Are Mario Games Starting to Decline?

[speedfreak]

Just wanted to chime in on why Mario Kart Wii was a huge step down from any other Mario Kart title. The Battle mode was complete shit! My friends and I like the racing in Mario Kart enough, but the Battle mode is the main event to us. Mario Kart Wii Battle mode was just completely awful. We go back to either Double Dash or Mario Kart 64 off the VC when we want a Mario Kart fix, while Mario Kart Wii sits there rotting.

Edit: Oh also the rubber banding was worse than ever. It might have had something to do with having 12 racers instead of 8 though.

Edited December 30, 2010 by speedfreak

[Conando]

The whole "turn but ahahahaha not really wait five seconds" thing, sort of annoying.

[Chooch]

I'd still rather play Mario Kart Wii over any other Mario Kart game right now regardless of all its problems. 64 has aged fucking horribly (I mean, just fucking look at it) and I thought Double Dash!! was garbage back when it first came out. Who knows what I'd think if I ever played it again.

Wii also has the added benefits of a large roster, a lot of tracks from the previous Mario Kart games as well as online play. I agree that the Battle mode is pretty awful tho'. I don't bother with it in Wii.

Edited December 31, 2010 by Chooch

[Sean]

I am of the righteous notion that Mario Kart DS is the definitive MK game. Though the older games have an advantage for not punishing you for driving well.

[Light]

Mario makes me wish that I didn't avoid Nintendo. The only Super Mario Bros. games that I've completed were the first one and the Lost Levels. I've only grazed the other Super Mario 3D titles.

[Scar]

I am of the righteous notion that Mario Kart DS is the definitive MK game. Though the older games have an advantage for not punishing you for driving well.

Its that god forsaken Blue Shell. Many a time it has ruined a smooth victory when playing against friends.

Thankfully, you can avoid the Blue Shell detonation in MKDS if you power slide with the correct timing, something you can't do in MKWii

[Rave92]

Nope, not really. Mario games are played for the gameplay it self, the great fun you have while playing it, not for some great story because neither Mario or Sonic were made with some great story (in the 80/90's). Sure story is repetitive, but that just proves how Mario franchise is strong, that it gets better and better every new release with same/similar story, because fans expect awesome game, not story. On the other hand, Sonic was Aladin, knight, werehog and what not and it wasn't successful until Sonic Colors came out with... know what? GOOD GAMEPLAY. Colors story is nothing special, but game was, and that's the Mario formula that kept Mario one of best selling games 'till today. Nintendo transformed Mario into 3D successfully, while we can't say that for Sonic. These two game franchise can't compare today like they could in the 90's.

[Carbo]

I'd still rather play Mario Kart Wii over any other Mario Kart game right now regardless of all its problems. 64 has aged fucking horribly (I mean, just fucking look at it) and I thought Double Dash!! was garbage back when it first came out. Who knows what I'd think if I ever played it again.

Wii also has the added benefits of a large roster, a lot of tracks from the previous Mario Kart games as well as online play. I agree that the Battle mode is pretty awful tho'. I don't bother with it in Wii.

If any game feels like it's aged it's Super Mario Kart. People keep hailing it as the best racing game ever but I don't see it at all. I still preffer Mario Kart 64 over any other MK game. It's fast, feels thrilling, fun, has the most interesting maps and has a kick-ass battle mode. So long as your controller works. Also, like Super Smash Bros. 64, I know this is an incredibly silly point to put as a preference but seriously, the fucking music. This was back in the day when Nintendo actually made the music feel like a badass arcade game. Now the latest Mario Kart has that quirky cartoony shit which I despise and sounds all the more incredibly played out. Smash 64 is kind of the same with a much superior soundtrack, but instead the later games suffer from all that "epic" feel which I didn't think suited the series to begin with.

So yeah, in my opinion:

Mario Kart 64 = Mario Kart DS > Mario Kart Super Circuit > Mario Kart Double Dash!! > Super Mario Kart > Mario Kart Wii

Edited December 31, 2010 by Carbo

[speedfreak]

I'd still rather play Mario Kart Wii over any other Mario Kart game right now regardless of all its problems. 64 has aged fucking horribly (I mean, just fucking look at it) and I thought Double Dash!! was garbage back when it first came out. Who knows what I'd think if I ever played it again.

Wii also has the added benefits of a large roster, a lot of tracks from the previous Mario Kart games as well as online play. I agree that the Battle mode is pretty awful tho'. I don't bother with it in Wii.

That's my point though. Battle mode is the main event to me. With the Battle mode in MKWii being so bad I hardly bother with the game. Instead I'll play MKDD, MK64, or MKDS.

Mario Kart Wii was one of my biggest disappointments of the console.

You don't think that's the way Battle mode will be from now on do you? If it is I'm pretty much finished with the series.

Edited December 31, 2010 by speedfreak

[Scar]

Just because Mario hasn't really had a proper story doesn't mean he can't or doesn't need one.

I'm sorry, but the bullshit they pulled with SMG2's story was just lazy. Not only did they retcon SMG1's story, but they made it worse.

[Sean]

Smash 64 is kind of the same with a much superior soundtrack, but instead the later games suffer from all that "epic" feel which I didn't think suited the series to begin with.

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Brawl's main theme is pretentious to the utmost maximus. Latin chanting does not belong in a game where you use Kirby to fight Pikachu. In fact, it doesn't belong anywhere. I hate it.

However, I think Melee's music was still in the correct range, just tweaked to accommodate for the larger roster and more polished gameplay.

[speedfreak]

I thought that the end of Galaxy 1 had Rosalina "reseting" everything that happened. So while it did happen only Rosalina remembers it.

[edge.]

I thought that the end of Galaxy 1 had Rosalina "reseting" everything that happened. So while it did happen only Rosalina remembers it.

Wait, so SMG pulled a Sonic 06? WTF?

[RidersDX]

Wait, so SMG pulled a Sonic 06? WTF?

I didn't know that and I actually completed that game. Shows how much I paid attention to the story.

[Ebby]

I'm not a Mario person, but Galaxy is a good game. Seriously, it's enjoyable, freaking gorgeous to look at, and it's not very difficult but there's so replay value that you'll find yourself wanting to get all of those stars. Galaxy 2 on the other hand falls so flat for me it's not even funny. I feel like they could have done so much with Yoshi and all they did was give him silly little fruit powers that can be frustrating and annoying to use. Whoever thought of the yellow fruit should be shot.

As for the series getting stale, it's Mario, it's a series that keeps true to it's roots and that's it's appeal. Not to mention they have Mario games for all. I just bought Super Princess Peach and I really like it. I'm quite bad at Mario, but this game is like Mario for noobs + PMS XD. It's a winner in my books!

[Diogenes]

Wait, so SMG pulled a Sonic 06? WTF?

Not exactly; '06 was a time travel reset, Galaxy had the universe be destroyed and recreated. And it doesn't really make sense for no one to remember it; they all wound up around Peach's castle, and Mario specifically talked to Rosalina while or shortly after the universe was reborn, and also ended the game by welcoming the new "galaxy".

[speedfreak]

Not exactly; '06 was a time travel reset, Galaxy had the universe be destroyed and recreated. And it doesn't really make sense for no one to remember it; they all wound up around Peach's castle, and Mario specifically talked to Rosalina while or shortly after the universe was reborn, and also ended the game by welcoming the new "galaxy".

I chalk that up to poor story planning. It's obvious that story was NOT the focus. It still mostly fits together pretty nicely considering though.

[SuperStingray]

If there's one thing I preferred about Galaxy to Galaxy 2, it's the soundtrack. Not that Galaxy 2's wasn't great, but it didn't have the same sense of grandeur as the first.

[Saint Nathan]

If there's one thing I preferred about Galaxy to Galaxy 2, it's the soundtrack. Not that Galaxy 2's wasn't great, but it didn't have the same sense of grandeur as the first.

We need to take this outside.

There is nothing about Galaxy 1, except for story, that Galaxy 2 didn't do hundreds of times better.

Hell, they even made the (insert name of galaxy with bee mushroom here) Galaxy music way better in Galaxy 2.

[SuperStingray]

We need to take this outside.

[Ferno]

Paper Mario tTYD was awesome. One of the best written RPGs I've ever played, and it had awesome gameplay and graphics to boot.

I was honestly a little disappointed when Chronicles didn't match up to it considering Bioware of all people were at the helm. :<

[/has nothing to do with the current discussion]

[Scar]

We need to take this outside.

There is nothing about Galaxy 1, except for story, that Galaxy 2 didn't do hundreds of times better.

Hell, they even made the (insert name of galaxy with bee mushroom here) Galaxy music way better in Galaxy 2.

[SuperStingray]

Frankly, I thought some of the tunes in SMG1 were more catchy, but others were rather bland, but the SMG2 soundtrack was generally more consistant.

Really depends on taste though

[JezMM]

I think what irked me about the Galaxy 1 soundtrack is all the grand orchestral themes get used for one level and all the lame midi tracks get used multiple times. Thankfully they fixed that in Galaxy 2 by making almost all of it grand orchestral stuff (and reused Bouy Base Galaxy's theme for good measure, almost as an apology for how little gameplay we got to enjoy with that music before lol).

I will say though as well as story, I wish we had got such a cosy magical little hub in Galaxy 2. Though in both games I missed the ability to search the hub and find secret levels like 64 and Sunshine had.