super mario karted

finally beat the special cup (just 100cc, sadly) of super mario kart. i’m not a big fan of racers in general, and i had mixed feelings about the game. a significant chunk of my ambivalence may be due to my lack of fully mastering the power slide which i’d only really used on the occasional hairpin turns. but after viewing some of the many videos on youtube it seems to be a much more essential technique at the higher levels than i’d thought, esp. w/ mario who was the character i was using. since i wasn’t constantly power sliding, the central use of weapons seemed to add a significant element of chance, in a way that was a bit frustrating when i compared it to a game like f-zero GX.

anyway, this was the first time i’d really sat down and played any of the mario kart games. from what i’ve read the series seems to have a reputation for having unfair computer-controlled opponents. i’ll have to wait and see about the others, but at first i felt that in this iteration the computer-controlled characters did seem to have the advantage in that they have unlimited weapons, not to mention abilities that seem impossible, e.g. almost immediately recovering from getting hit by a shell or suddenly catching up from being last. after playing for awhile, though, the computer’s advantages didn’t seem too unbalanced to me since they don’t get to use weapons during the first lap and their actions are all fairly predictable. psychologically, though, it does seem like a questionable game design to have the opponents’ abilities be so different from the player’s, something i think other entries in the series has remedied to some extent. another complaint i seem to hear a lot is that the players near last place get better items than those near the head of the pack, but i found this to be a good way to help even things out a bit and help you recover if you make a mistake.

after getting schooled by special cup 100cc (@#$%!in’ rainbow road!!!1!) i’m not even going to try to get into 150cc at the moment. but all in all despite not becoming a fan of the series overall i had a decent time playing this game, with the mix of fun and annoyance that i’ve come to expect (and kind of hate) from racing games in general. i have a stack of them accumulated, though, so i’ll prob. try another one before too long. oh, and let’s not forget the enduring legacy of this game, the original mario kart, which has had its a score of emulators. not surprising, seeing as it’s another game produced by the venerable miyamoto.

but for now, get karted with some mario kart links:
- PDF of instruction manual at replacementdocs.com. has info on power sliding, character stats, and collecting coins.
- course maps at snesmaps.com
- pretty decent FAQ
- youtube is full of videos, but this one of bowser on rainbow road is pretty cool. talk about power sliding!
- entry at strategywiki
- entry at wikipedia
- hard-core group of competitive mario kart racers online

mario’s got a tanooki suit; i’ve got tanooki mario on a tee

still catching up on things, but hopefully this will be the last random post before a proper review post. i was out of town for work this past week, and pretty much the only good thing about it is that i came across these awesome nintendo t-shirts at a random mall in a store called hot topic. apparently these officially-licensed shirts have been out for a while and are sold at a lot of other places (at least online), but i must have been completely out of the loop b/c if i’d known i’d def. have bought some before now. i don’t recall seeing anything like the number of designs at the the nintendo world store in NY so maybe they haven’t been out for too long (the girl in the store said they’d been out for at least a couple of years), or maybe it’s just been longer than i thought since i was last there.

anyway, after i snapped up a couple of shirts at that store, i immediately checked their online store for sizes of shirts i’d kind of liked but they hadn’t had. but then i found some other places that also sell nintendo shirts online, namely this store on ebay called zanybunny and a site called myteespot.com. the three places carry slightly different stuff and i spent way too much time looking through them all, but i ended up going with myteespot b/c they had the most designs (including patches, hoodies, buttons, caps, keychains, wristbands, and more) and free shipping for orders over $50. as a nintendo fanboy i’m totally psyched to have the shirts, but as a somewhat socialized human being i haven’t quite decided how willing i am to expose my geekiness in public. in the right situation a nintendo shirt could make a great conversation starter … but you might want to think twice about wearing them to certain places. somehow i think they’d be less appreciated at, oh, your workplace, your 10-year high school reunion, the gym, and pretty much anywhere you’re trying to attract a mate. otherwise, it’s mario wearin’ the freakin’ tanooki suit FTW!!!1!

IGN readers’ choice: top 100 games of all time

behind on my game playing, mostly b/c of work. here’s another worthwhile link for ya, though. in my last post i mentioned that the same games tend to show up on “top games of all time” lists over and over again. this seems to be especially true of the IGN readers’ poll; at least, that was my first impression when i read through this year’s list. i’m a sucker for a good list, and after the first devouring of this one i’ve taken a closer look and realized it has a bit more variation than i’d originally thought, although still not as much as when compared to the editors’ poll. but i did notice the same thing that i had noticed in the previous readers’ polls: namely, that the readers’ choice list tends to favor recent releases, but as time passes the truly great remain on the list (i.e. the classically great, instead of the faddy favorites). the lists also seem to favor certain genres and pretty much completely ignore classic games (e.g. anything NES era and before), which of course leaves a huge gap.

nevertheless, some interesting things about this year’s list are that all three of the metroid prime games made the list (along with the three most recent 2D games). all four of the console metal gear solid games are also included. but the zelda series easily beats out any other franchise for the most appearances on the list with a whopping 8 by my reckoning, and (surprise, surprise) claims the number one spot for the second time in a row with ocarina of time.

geek that i am, i’ve been keeping a copy of IGN’s top 100 readers’ and editors’ lists ever since they began, way back in 2003. they have a great system in which they alternate the readers’ lists with the editors’ lists each year so that each occurs only once every other year, allowing for more variation. and geek that i am i like to compare the lists to each other, comparing the readers’ choices to the editors’, and the progression from year to year. you can join in on the fun by checking out this compilation i made of the IGN’s editors’ and readers’ top 100 games of all time lists. yeah! useless lists! times 6!