Are momentum addons really that popular?

I've often heard the sentiment parroted that SRB2 "doesn't have momentum." While this sentence doesn't really make sense to me on its own, playing pretty much any momentum mod makes it clear what this actually means - it doesn't control like a classic Sonic game. Which, to me, sounds more like it should be called "classic-style momentum," since just saying something completely lacks momentum would imply that it controls closer to Mega Man. (No shade to Mega Man, those games are loads of fun in their own right.) But, hey, a wildly skewed definition of the word momentum is about par for the course for the Sonic fandom.

Anyways. a comment on a level pack I was looking at got me thinking. Does most of the SRB2 community (or at least those that dabble in modding) actually use momentum mods? Personally, I've never gotten the appeal - I usually just try them out, go "wow, this makes me feel like a ragdoll every time I jump, and that's kinda cool!", beat the game once with them, and then immediately forget about them. The vanilla physics are part of what makes me like SRB2 so much, so the thought of just permanently replacing them with "actual momentum" just feels like a waste. If I wanted to play a Sonic game that felt like that, I'd just boot up Sonic GT, get bored, and then boot up SRB2 again because it's easier to control.

The way people talk who use momentum mods talk about them makes them sound like an essential part of the game that everyone who's interested in actually having fun with SRB2 uses. Are momentum mods actually that popular and so widely considered essential? Am I weird for not really caring for them and preferring the way SRB2 controls out of the box (with some tweaks to make the camera actually usable)?

Consider this a +1 on "usually play with some sort of momentum mod," vanilla feels better squirrely to me now than it did when I started, but this game still definitely feels better to me with speed being maintained a more once you go past the "cap," and more effect from slopes. Especially on a lot of custom levels that make more use of slopes and stuff than the vanilla ones. I feel like vanilla speedruns, last I checked, either spamming the heck out of the thok or bunny hopping to maintain speed whenever they don't have speed shoes isn't great either, even if you can obviously just not aim for going "speedrun" fast. I added XMomentum pretty early on after seeing Jackalman's review, and while I'm not still using that mod (too many changes, some I like some I don't), I haven't really gone back to vanilla for more than testing purposes since.

Add to it that a lot of "momentum" mods come with some other changes and fixes, and it's really easy to have one in your modlist that feels hard to get rid of. (Too hard for some, honestly a lot of them have too many changes . . .)

Maybe part of it is also an Android vs PC thing, since there are launchers available for PC to make using a whole mod list easier? Tossing a momentum mod in your list with Launcherblast or LiquidLauncher is probably way less of a hassle than loading one up every single time. But then that could also be a factor in the "lots of momentum mods make other changes" thing. On PC it's not THAT MUCH more work to load up multiple mods instead of a whole rework if you can't find a rework you like.

(Also actually I probably made the comment that got you to ask this? So maybe my input isn't that useful for data. Worth noting that there's other mods that can be somewhat incompatible with a given momentum mod, too--for instance, 10-line momentum plus Custom Dash Mode makes Sonic hit absurd and uncontrollable speeds when that picks up)

i guess for computers its easier to hold the momentum, which might be the reason

pegwin1234 said:

i guess for computers its easier to hold the momentum, which might be the reason

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Modern computers aren't so weak that concession has to be made.
There are countless other games out there that require more processing than SRB2 but with momentum.

pegwin1234 said:

i guess for computers its easier to hold the momentum, which might be the reason

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How powerful the hardware is shouldn't have much to do with if a game has momentum or not. Maybe you're referring to hardware keeping up with that extra speed rendering-wise? The actual mechanic wouldn't cause noticeable performance drops by existing.

your talking to the guy who plays mobile here.

PikaJade said:

wow, this makes me feel like a ragdoll every time I jump

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Yeah, this is pretty much my opinion of most momentum mods. Usually they overdo it and the game ends up either feeling too fast, or just plain uncontrollable. (Also there's like a 50/50 chance that they nerf Sonic for some reason) Plus, there's also the fact that all the Vanilla levels weren't built for that kind of speed, which means you end up relying on custom maps just to make everything bigger so you can use the tweaked physics, and suddenly you feel like an ant-sized Sonic. (Tiny Sonic Syndrome is an issue I have with a lot of 3D fangames. SRB2 seems to be the only exception here, unless you also count Spark 3)

I've always preferred vanilla physics, myself. The sheer precision you get (especially in the air) is unmatched, and almost all momentum mods mess with that. Though saying that, I did quite like Classic Engine after some heavy tweaking (gimme back my thok, thanks), though I'm still not sure if I'd use them over Vanilla physics.

One thing I don't get is when people say that the vanilla game doesn't have momentum. It totally does - it just has a running speed cap, mostly to keep the game easy to control. Being in the air or rolling removes this cap.

pegwin1234 said:

your talking to the guy who plays mobile here.

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Your phone has to be ancient to have trouble running SRB2.
Mobile phones broadly speaking aren't a very weak platform.

Jammin' said:

Your phone has to be ancient to have trouble running SRB2.
Mobile phones broadly speaking aren't a very weak platform.

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I'm not gonna argue with you, I'm not getting twisted in this, SO we both have different perspectives on things. But I guess right now, you could say that. So why be mad at you? Seriously.

Jammin' said:

There are countless other games out there that require more processing than SRB2 but with momentum.

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That depends on the games you play, which can process the data of your PC's performance, either horrible or good. It doesn't matter if the game you're playing will process properly as the previous game you've played. It's by differencing them.

A momentum mod doesn't make anything better for it to process SRB2's performance on YOUR PC properly. Mods are just to boost up the fun of playing a game (rather than playing the original). However, It can technically ruin your Game and hot the PC (as causing the mod to go CRAZY with effects, causes the PC to heat itself).

EDIT: Also. If you don't want your PC to heat up, I highly recommend lower down the addons you're using. (As that would cause some troubling issues regarding your PC's performance. The more addons, the more it will heat up.)

Cirom said:

I've always preferred vanilla physics, myself. The sheer precision you get (especially in the air) is unmatched, and almost all momentum mods mess with that. Though saying that, I did quite like Classic Engine after some heavy tweaking (gimme back my thok, thanks), though I'm still not sure if I'd use them over Vanilla physics.

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Another mod I like which doesn't affect the physics too much is the 10-Line Momentum by KirbyAnniv. I think it's nice, simple, and really leaves the pace up to the player without having to roll or spam jump.