Mario Kart was, IMO, at its best on the N64. It was a fun, quirky racer with Nintendo all-stars, fun tracks (with the occasional tricksey one) and neat power-ups now and then to give players something more active to help themselves, cause laughs and hijinks.
The Wii game which I played thru at least once, annoyed me massively and gave up in the end. It's fun for the odd bit of local co-op, but not in any other way. I hated fighting or skillfully racing my way to a solid lead, only to be shrunk and run over, knocked off the track, etc. Being in the lead in that game was a horrid experience of constantly losing control of your kart as the game f**ks you up again and again.
I think with the old, basic set of powerups, the game was better. Mushrooms, banana peels, stars, green/red shells, that's it. The lightning, huge bullets, ghosts, leader-seeking shells and the rest are OTT and pushed the game from fun to outright unfun.
It's the same sorta reason I went completely off the NFS series of games. I can't remember which was the last I played, maybe Underground/Undercover/Most Wanted, around that time. I loved the customisation options they introduced and expanded on in the series (NEON!), but the AI was SOOOO infuriating. An AI car could slam into a wall, flip and come to a screeching halt and a moment later, be right by your bumper again. You could be in the lead of a 6 lap race, from the start and almost to the finish, your wing mirror scrapes a wall/dumpster slowing you by 3 mph and the whole track will overtake you and throw you into last place.
Giving the AI a helping hand is one thing, but NFS AI cheats so horribly that I actually felt rage at how cheap and unfair they play. Never bought another NFS since and never will. Have forzas 2-4 (I heard 5 on the XBone is basically a real money store you buy access to on full priced disc?), TDU, Forza Horizon, etc. No patience for cheating AI anymore, so f**k NFS. F**k Mario Kart. F**k the King.
The Wii game which I played thru at least once, annoyed me massively and gave up in the end. It's fun for the odd bit of local co-op, but not in any other way. I hated fighting or skillfully racing my way to a solid lead, only to be shrunk and run over, knocked off the track, etc. Being in the lead in that game was a horrid experience of constantly losing control of your kart as the game f**ks you up again and again.
I think with the old, basic set of powerups, the game was better. Mushrooms, banana peels, stars, green/red shells, that's it. The lightning, huge bullets, ghosts, leader-seeking shells and the rest are OTT and pushed the game from fun to outright unfun.
It's the same sorta reason I went completely off the NFS series of games. I can't remember which was the last I played, maybe Underground/Undercover/Most Wanted, around that time. I loved the customisation options they introduced and expanded on in the series (NEON!), but the AI was SOOOO infuriating. An AI car could slam into a wall, flip and come to a screeching halt and a moment later, be right by your bumper again. You could be in the lead of a 6 lap race, from the start and almost to the finish, your wing mirror scrapes a wall/dumpster slowing you by 3 mph and the whole track will overtake you and throw you into last place.
Giving the AI a helping hand is one thing, but NFS AI cheats so horribly that I actually felt rage at how cheap and unfair they play. Never bought another NFS since and never will. Have forzas 2-4 (I heard 5 on the XBone is basically a real money store you buy access to on full priced disc?), TDU, Forza Horizon, etc. No patience for cheating AI anymore, so f**k NFS. F**k Mario Kart. F**k the King.
