How's Robotnik Ring Racers going for everyone so far ? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

I finally got off my rear and played Ring Racers. I wrote down most of my thoughts in the community Discord, but it'd be nicer to have a concise article in a more available forum than scattered sentences across a chatroom.

I played through the tutorial and the first two GPs. To be brutally honest, I really didn't enjoy it. The presentation, graphics, music and the little tutorial dialogue are all A+, exceptionally professionally made. The main hurdle of the game is unfortunately the meat on the bone, its gameplay. I don't necessarily want to spin the same criticisms that have been spoken a thousand times so I'll try to talk about what I feel are the most important and jarring decisions holding this game down (at least in my opinion).

To start with, the drifting. I personally consider myself a fairly decent player when it comes to Kart-styled games. I played both Transformed and TSR on Expert and have around 10.1k VR on Mario Kart 8 DX online. Yet the drifting in this game gives me an unreasonably difficult time. It feels very unintuitive and the traction during drifts is nearly non-existant. Way too often did it happen that what looked like fairly normal turns either flung me into off-road shortly after I started a drift or made me turn so sharply I hit a wall on the inside of the turn.

In comparison to the official games, both TSR and MK8DX make the drifting feel satisfying, as just the intuition when twisting the joystick around to compensate for the various turns is extremely responsive, and rarely does it feel like it wasn't my fault when I screw up on a sharp (or sometimes even shallow) turn. I imagine this is a hurdle that I could eventually overcome if I kept to the game, if not for the rest of the issues I have with it.

Personally I don't really like the rings mechanic and the item system in general. First thing I did was making the item roulette random as I was pretty darn sure that keeping an eye on the track, rivals and items in front of me would keep me occupied enough and I didn't need another distraction. Unfortunately the ring counter was already enough of one. Way too often did I spend all my rings trying to catch up to my rival without even realizing it because I was fully focused on the track and didn't stop to notice my ring counter.

I also fairly dislike that holding my item prevents me from using my rings, as those are essential in not losing speed AND spots driving up slopes. That was my biggest gripe with Storm Rig, where there was an item set right before a sloped turn that I had to spend immediately just to use my rings during which several CPUs always passed me which I couldn't do anything about. The items themselves are also a bit of a bummer. Like Majro mentioned several posts above, way too many of them have a redundant mine function, while some of them are not fun to use at all. The spinny top from Marble Garden is genuinely horrible to control (having to stop to change direction like the green spike vehicle in Kirby Air Ride) and the Grow powerup just feels wrong that it doesn't ignore off-road.

I lost a fair amount of races while playing the two GPs, and wasn't particularly thrilled that the game just forces me to restart a race just because I got 5th or worse. This really should be my own choice - not the game's - if I want to restart a race after a bad placement. Every time it happened and I lost a life it really felt like the game's just wasting my time. I know a similar lives system was in place all the way back in Super Mario Kart, but that's a 30-year-old game. 30 years ago Nintendo already established the system sucks, so why bring it back?

And now it brings me probably to the most contentious topic about this game - the dreaded CPUs. Frankly I thought people were overreacting a bit the first time I heard how extremely cheaty they are, but I can happily confirm, they are beyond insufferable. It's not just that the CPU rival just loves to come out of nowhere any time I'm doing particularly well, but also that whenever I actually do badly, it's near impossible for me to catch up. Racing against the CPUs in their current state is not fun and I vehemently disagree that making CPUs rubberband and cheat so the player doesn't just mop the floor with them is the correct path.

All of these issues together actively discouraged me from playing the game beyond the second GP, and I'll be hard-pressed to pick it up again if at least some of those problems aren't touched upon (the drifting, lives and cheating CPUs I found the most egregious). Of course I'm just one person and I don't expect changes to be made just to accommodate me. That would be a silly and entirely selfish line of thinking, but I have seen a lot of people having similar or exact same issues as I'm having, so I can dream, right?

All in all, this isn't a casual pick-and-play game that the Kart genre is best known for. Mario Kart 8, for example, I could enjoy with my partner without trouble even when it was my first time and I was garbage at the game. A lot of my concerns could potentially be solved if I pushed myself into actually learning and getting good at playing it, but if I have to pour hours and hours of attention into a game just so I can start enjoying it, is it really worth it? About a decade ago when I was in my teenage years without a day job and didn't have other hobbies to cultivate, I would more likely put that time and effort into it, but right now it doesn't feel reasonable to me.

TL;DR While the game is beautiful, the gameplay is not enjoyable. Drifting is clunky and unituitive. Rings and the item roulette are distracting. Items range from redundant to obnoxious. I don't believe lives should be a thing in a racing game. And CPUs cheat worse than MK64 bots and make GPs frustrating to play.
 
I agree on the notion that Ring Racers definitely isn't like your average Kart Racer. My friend in a conversation we had about the game described it as the in-between child of F-Zero and Mario Kart, and I think that's quite an adequate descriptor. You have to keep track of a good handful of things, the AI is balls hard (especially the somewhat rubberbanding rival), so on and so forth.

But I can't exactly concede on the item selection, I think it's really good. It evokes vibes of Mario Kart Wii, especially the robotnik item— it gives you a mix of the thunder cloud and fake item box. I also couldn't really agree that there's a lot of Mine esque items. Like, yeah, there's the mine itself which blows you up immediately, but the bumper, the aforementioned egg item, and the ghost serve completely different functionalities to each other. I don't really see the similarities. Personally, none of the other items I saw during my playthrough ever felt the same.

On the rings mechanic, I think it's a really clever implementation myself. They assign items and rings to the same buttons to prevent pocketing— you don't want to hold onto your item unless it's something like a sneaker and a speed gate is coming up. Ring Management is like half of the game's learning curve, much like the boost in F-Zero.

I feel overall though that, yeah, I get why this game alienates a lot of people coming from SRB2K or games like MK8. Whereas SRB2K felt as more of a platform with timetrials with effectively a Mario Kart 8 esque control scheme, DRRR is a proper game that has its own terms and asks you to put some more work in to meet you in the middle. And I get that, nowadays, people would rather just have something familiar. But as someone who's absolutely tired of Mario Kart 8 and its modern cohorts (barring crash team racing, since I haven't played that one), this game is the best Kart racer I played. The unlocks, the tutorial, the monumental amount of tracks (which, yeah, some are hit and miss— but hey, the best Kart racers still have bad courses).

They just basically don't make them like this anymore.
 
Its... a flawed yet fun experience. Its release has brought me back into the Kart scene and I've been playing both Kart and Ring Racers since the latter's launch. While Ring Racers absolutely nails some things like the aesthetics and variety of characters, there are aspects of it that sadly puts it at 2nd place out of the duology; My complaints mirror many others'.

Kart wins to me personally by proxy of my fondness of simplicity. It was easy to pick up and play, and there wasn't a whole manual's worth of mechanisms to learn. If you played any other kart racer, you could play SRB2Kart. That doesn't mean SRB2Kart didn't have advanced tech to learn, but you could still get by in races without it. Ring Racers throws so much at you to learn and expects you to learn fast. Its like being thrown into a modded server in Kart as a newbie. You either learn then and there, or you make the last place life cozy. That 40 minute long tutorial was definitely needed. And ultimately, it makes the game less accessible than Kart, which is ironic as I remember hearing about how Ring Racers was made to be more accessible since players would just get blasted in most Kart servers.

That being said, Ring Racers is still enjoyable even if it's more complex. There's fun in trying to beat the CPUs at their own game, and the hectic havok of 16 player matches is never not a fun time for me (I do dumb stuff like this all the time in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe). But I've poured more hours into SRB2Kart over the past 11 days because TO ME PERSONALLY, its an easier, simpler and more fun time than Ring Racers is.

I look forward to the state of Ring Racers in a month, in a year, in two years and more. I look forward to seeing the community thrive. I look forward to seeing the game update and get better and better. I look forward to seeing all the crazy addons that get released that make the game even crazier than it is now. But as of right now, to me, its 2nd place and its got a lot to do before it beats out SRB2Kart in my eyes.
 
Just checked out the 2.2 Update and ran a couple of Relaxed(Easy) Cups to check out the AI Nerf, and I have to say that they feel a LOT more fun to race now in that mode. The challenge unlock tweaks are also quite welcome and make the Challenge Board feel a lot better to work on. Some of the items have also been tweaked for the better and the new Auto Ring setting clears most of my problem with the Ring System in single player.

All in all a good and welcome update that brings things more in line for welcoming newer players, or folks that like to calmly chip away at the unlockables like I do.
 
Eggy_Rosevelt_91 said:
my opinion: pretty fast and AMAZING PRESENTATION (like literally-)

although I still sorta prefer SRB2 Kart just a bit . The devs did a good job and I can really tell with the games visuals and game play

How do you feel about it ?
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Gotta say, I have yet to try the new update, but I was definitely having a good time with the game from what i've played of it offline. My friends were also having a good time with it when we played last thursday. Only person I really felt bad for was my GF because she was getting a bit discouraged with how brutal the AI was. Hopefully this new update is a bit more welcoming for her to try the game again.

also still waiting on the add-ons to start pouring in so i can enjoy all that craziness like i do with SRB2K.
 
The first thing I noticed with the new update is that the AI does in fact appear to be a lot easier to beat in the Relaxed mode (especially in the first race where they can just be blown away). They then only become a real challenge on tracks that themselves have challenging geometry to navigate.

It is easier to accumulate continues as a result because you can focus more on crossing the finish with 20 rings in tow, at least to start. I have yet to see how normal mode is impacted but the game is headed in the right direction. Thank you to the team for listening to feedback and taking action.
 
ReddySoop_ said:
I played more of it today, it was fun, but I made sure to save a few replays showcasing how cruel this game can be sometimes.
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And upgrading to v2.2 made me unable to watch those replays unless I downgrade to v2.1. I recorded one with OBS before updating, I'll try to upload it here tomorrow.
 
Ace Dragon said:
The first thing I noticed with the new update is that the AI does in fact appear to be a lot easier to beat in the Relaxed mode (especially in the first race where they can just be blown away). They then only become a real challenge on tracks that themselves have challenging geometry to navigate.

It is easier to accumulate continues as a result because you can focus more on crossing the finish with 20 rings in tow, at least to start. I have yet to see how normal mode is impacted but the game is headed in the right direction. Thank you to the team for listening to feedback and taking action.
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I might just be getting better at the game, and it could be from slope physics being tweaked, but Normal mode's AI is finally tolerable to me. I always thought the original description of it being a mode that "EVERYONE" could play was BS, so I'm glad they changed it to how it is now.
 
I for the most part have really enjoyed DRRR, but not because it's a great kart racer. It's a really unique game and has a lot of character, for better or worse. The entire thing is really interesting from all perspectives because it isn't really like anything else. My plan is to beat the entire thing and write up a proper review, but I might wait a little while for these early updates to peter out because I want to give the game a fair chance.
But in summary, the game is fun and weird and very different and invokes a feeling of 90s sega which I think the devs were going for, and they really succeeded at that.
 
So I gave 2.2 a try and I have to say, the game is significantly more manageable. A lot of the problems people have with it have been addressed and it's become a more enjoyable experience. That's pretty good.

That said, since I started getting better at the game, the dynamic difficulty began rearing its ugly head. I'll just describe the first GP when I played on Intense:

First two races have gone moderately well, I got overtaken a couple times so it didn't make me slack, but I still got around the CPUs to keep a good position every lap to get an A rank on each race.

The next two races brought a significant difficulty spike and even felt unfair at times, as I struggled to get out of 5th-6th first two laps on each race only to succeed at it when getting a speed item before a shortcut on the last lap and just consuming rings like a madman to run the hell away. B ranks.

The Green Hills race sucked. I got knocked around by items near constantly, kept being overtaken by CPUs that were just faster, somehow got knocked around by characters despite being in Grow, knocked myself into a wall by the spin top DESPITE being invincible (I just throw it away when I get it, this item is just garbage) and on the very last lap got smashed into a wall by a speed-boosted heavyweight, knocked off the springs right at the end by a lighter character somehow and then passed by two CPUs right on the line when I already exhausted all my rings. No rank since the game crashed right there. There goes my first ever attempt at a special stage.

It was frustrating to say the least. I'm not a huge fan of dynamic difficulty in general since it often just makes a game harder and more punishing just for the simple crime of doing well, and DRRR feels like it takes it to an extreme.
 
JinoDaPuppet said:
Honestly?

I think the passion of the devs shows on the surface; from how the game looks visually, to the amount of Sonic and SEGA reps they have as drivers, and the efforts to make it feel like an old-school kart racer with that Sonic-inspired control and level design.

The question now is how well it all held up...and the answer can easily be described as a "mixed bag" situation once you start looking under the hood (the game's code), and it makes you start questioning how much testing went into it. Between the CPUs rubber-banding harder than MK64, the rival getting every buff under the sun by simply existing, the lack of invincibility after getting hit leading to you getting wombo-combo'd into the stratosphere, the egregious requirements to unlock most of the returning cast, and the damn special stages...it makes me feel like more focus went into the multiplayer than the single-player; which is fine...but that was part of the reason Ring Racers even exists is that people wanted a single-player mode...and it kinda sucks because of the massive difficulty curve (and I say this as someone who has legitimately unlock 50% of the game's content, got
7 of the emeralds
AND got a
platinum medal
in Time Attack on what the community considers one of the worst courses in the game). They did make it easier to get Chao Keys to unlock stuff on the Challenge Board (akin to Kirby's Air Ride and Super Smash Bros.) by earning one every five races instead of fourteen, but that doesn't solve the problem of the challenge feeling too overwhelming.

The multiplayer feels much more enjoyable (despite the suffering I went through on stream recently), and where this game shines the most in a closed setting with friends around your skill level (like SRB2Kart). Got to try out battle mode too during the stream, which was a fustercluck...but that's battle mode in any kart racer.

The Rings and Spindash I'd say are two of the best mechanics they've added; the rings being useful for every type of racer, whether to help accelerator characters get a lot of speed, help speed characters recover their lost speed after getting hit, help lightweights build drift sparks faster, or to help heavyweights make turns better. Best addition by far. The Spindash? Perfect for getting out of or cutting through offroad and for skimming across the water. It would have made for an interesting risk versus reward for taking the time to charge a spin dash and skip item boxes to take shortcuts...unfortunately, tripwire gates are almost EVERYWHERE there's a potential shortcut and you need a power item to pass through those most of the time (or just go fast, no seriously). The Fast Fall is useful in some situations, but the bounce after landing makes trying to stick the landing more difficult; only use it at the end of a trick or when there's a long drop. Speaking of the trick system they pulled from the Sonic Advance titles...I'm not a fan, simply put. Sometimes I get confused that down makes you go up, and up makes you go forward, and the system is rarely used in the tracks I've played, but when they ARE used, it comes out of nowhere due to being barely able to set the trick panels...or things that ACT like trick panels (like balloons and pogo-springs) which the game doesn't make clear. You can't cancel tricks either (as of 2.1), so you're forced to trick, even when it would be the worst decision possible (failing tricks/trying to cancel them via fast fall forces you into tumble!). And the respawn mechanic? ...I was lapping some of the CPUs and was able to ride the coattails of their respawn devices to get a speed boost and keep my lead. ...They intended this mechanic to be used as a "get back in the pack/bullet bill" button, but it can be abused to keep your frontrunner status going longer.

Long story short; it's worth at least playing with friends, even if you're not a fan of Sonic or Kart racing games. If you don't wanna unlock stuff, the devs gave you the passwords in a text file to unlock everything so you don't have to go through the pain, but you would be missing out on half of what the game has to offer, even if it's damn difficult. And remember the addon scene for SRB2K? It's here in full force too, and it hasn't been long since the game's launch. I even made a Mario and a Luigi racer addon within a few days of them releasing the patch which contains KartMaker. I hope everyone gets some enjoyment out of this game, regardless of how big or small it is, but Ring Racers feels like a game I can only play for an hour and a half before I start to lose my mind.
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So, I'd like to add to my original statement from my prior post, as I've gotten to experience the 2.2 patch;
It's a good improvement to what we got on launch, as well as from 2.1... However, some decisions felt more like a band-aid on the problems than others. An example is the difficulty in Grand Prix Mode; all the names of "Easy, Normal, and Hard" were changed to "Relaxed, Intense, and Vicious", with Relaxed perma-locking the CPU's Level to 3. They also made the Cups easier to unlock by simply completing them in order instead of requiring those lovely shiny McGuffins we all know and love, which I think were good changes, no complaints there.

However, Intense and Vicious still have the CPUs start at Lv.6 and Lv.9 respectively, while getting to level up and becoming harder after A ranking a round. ...If that's the case, and getting an A rank on Egg Prison bonuses ALSO counts towards the CPU getting harder...that means there's little to no difference between Intense and Vicious because a good player will get the CPU almost cranked to MAX (Lv.13) half-way through or by the end of the cup. The only difference is the starting Level of the CPUs, and that the CPUs won't start trying to insta-whip if they have no rings on the earlier rounds on Intense because they only start doing that at Lv.8 difficulty and higher (btw, that insta-whip change was an excellent balance choice because CPUs insta-whipping during line-up and racing was the bane of my suffering during v2.0 and v2.1 on Easy).

The rubber-banding has been nerfed, and justifiably, because the devs were sent clips of Rival and high rubber-banding CPUs either crashing and getting stuck on walls because they were going too fast, or their speed boosts were allowing them to take shortcuts that shouldn't have been possible; they also got a nerf so CPUs need MORE SPEED to break through Tripwire Gates, and that they start to ease up and slow down during the final lap, giving players time to make a comeback. Fantastic. It isn't flawless, but it's a hell of a lot better than better.

The best change was to the Special Stages; damage from the previous continues carrying over into the next attempt. Thank. GOD. It doesn't fix how BS some of them feel, but I'll take what I can get...
...even if I got 6 of the Super Emeralds before the patch dropped.


All in all, good changes. More work needs to be done to reach that nice sparkle of polish, but it's going in the right direction. All we need is an update that gives us a few more accessibility features so the game can be played by more folks.
Death Egg's anti-gravity is visually confusing and at times gives me very slight motion sickness, and the fact that the devs had access to this feature (which was already in SRB2K BTW!) and chose not to add it, is mind-boggling to put it as nicely as possible.
I'm also waiting for that Ring Racers page to open up, so I can post my character addons soon. I've also got a slight introduction to map making and plan on adding a few courses from a few specific Mario Kart titles; courses that are simple in design but can and will be adjusted to Ring Racers' high-velocity gameplay.

Until then, I look forward to this game's future; with some hope and a bit of healthy skepticism.
 
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