I LOVE Sonic Robo Blast 2. Please also check out the amazing kart racer spinoff, SRB2Kart! It is one of my favorite kart racers.
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.
It's incredible that this project is still alive and kicking. I love that they have a whole archive of old builds and descriptions. Based on the descriptions I must have played this around March 2001 (a few months before the release of Sonic Adventure 2!)--my memory exactly matches up with the description of Demo 2. I doubt at the time that I thought it would even make it to a Demo 3! Kudos to everyone involved.
Playable in browser here: https://vinmannie.github.io/srb2web/
The 32X version is incredible. Imagine if there were other genres of games running on the DOOM engine, maybe it could have even saved the 32X.
This looks fantastic, but I can’t help but wonder how long before SEGA or the owners of the Sonic intellectual property take legal action against the game.
I’m not saying it could never happen, but SEGA appears to be much more tolerant of fangames than Nintendo. A cease and desist is a given for any Mario fangame of renown, but Sonic games appear to attract no attention from SEGA. Also, it’s been 25 years..
On the contrary, Sega has hired notable Sonic community members and published Sonic games they've made.
I played this back when it first released. SEGA has absolutely known about it for the entirety of its existence; the Sonic fangame/modding/etc community has a long and storied history behind it.
They've taken action against things in the past, but they're not Nintendo. I'd be shocked if they did much about this particular effort.
This project has been going on for over 25 years. It used a Sonic Doom wad I made in the 90s as a starting point. If Sega really objected to it, they would have dropped the hammer by now.
Wow! How did your WAD start? What were your goals? What do you think of how others have done?
It was just Sonic music, SFX, and some sprites in a WAD. I was just messing around, no real goals in mind. I think SRB2 is a phenomenal project that's really pushed the limits of what the Doom engine and Sonic community can do and showcases, better than Sega has ever done until fairly recently, how well the classic Sonic formula can work in 3D.
One of the key factors in the history of Sonic that I didn't know until recently was that he was a total flop in Japan. In fact the Mega Drive struggled to gain traction there. That's why they kept trying to reinvent the formula into the 2000s and beyond; from Sega (of Japan)'s perspective, unlike Mario, they hadn't established a gameplay template that they knew would be a worldwide hit, only a character they knew was popular in the USA and Europe.
But the SRB developers got it. They knew what made classic Sonic work, and sought to replicate that with the strengths—and limitations—of the Doom engine and produced an absolute banger of a project.