Topic: Series Series - Wii in Third - Next Round finally up!

[broodwars]

DS has the worst track, Yoshi Falls.

I personally always thought Baby Park from Double Dash was the worst, or perhaps Moo Moo Farm from Mario 64.  Sure, Yoshi Falls is by far the worst Yoshi track, but even that track isn't as boring at those two are.

[Stratos]

DS has the worst track, Yoshi Falls.

I personally always thought Baby Park from Double Dash was the worst, or perhaps Moo Moo Farm from Mario 64.  Sure, Yoshi Falls is by far the worst Yoshi track, but even that track isn't as boring at those two are.

Baby Park is a terrible regular racing track. But it's fun is in having max players (4 or 8 if you can LAN) and crazy fun with shells and such flying everywhere.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'd really like to know how you could argue that 64 has a better battle mode than DS.

[Mop it up]

Wow, those are some interesting results. Not only did Mario Kart 64 receive less votes, but Maio Kart Wii won in a landslide.

I'd go with Yoshi Fails as being the worst track in the series as well. Baby Park is pretty poor, but at least it has some uniqueness in the fact that it's the only track which is more like a round of battle than a race.

I think the reason so many of us like Mario Kart 64 is because it's got the right mix of racing and crazy-luck.

I've seen various people say that but I'm still not seeing what's so different about Mario Kart 64 compared to the later games. Mario Kart Wii doesn't seem any more or less luck based; in fact, I'd argue that Mario Kart 64 is even more unbalanced when it comes to items. In MK64 it is possible to get stars and lightning, two of the game's most powerful items, in second place, meaning that first place has more danger to face than just a blue shell. Though, I do think it is still a bit better than Double Dash!!, as the character-specific items really throw that game out of whack.

[UltimatePartyBear]

I daresay that MK64 had the best Battle mode.

I daresay you haven't spent enough time with MKDS's battle mode.

My main gripe with MKDS's battle mode is the bizarrely wide open stages that required nerfing the red shell's target tracking ability and made green shell ricochets a non-issue.  The other stages are fine and the other changes I can remember were all for the better.  I even liked blowing up spare balloons.  It was such an improvement, it makes the Epic Fail that is MK Wii's battle mode all the more depressing.

However, MK64 gave us Block Fort, which is still the greatest battle mode stage in the entire series.  The best one created since is Twilight House.  Pipe Plaza would be truly great, too, if only it were larger.  If the pipes connected to a second area, it would probably be the second best in the series.  Neither of those is as good as MK64's Skyscraper (and if you're going to call me out, Skyscraper's small size and openness are made up for by the opportunities for death-defying escapes, not to mention seeing how far out you can get your minimap icon to go ).

I'd also like to mention how much I miss a feature from the original game's battle mode.  When you ran over an item block, it didn't immediately respawn.  You had to use nearly every item block on the map before they'd all respawn en masse, which made for some very tense moments trying to avoid your opponent while hunting down one of the few remaining blocks.  I'd really like that to be an option in later games.  It would make the upside-down item block a more effective trap, at the very least.

[Stratos]

I daresay that MK64 had the best Battle mode.

I daresay you haven't spent enough time with MKDS's battle mode.

My main gripe with MKDS's battle mode is the bizarrely wide open stages that required nerfing the red shell's target tracking ability and made green shell ricochets a non-issue.  The other stages are fine and the other changes I can remember were all for the better.  I even liked blowing up spare balloons.  It was such an improvement, it makes the Epic Fail that is MK Wii's battle mode all the more depressing.

However, MK64 gave us Block Fort, which is still the greatest battle mode stage in the entire series.  The best one created since is Twilight House.  Pipe Plaza would be truly great, too, if only it were larger.  If the pipes connected to a second area, it would probably be the second best in the series.  Neither of those is as good as MK64's Skyscraper (and if you're going to call me out, Skyscraper's small size and openness are made up for by the opportunities for death-defying escapes, not to mention seeing how far out you can get your minimap icon to go ).

I'd also like to mention how much I miss a feature from the original game's battle mode.  When you ran over an item block, it didn't immediately respawn.  You had to use nearly every item block on the map before they'd all respawn en masse, which made for some very tense moments trying to avoid your opponent while hunting down one of the few remaining blocks.  I'd really like that to be an option in later games.  It would make the upside-down item block a more effective trap, at the very least.

I love blowing up my own balloons. It adds a lot of strategy. Do I not blow one up at first and try to get a mushroom to steal someone elses balloon or do I blow them all up to be safe? I generally blow one up so I have 2 and try to steal the third.

I too liked the limitation on items in the SNES game. It was fun racing around trying to find the last one first.

I also agree that Skyscraper was an awesome multiplayer level. Second only to Block Fort for me.

[Mop it up]

I personally found the Skyscraper to be dull and boring. I wonder what their thought process was when selecting retro battle arenas for Mario Kart Wii, as they chose the worst of the four. Though I guess they didn't want to use Block Fort because of the new level Block Plaza, which is similar but larger. Double Deck would have been awesome with twelve players.

[TheBlackCat]

Baby Park is a terrible regular racing track. But it's fun is in having max players (4 or 8 if you can LAN) and crazy fun with shells and such flying everywhere.

For single-player, yeah baby park is terrible.  But for multiplayer it is one of my favorite courses.  With the short-track, bunched-in players, walls that many items can cross, and lots of laps it is just utter mayhem.  You can never get too far ahead because if you do you start lapping the last players, who have the most powerful weapons and can pummel you. 

I was really disappointed it wasn't in MK Wii.  Actually, I was disappointed MK Wii had no tracks with anything other than 3 laps.  Having longer tracks with fewer laps and shorter tracks with more laps added quite a bit of variation.

[TheBlackCat]

I think the reason so many of us like Mario Kart 64 is because it's got the right mix of racing and crazy-luck.  Beyond that point, there's so many items and track designs that are built around killing you, then defiling your corpse with sex toys that it tends to lose some of the competitive spirit.

Few of the tracks really have truly random threats.  If you learn the tracks and its patterns you can avoid the threats easily enough, and you can balance risk-taking with safety depending on how the course is going and your personal inclination.  This adds a lot of strategy and a lot of benefit to practice, since you can learn just how close you can come to a threat and still be okay, when something will likely be in a certain place and what you can do to avoid it or take advantage of it.  It also means you can't just close your eyes and do the track from memory, you need to actually pay attention to what is going on around you and plan your next move on-the-fly.  I wouldn't consider those cheap or "built around killing you", and it prevents the tracks from getting boring because you actually have to pay attention to what is going on around you in order to get through the fastest.

The only things that I recall that I would really consider cheap and annoying are the random green shells popping out of pipes in Koopa Kape on MK Wii, since they are unpredictable and come at you from behind.

[UncleBob]

Mario Kart Arcade GP 2    - 0 (0%)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)    - 3 (15%)
Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA)    - 1 (5%)
I have no opinion on the remaining titles    - 1 (5%)
Mario Kart 64 (N64)    - 4 (20%)
Mario Kart Wii    - 10 (50%)
Mario Kart: Double Dash (GCN)    - 1 (5%)
Mario Kart Arcade GP    - 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 20

[UncleBob]

This is the first time the losing title from a tie-breaker vote didn't win the next round.  Weird.

[Mop it up]

I'm going to go with Mario Kart Double Dash!! since it is the only one which remains that I can tolerate. Though due to its reputation I don't expect it to be able to take third.

This is the first time the losing title from a tie-breaker vote didn't win the next round.  Weird.

It does seem rather odd, especially considering that it had even less votes. But it goes to show why the game that loses the tie-breaker is still in the poll and not declared automatic second, because you never know!

[TJ Spyke]

I agree with Mop, Double Dash is a great game that gets an unusual amount of hate. I am going with it again.

[NWR_insanolord]

I went with MK64 this time, because, even though it doesn't hold up that well today, I had a lot of fun with it back in the day, and that's more than I can say about any of the other remaining titles.

[Luigi Dude]

Actually it's not hard to see why Mario Kart Wii got less votes in the first round but ended up winning the second round.  Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS are the two Mario Karts that are the most similar to each other.  Because of this, if someone liked Mario Kart DS as their favorite, chances are Mario Kart Wii is their second favorite since it's basically a continuation of it.  So most of the people who voted for Mario Kart DS in the first round, voted for Mario Kart Wii in the second round.

No real surprise here.

[UncleBob]

[NWR_insanolord]

Actually it's not hard to see why Mario Kart Wii got less votes in the first round but ended up winning the second round.  Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS are the two Mario Karts that are the most similar to each other.  Because of this, if someone liked Mario Kart DS as their favorite, chances are Mario Kart Wii is their second favorite since it's basically a continuation of it.  So most of the people who voted for Mario Kart DS in the first round, voted for Mario Kart Wii in the second round.

No real surprise here.

That still doesn't explain how Mario Kart 64 got fewer votes in the second poll than in the first.

[UncleBob]

Well, in the first poll, there were 21 voters, where only 20 people participated - so that explains one of the votes.

In the second poll, someone voted for MKDD and MKSC, whereas only ten people voted for MKDS (six voted in the first round for it and five voted for MKWii).  So, either one person completely changed their vote from MK64 to MKDD or MKSC or two people who voted for MK64 didn't vote at all.

[DAaaMan64]

I'd really like to know how you could argue that 64 has a better battle mode than DS.

BLOCK FORT

DS has the worst track, Yoshi Falls.

I personally always thought Baby Park from Double Dash was the worst, or perhaps Moo Moo Farm from Mario 64.  Sure, Yoshi Falls is by far the worst Yoshi track, but even that track isn't as boring at those two are.

Moo Moo Farm is an excellent track. Its one of my favorites from the N64 days. And Baby Park is only good for its craziness, but its a  lot of good.

[UncleBob]

For what it's worth, Baby Park is the track I always play whenever I get a new GameCube and want to make sure the LAN mode is up and running okay.

I put the Wavebird receiver in multiple GameCubes, set them to the same channels, then crank it all up to Baby Park and play!

[Sarail]

I voted for Mario Kart DS in the first round, and then voted for Super Circuit in the second.  Hmm...

[NWR_insanolord]

I'd really like to know how you could argue that 64 has a better battle mode than DS.

BLOCK FORT

Block Fort is in Mario Kart DS too.

[Peachylala]

I voted for Double Dash since, despite what people may say, has that really good partner system I liked. Some of the special items are useful, others... not so much (Mario/Luigi fireballs).

[DAaaMan64]

I'd really like to know how you could argue that 64 has a better battle mode than DS.

BLOCK FORT

Block Fort is in Mario Kart DS too.

lol I forgot. Well I would suspect that battle mode is a better *experience* on N64 cause your all battling next to each other . But then also because I prefer how the green shells and the red shells felt in the N64 game over all others.

[Mop it up]

I'd really like to know how you could argue that 64 has a better battle mode than DS.

BLOCK FORT

Block Fort is in Mario Kart DS too.

Ah, so that explains its absence in Mario Kart Wii. They wouldn't want to use the same ones again.