The Mario Kart Retrospective. Part Eight - Mario Kart 8

This was the first Mario Kart I played at the time, although I've gone back and dabbled with the preceeding three a little. It didn't get as much as play as the Wii one has had, because I didn't have friends over as regularly then as I do now. Everything everyone else has said is spot on though; the sheer bonkers-ness of this game really shines, even now. And it looks great, too, maybe even better than the Wii one. Mario Kart always made more sense on home consoles, even when the handheld ones are better, so this is the game for 8 to beat.

I loved Double Dash and I spent many a gaming session playing it with my brother. Also fond memories of the All Cup which I don't think we've seen since

Love me some double dash, especially some multiplayer.

Drunka how come MK:DD was your first, didn't you start gaming on SNES (thinking of your age).

He's younger than I am, and I only started with the 64!

I still love DD!!

I took it for a spin the other night to give myself something to talk about, and I was reminded why I dislike key elements of the game so much. Cars are slow, handling is horribly sluggish, and not being able to jump in to powerslides feels so odd.

On the plus side, Double Dash!! gave us some of the best tracks of any Mario Kart game: Mushroom Bridge, Peach Beach, Mario Circuit, Mushroom City, Baby Park, Yoshi Circuit, DK Mountain. And a superb multiplayer mode in Shine Thief, I'd give anything to have this back, it was a blast.

Just like others I had good times on double dash! especially the multiplayer where me & my brother would co-op the races usually swapping who drives on each lap/race depending on how we felt about a track.

Also two to a kart explains the no hop drift

masofdas wrote:

Love me some double dash, especially some multiplayer.

Drunka how come MK:DD was your first, didn't you start gaming on SNES (thinking of your age).

Before the GameCube, I didn't have any home consoles. My nan had a master system and my dad had (and I think still has) a PS1 but I only had a Game Boy. I think I dabbled in the SNES and N64 games around friend's houses, but they would never be my first choice.

andyman949 wrote:

Also fond memories of the All Cup which I don't think we've seen since

Yes! That's what I was going to say. Although in the games following DD they all had 32 tracks instead of 16, so I guess that is better on balance.

I liked DD because it was such a progression from 64. Like that jump on DK Mountain - compare that to the one from Royal Raceway and it's so much... better.

Programming note: Today's the last day to discuss Double Dash!! Tomorrow, and every Saturday from now on, I'll be posting the intros for the final three Mario Kart games to date.

Baby Park was quality, wasn't it? And the chain chomp was neater, and made more sense, than the bullet bill.

Bowser shells in Baby Park. Brilliant. Now, if they included that in MK8, it would have been a decent battle arena.

A little over two years later, Mario Kart arrived on the DS, Nintendo's trailblazing dual screen system. Mario Kart DS went back to basics, gone were the two character vehicles, and back came the karts that made the series a staple of Nintendo consoles.




This 64-bit offering included a brand new Mission Mode, it charged players with the task of completing specific tasks, ranging from collecting coins to defeating bosses. Online multiplayer was taken to different heights in DS, giving players the chance to play with friends and strangers from anywhere in the world.


 

What were your experiences with Mario Kart DS like? As always, share your stories, tales and opinions below.

An odd one, this.  I didn't take to it, despite playing more local multiplayer on it than on any Mario Kart before or since.  It seemed to lack soul compared to other entries.  I liked the map thing, I liked some of the tracks (Peach Gardens stands out), and I absolutely adored Mission Mode (bring back for MK9 plz?), but the package as a whole left me cold.

Also, snaking.

Also, DK's face.

I loved MKDS, I poured hours and hours into it both single and DS download play multiplayer. Loved the reward of being able to play as any character in any car as well. As Balla said the mission mode was pretty cool too.

andyman949 wrote:

Loved the reward of being able to play as any character in any car as well.

I didn't like this, actually.  I abused the heck out of it in local MP, playing as Bowser in the Dry Bomber; but it felt wrong shoving his fat spikey backside into the tiny karts, and vice versa.  If they'd kept it with each character having three vehicles to choose from, I'd have preferred that.

LOVED this. Probably one of my most played games of all time. Beat everything in this game, right down to the staff ghosts. There was a time to beat in NOM for the Chain Chomp Challenges wherein I gave myself a legit friction burn from power sliding.

Also, hating on this game for the snaking is way worse than disliking Meteos for the scrubbing.

Bought Mario Kart DS with Tetris DS, not so very long ago. My dislike of handheld Mario Karts actually started there: having been raised on the big screen first, I felt there was something unsatisfying about being reduced to the wee screen. The DS's famed reluctance to get on-line may also have played a role - I never did any multiplayer with it. Looking back, I never really gave it a chance - this Mission Mode y'all are talking about never got touched, for example, which is a massive shame as it sounds awesome. I no longer own it, either (which is also the fate of 7, as it happens).

I had a bit of a fickle thing with MKDS, one minute I'd love it and play it a lot then the next I'd get real bored with it and that was it for months on end. To me it lacked something

Drunkalilly wrote:

Also, hating on this game for the snaking is way worse than disliking Meteos for the scrubbing.

I disagree, for one big reason: online. In the same room, you can punch somebody in the arm if they snake/scrub. You can't do that over the web. Meteos doesn't have online; MKDS does. That said, it was never much of a problem for me because I didn't play it online much.

Like Super Circuit, this is a tough one for me to properly judge as I didn't get me hands on it until 2011. It's a solid enough racer, but like SC, it seems to lack that Mario Kart spark: something feels like it's missing. As for Mission Mode that everyone harps on about, I don't get the love for it, it's not something I'm clambering for a return of.

Just in case you're all not already sick of this phase I'm going through, here's a poem I wrote about Mario Kart DS.

Gave up on the rhyming in the middle paragraph there.  

Godamnit. I meant to swap lines two and three. You saw nothing!

The sixth installment of Mario Kart was released in April 2008, on the Nintendo Wii (which itself launched a few months earlier). At the time, the Wii was the hottest ticket in town, thanks to its revolutionary motion sensitive controller, the Wiimote. MK Wii made use of the remote, coming packaged with a plastic steering wheel shell in to which the Wiimote could be placed.




Mario Kart Wii changed some staple of the series. Firstly, the number of participants per race was increased from eight to twelve. It also saw the debut of bikes to the series, a controversial addition for a number of reasons, including their ability to wheelie, which made them faster than karts over straights.




Mario Kart Wii's online play build upon the groundwork that was laid by its predecessor, but also added the Mario Kart Wii Channel: a standalone app that lived on the Wii's menu screen. Here you could play in special tournament, race against special ghosts, and take part in Nintendo created challenges.




Mario Kart Wii: how did you feel about it? Did you like the addition of bikes? Were you a fan of the twelve driver races, or did you feel they were too big? And how about online? Share your thoughts below.