The best Mario Kart is Double Dash!! though i hear the Wii U one is very good.
The Wii one is just flat out awful
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ignoring the handheld ones it’s:
SNES = Wii U (but frankly Sanic Kart 2 is just as good) > GC >>>>> N64 > Wii
given that the primary criticism of the SNES is that it codified a lot of conservative design philosophies (and was aggressively dominant over more interesting stuff at the time), the original mario kart was probably one of the most innovative things on there.
mk8 is so great, especially on 200cc
i am super hype for whatever this mk8+/mk9 switch game is
i will say i don’t know what’s so bad about the n64 MK or what’s so amazing about the snes one. my ranking would have probably put the former right after DD!! and the latter, fuck, i dunno, who cares, that game doesn’t do shit for me
Turning a “technical” kart racer into a funtimes party game was the right move
I think it’s a mistake to think that just because the SNES game was tighter and more challenging that it was more “technical” (has anyone here said that?) or less of a party funtime, it’s just that “walls on rainbow road” and the shitty speed of the game and the overcomplicated drifting were all an overcorrection from the original.
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no idea why everyone is down on the wii version; it’s one of the better ones. certainly a hell of a lot better than 64, which is chaotic mania on 4p but has the worst driving mechanics in the series by a wide margin. i haven’t played 7 and 8, but
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super mario kart
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mario kart ds
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mario kart wii
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mario kart double dash
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mario kart super circuit
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mario kart 64
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The “airquotes” made it “confusing” but i was “referencing” bug’s “post” above, referring to needing better driving technique to win at SNES Mario Kart. Which, ok, sure but i think the game was slowed down and given larger/wider tracks to accommodate four players, and more emphasis was put on wacky items dictating the pace of the race instead of pure skill. That speaks to wanting more “party funtimes/funtime parties” out of the Mario Kart experience and that’s traditionally what i’ve come to the games for.
i hope i’m not reading as overly defensive of MK64 here i mean my N64 “kart racer” of choice on N64 is Snowboard Kids 2. just think it’s interesting when people laud SMK because it doesn’t track with my experience at all. i mean maybe it’s kinda like how Melee is a better game then Brawl? That emphasis on skill over wacky hijinks.
The Wii one seemed like it did the “items uber alles” thing worse than other ones i’ve played but the more i write here the more i realize how unequipped i am to talk about balance in Mario Kart
because all the kids I tried playing it with had those terrible little plastic wheels. it’s possible that when played well it’s no worse than double dash!
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it’s significantly better than double dash mechanically, and double dash itself is quite good! the biggest problem with double dash is the original level design is largely godawful; mkwii is much better in this regard
note that i don’t even really consider the battle modes; mk64’s battle modes are better than any other game in the series so if you’re into that, that’s what you’ll like. mkwii and dd’s battle modes are unbelievably bad
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The wheels are great Felix you old man
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The best version of Mario Kart is F-Zero
F-Zero is a terrible game to play at a party. Whoever owns the game wins repeatedly and everyone else gives up like 3 races in.
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Oh yeah. Battle Mode in Mario Kart 64 was actually my favorite. I enjoyed it as least as much as racing. Was super let down by subsequent battle modes.
Pretty similar to most ‘technical’ racing games, and undoubtedly a big reason why Nintendo keeps pushing ridiculous item interaction. It’s pretty hard to foster player interaction in a racing game, where a good player, ahead of the pack, is no longer subject to bumps, scrapes, or normal weapons, and the tricky part is building rubberbanding and weapons that level that without feeling heavy-handed.
Don’t underestimate how great it is that adults and little kids can play Mario Kart together, and how hard that is to set up. Sanic Kart 2, for all its joys, doesn’t pull off engaging multiplayer across skill disparities as well.
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yeah, I was just going to say that – the one place where Sanic Kart 2 does still fall down compared to Mario Kart is multi, where the person who owns the game and cleared the career mode is going to be similarly dominant. I think a lot of this comes down to single player racing games being much easier to design and balance lately. the only historical exception, I think, are isometric racers, and that might be down to how much of the screen you get to work with (which is another reason why the original Super Mario Kart’s semi-pioneering use of split screen on a console deserves credit).
granted, Sanic Kart 2 is on tons of platforms and has good online, which helps a lot – can’t stress enough that this is really the first time another game has more or less knocked Mario off its perch here, and it’s much more widely available and fresher aesthetically. and I want to mention that Double Dash supported 8-player LAN that no one ever used, because that was awesome.
i totally lost interest in mario karts after dumping many hours into 64, both single and multiplayer. i don’t know if that makes it the best or the worst
This is a placeholder post for when i get home and can look up the Extra Credits video about the blue shell
Unless someone else does it first!
edit:
Mario Kart is a better slot machine than game.
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I think I’ve hit my lifetime fill of Mario Kart games. I remember picking up Double Dash when it was new, playing a few races and just putting it away forever shortly after. I could see someday picking up a new version if four people who wanted to play Mario Kart were around and I couldn’t dig out the N64 or even the Gamecube (would need to get some more controllers) but I literally have no idea why one would need all 8 versions of this game.
…So put me down in the camp for the original as well.
Mario Kart >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Markio Kart 64 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> who cares
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