I cheated.
(P.S. I didn't mention addons since that wouldn't have been fair as RR is brand spanking new while V1 has a colossal amount of mods for it.)
It's atrocious and I'm not sure what people are seeing in it beyond the graphics.
The gameplay, when simplified, is shockingly a little addicting. Besides that, your guess is as good as mine. This is not a successor to SRB2K, it became own game.
Oh I completely forgot about this! So I played Ring Cup Grand Prix, and
dear god the AI rubberbanding. I could be in 1st, end up slowing down because of the worse drift, and Eggman, Metal, and Knuckles pass me and now I'm in 4th. Or how about Metal abusing his somehow infinite ring supply and passing me and putting me in 2nd? The AI here is horrendous, I don't know if I've seen worse before.