The more I think about this game after beating it the more I actually like it more. I'm still not completely over the aesthetic and VA changes (Episode I Shion will ALWAYS be the SUPERIOR version) but I really do think it does everything else quite well. I genuinely found the plot regarding Rubedo more engaging than anything in Episode I for instance and it manages to have on-foot boss fights that aren't complete slogs unlike the other 2 games (if you disagree you got a skill issue, sorry).

I wouldn't actually give it 5 stars but rating it higher than Episode III is the funny contrarian take so there you go.

Maybe it's because I've played a lot of srb2kart in the past but the tutorial really isn't that bad, but it should absolutely be entirely optional, not just "optional" in the way that it currently is.
What really gets me is having to unlock online and mods. One of the best things about SRB2Kart for myself is that it's incredibly easy to pick up and play. DOOM runs on anything and for the most part the same can be said for the mods of mods of DOOM. The amount of time it takes to send some friends a .zip with SRB2Kart, get a server going and just have everyone in and playing games is incredibly small, maybe like 5 minutes?
Here, at least until people discover the cheat codes, you gotta do the tutorial, which for most is gonna be anywhere from 20-40 minutes without doing the skip. Then you gotta do a grand prix to unlock online. Want to play with gameplay mods or add in some funny extra characters (when there are some)? That's three more tours, buddy.
So, the devs have made some questionable decisions by sacrificing the convenience of SRB2Kart in favour of a more deluxe and hand-holdy experience in DRRR. They really want to make sure people know how to play before they get things going (though I must add, by the time some mechanics showed up I had forgotten how to engage with them with how frontloaded the tutorial is).
How's the actual game then? Pretty good I must say. The new mechanics add a lot of extra complexity, but the biggest thing that will catch you is probably the introduction of the e-brake. In SRB2K you could usually drift through just about every corner, maybe sometimes it would be better to step off the gas a bit and take something slow, but otherwise most courses boiled down to finding some shortcuts and figuring out how to drift all the way through. That may still be the case to some degree in DRRR, but in the time I've played I noticed that there can be a lot more nuance to how the corners are laid out. Things get a lot more ambiguous and sometimes you need to handle something tighter than drifting allows for, which is where the e-brake can come in. Tricking and fast-falling are neat mechanics that allow for further ambiguity in regards to vertical design as well.
I won't go over every new mechanic but suffice to say there's far more that I like about the game than dislike, just uhh, maybe don't lock away features that were a key strong point to SRB2K when people might want to just get into the game and figure things out themselves.

A decent TPS with a unique gimmick of shifting the terrain in the battlefield. You can use this ability to make cover for yourself and solve environmental puzzles. The gunplay ever so slightly riffs off Gears of War although unlike that game you are going to be moving and jumping a lot. As a matter of fact, this game takes a bit from Halo too with the shield regeneration and vehicle sections. It was hard for me to not notice frankly.

Enemies have serious aim so you can't just bum rush encounters or you'll die a quick death. There are some boss fights but nothing too special. I feel like I've said this before, but I seriously miss this era of shooters. They didn't have to be narrative masterpieces, just good ol gunning action, it just so happens that Fracture provides a more unique take on it.