Sonic Robo Blast 2

When it's done.

Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a 3D freeware fangame based on the Sonic the Hedgehog games and created on the Doom Legacy engine. It was started in 1998, and has been in development ever since.

It is a sequel to Sonic Robo Blast, a very crude fangame by a user named Sonikku. It was created in the Klik And Play game making program, and was very primitive and quite buggy. Despite this, the game is full of secrets, and is renowned for being one of the first Sonic fangames ever created.

It was started in 1998 and was intended to be a 2D game similar to its predecessor. This concept was scrapped when the team (at the time made up of users SSNTails and Sonikku) decided to make the game using the 3D Doom Legacy engine. Early tech demos featured basic Sonic gameplay but still showed its Doom origins. As more releases came out, the game consistently became more Sonic-like, as well as adding online netplay including Co-op in the single-player levels, a unique Deathmatch system, Capture the Flag, and racing.

In 2005, the inaccurately titled "Final Demo" Version 1.09.4 was released, and development was considered to have stalled for 4 years. In 2009, Version 2.0 was released and was the biggest update to the game, containing 7 new single-player levels, an overhauled Match system, and a lot of new options for level-developers. The current version is 2.0.6, and the next version, 2.1, will be released once the currently broken netcode is fixed.

Tropes used in Sonic Robo Blast 2 include:
  • Ascended Fanboy: SRB2's current producer, Mystic, wasn't one of the original developers, but was among the first to be modding the game in its early years and eventually worked his way onto the staff. This is also, more or less, how a large portion of the current devs joined the project.
  • All Deserts Have Cacti: Arid Canyon Zone, justified as it is inspired by Road Runner cartoons and the Grand Canyon. Averted by the multiplayer stage Desolate Twilight, which has no cacti whatsoever.
  • All There in the Manual: Knuckles' purpose for helping Sonic is only stated on the game's website. (In a somewhat shoehorned fashion, too.)
    • There exists Dummied Out cutscene data that was meant to be used after GFZ3 to insert Knuckles into the story.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Somehow averted.
  • Best Boss Ever/That One Boss: The final boss is Black Eggman, from Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie.
  • Bonus Level of Heaven: Neo Aerial Garden Zone
  • Boss Remix: Inverted; the music for Castle Eggman Zone is a remix of the boss theme.
  • Bottomless Pits: They start appearing at Deep Sea Zone. Later, you'll see that the final part of Arid Canyon Zone, for example... is hilarious. And Egg Rock Zone plays more like a Mega Man level than a Sonic level. It even includes a few disappearing platform puzzles!
  • Cut Song: Mine Maze Zone, Rocky Mountain Zone, and Doomship Zone (among many other themes) still have their music buried within the game. Subverted, because anyone can use these in modifications.
  • Death Mountain: Rocky Mountain Zone would have been this as well as That One Level until it was essentially turned into Arid Canyon Zone, which still fits the bill - rockslides, crumbling terrain, chunks of the ceiling that conveniently collapse when you cross under them, and of course, some lethally steep dropoffs.
  • Development Hell: Started out in 1998 as a TGF game, switched to Doom Legacy shortly after, and 14 years later, development still marches on. Well, albeit with long stretches of inactivity - the jump from 1.09.4 to 2.0 took four years, and 2.0 to 2.1 is closing in on three.
    • With Duke Nukem Forever (finally) out in 2011, will SRB2 eventually be in the making even longer? Possibly!
  • Difficulty Spike: Techno Hill Zone Act 2.
    • Largely due to the fact that the game is incomplete, but Egg Rock Zone counts as a spike up the unsuspecting player's rear end, as you leap from the sixth zone to the eighth/ninth zone in an instant. In this sense, Red Volcano Zone is something of a Breather Level before the game starts trying out dozens of ways to destroy your sanity.
    • The final Special Stage is also extraordinarily cruel if you're playing as Sonic. (Mostly) Justified due to your reward for clearing it.
  • Dug Too Deep: Mine Maze Zone would have been this if it hadn't been cut.
  • Dummied Out:
    • Blue Mountain Zone 2 is technically "complete" -- it was made as a proof-of-concept and intended to be a tiny level to bridge Red Volcano Zone 1 and Egg Rock Zone 1, giving players a moment to catch their breath. Just a bit before release, however, it was decided that Red Volcano should just skip straight to Egg Rock instead, leaving it unused. (It's still hidden in the game - for now.)
    • Additionally, there are several beta rooms inside Egg Rock Zone Act 2 accessible only with the NOCLIP command.
    • The Chaos gametype was cut back in version 1.09; however, Chaos Enemy Spawns can still be placed, and it's possible to re-enable the (now half broken) gametype with EXE modding.
    • Christmas and Adventure modes were removed in 2.0. The former caused lots of consistency errors in netgames, the latter was only a test and not particularly well liked.
    • Some of the textures and flats from Zim's Base Zone still exist, too.
  • Easter Egg: Examples include a weird cyborg echidna dressed as the Pope that sends you to Neo Aerial Garden Zone; the Ultimate Cheat, which closes the game when activated; and literal easter eggs which only appear in old versions of the game.
  • Elite Mook: You know those silly, weak Crawlas running around the early stages? Well, the hovering, hopping, lunge-attacking Crawla Commander is neither silly nor weak. It's also the only enemy that takes two hits to smash, changing its attack pattern when damaged.
  • Embedded Precursor: An incomplete remake of SRB1 (with no bosses yet) can be unlocked in the game. It serves as something of an amusing reminder of the more primitive days of Sonic fangaming.
  • Eternal Engine: Techno Hill Zone, Egg Rock Zone, and several multiplayer stages with those themes.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Stupid Dumb Unnamed Robo Fish is exactly what you would expect it to be. Then there's the Castlebot Facestabber, which appears in Castle Eggman Zone, is a robot, and stabs your face.
  • Freeware Games
  • Fridge Horror: When a Deton crashes into a wall, the animal is released. But... If it hits the player or another Deton, there is no sign of the animal inside.
  • Fun with Acronyms: In addition to SDURF above, there's an enemy called the Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard, that flies at a high speed towards you.
  • Gang Up on the Human: Approach a group of enemies and then leave them unharmed. Then watch as they form a line and go after you. Also, never do this to a group of flying enemies. Just don't.
  • Game Mod: The game itself is an open-source mod of the Doom Legacy engine, and the community promotes user-created levels and characters with a section for releases on the official forums and a bimonthly contest for level designers that anyone can take part in.
  • Gravity Screw: Egg Rock Zone, so much. Of both 'The Variable Gravity Chamber' and the 'Fun With Gravity' variety. Twisted Terminal Zone's main gimmick is this.
  • Green Hill Zone: Greenflower Zone, Jade Valley Zone and Meadow Match Zone. And Sapphire Falls contains Green Hill Zone textures and music.
  • Guilt Based Gaming: Of the various funny phrases the game can throw at you when you try to quit, few punch as hard as "You're trying to say that |Sonic2K6 is better than this, aren't you?"
  • Hailfire Peaks: Techno Hill Zone's first act is a mix of Green Hill Zone and Eternal Engine elements, then it goes full-out Eternal Engine for the second.
  • Holiday Mode: There was a Christmas Mode, present from at least Demo 4 to Final Demo 1.09.4, which activated during the twelve days of Christmas (or any day of the year, when the program was launched with -xmas). Most of the game's more natural textures changed to have a more wintry feel (eg: dirt took on a frosty blue shade and grass turned into snow, while metal retained its texture), as well as changing some of the decorations in the game (flowers turning into poles and Christmas trees). Demo 4 even had a map exclusive to this mode, where you would search for Chaos Emeralds amongst Santa's workshop; this map was retained in later versions as "Emerald Hunt", available any day of the year. Christmas Mode was eventually deleted in 2.0, due to its tendency to riddle netgames with consistency errors.
  • Humiliation Conga: Crawlas are prone to this.
  • Ice Palace: Ice Palace Zone from the SRB1 remake. There's also one in the Frost Columns Zone match stage.
  • Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Techno Hill Zone and Egg Rock Zone feature these.
  • Kill'Em All: Eggman wastes no time reducing the citizens of Greenflower City in the intro to charred skeletons. Chew on that, Genocide City Zone.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Red Volcano Zone. There's also a level in the SRB1 remake that's simply named "Volcano Zone", which has a lava pit that flushes you right off the 2D plane, right into a bottomless pit. Infernal Cavern from the multiplayer rotation also qualifies.
  • Macro Zone: The Mini Sonic gimmick from Metallic Madness returns in Egg Rock Zone.
  • Marathon Level: Egg Rock Zone Act 2 is an incredibly long and daunting gauntlet. Best stockpile lives in advance. (To make matters worse, Act 1 has possibly the largest collection of instant-death hazards in the game.)
    • Neo Aerial Garden Zone. That's because it is made up of all 4 acts of Aerial Garden Zone from a popular mod, crammed into a single map. It just barely fits in the engine's limitations.
  • Nintendo Hard: Egg Rock Zone will probably eat up most of your lives the first time you play it.
  • No Ending: Granted, it's still an incomplete game.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Deep Sea Zone is set inside a cave. In the earliest version of the game, however, it is set in the sea.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: Per Sonic standard when you have no rings, but taken to the extreme in the hidden Ultimate Mode, which removes all rings and item boxes (sans 1ups) from the game. Your lives are therefore your "hit points" for the duration, and you know how Egg Rock Zone loves to swallow up those...
    • In version 2.1, even that small cushion will be taken away, and so Ultimate mode will turn the game into an I Wanna Be the Guy-like suicidal Death Course where one scratch from anything, anywhere, is a ticket back to square one.
  • Palmtree Panic: Emerald Coast Zone.
  • Platform Hell: The latter half of the game and the Special Stages. Unusual controls (for newbies, perhaps) and the lack of shadows cast beneath your characters twists the knife. Also the CTF stage Nimbus Ruins, which is nothing more than a few floating platforms above a giant death pit.
    • Most of the levels in the SRB1 remake have tricky platforming. It starts in Ice Palace Zone and gets sadistic once you get to Sky Lab Zone, which fortunately is a Knuckles-only level.
  • PVP-Balanced: The three characters have their own strengths and weaknesses in the multiplayer modes.
    • Lightning Bruiser: Sonic players know to use and abuse his very fast and powerful jump dash, but without a Whirlwind Shield he has problems climbing up stepped terrain quickly.
    • Weak but Skilled: Tails is slow and not as effective as the others in a melee, but being able to fly around to nearly everywhere on a map is a plus and he makes a good sniper with Rail Ring (or a good target for the Rail). This is an inversion of his Single Player prowess, where Tails is pretty much easy mode.
    • The Brute: Knuckles gets a faster firing (sorry, throwing) speed to compensate for his average agility and other movement disadvantages. This makes him excellent for area denial or just plain spamming projectiles. Although, he's also suprisingly good at cloak-and-dagger tactics, since gliding and climbing walls make no sounds...
  • Secret Level: Neo Aerial Garden Zone, Mario Koopa Blast, Sonic into Dreams...
  • Shout-Out: Word of God mentioned that it's not a coincidence Tidal Palace Zone bears more than a passing resemblance to Maridia.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Oddly averted in the Single Player game. The theme gets around in multiplayer though: Frost Columns Zone, Icicle Falls Zone, Frozen Night Zone...
  • The Spiny: Sharps are a conventional example, while Green Snappers are a bit different. Their tops are completely bare but are guarded by a ring of spikes that make spindashing useless.
  • Super Drowning Skills: And this time, the Chemical Plant purple water actually harms you on contact.
  • Suspicious Videogame Generosity: As soon as you enter the Disco Room in ERZ2, you find two 1ups just sitting there in the corner. To say the least, you are about to need them.
  • Sidetrack Bonus: As usual for Sonic, this game is loaded with extra rings, shields, and emerald tokens for those willing to look.
  • The Goomba: The Blue and Red Crawlas. Also, real Goombas straight from Super Mario Brothers appear in a secret level.
  • Springs Springs Everywhere: It's a Sonic game, what did you expect?
  • The Wiki Rule: Here.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss/Goddamned Boss/That One Boss: Techno Hill Zone's boss - It's like Chemical Plant's boss, but worse. He flies around in circles, splattering around a lot of harmful goo that takes a very long time to disappear. If you don't defeat him quickly, you're going to have a hard time stepping around the gunk. It's also difficult to hit him because he may just dodge as you jump. And if you're not careful, you might even fling yourself off the speeding rail cart the battle takes place on and die.
    • Revive Kills Zombie: ...Unless you find out you can beat him by standing in one place and jumping.
  • This Is a Drill: The Minus badniks from Arid Canyon Zone are rocket-powered green balls with a pair of drill arms which they use to visibly burrow through the ground, jumping out to attack whatever technicolor critter treads above it.
  • Turns Red: All of the bosses go into a panic phase when you've whittled them down to two hits left. Deep Sea's boss even turns into an Underwater Boss Battle.
  • Underwater Ruins: Deep Sea Zone and Tidal Palace Zone.
  • Violation of Common Sense: One method of harming the final boss is to ride a missile.
  • Warmup Boss: Greenflower Zone's boss -- Eggman just approaches while shooting a bullet every once in a while, then retreats when he is hit. If you can trap him in a corner, you'll be able to defeat him in less than half a minute.
  • Wasted Song: That 4 and a half-minute long intro sequence sure is epic and haunting, eh? Unfortunately, ingame there is about as much narrative going on as Sonic 2, if that.
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