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Sonic Robo Blast 2 (3D Sonic fangame in development for 20+ years) releases huge new update. [New July 2020 update.]
- Thread starter Unknownlight
- Start date
OP
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That's a damn good question.
From a quick googling, it seems like there's NiGHTS: Lost Reverie and... uh... Sonic Robo Blast 2...
I find in general that 3D Sonic works best with either a mouse or a "bumper jumper" controller setup with constant camera control. Having that fine-tuned control is a godsend for a fast-moving character like Sonic.
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Use this add-on. The post has instructions for how to use it, but feel free to ask if something's confusing.
Thanks. I ended up modifying the wad file itself but this looks much easier.
How to install updates
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Another new update: Version 2.2.2. No new significant new features this time. It's mostly bug fixes.
I'm not going to post every time a patch is released, but I do want to clarify how you install this. Unlike v2.2.1, this is a patch rather than a new installation. Unfortunately, SRB2 doesn't have a nice installation/update wizard to help with this, so here's how it works:
Download page.
I'm upgrading from 2.2.1:
I'm not going to post every time a patch is released, but I do want to clarify how you install this. Unlike v2.2.1, this is a patch rather than a new installation. Unfortunately, SRB2 doesn't have a nice installation/update wizard to help with this, so here's how it works:
Download page.
I'm upgrading from 2.2.1:
- Download the 2.2.2 zip file, extract, then drag-and-drop the files into the root directory of your SRB2 installation. Select "Replace All".
- Download the 2.2.1 installer, place it in the root directory of your existing SRB2 installation, double-click and extract the files. Select "Replace All".
- Download the 2.2.2 zip file, extract, then drag-and-drop the files into the root directory. Select "Replace All".
- Download the 2.2.1 installer, place it in a folder called "Sonic Robo Blast 2", double-click and extract the files.
- Download the 2.2.2 zip file, extract, then drag-and-drop the files into the root directory of your SRB2 installation. Select "Replace All".
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Because they all want good Sonic games and Sega will never provide. There is no other option other than to do it themselves.
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This is a depressingly accurate explanation for why the Sonic series has by far the biggest fangame community of any franchise.
At least with Sonic 3K because the per-zone saving the continues actually dump you at your last checkpoint -- which is not a bad thing except in the very specific case of the one checkpoint on the one route in Death Egg 2 where you have no rings and an inverted treadmill platform because you can die a lot to that one easily
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That is... actually really convincing for me. What are the downsides for modding your Switch? Can you still play online?
I don't know about online play while hacked. But what I did was to hack my switch, use a new micro sd card, download Sonic Robo Blast 2, enjoying the game, then turning off the switch completely, changing my sd card back to the old one, and thus removing the hack to play online again :)
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I played this for the first time on Mac OS (with a Switch Pro controller) and it's great!! It's not perfect but it's really interesting and fun and it's just so cool.
The controls do take some getting used to (the brief tutorial is great, and a must) but I mapped the camera to right stick, jump/y to B and spin to A, and it's fun to get the hang of it and speed through zones on replay after you have a better handle on the physics and layouts.
Really cool.
The controls do take some getting used to (the brief tutorial is great, and a must) but I mapped the camera to right stick, jump/y to B and spin to A, and it's fun to get the hang of it and speed through zones on replay after you have a better handle on the physics and layouts.
Really cool.
Does anyone else play this on Mac? I'm trying to figure out how to add mods (like the 3d model pack) but struggling. I unzipped the file, added it to the Add Ons folder but doesn't seem to do anything?
Loving this game. Thanks so much for the great recommendation, OP!
Loving this game. Thanks so much for the great recommendation, OP!
Drag the pk3s, Wads into the launcher , ever modded Doom? same thing , be mindful of the order you do it, otherwise it will bork the game up.
Did you follow the recommended settings on the post? or it is atleast appeared on the options menu?
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3D models are for v2.2.1 and above. Unfortunately, Mac and Linux are still stuck on v2.2.0. I'm sure there's a way to get OpenGL working on v2.2.0, but I've never looked into how to do it.
Besides that, 3D models work differently from any other add-on. Instead of going into the Add On folder, you add the unzipped files/folders to the root directory. You then change the renderer to "OpenGL", then within the OpenGL options you enable 3D models.
I'm very happy you're enjoying it!
Gotcha. I don't know how to find the root directory on Mac OS so I think maybe I'm out of luck for now on that, unless someone else can provide detailed directions.
Oh well, that's okay! The default sprite models are cool, and I'm just glad to be able to play it at all on Mac. (I know there's a way to launch Windows on Mac but it seems too complicated)
Currently I'm playing a few different save files simultaneously. Here's where I'm at:
Sonic & Tails — Red Volcano 1 (the platforming is brutal here, especially the race against the lava river with disappearing platforms)
Knuckles — Arid Canyon 2 (how the heck does Knuckles make that first jump?)
Tails — Egg Castle 2 (taking my time exploring, trying to find emeralds; only have 2)
Sonic — Egg Castle 2 (doing this one fourth so I can already have a mental map of the layout to be able to run effectively)
Amy Rose — Techno Hill (just started yesterday)
Fang — Techno Hill (just started yesterday)
I have the camera permanently fixed on the character's back, which is very helpful in controlling the camera with the right stick, but I wish it was easier to see the sprites faces!!! I know you can do this easily with the keyboard/mouse set up, but I've never played any game like that and find it difficult to adjust to for this.
It feels like this game deserves more recognition or press?? Maybe calling this update 2.2 prevented it from wider exposure?
What other fan game is this ambitious and successful and long lived?
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Sorry, by "root directory" I mean the folder that contains the Addon folder. Instead of putting it inside the Addon folder, paste it outside the folder, in the same place where you see files like gamedata.dat.
Of course, this isn't relevant because the in-game option that lets you enable 3D models doesn't exist in 2.2.0, although there's probably some console command or something that can force it to work. Again, I haven't looked into it.
Argh! I know! This is the one advantage of the Simple playstyle option (this is also only in v2.2.1 and above). The reason that the default playstyle automatically rotates the sprite forward when you stop moving is to remind the player that all abilities activate in the direction the camera's facing. Since that isn't a thing in Simple, the automatic rotation is disabled.
I don't like Simple, so I really wish there was an option to disable auto-rotate when playing normally. The default controls don't even let you see some sprite animations, like the forward view of Sonic teetering over an edge.
There are a lot of potential reasons why SRB2 is oddly under-known compared to other fangames (like, look at the sheer amount of press AM2R got). I don't know if this is true, but my guess is that the biggest reason is that... it's a 3D platformer. And 3D platformers aren't very popular.
Look at a game like Super Mario Odyssey. Literally the only AAA 3D platformer this gen. The biggest, most famous and iconic video game franchise in the world. Has a 97 on Metacritic. Has sold over 16 million copies. And it completely disappeared from internet discourse a week after release, not even returning for any Game of the Decade discussions.
And that's Super Mario Odyssey! Some Sonic fangame doesn't stand much of a chance. 3D platformers just aren't very popular.
Sonic Utopia managed to do well largely because it looks really cool. As stupid as it is, I suspect Sonic Utopia would have gotten less press and attention had it shown off actual levels rather than a wide-open sandbox, as parkouring through a sandbox simply looks cooler in video form.
SRB2 has gotten drip feeds of press many times over the years. A lot of publications have probably covered it at some point or another and figure that's their one article on the game.
Nevermind, it's back! Curious to try this, really cool that it's just heavily modified Doom.
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That's also a good point.
Nah, for whatever reason Sega has said that it's okay to make Sonic fan games. Which puts a big hole in the argument that companies "have to" take this stuff down to preserve their trademarks.
Sega gives Sonic fans the okay to make games
You’re too DMCA’ed Nintendo is notorious for sending out cease-and-desist notices for fan games based on its IPs. Just this...
www.destructoid.com
Any update on an SNES Classic port? I'd love to be able to play this on the Classic, especially with the nee Simple control scheme.
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Nope! There was a Switch port in the first few days of release, and there's been literally nothing since!
Damn. I'd rather not have to hack my system just to play this awesome fan game on a console, tbh
That's also a good point.
Nah, for whatever reason Sega has said that it's okay to make Sonic fan games. Which puts a big hole in the argument that companies "have to" take this stuff down to preserve their trademarks.
Sega gives Sonic fans the okay to make games
You’re too DMCA’ed Nintendo is notorious for sending out cease-and-desist notices for fan games based on its IPs. Just this...
On the other hand Sega has also lost the rights to use certain Sonic characters and Music.
Yeah, I first learned of SRB2 from some game magazine ages ago (Gamepro? Cheat Coded? Who knows, but they recommended it as a free game.)
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I completely missed this comment earlier.
Knuckles isn't supposed to make that first jump in ACZ2. He's deliberately locked out from the upper paths, but instead there are two different Knuckles-only paths to choose from.
The first room in Arid Canyon 2 actually has the most alternate exits of any room in SRB2 with five paths to choose from. There are the two Knuckles paths, one Sonic/Tails path, one Amy/Fang path, and one everyone-except-Knuckles path. Then each of those paths have their own branches! ACZ2 is a crazy level.
Thanks! And no worries, after posting I eventually retried and did find a path for Knuckles... made it to Egg Rock 1 and got game over'd trying to figure out the first room with the smash columns.
I'll probably return to it after I keep replaying Egg Castle and Arid Canyon with different characters.
The level design is very impressive; not perfect, and some of the platforming is too frustrating or unclear or unfinished in a lot of spots; but then so are most official Sonic games, even the originals. This does feel like the Sonic equivalent to Super Mario 64 rather than what actually happened; the camera is frustrating in both. The physics and design is obviously much tighter in SM64 but there's nothing as exhilarating in that game as in SRB2 as you learn to harness the speed and momentum. It's so much more rewarding compared to the scripted set pieces of official 3D Sonic.
This is the most fun I've had replaying Sonic levels in a long time (besides Mania).
Oh yeah. Companies definitely don't have to, they choose to do so. It's lawyers. There is no worse profession, and corporate copyright lawyers probably rank toward the bottom of the worst.
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This is quite a lot to ask for, but if you ever feel the urge to praise and/or complain about specific levels in the game, head over to the How would you rate the official levels? topic on the SRB2 Forums. The devs read the posts there and make changes to the level design based on feedback.
Although, know that Egg Rock Zone is planned to be scrapped and remade entirely for the next version of the game. That zone is over 10 years old now and has remained largely untouched in all that time. (The oldest level in the game is the unlockable challenge level Aerial Garden Zone. That monstrosity dates back to the early 2000s.)
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That video helps convince me that having save files save by Act was the right decision. I wouldn't want him to repeat the bridge segment again after struggling with it so many times.
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Castle Eggman was the one exception in the previous version. The game saved at Act 2 because of how large that level is.
I liked his commentary about the Castle Eggman boss:
Alpharad said:
I've played this game for a long time, so I didn't have a single problem with that boss. I've seen lots of complaints about how difficult it is which I didn't understand. "It's so simple, though! Just stand in place, jump over the spike balls, and press the buttons!" I wasn't sure if people were rushing too fast or something.
Nope. Glad I saw that video. He totally gets it, but the execution barrier is too high, and you can end up in a cycle where one failure leads to further failures. The boss needs to be made easier in the next version.
If it was in 2D that boss design wouldn't be a big deal, but in 3D you have to keep track of stuff you can't see all the time. When you get hit it throws off your rhythm and makes you pay even less attention to the spiked balls because you're focused on recovering rings. I've only ever beaten Castle Eggman with Tails because flying is the best way to reorient yourself against that boss.
In the older versions, I found Egg Rock very interesting in the context of the entire game, as it encourages scouring all of the previous levels on the way there for as many rings and 1ups as possible.
Now that the game as a whole is much more polished and most of the level design doesn't feel romhacky, Egg Rock is beginning to show its age. It's the oldest stage in the game now.
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It's funny how many times I had to mentally amend my own reply.
I was initially going to mention how Egg Rock is the oldest in the main campaign, but Aerial Garden is the oldest overall (and you can sure feel it, too!)
But then I remembered Techno Legacy Zone, but I don't think that should count.
But then I remembered the Techno Hill boss battle. That's been unchanged since the first Final Demo release, and that's part of the main campaign.
But then I remembered true horror. Meadow Match Zone.
I'm fairly sure Techno Hill's boss didn't have walls around it in older versions, and that changes the difficulty of the fight considerably.
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You're right. I'd completely forgotten about that. I guess another change is that the slime changed from purple to blue, but that's incredibly minor.
Woolie VS started a full LP
I'm looking at this and ... SEGA, could you like release this game officially and port it to consoles and stuff? It looks dope.
I'm looking at this and ... SEGA, could you like release this game officially and port it to consoles and stuff? It looks dope.
I really liked this game.
Then I finished Castle Eggman and got to Arid Canyon. It nosedives pretty hard. :/
Then I finished Castle Eggman and got to Arid Canyon. It nosedives pretty hard. :/
Awesome stuff.
Sega has realized at the end of the day, even if the franchise is putting out combos of bad games like Shadow, Sonic 06, Sonic Genesis, and Secret Rings back to back, the fans are still there. The only thing that sending C&Ds to fans who are actively keeping Sonic in the public conscious when by all rights he should have been trashed back in the mid 00's will do is garner them bad PR and pissed off fans.
That's also a good point.
Nah, for whatever reason Sega has said that it's okay to make Sonic fan games. Which puts a big hole in the argument that companies "have to" take this stuff down to preserve their trademarks.
Sega gives Sonic fans the okay to make games
You’re too DMCA’ed Nintendo is notorious for sending out cease-and-desist notices for fan games based on its IPs. Just this...
Sega has realized at the end of the day, even if the franchise is putting out combos of bad games like Shadow, Sonic 06, Sonic Genesis, and Secret Rings back to back, the fans are still there. The only thing that sending C&Ds to fans who are actively keeping Sonic in the public conscious when by all rights he should have been trashed back in the mid 00's will do is garner them bad PR and pissed off fans.
There's one thing I can't understand when I look at this kind of video or when I watch streamers, is their need to read out loud all the dialogues. That irks me, especially when there are already japanese voices for example, but they still read the lines. So, what for? Who launched this?
I'd venture to guess that the alternative would be to sit there quietly as they themselves read the dialogues.
That's certainly one way of looking at it.
From my perspective, as someone who's been down in the trenches of the Sonic community since 1998 or so, it's also possible Sega hit a brick wall with how well they could enforce their rule within the fandom. A non-trivial percentage of the Sonic fan community were people of a certain type, very anti-authority kinds of characters. A lot of them have cleaned up their acts now, and I won't get specific with names, but there was a time where there was a very "Sega can't tell us what to do" sentiment within the community.
It all came to a head with the Sonic 4 incident, where a prolific fan site nearly leaked the game six months early until Sega themselves stepped in -- not to punish them, but to befriend. Instead of the costly effort of getting in to an arms race to stop future leaks, Sega opted to catch more flies with honey than use poison. It was spun as an effort to "retool the game thanks to fan feedback." The game was delayed for months while two entire levels were replaced.
That's not to say Sega was afraid of the community, just that it was easier to be friends instead of enemies, and the logical conclusion was that friends don't betray friends. Problem solved, and it eventually gave us Sonic Mania.
Of course, that's ignoring the fact that Sega has almost always turned a blind eye to fan games, I guess. Even before the community got too rowdy.
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...But Arid Canyon and Red Volcano are my two favorite zones in the game.