SNES Mario Kart

[hummingofevil]

Anyone else obsessed with Ghost Valley 2 time trials? According to the official sites I'm about 250 in the world. I'm SHIT at literally every other game (I'm okay at DS Mario Kart and can hit 170 at Tetris) but this is my obsession.

I can't do that fucking platform jump mind. Anyone?

[Bazooka]

Ain't played it for years. But I was liquid hot at DS and 7.

[Dewt]

It's a multitude of angels, and they're playing Mario Kart.

[madhair60]

Also known as the only good one, ever

[kngen]

Anyone else obsessed with Ghost Valley 2 time trials? According to the official sites I'm about 250 in the world. I'm SHIT at literally every other game (I'm okay at DS Mario Kart and can hit 170 at Tetris) but this is my obsession.

I can't do that fucking platform jump mind. Anyone?

I remember Bowser Castle being a housewide obsession 25 years ago. Although that came to an end when one flatmate stayed up all night (I went to bed at midnight leaving him sitting on the sofa, and then got up at 7am to find him in exactly the same position only with a much fuller ashtray beside him) and filled the top 10 with unbeatable times. Kind of lost interest after that.

[Spiral King]

Also known as the only good one, ever

Well, 8 is nice too, but basically.

[Abnormal Palm]

Mazza Kazza Dazza (DS)

Mazza Kazza Suzza Ciruzza (GBA)

[peanutbutter]

are there people who rate the SNES one that highly that played any of the later ones first? I never got the appeal of Super Mario Kart at all, whole thing just felt weird.


64 is probably worse now, mind.

[Dewt]

Yes I really hate 64

Ugly game that feels all wrong

Hideously ugly

So impossibly hideous that even if I liked the game itself it would be off-putting

[Bazooka]

Snes certainly aged better, I never owned 64 but played it around friends who id, anyway Diddy King Racing was the better game.

[Kelvin]

SNES and 64 both look and play like garbage now. I haven't played Double Dash in years, and at the time I preffered 64, but I'd put money on it having aged better than than the previous two. 8 is clearly the best, though. It's a beautiful game, controls like a dream, and the levels are really imaginative. Other than nostalgia, I cannot fathom how anyone who has played 8 properly could seriously contend that the previous games are still better. The gulf in quality as an overall package is huge.   

[Abnormal Palm]

SNES has a unique feel to the sliding and hopping and under/oversteer and inverted steer hopping to correct course. It's still a mechanical phenomenon with an incredibly high skill ceiling. Best battle mode bar none. Best balance of racing and items.

MK8D is the best overall, though. Exceptional on every level. I'm staggered they never brought out more DLC for the Switch version. Exponential orgy of cash waiting.

[magval]

Are any of the also-rans any good? Crash Nitro Racing looks ace, but that's because I love the LOOK of those games. Dunno if it plays nicely or not.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

We got a Raspberry Pi recently, to play shamelessly pirated archived games. Naturally, SNES Mario Kart was one of the first things I tried - and, by crikey, I found it nearly unplayable. I'm not megashit at racing games and everything else I played seemed normal, so I don't think there was any problem with the emulation. SNES Mario Kart is just a bit ploppy. The DS version is where it's at.

[peanutbutter]

I liked Double Dash loads at the time and I've heard the consensus is that it's pretty good but more importantly a weirdo outlier, which means it aged pretty well due to having nothing to compare it too.

Personally 8 just feels like a way slicker version of 7, which was a lot better than everything that came before it.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Are any of the also-rans any good? Crash Nitro Racing looks ace, but that's because I love the LOOK of those games. Dunno if it plays nicely or not.

I remember it being pretty good. Had a hub-style structure like Diddy Kong Racing.

[SavageHedgehog]

I didn't play Crash Team Racing (the PS1 original) until last year but it's aged far better than Mario Kart 64 and great fun all round. I still like the original Mario Kart a lot. GBA one is nice but obviously outclassed by the DS one. Never played Double Dash but suspect 8 has made the Wii one  pretty redundant, much as 64 became obsolete.I

Mickey's Speedway USA isn't that special but probably aged slightly better than MK64. Diddy Long Racing is obviously the best of that era.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I bought Diddy Kong Racing back in 1998, on the basis that it was meant to be superior to Mario Kart 64. It wasn't.
I wouldn't say it was a bad game by any means (although the single player boss races were a pain), but all the devs' attempts to distinguish it from Mario Kart just sacrificed the elegant simplicity that was MK's greatest asset.

[SavageHedgehog]

I guess my perspective on these might be skewed as, barring Mario Kart Wii, I've mostly played these single player. The kind of pseudo-platform stuff in Diddy and Crash Team Racing are a large part of what made them stand out to me. I will say one of the later Crash racing games (Tag Team?) took it a little too far.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I also mostly played DKR solo - because nobody else could be bothered with it in multiplayer. It was a bit like if you tried playing some prog rock at a party, when everyone was dancing to Beyoncé.

[Gulftastic]

Anyone else obsessed with Ghost Valley 2 time trials? According to the official sites I'm about 250 in the world. I'm SHIT at literally every other game (I'm okay at DS Mario Kart and can hit 170 at Tetris) but this is my obsession.

I can't do that fucking platform jump mind. Anyone?

I was! Back in the day I used to play that track over and over, besting my ghost was my obsession. I wish I still had the cartridge with my saved times. I was shit hot on that level. This was over 20 years ago now. Eventually I stopped playing as my elbow was getting fucked by RSI. I think it was keeping the accelerator button pressed down all the time.

[Abnormal Palm]

I'm genuinely blown away by how little affection and appreciation people here have for Super Mario Kart.

I've always known there was something fucked up about a lot of people's tastes on here, like buzzing off the Metro games or Need For Speed or Mortal Kombat, total mulch tier fodder, that kind of thing. The new Tomb Raider games. Just stuff that didn't need to be made. Time filler paste. Soylent greb. It's an illustrative example, not a quote, so please don't say that nobody has ever mentioned NFS or something equally inane. I can appreciate that people like different stuff but I can't get my head around the fact that a lot of people here evidently don't value the tightest controls in the whole damn series. No offence intended, at all, I just can't imagine how fucked up most of you are in the head.

[Dewt]

I'm honestly too disgusted to even address what Kelvin said.

[peanutbutter]

I'm genuinely blown away by how little affection and appreciation people here have for Super Mario Kart.

I've always known there was something fucked up about a lot of people's tastes on here, like buzzing off the Metro games or Need For Speed or Mortal Kombat, total mulch tier fodder, that kind of thing. The new Tomb Raider games. Just stuff that didn't need to be made. Time filler paste. Soylent greb. It's an illustrative example, not a quote, so please don't say that nobody has ever mentioned NFS or something equally inane. I can appreciate that people like different stuff but I can't get my head around the fact that a lot of people here evidently don't value the tightest controls in the whole damn series. No offence intended, at all, I just can't imagine how fucked up most of you are in the head.

Those Criterion-made Need for Speed games are probably far better than most Mario Kart games, tbh.

[Emotional Support Peacock]

I'm honestly too disgusted to even address what Kelvin said.

Me 3

[madhair60]

The original Super Mario Kart rewards you for driving well and punishes you for driving badly

Every single other one punishes you for driving well and rewards you for driving badly

Not fucking rocket science is it

[Sin Agog]

Just started playing Jak X (Combat Evolved) as of three in the AM.  Bought the Precursor Trilogy for £11.99 on the PS store and was surprised to see that in my library with it.  It's a great and hella underrated game.  Almost feels like a Burnout kart racer at times (it even has its own Crash Mode).  There were strong hints of Naughty Dog's later playable movee aspirations with some of the cutscenes.  Probably has the best Story Mode of any racer I've played (Crash and Mario DS's racers are up there, too).  Yet more evidence that we completely forgot the meaning of Arcade in recent years.

[Spiral King]

The original Super Mario Kart rewards you for driving well and punishes you for driving badly

Every single other one punishes you for driving well and rewards you for driving badly

Not fucking rocket science is it

This and the sprite work in Super Mario Kart is also really, really good. No idea what Kelvin is talking about, honestly.

[Kelvin]

I'm not saying the earlier games have no merit, or that some of them don't do things betters than any other instalment - stuff like the feather's risk / reward mechanic. I'm saying that, as an overall package of visuals, level design, control, balance, secrets, multiplayer, etc, Mario Kart 8 is so far ahead of the pack that three blue shells couldn't stop the bastard winning. Super Mario Kart does have a particularly distinct feel, and yes, a higher skill ceiling, but I just don't think it stands up against several of the later entries overall.   

[idunnosomename]

well the thing about Mario Kart 64 is the racers were multiangled sprites which looked like shit and the computer cheated. Diddy Kong Racing had polygon racers but the multiplayer sucked ass as a consequence because the console couldn't cope.

Also DKR had Taj who was very racist.