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Nintendo Gaming / Mario Kart Discussion (TALK ABOUT MARIO KART HERE)
« on: April 23, 2003, 11:31:38 PM »
What the heck are Nintendo thinking?
? Its generally accepted that the SNES and GBA versions of Mario Kart were much much better than the N64 version. Yet what do they give us? A game which is clearly based on the N64 version. Big wide tracks, including those city based ones, and they've even gone as far as to remove the go-karts. What made the original title so much fun was that you raced on pretty tight and twisty go-kart tracks. In 150cc mode it was a challenge to get around the track at full speed and required much hopping and sliding to stay on the track. Battle modes too were an art, with well timed red shell "boomeraning back down the adjacent passage into your opponents path. It was a beautiful balanced game. This was lost in the N64 version, where many tracks lost the sense of speed, tracks were too wide so it took less skill to navigate them, and the battle mode maps were pretty poor in comparison to the playability of the SNES version. Along comes GBA version and is universally acclaimed. It redeems the license. Mario Kart is once again great. All Nintendo needed to do was take the exact same levels and gameplay mechanics, and stretch them up vertically on the z-axis to make them 3d, whilst keeping the dimensions the same. The slap on some nice pretty textures, and bingo.. perfect Mario Kart in a real 3d world instead of pseudo 3D mode 7. Do they? No. They give us a sequel to MK64, and its back to dire arcade racing targetted at kids. All I wanted was full screen 4 player MK from the GBA brought upto date on the GC. That would sell in droves, whereas this, I fear, will not. MK64 was a disappointment, and I'd bet this will be too. Depressing.
IGN Preview 23rd April
? Its generally accepted that the SNES and GBA versions of Mario Kart were much much better than the N64 version. Yet what do they give us? A game which is clearly based on the N64 version. Big wide tracks, including those city based ones, and they've even gone as far as to remove the go-karts. What made the original title so much fun was that you raced on pretty tight and twisty go-kart tracks. In 150cc mode it was a challenge to get around the track at full speed and required much hopping and sliding to stay on the track. Battle modes too were an art, with well timed red shell "boomeraning back down the adjacent passage into your opponents path. It was a beautiful balanced game. This was lost in the N64 version, where many tracks lost the sense of speed, tracks were too wide so it took less skill to navigate them, and the battle mode maps were pretty poor in comparison to the playability of the SNES version. Along comes GBA version and is universally acclaimed. It redeems the license. Mario Kart is once again great. All Nintendo needed to do was take the exact same levels and gameplay mechanics, and stretch them up vertically on the z-axis to make them 3d, whilst keeping the dimensions the same. The slap on some nice pretty textures, and bingo.. perfect Mario Kart in a real 3d world instead of pseudo 3D mode 7. Do they? No. They give us a sequel to MK64, and its back to dire arcade racing targetted at kids. All I wanted was full screen 4 player MK from the GBA brought upto date on the GC. That would sell in droves, whereas this, I fear, will not. MK64 was a disappointment, and I'd bet this will be too. Depressing. IGN Preview 23rd April
