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Sonic Robo Blast 2 (3D Sonic fangame in development for 20+ years) releases huge new update

SnapShot

Member
What is Sonic Robo Blast 2, and why is the name so dumb?




Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a 3D Sonic fangame that's been in development since March 1998. It predates the release of Sonic Adventure, so it represents a stark divergent point in the way 3D Sonic gameplay should be handled. No homing attack here!

If its graphical style seems familiar, it's because it started life as a mod for the original Doom—although it's been so heavily modified over the decades that calling it a "Doom mod" is about as accurate as calling every game made with UE4 an "Unreal mod".

I've played SRB2 before. What's new in this version?

Everything. It's the biggest update yet. Here's the changelog:

SRB2 said:
SRB2 Version 2.2 Released!

Hey all. 5 years. It’s been a wild ride for us, but we’re finally done. 2.2 is available on the Downloads page (currently torrent-only). If you aren’t familiar with torrents, there are instructions there for you.

I’m not going to bore you with an incredibly long post, so I’ll keep it super brief. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of you who stuck with us over the past 5 years, and to all of you who helped contribute along the way. This release is a major milestone for all of us. We’ve been hyping up that 2.2 is a massive upgrade in virtually all respects, and I hope that you won’t be disappointed. On behalf od the development team, enjoy!

General
  • Slopes have been implemented into almost the entire campaign, including support for launching off of quarterpipes. No, before you ask, loops still aren’t possible.
  • An enormous number of graphics and textures have been updated or redone. Highlights include the title screen, Sonic and Tails, with separate sprites of Tails’s tails for optimum mofumofu.
  • Practically the entire soundtrack has been redone.
  • Character sprites now face the direction the player’s control inputs point instead of in the direction the camera is facing.
  • Automatic braking, a new assist feature, has been added. While enabled, releasing the controls will cause the player’s character to attempt to stop instead of coasting forward.
  • Tails’s AI has been significantly improved in Sonic & Tails mode, including allowing him to be commanded to fly you without using player 2’s controls.
  • The attraction, elemental, and force shields now have a jump-spin ability like whirlwind and armageddon already did.
  • Continuing the game after getting a game over now starts the player with more lives for each continue used.
  • The intro cutscene has been revamped with brand-new art, and the game now has a short ending sequence.
Levels
  • Arid Canyon Zone Acts 2 and 3 now exist.
  • Almost the entire rest of the campaign has been remade from scratch or significantly updated.
  • Several bosses have had their arena and behavior updated.
  • The final battles have been adjusted to make losing not kick the player all the way back to the beginning of Eggrock.
  • A short, optional tutorial stage has been added.
  • Two stages previously from the OLDC have been included as unlockables.
  • Cooperative mode now uses the old 2.0 special stages, which have been slightly updated to be more multiplayer-friendly.
Interface
  • The menus have been massively revamped to both look better and be easier to understand.
  • Controls, menus, and various other things have been renamed to make them easier to understand.
  • Record attack now has HUD elements to display the buttons being pressed both during gameplay and while watching replays.
  • Multiple accessibility features have been added, including closed-captioning and the ability to adjust the palette at runtime to add contrast to aid colorblind players.
Engine/Editing
  • The palette has changed again to provide slightly more diverse color options
  • Music no longer restarts from the beginning after an interruption, such as getting an extra life.
  • Plugging in a controller during gameplay will allow that controller to be used instead of requiring the game to be restarted to recognize it.
  • Added support for paper sprites, which allow the sprite to be rendered as if it’s on an upright piece of paper, becoming thinner when viewed at an angle and disappearing entirely when viewed from the side. Think Paper Mario.
  • Textures can now be used as flats (but not vice-versa).
  • Skybox rendering has been significantly optimized.
  • PNG images can now be used as graphics, at any resolution (but not too high or you’ll run out of memory).
  • Sprite rotation is now supported.
  • libopenmpt support
  • Added support for the MD3 model format.
  • So many Lua changes we couldn’t possibly hope to list them all here.
 
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SnapShot

Member
That's what I thought too until I actually played it, nearly all classic sonic mechanics are there, with new shields. The levels feel heavily influenced by the classic titles.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Looks interesting. Strange I didn't heard of this game until now...used to be part of Sonic communities for a long time but no one ever mentioned that game. The sprite work is something impressive for a 3d enviroment game. I'm just not that sure it plays that well.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Fairly well from what I've played. I found the default camera and control settings to be very comfortable for me, but if something feels off to you they are very customizable in the options menu.

Its just that I felt the impression that the video simply pick specific shots to give an illusion of the game playing well. Good to know then.
 
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Miles708

Member
This game looks like it just appeared from a different timeline.
It's interesting, but having tried it for the tutorial + the first 2 levels, it controls mostly like the other 3D games: like an asteroid on ice.

Still, it wouldn't be honest to expect an amatorial project to solve problems that professional studios have yet to address, and actually this looks surprisingly well done.
 
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Its just that I felt the impression that the video simply pick specific shots to give an illusion of the game playing well. Good to know then.

Isn't this true of almost every game with a teaser preview? xD

IMO this looks like it works; the use of 2D sprites in 3D space might seem odd for a lot of people who started gaming on PS2 and later, but it's something which's been pulled off very well in arguably some of the greatest games ever made. System Shock and Exhumed/Powerslave are two notable examples. DOOM of course is another.

At least from what I saw, these guys actually managed to translate a lot of the Sonic formula here arguably better than what I've seen from almost all of Sonic Team's efforts of the past 10+ years. The speed seems fast but manageable, and the camera is stable. Basically it's what I pictured a Saturn Sonic game should've been (it'd just be lower resolution and a lot grainier/pixelated with the 3D in that case, and lower-detailed sprites maybe).

Gonna give this a shot, whenever I can set it up (and have the time to play).
 

SnapShot

Member
it controls mostly like the other 3D games: like an asteroid on ice.
They tried to address this by adding the automatic brake feature, give it some time and maybe you'll get used to it, the level design is top notch, big open levels to explore, each featuring different gimmicks and offering plenty of routes to take and slopes to gain speed and the soundtrack is excellent, It's only major flaw is perhaps the controls but once you get used to it it's actually not that bad.
 
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This could easily be it's own game, and I have yet to see a 3D Sonic fan game or demo that ended being better than what we got with the first Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2 especially, I think we have had enough of these to know that the fans aren't better game makers, at least not the ones for 3D Sonic. The fight was over 12 years ago.

Instead you should have Sonic be outsourced to a dev that's not indie and has a good track record, but not random nw studios like Big Red Btton.
 
This could easily be it's own game, and I have yet to see a 3D Sonic fan game or demo that ended being better than what we got with the first Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2 especially, I think we have had enough of these to know that the fans aren't better game makers, at least not the ones for 3D Sonic. The fight was over 12 years ago.

Instead you should have Sonic be outsourced to a dev that's not indie and has a good track record, but not random nw studios like Big Red Btton.



Not technically a Sonic fan game but it basically is down to the faux Crush 40 band in the ost. It's also probably the best 3D "Sonic" game ever made.
 


Not technically a Sonic fan game but it basically is down to the faux Crush 40 band in the ost. It's also probably the best 3D "Sonic" game ever made.


I suppose if you're drunk sure. Not saying the game is bad but let's be real, I know Sonic 3D games have been bad since heroes but let's not go crazy, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are still among the best 3D Sonic games that have ever come out whether you like them or not is irrelevant (I think SA1 is trash), that's the formula that got people to buy Sonic again, and Jester is barely even close to the same 3D formula as is. It's more like an open linear game.

Also my point was fan projects so your post is even more irrelevant.
 

SnapShot

Member
I just finished playing through the whole campaign, it's very good, love the new soundtrack. going to try playing through it again as Knuckles so I can explore the levels properly this time, there's plenty of easter eggs, secrets and unlockables left to get, even whole new levels, so much replay value for a free fan game. this is one of my favorite new tracks so far.

 

SnapShot

Member
I started with v2.0.6 around summer 2011 I think, it's come a long way since then, and some levels are very CPU / GPU intensive due to how large and complex they've become. some unfortunate folks who still haven't upgraded their PCs are getting low framerate because of it.
 
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stranno

Member
There was even a Playstation Portable version of the game back in the day. Performance was quite bad so developers no longer bothered.

 
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Ryu Kaiba

Member
I gave it a try and while very cool design wise the controls could use some work.n Sonic is fast, too fast, to the point of unwieldy.
Its difficult to change direction or aim which are important aspects in a platforming game. Tried it with a mouse and an Xbox controller.
 

SnapShot

Member
Hey guys, one of the game's lead developers posted a thread to discuss what people think is wrong with the game's controls, if you're interested maybe you can pay a visit and let them know what you think is wrong with the controls, it'll definitely be very valuable in helping them make the controls handle better for the upcoming updates.
 

SnapShot

Member
It's been just over a week since 2.2.2 patch was released, and prior to it was 2.2.1 which brought some vital improvements like New control styles and shadows to make platforming more precise:
You can download it from the download page in the game's official website, and If you already finished the Singleplayer campaign you can try giving Multiplayer a shot or try some of the custom addons and mods made by the game's community.

 
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00_Zer0

Member
It's no wonder Sonic is so popular today. Despite Sega making many bad sequels, it's fan developers like this and Christian Whitehead that keep Sonic alive. We are better off for it too. Thank goodness Sega doesn't have the same attitude as Nintendo about games like this. Anyone can look at projects like this and instantly recognize it's better than half the Sonic games Sega has already put out there.
 
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Enjay

Banned
It's no wonder Sonic is so popular today. Despite Sega making many bad sequels, it's fan developers like this and Christian Whitehead that keep Sonic alive. We are better off for it too. Thank goodness Sega doesn't have the same attitude as Nintendo about games like this. Anyone can look at projects like this and instantly recognize it's better than half the Sonic games Sega has already put out there.
That's because sega is self aware that it's shit though and Nintendo has a much higher esteem for themselves.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
In the right world, this would have been the Sonic title for the Saturn.
 

Komatsu

Member
Sonic Robo Blast 2 is legendary among Sonic fan gamers. Truly a pillar of the community by this point - I have played it many times since 2002 at least. Will definitely check it out.
 
What is Sonic Robo Blast 2, and why is the name so dumb?




Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a 3D Sonic fangame that's been in development since March 1998. It predates the release of Sonic Adventure, so it represents a stark divergent point in the way 3D Sonic gameplay should be handled. No homing attack here!

If its graphical style seems familiar, it's because it started life as a mod for the original Doom—although it's been so heavily modified over the decades that calling it a "Doom mod" is about as accurate as calling every game made with UE4 an "Unreal mod".

I've played SRB2 before. What's new in this version?

Everything. It's the biggest update yet. Here's the changelog:


This looks better than anything Sega has done in the past 15 years haha.
 

Ryu Kaiba

Member
I gave it a try and while very cool design wise the controls could use some work.n Sonic is fast, too fast, to the point of unwieldy.
Its difficult to change direction or aim which are important aspects in a platforming game. Tried it with a mouse and an Xbox controller.
I'll give this another go, sounds like they've done some work on the controls.
 
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