Mario Kart (and other kart racers): Damn Blue Spiny Shells

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Mario Kart (and other kart racers): Damn Blue Spiny Shells

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

Double-dash is loving awesome and I think it's my favorite if it isn't 8 Deluxe.

I started on the SNES and played Battle Mode mostly with my sister. Koopa Troopa was my dude as well and I get the pain.

I never played MK64. I don't have Online Expansion + I may get it eventually... I'm still on the fence. Double-dash was what got me good into Mario Kart though and it was probably the only other game that held our attention against Melee at the time (aside from Ribbit King and Top Shop). I got into MK DS a bit but I was never that good at it.

And now I'm back with MK 8 Deluxe. It's excellent and I think I'm pretty ok at it, though there's two cups I still need to get perfect in on 150cc, so I have yet to touch 200cc. I'll have to check which one's they are but one has that Dragon Circuit and I think the other is the new Rainbow Road. I'll get there eventually.

Bleck posted:

Diddy Kong Racing

I would sincerely love an elaboration on this. I know it's adored by many and was maybe a MK killer at the time? They remade it but it was terrible? I've never played other kart racers. Many have tried but none have come close to MK.

Omnikin posted:

On a side note ask me about how much I loving hate items in Mario Kart and wish there was an online mode that prohibited those (standard, non-tourney or whatever)

Yeah... but it really wouldn't be Mario Kart. I think Deluxe definitely has a very tight racing mechanics, but Double-dash felt too arcadey to be legitimate, but I really don't know.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2022 23:00

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 08:14

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

Silver Falcon posted:

Diddy Kong Racing is a kart racer with a story mode, starring Diddy Kong, Banjo, Conker, and various other Rare OCs that only appear in that game.

It has your standard light/medium/heavy split of character classes, drifting, items, boosts, and battle arenas. Except items can upgrade. You get items from different colored balloons: red, blue, green, and rainbow. Get a red balloon and you get a missile (basically a green shell). Pick up a second red balloon (without touching a different color) and you get a homing missile (red shell). Pick up a third red balloon and your missiles are fully powered up and you get 10 missiles. (So think like a triple green shell, except you get 10 of them). There's an element of strategy to it where you decide to use an item right away, or try to upgrade it.

Oh and unlike Mario Kart 64, there are different vehicles! You also get hover crafts and planes.

It also has challenges beyond "get first place in every course." There's the infamous Silver Coin Challenge, where you need to collect 8 Silver Coins scattered throughout the course, and then come in first place. They start out pretty easy, but pretty soon you end up having to go pretty out of your way to get them, so it becomes a challenge to claw your way back up to first place.

Imo it's a better game than Mario Kart 64, but not any later Mario Karts, of course. It's still an N64 game.

The DS remake of it is terrible because they didn't get the licensing to any of the original Rare characters like Banjo and Conker. Instead of replacing them with characters of a similar weight class, they just threw Dixie and Tiny in, and they were both "average" class like Diddy was. It made the roster a lot more boring. Oh and also to get a boost from the starting line you had to spin a fan on your touchscreen like cranking up a windup toy. I'm not kidding. It was extremely dumb.

Interestingly, Sony tried their hand at a kart racer on the Playstation called Crash Team Racing (CTR), and it was heavily touted as a "Mario Kart killer". As a child, I wrote it off as a blatant ripoff of Mario Kart and never played it.

Turns out it's a ripoff of Diddy Kong Racing. If I had known that I would have played it instead of ignoring it until the remake came out a few years ago. I love Diddy Kong Racing and CTR is also very good.

Awesome write-up. Thank you.

My PS1 owning best friend had CTR. We played it a bit and it was fun. It was definitely that generation's Kart game for me, as I never got MK 64. I got my N64 near the end of the cycle with Majora's Mask and Smash 64. Then the GC got got for Melee and I eventually got Double Dash, which is unquestionably a blast. I'm happy they have that Yoshi Circuit in 8 Deluxe because I love that track.

I rolled with Koopa and Parakoopa ideally, maybe taking Yoshi, who was my go-to the few times I played MK64. Great weapons and great team.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2022 20:07

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

Well maybe knowing what they're going up against they figured they didn't stand a chance so they might as well go for broke and try very hard for every last cent.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2022 23:02

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

We played far more of the kart mini game in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle than it deserved.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2022 10:00

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

Sorry about the double-post.

Keep forgetting to add this.

Friend code: SW-5181-2261-0743

# ¿ Mar 13, 2022 19:30

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

FINALLY beat Mirror Mode 3 Starring the whole thing.

Gotta do 200cc now and WOAH. It's a trip. It's good stuff though. I can finally play Koopa again. I'm going to wrap these up and get the DLC. I'm happy this has gotten into Mario Kart again.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 18:15

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 08:14

100YrsofAttitude: Apr 29, 2013

chaleski posted:

So I guess the new courses just aren't online yet?

I think it's time to pick a new character, like half the people online are Waliugi and I'm tired of being one of them

They're not. It'll be a week.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2022 13:19

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