Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Series at a Glance: Mario Kart


Super Mario Kart Game Play

Nintendo's top selling racing game started on September 1, 1992 with Super Mario Kart for the SNES. Starting the tradition, there has been a Mario Kart game for every following game system (excluding the Gameboy Color) making it the most popular Mario spin-off series. Players can compete in a Grand Prix style mode, time trials or head to head in multiplayer.

Mario Kart consists of 3 major elements: Various colorful and gimicy racetracks, Characters of different weight and speed classes, and finally, the most important aspect: items.

Race tracks are usually designed based on a theme. In Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart: Super Circuit (for the Gameboy Advance) multiple courses were named and based on the same exact theme. For example, "Mario Circuit 1" appears similar to "Mario Circuit 2"; both are flat and simplistic courses with wide turns. In contrast, "Bowser's Castle 1-4" are based in lava filled courses with jumps and sharp turns. Other games would simply dedicate a single course on one topic such as "Toad's Turnpike" in MK64 or "Wario's Goldmine" in Mario Kart Wii.

 
Select Character Screen from MK 64
Characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses in each game. Only Mario, Peach, Luigi, Toad, Yoshi and Bowser have been playable in every iteration of Mario Kart to date. The number of playable characters varies by game; increasing as more and more characters are developed in the main series. Lightweight characters, such as Toad and Peach typically have cars with high acceleration and handling but can be easily pushed aside by bigger characters. Heavyweight racers like Bowser and Donkey Kong have much poorer acceleration but generally have higher top speeds. Midwieghts are considered to be the most balanced of the group and racers like Mario and Luigi are examples of this group.


Mario Kart Wii Gameplay
Items have been a part of the series since its birth and made it stand out amongst traditional racing games. Rather than relying on the fastest cars and the best reflexes and the attitude of "one bad turn and you'll never finish in first", items allow for supreme comebacks in the forms of offensive, defensive and performance boosting items. Koopa Shells, straight out of Super Mario Bros. act as missiles that can be thrown at other players. Banana Peels can create obstacles that reek havoc on those who spin out on them. Although standard mushrooms don't make your player bigger as you would expect, they instead act as a boost of speed that lets the player speed up for a moment. And finally, the most sought after item is the Starman. This item makes the user invincible and speeds him or her up considerable letting the tides of the race shift in the blink of an eye.






Check out overviews of the entries in this game's series. Click on the titles for more in-depth articles:

Released for the SNES in 1992 and is also available on the Nintendo Wii's Virtural Console. This game started it all. It included eight characters from the Mario series including Mario, Peach, Bowser, Donkey Kong JR, and even a Koopa Troopa. Players would have up to 20 courses to race through and a Grand Prix mode to race for 4 different cups. It also had a multiplayer VS. mode and a balloon battle mode which would be the first of it's kind. The game sold numerous copies and became one of the best sellers for the Super Nintendo.

Released for the N64 in 1996 and is also available on the Nintendo Wii's Virtural Console. On the N64, Mario started out with a bang. Released as the second Mario title for the system, Mario Kart 64 took the series in a new direction. Rather than racing flat characters around static courses, MK 64 brought simulated 3-D graphics utilizing the superior power of the N64. Wario and Donkey Kong replaced Dk JR and Koopa Troopa keeping the roster at 8. 16 new courses were available and unlike the numbering system of Super Mario Kart, each raceway was unique and individual and had some 
connection to a character or location in the Mario Universe. The game also 
has voice acting for each character which is a nice touch when hitting 
your opponents with a Koopa Shell.
The first Mario Kart for a handheld system was Mario Kart Super Circuit. It was released for the Gameboy Advance. Unlike Mario Kart 64, Super Circuit shows that it was heavily influenced by the original game. The handling of Karts is very similar and courses are designed and named in the same way. After beating the game, it also has a very SMK themed surprise but I won't give that away here. It also had a multiplayer system for those who had friends with their own GBAs, gamelink cables and at least 1 cartridge.



Double Dash was the GameCube entry of the Mario Kart series. Aside from presenting sleeker graphics, an expanded character roster, and an adjusted points system it's number one upgrade was in it's name: Double Dash = 2 Characters racing on the same Kart. Rather than picking just one racer, players would choose two characters to act as the driver and the co-pilot. The person in front would act as the driver while the person riding on the back would handle things like throwing and activating items. New courses and new types of obstacles would make this another top contender in the world of racing games.






In case the title doesn't make it obvious enough, Mario Kart DS was released on the Nintendo DS and was the first Mario Kart game to offer Online Multiplayer action. It was also the first game to offer numerous karts for each individual character that had it's own set of stats and not just acceleration, speed, and weight. The top screen acts as the typical racing screen while the touch screen of the DS acts as a map screen that allows the player to see the shape of the course, other racers' locations, and any obstacles that might be coming towords him or herself.


For the 4th generation of Mario Kart console games, Mario Kart Wii returns to single racer karts, but expands on the ideas of multiple karts from Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart DS. And by expand, I mean take it in a whole different direction with the addition of playing with bikes as well as go-karts. The game also offers the largest selection of characters to date with 24. New items, new characters, new courses and a new online system and that seems like a lot. Well here's one more new thing: All Mario Kart games in the past feature races with 8 participants but Mario Kart Wii antes up with 12 racers per race. And last but certainly not least is the game's use of motion control utilizing the Wii-mote and the Wii-Wheel as it's default control system (but can also be played wii-mote and nunchuck style, with the classic controller and with the gamecube controller to suit ever gamer's preference). 




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