How did you come across SRB2?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I found out about it on Sonic HQ, back around 2000, 2001-ish. I downloaded it, couldn't get it to work, and being eleven, said fuck it. And forgot about it for a decade.

I found it again a week or two ago, serching for indie games on Google, , and decided to write an article about it. It's really great to see this is still kicking.
 
I personally appreciate it a lot if people review SRB2 and give their feedback, but after a discussion in the IRC channel, we found a lot of factual inaccuracies in the article. Things like these inevitably happen if you review a game you've only known for a week, but I thought you might want to know. Here's what I found, coupled with a few stray observations of my own:

You are the only person to ever call this game "Sonic RB2". Everyone else either abbreviates it or spells it out.

The game is updated somewhat frequently, though the game, as of writing, has seen little progress in a little over a year and a half. The team still claims to be developing content, but it is unknown when the next version will be released.
Let me assure you that there has been significant development progress in the last two years. You can find a (quite lengthy) overview of that progress here. It is always unknown when the next version will be released because the dev team doesn't set release dates. New versions come out when they do.

RB2 started as a follow-up to the joke fangame, SRB1
SRB1 wasn't a joke fangame. It certainly looks like one nowadays, but believe it or not, this was state-of-the-art back in the day.

After releasing several 'holiday editions' (Halloween once, and somehow, 3 Christmas games, idk must have been leap year), lead desinger, SONIKUU, happened upon the Doom Legacy engine.
The "holiday" versions were already in the Doom Legacy engine. And the lead designer at the time (or rather, one of the two lead designers at the time) is called Sonikku, not Sonikuu.

I can forgive it to a degree, since it's a 3D action game based on a 2D FPS engine
Pray tell, how would a 2D FPS game work?

but some of the mechanics simply aren't as fine-tuned to precision platforming as they could be
Are you using keyboard-only controls? That would explain why the handling is so obnoxious to you. I admit that SRB2's controls take some getting used to, probably longer than most platformers, but I find them excellent and very accurate after a short learning period. Using the mouse to turn (yes, even in third person) goes a long way because it allows you to turn dynamically and not with a fixed speed. This increases your ability to react quickly tenfold.

Everyone speeds-up too quickly, and it seems like you can never slow down in a timely manner.
It's important to not just hammer down the forward key like there's no tomorrow. If you don't want to go fast, tap it lightly. That makes it a lot easier to stop in time. And of course, you need to use the backpedal key a lot. Otherwise, you will inevitably fail.

So, what you have is the classic trio, pretty much exactly as you remember them from 1994, except Sonic, who also has his 'Homing Attack' from Sonic Adventure, an acceptable addition given this is a 3D game.
Sonic doesn't have the homing attack. The homing attack, as the name implies, homes in on stuff. SRB2's "thok" only dashes you forward.

In addition to that, as mentioned earlier, the stages contain many secrets, including emblems, which are used to unlock bonus stages in Time Attack & Co-op modes
No, they are used to unlock bonus stages in single player mode.

Unfortunately, this games special zones are pretty unspectacular
I agree, they're pretty unspectacular. In the next release, however, they will be based on NiGHTS Into Dreams, which shall hopefully be a lot more interesting.

The games' zones are SUPPOSED to consist of 2 normal acts each, plus a 3rd, where you face Dr. Robotnik's latest budget-friendly weapon (classic stuff). However, the game is still incomplete, and as it is, Only the first two Zones are fully complete (2 acts, & boss act). The 3rd & 4th have 2 acts each, but no boss. The 5th & 6th only have a single act. It seems as though this is deliberate, however, as these stages feature transitions, a la Sonic 3, implying that either these stages are each indeed, one act long, or they finished and implemented the 2nd act, along with the transition before the first.
Actually, the first three zones plus the last one are complete, not just the first two. The fourth consists only of the first two acts, both of which are unfinished. Their complete versions plus the boss stage will be in the next release. The fifth and sixth zone are also supposed to have three acts, but those missing levels just haven't been made yet. The 'transition' is just a cheap trick. Replace the volcano textures with canyon ones and swoosh! It's a transition to the second act!

Speaking of Zones, we have 6:
Um, can you count?

GFZ, is inspired by Green Hill Zone, obviously, and as such is definitely not all that interesting.
GFZ may not be all that interesting (unless you hunt for secrets in the second act), but I'd like to see you rage at the controls if it required you to do anything more complicated that early on in the game.

Zere is nothing more fun than wandering around in a maze, only for it to fill up with water suddenly, and zen drown you to death.
There are but two rooms you could call 'mazes' in DSZ, only one of which is underwater (and none of which "suddenly fills" with water). But if you got lost somewhere, you should really tell us where so it can be fixed in the future. Same with the "irritating platforming sections".

RVZ is a classic stage archetype; a volcano filled with unstable platforms, and molten-magma that periodically rises, sometimes all the way to the ceiling, killing you, so, yeah.
Actually, none of the lava rises all the way to the ceiling. And believe it or not, this level is considered to be one of the easier ones in SRB2, way too easy for being so far in the game.

The stage appears to take place in the Volcano's core at first, but you'll soon learn that it in fact takes place in space for some reason. I believe there is a stage missing in between Red Volcano, and Egg Rock, so hopefully Sonic Team Jr. will explain what the fuck is happening.
What made you think ERZ takes place in a volcano? I mean, there are windows to outer space right next to your starting position. And you're right about the missing zone. Actually, there are two zones planned between RVZ and ERZ, which might or might not get made.

Certain unlockables and/or short-cuts require co-op players to trigger switches/events, etc. that are not possible in singleplayer.
That is not true. No such thing can be found in SRB2.

No-one plays tag.
I wish that were true, because tag sucks, but a lot of people do play tag.

The reward for capturing a flag, seems to vary.
Nope, always 250 points. You do get 75 points for hitting the flag carrier of the opposing team though.

Automatic: Hold down the fire button for rapid fire. The basic, most common power-up.
Not only is every power-up equally common (one panel per map, although the more ammo-intensive weapons tend to have more ammo pickups), but I fail to see how this power-up is any more basic than the others.

Team Deathmatches also utilize both the home bases, and team-rings from CTF.
Not necessarily true. You can play Team Match on the normal Match stages, in which case there will be no bases or team rings.

Take a look at SRB Riders, a fun little mod that turns the game into a MarioKart clone:
It's called SRB2 Riders and it's not (just) a Mario Kart clone. One of its game modes is a Mario Kart clone, but its main feature is a Sonic Riders clone.
 
Are you using keyboard-only controls? That would explain why the handling is so obnoxious to you. I admit that SRB2's controls take some getting used to, probably longer than most platformers, but I find them excellent and very accurate after a short learning period. Using the mouse to turn (yes, even in third person) goes a long way because it allows you to turn dynamically and not with a fixed speed. This increases your ability to react quickly tenfold.
More important than keyboard VS mouse though is whether or not you're using strafe; aerial control is pretty much nonexistant without it, mouse or no. Sadly, the default controls in 2.0.6 do not include a reasonable bind for the strafe keys for people using keyboard-only controls... though it goes without saying that you have it in reach when using wasd+mouse.

This isn't to say that using the mouse isn't unquestionably better, but you can still do quite a bit with just the arrow keys and strafe...

Not only is every power-up equally common (one panel per map, although the more ammo-intensive weapons tend to have more ammo pickups), but I fail to see how this power-up is any more basic than the others.

The larger amount of ammo is probably what created the "more common" perception, though I'd like to note that given how automatic is the only weapon ring whose projectiles themselves have no special properties that separate them from redrings(it's only the firing speed that's different), that I could easily see that as being interpreted as the most "basic" weapon ring.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the feedback. It's true, I'm very new to this game, and I appreciate your feedback. I've corrected all of the factual errors in my article. A few of them, however, were sarcasm/exageration, which I left in, as I feel the humor benefits the writing.

You were right about the controls, I was playing with a gamepad, but I've stared using WASD instead, and it controls much better this way.

And, by the way, I did actually encounter lava rising to the ceiling in Red Volcano. Should I post that in a bug-fix topic?
 
I just typed in '3d sonic level editor'. Crazy, but true!

---------- Post added at 07:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 AM ----------

Oh, and 2.0.6 was my first experience on SRB2 and I really needed tutorials back then.
 
Wow. So, I found SRB2 YEARS ago on some Megaman/Sonic fansite. Can't remember what it was, for the life of me.

SRB2 4.35 4lyfe. RIP, multithok.
 
I saw the millions of videos on YouTube uploaded by Eblo the hedgehog back in 2008 or so (Who has his YouTube account down now and all the videos are gone) and I decided to try it out because it looked fun the first version I played was version 1094.
 
Browsing fangames back in, like, summer of either 2002 or 2003, possibly earlier. Came across SFGHQ, where I couldn't figure out how to use the files (I had no clue what Winzip was at the time. >_>), so I gave up on the released stuff on the main site and started browsing the boards. Found some mention of SRB2 there + screenshots and basically my reaction was OH MY GOD! :O

All I remember is playing it and saying "Wow that was awesome, I can't wait until it's finished!"

...And now, about 9 years later, here I am. Helping to finish it.
 
For me, i just stumbled upon it.
EDIT: I think i remember what time it was, it was around 1.09.4. I need to snoop around Caiman games more often, so i can see the cool games around there.
 
Last edited:
Ah yes, remembering the way i found SRB2 is quite ecstatic for me. Every time i think of it I crack a smile.

I happen to have found SRB2 a couple of days after FINALLY finding an easy way to hack my Wii. I was surfing some home brew channel add-on that I've happen come across and end up finding SRB2 in the games section. I downloaded and tried to played it up to Deep Sea Zone: ACT 1 where i found it extremely hard to play with the hardcore lag that was going on. This, and the fact that i couldn't play 2 player with my bro because of the c stick being the only working button on a GC controller and loosing complete control of fist players Wii remote, frustrated the hell out of me. So, like i always do, I searched up a fix and, instead, end up finding out that there was a PC version of SRB2, which was at a higher version of release than the version I've had on my Wii. I decided to download and test it out and, man, was I amazed to see how well it played on my PC than on my Wii. Shit, I was surprised when i found out it used Doom's game engine and even more surprised when I found out it could also use wads just like Skulltag/Doom2 did.


My expression to discovering SRB2 for PC

barfing-rainbows-i14.jpg
 
I .. Actually dont remember. But i think it was in the video responses of some other sonic 3d fan game a sumthin

Edit: I mean "or something", to fix the grammar. btw i forgot to mention, video responses on youtube is what i meant to say (how could i forget that!?)
Im sorry, i wasnt trying to violate the rules.
 
Last edited:
Wow, this thread is old...

Anyway, I was watching Sonic videos - somewhere in 2006 - 2008 I think - on YouTube when suddenly I came across this video, and I got interested in what the game was about. I played during the 1.09.4 era but only joined the MB shortly after the release of 2.0. I still remember SRB2.org having an Addons page which listed Sunken Plant Zone.
 
I remember first discovering SRB2 during the 1.01 final demo era, but not actually trying it until the 1.08 final demo was released on Caiman games later in the following year. Just as it was back then (even though it has been updated since), it's still outdated. Back around the turn of the century, the only computer I had access to was an old Pentium MMX (~200MHz) with 64MB of RAM. Eventually I acquired a more powerful Pentium 4 and was able to try SRB2, but was unable to play net games due to such a slow Internet connection (15KB/s). Even now, my Internet now has a cap (20GB) and is still too slow (200KB/s).

I would like to switch providers, but here in Canada where I currently live, Rogers and their overpriced outdated plan is the only option. I can't wait until I'm able to move elsewhere and get rid of Rogers. I've been able to play net games in the past outside of my home on faster networks such as public WIFI in recent years under the alias of Aero, but have mostly been preoccupied with other things to keep track of the progressions of SRB2 over the years.

I returned mostly due to an interest in mapping and wanted to see if I could learn how to map now that I have a more modern computer with a decent graphics card.
 
Back In 2002 I was a big fan of sonic and searched sonic games and look at images. There it was a Image of SRB2 snow stage I was like 8 or 9 now I'm 19 :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Who is viewing this thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Back
Top