About

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart (SRB2Kart) is a fan-made online multiplayer 2.5D kart racing game featuring characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The game is notable for gaming meme montages, player mods with characters from various media franchises, and fan art.

History

Sonic Robo Blast Kart 2 is a mod of Sonic Robo Blast 2, ^[1] which itself is a mod of the Doom Legacy port of the Doom (1993) engine.^[2] Sonic Robo Blast 2 has been developed by a group called Sonic Team Junior since March 1998.^[3] Featuring a multiplayer mode, the game is open source and is easy to customize. The gameplay of SRB2Kart is similar to the Mario Kart series and supports up to 16 players at once. The game was originally based on the Mario Kart mode from the SRB2 mod Sonic Robo Blast 2 Riders before it branched off.^[2]

On June 6th, 2018, SRB2Kart developer Kart Krew uploaded a progress report on the game to YouTube (shown below, left). Several videos showcasing the game were released by Kart Krew between June and the game's release. On November 14th, 2018, Kart Krew uploaded the trailer for the game’s 1.0 beta version, receiving over 94,000 views in a year and a half (shown below, right). Two days later, on November 16th, the beta version was released in a post on the SRB2 forums.^[4]

Online Presence

On November 18th, 2018, Spanish YouTuber Sergindsegasonic uploaded a gameplay video of SRB2Kart that gained over 76,000 views in a year and a half (shown below, left). On November 19th, Twitch streamer Vinesauce Vinny streamed the game, with the video of him playing being uploaded to YouTube by archive channel Vinesauce: The Full Sauce on November 22nd (shown below, right). The video gained over 44,000 views in a year and a half.

On March 28th, 2019, YouTuber coraldev uploaded the first in a series of gaming meme montage videos titled “kart” playing mainly as the Sonic character Amy Rose, gaining over 200,000 views since November 2019 (shown below, left). A second video, “kart 2,” was released on April 6th and gained over 300,000 views in the same period (shown below, right). The videos did not receive much attention initially.^[5]

On May 29th, Kart Krew released beta version 1.1 of SRB2Kart, adding features such video replay for online races.^[6]

On October 23rd, YouTuber and Twitch streamer Lythero uploaded a highlight/commentary video of SRB2Kart that got over 770,000 views in 9 months (shown below, left). On November 9th, YouTuber ScottFalco uploaded a review of SRB2Kart that received over 500,000 views in 9 months (shown below, right).

On November 13th, coraldev uploaded the gaming meme montage "kart 3," receiving over 480,000 views in 9 months (shown below). The “kart” videos gained traction in November 2019, with coraldev’s channel receiving over a million videos across all videos by the end of January 2020.^[5]

In a reponse to KnowYourMeme researchers on July 10th, 2020, coraldev explained how the "kart" videos got popular and the inspiration behind them:

…I made Kart and Kart 2 in March/April of 2019, but they didn't really take off until November. I think I just got lucky with YouTube's recommended algorithm.

As far as inspiration, I originally just made them for a discord server I was in and I thought adding memes and sounds and stuff would make it more entertaining to watch. In never thought it would take off, but I got lucky.^[7]

On December 9th, YouTuber CriticalRaien uploaded a SRB2Kart gaming meme montage that gained over 57,000 views in 7 months (shown below, left). A similar video from CriticalRaien uploaded on December 22nd gained over 120,000 views in the same period (shown below, right).

On May 12th, 2020, Kart Krew release beta version 1.2.^[4] The game’s official Discord server has over 10,000 members.^[8]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References