Blue hedgehogs, blue shells, and blue jorts. 🏎️

June 21, 2019 7:25 AM

Much more than Mario Kart: The history of kart racers [Ars Technica] “No video game genre divides and unifies us like the kart racer. For every Mario Kart there are a dozen by-the-numbers cash-ins, and even that hallowed series receives regular criticism as too derivative. But while we all breathe a collective sigh of disappointment with each kid-friendly license that predictably goes the generic kart-racing route, it's hard not to get excited by that rare entry that feels fresh and new. A great kart racer is a joyous thing. It's accessible yet deep, fun yet primed for oh-so-serious competition between friends, and full of colorful, wacky charm. It is a game for everyone. So in keeping with the spirit of the genre—and as the latest edition in our gaming genre history series that includes city builders, graphic adventures, and simulation games—it's time to ride through the ups and downs of kart racing.”

• 20 Years On, It's Time To Admit: Crash Team Racing Is Better Than Mario Kart [Esquire]

“The way that pop cultural memory picks out and preserves some artefacts is odd, isn’t it? Now, Mario Kart 64 is the one karting game that lives on. Released in 1996, it became the second-best-selling game on the N64 with more than 9.6 million units sold and defined who knows how many house parties, post-pub sessions and the hours after school between the end of the kickabout and the beginning of your tea. [...] But no. No. I’m sorry, no. No, no, no. No. No. Nooooo. Crash Team Racing was and remains the greatest racing game ever conceived. Today, though, it feels like it’s been almost completely overshadowed by the one featuring that lovesick moustachioed sadsack and his idiot brother.”

• Kart Racers Are Back, But Can Both Sonic And Crash Keep Up With Mario Kart? [Gamespot]

“By the time Team Sonic Racing launches on May 21, it will have been almost seven years since the last game in the series, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, graced our consoles. In that time, only one kart racing franchise of note has stuck around: Mario Kart. [...] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on Nintendo Switch with nearly 17 million copies shifted. Mario Kart 8 was also the best-selling game on Wii U with 8.5 million units sold. That's all well and good, but it's a five-year-old game, and there's only so many times I can go round Mario Kart Stadium (and only so many times I can bear getting hit by a blue shell). I need some new challengers.”

• Team Sonic Racing review: “Miles behind other kart racers” [GamesRadar+]

“It's incredible to think about how much of a monopoly Nintendo has own the kart racing genre. Mario Kart has been the dominant force in kart racing genre for the last 20 years, making mushrooms synonymous with speed boosts. Most standards we judge other racers by come from Mario's time behind the wheel and few games have come close to matching his prowess. Unfortunately for Sega, Team Sonic Racing falls short in almost every way. Its driving is stiff and clunky, race tracks are nonsensical in their design and decoration, and small elements - like cutscene presentation and item design - feel uninvolved and boring. Some parts of Sonic's road trip are enjoyable, like the team mechanics the entire game is based around, but not enough to make me want to stay behind the wheel longer than I have to. Like it or not, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the standard for kart racing today and Team Sonic Racing can't compare.”

• Kart Komparison! Which cute racing game offers the most? [Den of Geek!]

“There used to be more than one karting game to choose from. Older readers may need to describe this time to youngsters, but people of a certain vintage (basically, you need to have enough years on the clock to remember the nineties) will recall this rivalry well. Nintendo's Mario Kart franchise took an early lead, kicking off the trend in 1992 with Super Mario Kart for the SNES. Six home-console games, three portable titles and four arcade games have followed in the Mario Kart series, with each one refining the art of throwing banana peels to hitherto undreamt of levels of excellence. Sega's iconic speedster Sonic joined the kart race in 1995 with Sonic Drift for the Game Gear. Its follow-ups spanned numerous guises and devices, including such curious entries as 1997's Sonic R for Sega Saturn, which did away with the karts (in favour of running) and became Sonic's first all-3D outing. A new challenger entered in 1999, with Crash Team Racing becoming a favourite on the PS1, before spawning a couple of sequels (2003's Crash Nitro Kart and 2005's Tag Team Racing) that spread Mr Bandicoot's car-based adventures onto loads of other consoles.”

• Is There Really Enough of a Nostalgia Factor for a Nickeloden Kart Racing Game? [Paste Magazine]

“But the question is there nonetheless: as a network that is fighting to maintain its relevance in the face of YouTube and Cartoon Network, is nostalgia really enough to carry anything built on Nickelodeon properties? Undoubtedly this is a game that seeks to chase Nintendo’s success with both Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. These two series have been immensely popular in part because they rely on a wide roster of already-established characters that the audience has been familiar with for decades. While the games themselves are very fun to play, arguably a huge portion of their appeal is sheer nostalgia, without which these Nintendo titles might not be nearly as entertaining. Where fun is concerned, the comfortable will always win out over the unfamiliar. Imitators have attempted to copy this formula before. Anyone remember the ill-fated PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the fighting game from 2012?”

• Wipeout's co-creator looks back at three decades of racing games [Polygon]

“Nick Burcombe has spent most of his career chasing Super Mario Kart's shadow. The Wipeout co-creator and Playrise founder remembers a time, before Wipeout's release, when Shigeru Miyamoto and his entourage came to the game's E3 stand to check it out. "It took all my effort not to run up to him and start screeching about how Mario Kart was the best game ever and how it had been a massive influence on my thinking about Wipeout's game structure," he recalls. Instead, he froze, gave a slight bow, smiled for a moment and tried to hand Miyamoto a game controller. "He smiled back, bowed a little and thanked me before moved on to the next part of the stand."”

posted by Fizz (15 comments total)

Wait, a negative review of a Sonic game?
posted by Caduceus at 7:32 AM on June 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

I love MarioKart forever. There's an excellent episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed in which John Green reviews Super Mario Kart and the Bonneville Salt Flats and the half on 'kart really hits many of the reasons why it is such a wonderful game.

I will also defend to my death Wave Race 64, which was a jetski-based racing game for the N64 and was stellar.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:38 AM on June 21, 2019

There's a better world where F-Zero became the de facto arcade-y racing experience for multiple console generations.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:44 AM on June 21, 2019 [8 favorites]

Crash Team Racing > Mario Kart.
posted by Fizz at 7:56 AM on June 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm just glad consensus is finally coming around that CTR is better than Mario Kart. CTR WAS my Mario Kart growing up.

I'm stoked to pick up the remaster.
posted by Twain Device at 8:49 AM on June 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Does Micro Machines (N64) count? Because that was/is a fun game!
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:25 AM on June 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Kind of stunned that the "history of kart racers" article doesn't mention R.C. Pro-Am. Sure, they're RC cars rather than "karts", but it's definitely a precursor to that kind of vehicular combat, third-person camera, item-collecting, obstacles-on-the-tracks racing game. Here's a video review.
posted by oulipian at 11:23 AM on June 21, 2019 [6 favorites]

R.C. Pro-Am is dynamite, still lots of fun. I’d be very much up for an enhanced HD version.

Looking forward to Crash Team Racing on Switch later today.
posted by porn in the woods at 11:32 AM on June 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

I mean, Re-Volt was kind of a new RC Pro-Am, just without the official race trappings. Frankly I'd love to see new versions of both.
posted by gc at 11:49 AM on June 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

they're RC cars rather than "karts", but it's definitely a precursor to that kind of vehicular combat, third-person camera, item-collecting, obstacles-on-the-tracks

I never really thought about it until you just mentioned it, but holy shit, you're right. It's definitely a precursor to the modern era 'kart rarer' type of game. I have such fond memories of playing this game over and over again. I think I managed to upgrade to the 3rd or 4th car/kart.

Also, fuck those oil-patches.
posted by Fizz at 1:22 PM on June 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

Where Mario Kart reveled in luck and drama, DKR was a game of skill. It offered consistency rather than chaos in its mechanics, and you seldom won a race without earning it.

Diddy Kong Racing was an awesome game, and I'd rank it above MK64 for sure, but I can't help but think that people who think Mario Kart is all luck are great case studies for Dunning-Kruger in action.
posted by invitapriore at 1:45 PM on June 21, 2019

Played Crash Team Racing on Switch for a bit (in docked mode) - performance is solid, but load times are lengthy and I sure miss 60fps like in Mario Kart. Still nice to have for when I’m burned out on MK8.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:47 PM on June 21, 2019

Indeed, load times for CTR is not the greatest but it's also not a deal-breaker. And I imagine future patches might reduce them a bit. Definitely still worth your dollar$.
posted by Fizz at 5:34 PM on June 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Out of the Super Mario Kart series, I've only played the SNES and N64 versions. I will always like the original. While the N64 version had some cool tracks, there were a couple things about it that felt kind of off-putting. It didn't feel as precise as the original. And when you used a mushroom, there was something about how the camera or characters moved that seemed to negate the impression that you were actually going faster, or at least made it hard to gauge your speed.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:35 PM on June 21, 2019

Sonic R is the only Sonic racing game that matters because it's the only one that correctly assumes Sonic would never deign to race on anything other than his own two feet. Also, every song in the game sounds like they're singing about drugs.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:23 PM on June 21, 2019 [1 favorite]