And don't forget its sequel, Dr. Robotnik Ring Racers! Since I discovered it became one of my favorite video games, it's pretty technical and hard to dominate, but it's so exciting each time that I play it that I can't stop recommending it to everyone.

https://kartkrew.org/

I absolutely love SRB2K but I think they overcooked Ring Racers. It's bloated with so many mechanics that the tutorial for how to play the game is literally almost an hour long. The controls are also harsher than the previous game, especially when it comes to slopes.

Version 2.4 which is almost out doubles down on it being a high skill racing game with even more mechanics... Gaining "amps" when dealing damage, going into overdrive, "ring bail" which is dropping all your coins for a boost and can cancel spinning out, "neutral drift" where you lose less speed when drifting without steering...

I don't know what's going on at this point. I just want to hold forward and drift.

To me, Ring Racers feels like some bizarro version of a "what if we made a kart racer that plays like what normies think a fighting game plays like" future (complimentary, not derogatory). It's fascinating to get a glimpse. It's like those weird extinct animals who take over a tiny ecological niche but wouldn't survive in a more diverse climate, like channichthyidae or galapogos finches.

The result isn't quite a kart racer and isn't quite a fighting game, it's...some mix in between, where the difference between coming in first and being in fourth requires knowing that (say) directional influence is reversed while you're teching banana peel spinouts, or how your boost frames are preserved if you cancel your sliptide wavedash around a tight corner, etc etc. The skill ceiling is ridiculously high. For online play, so is the skill floor.

In all honesty I don't think it quite "works" for mass consumption...but it's not meant to! This corner of design space is built by those who love the genre they've made, so to hell with mass consumability anyway. I personally find the experiment fascinating and rewarding to learn. Certainly do check it out.

Glad I'm not the only one that feels like this, I love SRB2K but I can't bother anyone to learn to play Ring Racers

I feel like I want to coin a new internet law: "All fan mods eventually become kart racers."

See: Nightmare Kart, etc. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Kart

To be fair Nightmare Kart is NOT a mod of Bloodborne

The gameplay video on that page which is shot like an old 90's Saturday morning cartoon slot is really charming.