Mario Kart (Wii)

[Nu-Eclipse]

MK64>SMK>MKDS>MKA>MKDD>MKWii

One of the CLASSIC NTSC-uk.com forum debates!!

Sorry, have to disagree completely.

MK64 has one of the great Time Trial tracks in Mario Circuit/Raceway and is super-fun in 4-player mode. But, MK64 is solely responsible for bringing about everything that is truly awful about modern-day Mario Kart like the balance being shifted in favour of power-ups over pure driving skill, cheap items like the Purple Shell (MKDS Blue Shell's dad!), turbo power-sliding (later cheapened in MKDS to allow for abuse by way of "snaking"), rubbish AI that cheats when you are winning and the decline of a Battle Mode which was truly epic in SMK. Not only that, the game mechanics are considerably flawed with the over-abundance of cheat/glitch shortcuts in the game.

So for that alone, it has to be in the following order (for me):-

Super Mario Kart (best)
Mario Kart Advance/Super Circuit
Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart: Double Dash (worst)

[abigsmurf]

You missed out Mario Kart DS. Put that above 64 (on the condition that snaking is banned by players) and I'd agree.

[Nu-Eclipse]

You missed out Mario Kart DS. Put that above 64 (on the condition that snaking is banned by players) and I'd agree.

Noted, agreed and corrected, smurfy!!

[Neon Ignition]

Fair play for those who prefer SMK's simpler charms but MK64's tracks alone are a series high point. MKWii not only massively skews the weapon set but features bland courses which by now are so needlessly wide you could land a plane in them taking away senses of speed and tight track layout. It's like Starfox, they need to stop padding it out and take it back to basics

[Nu-Eclipse]

Fair play for those who prefer SMK's simpler charms but MK64's tracks alone are a series high point.

I would honestly only take Mario Circuit/Raceway as a truly great track on MK64. All of the others are fairly simplistic in themselves and (as I mentioned before) largely ruined by way of the many glitches and/or bugs that can be exploited for shortcuts. Arguably all of SMK's tracks call for pure driving skill, something that isn't the case in MK64, MKDD, MK Wii or MKDS (only MKA/SC is an exception, imo).

MKWii not only massively skews the weapon set but features bland courses which by now are so needlessly wide you could land a plane in them taking away senses of speed and tight track layout. It's like Starfox, they need to stop padding it out and take it back to basics

I agree.

[Ragnar004]

Hmm, i see your point(s) but I love Mario Kart Wii! I cant agree with the point that the tracks are bland or simplistic. Tracks such as Grumble Volcano, Koopa Cape and especially the new Bowser Castle are wonderfully designed and thought out and while dont up the difficulty so much as one of the main issues here appears to be, they are fun to play and were quite nice to look at for the first time. Although skill has become less important, as seems the case with Nintendo these days, that doesnt mean that the tracks have become bland.

All this said, Mario Kart DS and 64 were both better. 64 mainly for Princess Peaches castle in royal raceway, which was so fun to drive around. DS had the airship fortress which I loved as well, I think that was the best Mario Kart.

[wakka]

Mario Kart Wii is a rather boring, easy game. Unless you've had 3 people to play with every day for the last two years who are into it as much as you are, then it's the greatest game of all time. I've played over 2500 races and I'm still not bored, it's just colossal amounts of fun. Yes the weapons are cheap but bar the odd bull**** blue shell that takes you out 3 feet in front of the finish line, the best player comes out on top. A truly awesome multiplayer game.

The only Mario Kart I prefer is Super Circuit, which imo is by far the best game - very fast, balanced and with superb track design (Sky Garden!11!!). Even then though I don't really because it doesn't have 4 player splitscreen, and that's what makes Mario Kart I think.

Oh and the only way to play is Wiimote/nunchuk. None of this floating steering wheel BS.

[Guts]

Mario Kart Wii is watered down in the ease of which you can get incredibly advantagous items.

Lightning bolts used to be incredibly rare, blue shells could be avoided and there wasn't anything like the bullet bill.

You only get the good items if you're last and having those good items means your whole race isn't necessarily f*cked for one mistake/enemy hit. That makes the game more fun if anything for the beginners.

Besides, good players will beat poor ones 99% of the time (I'm not kidding, I've played enough online to know this is true), so what's the problem?

Mario Kart Wii is a classic example of a "easy to learn, hard to master" game.

[nakamura]

Well I thought it was damn fun and surely that is the point? Sure we can hark back to the days of the amazing SNES version but that isn't gonna happen. I was very impressed by this game, it was fun and I always thought I was in with a shout to win the race.

[Ragnar004]

Mario Kart Wii is a rather boring, easy game. Unless you've had 3 people to play with every day for the last two years who are into it as much as you are, then it's the greatest game of all time. I've played over 2500 races and I'm still not bored, it's just colossal amounts of fun. Yes the weapons are cheap but bar the odd bull**** blue shell that takes you out 3 feet in front of the finish line, the best player comes out on top. A truly awesome multiplayer game.

See its funny, coz I have three brothers who all love it as much as I do. Perhaps that's why I did love it so much, multiplayer is a so much fun. I did still enjoy the single player although it was a bit easy, but overall that didnt bother me, I was having too much fun playing the game.

Blue shells also annoy me these days as they arent helpful for whoever uses them as you can only get them when your in about fourth to eighth, so it puts you up to third maybe, no better.