Sequel Showdown #8 - Mario Kart

[RH | 4,903]

3 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

That thing was absolute rubbish. My brother and I got it later, and we'd always try to give it a fair shake as we wanted to like it; however, after playing for be a few hours, we'd always have to finish by playing a round of MK64, yeah Diddy Kong Racing was that bad.

SAME!

[Tanooki | 4,933]

The original, though the N64 and GBA are close behind it (GC I liked fairly well too).

Mario Kart in its current form is more or less dead to me since the Wii/DS era.  I feel online ruined the franchise, it turned a very fun capable and competent combination of racing and item mechanics into some crap version of Mario Party on wheels.  Rewarding those who suck at it more than who are any good, with a roll of the dice like mechanic in general, but for those who blow, loaded dice that come up with the best stuff to so called level the playing field.  Done so much so to pander to online, it came at the cost of the single player just being a sad after thought as far as sustainable fun goes.

While I like the original, it's not perfect, it like the others have this rubber band AI mechanic, but it wasn't quite as insidious and you really did need to learn how to drive well and efficiently as much as nail people or be defensive with the weapons at hand.

[Webhead123 | 675]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Even though I've barely played it, 8 seems to have an enormous amount of content

In some sense, it might almost have "too much" content. Obviously, it might sound a little silly to complain about something like that but it does mean that trying to go for 100% completion can be a real slog because of the sheer volume of stuff. Granted, it's still fun to do, but you'll probably want to tackle it in bite-sized sessions. I've been gradually working toward 100% completion for about 2 years now. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,523]

Oh, I won't bother with that.  But with multiplayer, when I do game night with these guys it feels like every round is a new mode or a new map.

Or it would be if they didn't do Baby Park EVERY SINGLE TIME.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

3 hours ago, RH said:

This is honestly a tough one.  I had to think for a bit before answering.  I went with MK64.

I had played SMK at a friends house some and enjoyed it but 64 was the first one I owned, and I wore it out.  Even after winning every trophy, I'd still play for hours and hours lowering my times on my favorite tracks... and not so favorite tracks.

I think you could definitely say that under a fair evaluation, it's not the "best" but I agree that there's something nice about the simplicity of the game, compared to it's successors.  Furthermore, I like that there are juuuuust enough glitches in the game that some of them can make for fun time trial exploits.  I can't land it as easily now, but I practiced and restarted Warios Stadium countless times until I perfected the wall hop right off of the start.  Generally, I wasn't good at multiplayer games for any genre, but that was one stage I was unbeatable at because I could nail the start and usually nail 1-2 hops on the next laps.  This added a layer to the game I really enjoyed.

MK8 is an awesome game but it's a bit too polished and a balanced.  I'm sure there are exploits in this game too, but I'd imagine they are a bit harder.  Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent game, but it's tied fore second.

...with Double Dash.  Double Dash is somewhere in the middle of the two.  I also agree that the player-switching mechanic is awesome.  There's a chance it'd be my #1 game, but I hadn't played it half as much as Mk64, so I'm not as familiar with it.  Regardless, I place the enjoyment of the experience on par with MK8.

Regarding go to characters, I do play to win but also have fun. In general I like heavy weights, so in older games I go with DK and in MK8 I go with Rosalina.

The "rubberbanding" with 64 is really frustrating for me though. It bothers me that you can lightning bolt a racer off the tower in bowser's castle and have them catch up to you by the end of the next lap.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

3 hours ago, fcgamer said:

That thing was absolute rubbish. My brother and I got it later, and we'd always try to give it a fair shake as we wanted to like it; however, after playing for be a few hours, we'd always have to finish by playing a round of MK64, yeah Diddy Kong Racing was that bad.

Disagree. DKR is awesome, but it's not mario kart. It is a completely different game. If you play it like Mario Kart, you won't like it. You need to play it like DKR.

On a side note, I've never given Crash racing or Sega racing a fair shot. Are any of those kart racers any good?

[croagunk | 798]

7 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

Disagree. DKR is awesome, but it's not mario kart. It is a completely different game. If you play it like Mario Kart, you won't like it. You need to play it like DKR.

On a side note, I've never given Crash racing or Sega racing a fair shot. Are any of those kart racers any good?

I grew up playing both Mario Kart Double Dash!! on the GameCube and Crash Team Racing on the PS1. I enjoy both very much. I’ve played a little Team Sonic Racing on the Switch. It’s okay, but not as good.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

2 minutes ago, croagunk said:

I grew up playing both Mario Kart Double Dash!! on the GameCube and Crash Team Racing on the PS1. I enjoy both very much. I’ve played a little Team Sonic Racing on the Switch. It’s okay, but not as good.

I went ahead and bought Sonic and Sega racing for Wii just now, so we shall see when it arrives!

[GPX | 1,369]

I didn’t actually vote because I haven’t played enough of the Mario Kart titles to give it a fair voting. I was never really a Kart racing fan, and only have tried Mario Kart Snes and Mario Kart DS. However, I would like to share a light-hearted story..

I had bought the DS with Mario 64 and Mario Kart DS when it originally came out. Sometime later, I bought another one as a gift for my younger sister and bought for her Mario Kart DS among a few other titles. I thought the DS would be a nice intro for her as a console, when at the time, she hadn’t shown much interest in gaming.

A few months later, I decided to challenge her with Mario Kart DS. Sibling battle for supremacy with each holding a handheld, in the comfort of their own room..

Yeah, it didn’t end well for me. Something like 20 straight losses, a battered ego and..I’ve never played a Mario Kart game since!

[DarkTone | 984]

8. 2nd is double dash. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

1 hour ago, Kguillemette said:

The "rubberbanding" with 64 is really frustrating for me though. It bothers me that you can lightning bolt a racer off the tower in bowser's castle and have them catch up to you by the end of the next lap.

You think that's terrible?  Try the DS game, it's very rigged worse than any release of the franchise.  I couldn't figure it out at first why I kept getting smashed playing 150cc, figured it was just sharply harder than 100 unlike previous games, but no it's more evil.  The game will put a racer in 1st place, something based on whatever you're driving, and you can get stuck in 2nd and that's really it, everyone else is behind.  Not so much a problem, but what is, is how it does it.  The 1st place one can always drive faster than rated, plus it will viciously attack you with rear shots **AND** the real kicker are the other karts.  All of them, despite the printed rules of the item used, will all consistently collaborate to NOT attack the lead but you instead, it's a consistent beating from start to finish in the races which is cheap, unfair and ultimately infuriating.  It makes no sense not to take down whoever is up front to pound on the 2nd place kart but it does.  When I tested it, realized it, I sold the game, never went back as it just along with how trashy the Wii game was broke my lov of the franchise, and the multiplayer rabbithole at the sacrifice of the quality single player made me give up on it entirely.  I've played 7 and 8, had them fall into my hands, they did nothing to change my attitude so it, like Smash and Party are dead to me.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

30 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

You think that's terrible?  Try the DS game, it's very rigged worse than any release of the franchise.  I couldn't figure it out at first why I kept getting smashed playing 150cc, figured it was just sharply harder than 100 unlike previous games, but no it's more evil.  The game will put a racer in 1st place, something based on whatever you're driving, and you can get stuck in 2nd and that's really it, everyone else is behind.  Not so much a problem, but what is, is how it does it.  The 1st place one can always drive faster than rated, plus it will viciously attack you with rear shots **AND** the real kicker are the other karts.  All of them, despite the printed rules of the item used, will all consistently collaborate to NOT attack the lead but you instead, it's a consistent beating from start to finish in the races which is cheap, unfair and ultimately infuriating.  It makes no sense not to take down whoever is up front to pound on the 2nd place kart but it does.  When I tested it, realized it, I sold the game, never went back as it just along with how trashy the Wii game was broke my lov of the franchise, and the multiplayer rabbithole at the sacrifice of the quality single player made me give up on it entirely.  I've played 7 and 8, had them fall into my hands, they did nothing to change my attitude so it, like Smash and Party are dead to me.

I actually like the DS one quite a bit. You need a faster character in that one. The best strategy in that one is to jump out to a quick lead and keep pulling ahead. Luigi with the Ghost Vac is my dude in that one.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Good on you finding a loophole I guess. I tried with a few racers with the same result and just put it down.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

3 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

The "rubberbanding" with 64 is really frustrating for me though. It bothers me that you can lightning bolt a racer off the tower in bowser's castle and have them catch up to you by the end of the next lap.

Never bothered me with 64, if you know what you're doing, you can get a huge gap in front of the others in this game.

Starting with GameCube though, I really hated the "grand f*ck" that would always happen. You'd be in first the whole race, then on the last track, right near the goal, you'd get hit by everyone and everything suddenly. This certainly made the later games not as fun.

[Guest]

Mario Kart 64 hands down. Probably my favourite N64 game. Haven't played most of the others tbh I will say Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is really good as well. 

Edit: I always play as Toad Should he not be available my backup is Yoshi. 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Mumphy

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Super is my favourite. I like all the ones I've played and put a lot of time into 64, DD, and 8. 

[cj_robot | 542]

My brain says MK8, but my heart is saying MK64. Eh well, I went with 8. It really feels like the complete Mario Kart package. I'd say 64 was probably the most impactful entry for it's respective time.

[AstralSoul | 502]

10 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Disagree. DKR is awesome, but it's not mario kart. It is a completely different game. If you play it like Mario Kart, you won't like it. You need to play it like DKR.

On a side note, I've never given Crash racing or Sega racing a fair shot. Are any of those kart racers any good?

DKR is my absolute favorite racing game of all time so I agree. The Adventure mode is where it shined and if only Mario Kart had something like that.

The Sonic Racing games are decent but did not have lasting appeal to me. Transformed was my favorite of the 3 of them though if you were wondering. 

Now, Crash Team Racing is the only other racing game to rival Diddy Kong Racing for me. The original is amazing. But the remake, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, is an absolute masterpiece of a kart racer. At this point skip the original and go to the remake. This game has an absurd amount of content. Almost too much. Tons of courses, tons of characters, skins, karts, etc. It's just so good, plus it has an adventure mode like DKR. Its also a huge plus if you're a big Crash fan like me. But it really is a fantastic game. Skip the other Crash racing games, most of them are mediocre, except the original which is awesome, and this remake which is perfect.

[Gloves | 11,777]

Not gonna lie, Chocobo Racing on PS1 is pretty fun, too.

[Sumez | 2,950]

18 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I can't put my finger on exactly why...but I never quite developed the same affection for Mario Kart 64 as everyone else did.

Probably because it's the worst in the series

[T-Pac | 7,539]

You guys are all taking kart-racers way too seriously haha.

I like Mario Kart Wii since driving with a steering wheel is neat!

-CasualCart

[RH | 4,903]

removed

Edited February 18, 2021 by RH

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

I chose 64 because I played it a ton when I was young. Snes was one of the first games I ever played, but I didnt play it as much as 64

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

12 hours ago, AstralSoul said:

Now, Crash Team Racing is the only other racing game to rival Diddy Kong Racing for me. The original is amazing. But the remake, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, is an absolute masterpiece of a kart racer. At this point skip the original and go to the remake. This game has an absurd amount of content. Almost too much. Tons of courses, tons of characters, skins, karts, etc. It's just so good, plus it has an adventure mode like DKR. Its also a huge plus if you're a big Crash fan like me. But it really is a fantastic game. Skip the other Crash racing games, most of them are mediocre, except the original which is awesome, and this remake which is perfect.

I freaking love CTR. I'll happily play the PS1 game over Mario Kart any day. Haven't checked out the remake yet

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,012]

Mario Kart 7 for life No gimmicks and good throwback tracks. Tight controls and good kart customization. 

MK7 > MK8