| Super Mario Kart |
 
Ah yes, Super Mario Kart, the beginning of the short-lived "Kart Racing" Genre of video games of which it also seems to have outlived. Super Mario Kart was the game that spawned a whole genre of "wacky racing kart" games on a variety of platforms including Skunny Kart and Wacky Wheels for the PC.
Super Mario Kart is a go-kart racing game where all the tracks are Mario themed, and you can race as either Mario, Luigi, Bowser Koopa, Princess, Toad, Yoshi, a Koopa Troopa, or Donkey Kong. This is where it all began. You had 5HP and 12HP karts to race, annd three circuits - four actually - Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and there's a 4th hidden one you get if you beat all three "cups". Outside of that, it's a pretty simple game, just race around the track, avoiding obstacles and weaponized projectiles (also mario themed) hurled at you. There was also a "death match" mode where your cart has "balloons" floating around it and you shoot projectiles at each other to blow out each other's balloons. The game sold well and was well recieved and is currently considered a classic in the SNES catalog. Today, Super Mario Kart is now on a higher insallment. For the N64 there was Mario Kart 64, there have also been versions for the Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, DS, and Switch - that last one I have recently played. So it's still a successful franchise, kind of like how Tetris is, but with a narrower band of distribution opportunities.Mario Goes Kiddish & A lil' about Clones - My Experiences I think I borrowed this from someone back in the day and played it a lot. I actually was pretty good at it, and that's good because I like racing games. The fun thing about this one was the sheer hilarity of the kid-like vibes with the sport of racing go-karts centered around it. Just my thoughts on certain tracks....see below... That Crazy Course with The Gophers - (crazy summer watermelon parade music starts).... (lap one), oh, it's nice out, the sun is shining, the grass is green, this "S" turn nis harrowing, but otherwise, a nice course...(lap two)..ah ye....uh....WTF?!?! (bouncing gophers), lay back down you guys, stop it! Stop bouncing up and down (one latches to racer's face) YEAHHHHSHHRHHHD##%!#%!#% - GET THE HECK OFFA MAH FACE!!! (starts frantically tapping L & R to get him off, then crashes into a lake) Lakitu: "Can you please stay out of the water" "go back, go gack" "you're going in the wrong direction" (beep beep beep beep). The Beachside Course - This feels more like I'm doing a conga-line of go-karts around the Bermuda Triangle than in an actual race! Chocolate Mountain - Uh, seriously, let's not go there, this track looks like s***! So as you can see, I find some pretty serious humor in this game. Wacky Wheels tried to ramp up the formula a bit by putting Squirrels on Toilets reading newspapers in the middle of the track for absolutley no good reason. Seriously, this genre outside of Nintendo go so ridiculous I'm surprise "Mr. Hankey's Go Kart Race" was not a thing. Howdy Ho! |
