Ok, pretty incomplete in some aspects, without a victory ceremony, with an HUD which is missing many elements that were present in Double Dash!!, some holes in the roster (Bowser Jr., Birdo, Diddy kong and King Boo at least, which were present in Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii), incomplete battle mode without proper arenas and some glitches in the physics and in the game mechanics at the time of release, with firehopping being the worst offender since it penalized the inward drifting bikes. It looks like the developers had a tight deadline, probably due to the missed release on the Holidays of 2013.
Yet, this is one of my favorite Mario Karts: it has wonderful art direction and soundtrack, and these aspects are not at the espenses of track design, with antigravity allowing some crazy twists that I really like (in fact, i would like even more crazy tracks full of twists on the style of Dragon Driftway and the Electrodrome!).
Furthermore, the driving mechanics are really interesting, with a very "technical" approach based on many short boosts, aided by a revamped physics engine that, especially in land sections, allowed a less frustrating interactions with objects and obstacles (although bumping with other vehicles needed a patch). When 200cc came, its driving mechanics became even better, with the patch of firehops and slides, with a great increase in speed and the need to use brakedrifting that added depth to the driving style.
I am also REALLY glad to be able to play as the Koopalings, 25 years after their introduction in Super Mario Bros. 3! And not only that, this game also revealed quite a bit about them, including their job (who thought that Ludwig is also a painter?) and their hobbies (Larry being a DJ in the Electrodrome is surprising to say the least...).
But this is just one case of a more general point that is the care for the small details both in the case of characters and in the case of the tracks: the characters animations reveal new shades about them, such as Luigi's death stare and Yoshi being happy when riding inward drifting bikes (see my avatar and compare his idle expression to the idle expression he has while riding outward drifting bikes!), while the tracks have many small details and Easter Eggs and, if that wasn't enough, they are all interconnected like in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
So, as a TL;DR, this game has its shortcomings and probably is a bit rushed, but its good points are so well done that it's still one of my favorite Mario Karts!
@Blue_Blur: both firehopping and slides are patched in 200cc class, but not in the version 1.0 classes (50cc, 100cc, 150cc, Mirror mode), so if you don't like firehopping and want to ride an inward drifting bike instead, 200cc is the way to go!
Actually, Somari was sold in cartidges for the Famicom back in 1994 and it was a port of Sonic The Hedgehog for the Famicom having a Mario with Tails' shoes as its main character. This is almost certainly based on it.
@DarthNocturnal Well, count me in, too. Its variety of themes is absolutely awesome and its moveset is the most complete, to the point that subsequent games (including Super Mario 3D World) used a subset of it with very few additions. Also, having levels and a hub that are open and can be freely explored, some connections that take you directly from a level to a part of the hub and the nonlinearity of the star collecting (so that you can get stars you didn't select in the star select screen) are pretty nice.
@Kirk I too like pixel art very much, and some Miiverse drawings are really awesome, the only gripe that I have comes from the game you use as example: Yoshi's island. Its pixel art is gorgeous, but unfortunately it was never released on Virtual Console probably due to the special Super FX chip used for the game on the SNES. The only version Nintendo still sells to us is the GBA one that is much more pixelated than the original (although I would still say that this game alone justifies the presence of GBA Virtual Console on Wii U!). To have a good looking version again the developers would likely need to redo the pixel art for a second time.
@Kirk I didn't say it before, but the artwork you showed is pretty awesome. Effectively Ubi Art showed us how much you can push pixel art, so I agree with you, I was thinking about vector art just because of its temporal and resolution independence.
@DarthNocturnal Yep, since Shy Guys and Birdo are now a part of the Mario universe I don't see a reason why Wart couldn't come again, as it's also a nice looking villain, and Tatanga too would be welcome since he disappeared after Super Mario Land 2 and for some unexplicable reason he didn't reappear in Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 even though it would have been an almost obvious decision to have him as a side villain not related to Bowser.
@MrGawain Honestly, the Koopalings, in their 25 years history, have been absent/ignored for 9 + 6 = 15 years. Bowser Jr. is currently in more games than the Koopalings are. I don't really think the problem of 2D Mario is the Koopalings, which I find characters with a huge potential if only the Nintendo staff could develop their personality according to their appearance, is that the Koopalings, like many other elements, have been recycled without much effort to make it more varied and deepen their personality: it is not the New Super Mario Bros. series that told us that Larry Koopa likes sports, it was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Hotel Mario. It wasn't the New Super Mario Bros. series that told us that Larry Koopa is a DJ and head of a lighting company, it was Mario Kart 8. That being said, as I said before trying out a new story in which Bowser and his children are side characters or NPCs and the true enemies are totally different and live in a different place than the Mushroom Kingdom or Dark Land would surely helps the series a lot in avoiding being repetitive, though this is only part of the equation, and maybe not even the most important.
@Kirk Could you explain your request a bit more? The New Super Mario Bros. series, especially the U version, has similar controls to Super Mario World, has 2.5D graphics (3D but only seen from the side) and the gameplay itself is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3 and World with a few twists (such as wall jumping).
I think they should try not to be on the safe side, until Super Mario World the 2D games had many groundbreaking innovations with respect to the previous entry, this is what should happen with new 2D entries. Maybe trying a Metroidvania approach? Also, as I said before, they should try experimenting with new graphic styles (I would be intrigued by a properly shaded vector art if this possible). Frankly, I would rather play as Larry Koopa rather than seeing his same New super mario Bros. Wii model with the same animations for a fourth time!
P.S.: I'll be honest here, I would really like a 2D game where you play as Bowser Jr. and his former brothers and sister, like a WarioLand second edition!
I think the only issue with the New Super Mario bros. series is that they don't aim high like the old Super Mario Bros. games: at the time they were doing almost the best you could do on their consoles, exploring new ideas and ending up with that incredible nonlinear structure of Super Mario World, where the main exit isn't always the right one and you can go from one place to another through secret passages. New Super Mario Bros. Wii in some gameplay aspects is more limited compared to Super Mario World: you cannot take Yoshi with you in the other levels, the flying options are actually limited (even more than limited than they were in Super Mario bros. 3!) and there is not the ability of taking another item with you. Furthermore, the world maps aren't interconnected with secret passages like in Super Mario World, though there are many secret exits and the three golden coins are reminescent of the flowers of Yoshi's Island. Fortunately there are a few great moments, like the final boss fight which is really epic, but still I have the impression that with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii the developers weren't able to fully push the original 2D classics' gameplay forward and ended with something which is a bit less than that.
Anyway, the returns of the Koopalings was a VERY welcome one, unfortunately they were easy bosses and in the subsequent games they have fallen victims of recycling, with the same Larry model and animations used in three games (in New Super Mario Bros. U even the artwork was recycled!)! What I find sad is that it's arguably Mario Kart 8 and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga which revealed us the most about them!
P.S.: I must say that I always played alone, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is effectively a 4 players game so this is probably why I'm seeing it as if some compromise were made.
P.P.S.: I also quite like this game, even if I find it sometimes a bit frustrating and not on par with Super Mario World.
I don't know if I would like another Galaxy games, because we already had 2 of them and, as Mario Kart 8 showed us, there are many aspects of the Mario universe that can be explored aside from the galaxy themes. Surely, the scope of the game shouldn't be less than that of Galaxy even if the game is on firm ground. Super Mario 3D World had a smaller scope and was focused with a more linear design and more abstract environments. This is perfectly fine, but of course it also means that it cannot replace a gameplay like that of Super Mario 64 nor it can be an experience so fascinating like that of Super Mario Galaxy, which is probably why we are still talking about another Super Mario Galaxy or whatsoever.
What I really like in Mario Kart Wii are the driving mechanics in manual mode, with its speed focused approach: you got great boosts both by releasing Mini-Turbos and by performing tricks, the tricks themselves were spectacular, especially the big ones, and with the wheelie you always had something to do even on straight sections. Of course, inward drifting bikes were a bit crazy with their impossibly good corner-cutting drifts and their overpowered wheelie that gave a boost greater than 1/8 of the actual speed. The collision with walls and other objects were also quite "interesting" in their behavior.Having the driver screaming all the time was also a nice thing to make races more intense and to give personality to drivers (Yoshi's "Dadayoshi!!!" is memorable, fortunately it's there also in Mario Kart 8, although a bit hidden!). The only gripe I have with it is the frequency of race-stopping items (namely blue shells, lighting and POW blocks), that made the races more fragmented that they should be. the tracks have very nice ideas and themes (with Toad Factory, Wario's Gold Mine, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Grumble volcano and the tracks that change over time), but their art direction and overall presentation almost seem a step backward with respect to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and unfortunately many of them also have shortcut glitches, some of them really track-breaking, which is something MKDD managed to avoid in 14 out of 16 tracks (and none of them were really track-breaking, by the way, they were mainly Lakitu-based shortcuts). i cannot comment on Battle mode, which is something I have not directly tried. On overall, I find Mario Kart Wii a very fun game, especially when items don't interrupt you.
@Kirk You're right, a Wind Waker style would be interesting, proper shading is the current problem of vector art, though I'm wondering how difficult it would be to implement it correctly (after all, the Paper Mario series since The Thousand-Year Door looks more like vector art because the animation is really fluid, watching recordings I can confrim the animation in the PAL version is at 50 fps, not 25 fps).
@vitalemrecords: if I am not mistaken, Super Mario Maker doesn't support slopes, and also you won't have any Koopalings nor Boom Boom, so recreating the SMB3 experience is pretty much impossible except for some simple levels.
Ahhhh, Super Mario Bros. 3! At the time, when I was a kid, I too was playing at my friend's house, and he actually had TWO versions of it: the original and the Super Mario All Stars edition, which was the one we played the most. We usually got stuck in the Dark Land, both in the hand section and in the tanks level! Or sometimes, we just tried random worlds, with the Ice Land and Water Land being the most favorite (well, there was also the Giant Land, but that was for special occasions!)! And, of course, I usually ended up battling my friends just for fun (well, almost for fun, as he usually ended up losing precious cards!). Oh, we also tried the stand-alone battle mode which now i recognize being a remastered version of the original Mario Bros.! Finally, needless to say that I was also getting overpowered items that usually were lost in the most stupid ways, with my friend being upset especially when I losed the Tanuki suit!
@Kirk: remember that in Super Mario Bros. 3 Bowser had blue eyes like Larry, Iggy and Wendy! This was a very nice connection between father and children that unfortunately was lost already in Super Mario World! But if you watch both the Amada anime series and the feature-length anime you will see that in both of them Bowser had blue eyes (in fact, in the Amada series, which is based directly on Super Mario Bros. 3, Bowser even sometimes had a cape!)!
I think I would rather like a vector art 2D Mario platformer with true temporal and resolution independence, that would be a timeless classic in every sense!
After it was released on Wii U Virtual Console, I gave Mario Kart DS a try and after a few hours I must say that I am quite impressed by it: it's very easy to learn the controls which are quite responsive (and the game itself is smooth at 60 fps!), the combination of jumps and manually charged Mini-Turbo is interesting and probably is the best example of manually charged Mini-Turbos of the series, and along with them there are many welcome returning elements such as drafting and the ability of carry behind items to defend yourself and get 2 items at once. Mission mode is really fun, and I really like some missions, including fighting bosses! But it's the Nitro tracks which shines, with the return of a ghost track (finally!), that epic Airship Fortress, the Rainbow Road which predates Mario Kart 8 with antigravity sections and that Waluigi Pinball which is the most awesome idea for a track I've ever seen so far in the series. So, yes, I am happy to be finally able to play this little gem, and I must say that really, this time its 30 fps videos on the internet don't do it justice!
P.S.: honestly I might be the only one, but after 25 years since their introduction I was VERY happy to finally being able to play in Mario Kart 8 as the Koopalings which are part of my childhood memories: my friend had a NES and a SNES and we played Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World A LOT! For me it's even more incredible if we think that Dry Bones, itself introduced with Super Mario Bros. 3, was a playable character since 9 years and that Bowser Jr., 1 year after Super Mario Sunshine, was already playable in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, to the point that when they were announced in Mario Kart 8 I was really puzzled because it was the last thing I was expecting!
Comments 269
Re: Mario History: Mario Kart 8 - 2014
Ok, pretty incomplete in some aspects, without a victory ceremony, with an HUD which is missing many elements that were present in Double Dash!!, some holes in the roster (Bowser Jr., Birdo, Diddy kong and King Boo at least, which were present in Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii), incomplete battle mode without proper arenas and some glitches in the physics and in the game mechanics at the time of release, with firehopping being the worst offender since it penalized the inward drifting bikes. It looks like the developers had a tight deadline, probably due to the missed release on the Holidays of 2013.
Yet, this is one of my favorite Mario Karts: it has wonderful art direction and soundtrack, and these aspects are not at the espenses of track design, with antigravity allowing some crazy twists that I really like (in fact, i would like even more crazy tracks full of twists on the style of Dragon Driftway and the Electrodrome!).
Furthermore, the driving mechanics are really interesting, with a very "technical" approach based on many short boosts, aided by a revamped physics engine that, especially in land sections, allowed a less frustrating interactions with objects and obstacles (although bumping with other vehicles needed a patch). When 200cc came, its driving mechanics became even better, with the patch of firehops and slides, with a great increase in speed and the need to use brakedrifting that added depth to the driving style.
I am also REALLY glad to be able to play as the Koopalings, 25 years after their introduction in Super Mario Bros. 3! And not only that, this game also revealed quite a bit about them, including their job (who thought that Ludwig is also a painter?) and their hobbies (Larry being a DJ in the Electrodrome is surprising to say the least...).
But this is just one case of a more general point that is the care for the small details both in the case of characters and in the case of the tracks: the characters animations reveal new shades about them, such as Luigi's death stare and Yoshi being happy when riding inward drifting bikes (see my avatar and compare his idle expression to the idle expression he has while riding outward drifting bikes!), while the tracks have many small details and Easter Eggs and, if that wasn't enough, they are all interconnected like in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
So, as a TL;DR, this game has its shortcomings and probably is a bit rushed, but its good points are so well done that it's still one of my favorite Mario Karts!
@Blue_Blur: both firehopping and slides are patched in 200cc class, but not in the version 1.0 classes (50cc, 100cc, 150cc, Mirror mode), so if you don't like firehopping and want to ride an inward drifting bike instead, 200cc is the way to go!
Re: Weirdness: The Bizarre Truth of Bowser Jr.'s Mother, According to Shigeru Miyamoto
@Olmectron You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu2DnTd3dEo
Re: Weirdness: The Bizarre Truth of Bowser Jr.'s Mother, According to Shigeru Miyamoto
Well, that Super Mario Bros. 3 is a stage performance was a nice revelation, and I also honestly thought it was his head that breaks the blocks.
That part about Bowser Jr.'s MOTHER, though...
P.S.: is it just me or does it means that we will get DLC levels for Super Mario Maker or at least a way to find Miiyamoto's levels easily?
Re: Weirdness: Mario Infiltrates Sonic's First Adventure In Somari The Adventurer
Actually, Somari was sold in cartidges for the Famicom back in 1994 and it was a port of Sonic The Hedgehog for the Famicom having a Mario with Tails' shoes as its main character. This is almost certainly based on it.
Re: Super Mario Maker DLC Confirmed, Famitsu's Mascot Necky The Fox Coming Soon
@EllenJMiller And Wart, since we're all in with neglected villains (although Captain Syrup is Wario'enemy!)
Ok, you already know that I'm going to ask for the Koopalings so...
Re: Mario Memories: The Incredible Impact of Super Mario 64
@DarthNocturnal Well, count me in, too. Its variety of themes is absolutely awesome and its moveset is the most complete, to the point that subsequent games (including Super Mario 3D World) used a subset of it with very few additions. Also, having levels and a hub that are open and can be freely explored, some connections that take you directly from a level to a part of the hub and the nonlinearity of the star collecting (so that you can get stars you didn't select in the star select screen) are pretty nice.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
@Kirk I too like pixel art very much, and some Miiverse drawings are really awesome, the only gripe that I have comes from the game you use as example: Yoshi's island. Its pixel art is gorgeous, but unfortunately it was never released on Virtual Console probably due to the special Super FX chip used for the game on the SNES. The only version Nintendo still sells to us is the GBA one that is much more pixelated than the original (although I would still say that this game alone justifies the presence of GBA Virtual Console on Wii U!). To have a good looking version again the developers would likely need to redo the pixel art for a second time.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
@Kirk food for thought:
http://play-media.nintendo.com/documents/Mario_Word_Hunt_kVfHTgP.pdf
and especially
http://play-media.nintendo.com/documents/Mushroom_Kingdom_2015_Calendar_umHBobN.pdf
So vector art already exists for:
Mario
Peach
Koopa Paratroopa
Cheep Cheep
Piranha Plant
Buzzy Beetle
Blooper
But as you noticed, there is no shading at all, which means that the problems you talked about are likely still unresolved
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
@Kirk I didn't say it before, but the artwork you showed is pretty awesome. Effectively Ubi Art showed us how much you can push pixel art, so I agree with you, I was thinking about vector art just because of its temporal and resolution independence.
@DarthNocturnal Yep, since Shy Guys and Birdo are now a part of the Mario universe I don't see a reason why Wart couldn't come again, as it's also a nice looking villain, and Tatanga too would be welcome since he disappeared after Super Mario Land 2 and for some unexplicable reason he didn't reappear in Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 even though it would have been an almost obvious decision to have him as a side villain not related to Bowser.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
@MrGawain Honestly, the Koopalings, in their 25 years history, have been absent/ignored for 9 + 6 = 15 years. Bowser Jr. is currently in more games than the Koopalings are. I don't really think the problem of 2D Mario is the Koopalings, which I find characters with a huge potential if only the Nintendo staff could develop their personality according to their appearance, is that the Koopalings, like many other elements, have been recycled without much effort to make it more varied and deepen their personality: it is not the New Super Mario Bros. series that told us that Larry Koopa likes sports, it was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Hotel Mario. It wasn't the New Super Mario Bros. series that told us that Larry Koopa is a DJ and head of a lighting company, it was Mario Kart 8.
That being said, as I said before trying out a new story in which Bowser and his children are side characters or NPCs and the true enemies are totally different and live in a different place than the Mushroom Kingdom or Dark Land would surely helps the series a lot in avoiding being repetitive, though this is only part of the equation, and maybe not even the most important.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
@Kirk Could you explain your request a bit more? The New Super Mario Bros. series, especially the U version, has similar controls to Super Mario World, has 2.5D graphics (3D but only seen from the side) and the gameplay itself is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3 and World with a few twists (such as wall jumping).
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Challenge With Super Mario's 2D Future
I think they should try not to be on the safe side, until Super Mario World the 2D games had many groundbreaking innovations with respect to the previous entry, this is what should happen with new 2D entries. Maybe trying a Metroidvania approach? Also, as I said before, they should try experimenting with new graphic styles (I would be intrigued by a properly shaded vector art if this possible). Frankly, I would rather play as Larry Koopa rather than seeing his same New super mario Bros. Wii model with the same animations for a fourth time!
P.S.: I'll be honest here, I would really like a 2D game where you play as Bowser Jr. and his former brothers and sister, like a WarioLand second edition!
Re: Mario History: New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 2009
I think the only issue with the New Super Mario bros. series is that they don't aim high like the old Super Mario Bros. games: at the time they were doing almost the best you could do on their consoles, exploring new ideas and ending up with that incredible nonlinear structure of Super Mario World, where the main exit isn't always the right one and you can go from one place to another through secret passages. New Super Mario Bros. Wii in some gameplay aspects is more limited compared to Super Mario World: you cannot take Yoshi with you in the other levels, the flying options are actually limited (even more than limited than they were in Super Mario bros. 3!) and there is not the ability of taking another item with you. Furthermore, the world maps aren't interconnected with secret passages like in Super Mario World, though there are many secret exits and the three golden coins are reminescent of the flowers of Yoshi's Island. Fortunately there are a few great moments, like the final boss fight which is really epic, but still I have the impression that with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii the developers weren't able to fully push the original 2D classics' gameplay forward and ended with something which is a bit less than that.
Anyway, the returns of the Koopalings was a VERY welcome one, unfortunately they were easy bosses and in the subsequent games they have fallen victims of recycling, with the same Larry model and animations used in three games (in New Super Mario Bros. U even the artwork was recycled!)! What I find sad is that it's arguably Mario Kart 8 and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga which revealed us the most about them!
P.S.: I must say that I always played alone, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is effectively a 4 players game so this is probably why I'm seeing it as if some compromise were made.
P.P.S.: I also quite like this game, even if I find it sometimes a bit frustrating and not on par with Super Mario World.
Re: Shigeru Miyamoto Wants to Produce Another Super Mario Galaxy, But is Waiting for the Right Opportunity
I don't know if I would like another Galaxy games, because we already had 2 of them and, as Mario Kart 8 showed us, there are many aspects of the Mario universe that can be explored aside from the galaxy themes.
Surely, the scope of the game shouldn't be less than that of Galaxy even if the game is on firm ground. Super Mario 3D World had a smaller scope and was focused with a more linear design and more abstract environments. This is perfectly fine, but of course it also means that it cannot replace a gameplay like that of Super Mario 64 nor it can be an experience so fascinating like that of Super Mario Galaxy, which is probably why we are still talking about another Super Mario Galaxy or whatsoever.
Re: Mario History: Mario Kart Wii - 2008
What I really like in Mario Kart Wii are the driving mechanics in manual mode, with its speed focused approach: you got great boosts both by releasing Mini-Turbos and by performing tricks, the tricks themselves were spectacular, especially the big ones, and with the wheelie you always had something to do even on straight sections. Of course, inward drifting bikes were a bit crazy with their impossibly good corner-cutting drifts and their overpowered wheelie that gave a boost greater than 1/8 of the actual speed.
The collision with walls and other objects were also quite "interesting" in their behavior.Having the driver screaming all the time was also a nice thing to make races more intense and to give personality to drivers (Yoshi's "Dadayoshi!!!" is memorable, fortunately it's there also in Mario Kart 8, although a bit hidden!). The only gripe I have with it is the frequency of race-stopping items (namely blue shells, lighting and POW blocks), that made the races more fragmented that they should be.
the tracks have very nice ideas and themes (with Toad Factory, Wario's Gold Mine, Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway and Grumble volcano and the tracks that change over time), but their art direction and overall presentation almost seem a step backward with respect to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and unfortunately many of them also have shortcut glitches, some of them really track-breaking, which is something MKDD managed to avoid in 14 out of 16 tracks (and none of them were really track-breaking, by the way, they were mainly Lakitu-based shortcuts).
i cannot comment on Battle mode, which is something I have not directly tried.
On overall, I find Mario Kart Wii a very fun game, especially when items don't interrupt you.
Re: Mario Memories: Super Mario Bros. 3, Still Bringing Families Together
@Kirk You're right, a Wind Waker style would be interesting, proper shading is the current problem of vector art, though I'm wondering how difficult it would be to implement it correctly (after all, the Paper Mario series since The Thousand-Year Door looks more like vector art because the animation is really fluid, watching recordings I can confrim the animation in the PAL version is at 50 fps, not 25 fps).
Re: Mario Memories: Super Mario Bros. 3, Still Bringing Families Together
@vitalemrecords: if I am not mistaken, Super Mario Maker doesn't support slopes, and also you won't have any Koopalings nor Boom Boom, so recreating the SMB3 experience is pretty much impossible except for some simple levels.
Re: Mario Memories: Super Mario Bros. 3, Still Bringing Families Together
Ahhhh, Super Mario Bros. 3! At the time, when I was a kid, I too was playing at my friend's house, and he actually had TWO versions of it: the original and the Super Mario All Stars edition, which was the one we played the most. We usually got stuck in the Dark Land, both in the hand section and in the tanks level! Or sometimes, we just tried random worlds, with the Ice Land and Water Land being the most favorite (well, there was also the Giant Land, but that was for special occasions!)! And, of course, I usually ended up battling my friends just for fun (well, almost for fun, as he usually ended up losing precious cards!). Oh, we also tried the stand-alone battle mode which now i recognize being a remastered version of the original Mario Bros.! Finally, needless to say that I was also getting overpowered items that usually were lost in the most stupid ways, with my friend being upset especially when I losed the Tanuki suit!
@Kirk: remember that in Super Mario Bros. 3 Bowser had blue eyes like Larry, Iggy and Wendy! This was a very nice connection between father and children that unfortunately was lost already in Super Mario World! But if you watch both the Amada anime series and the feature-length anime you will see that in both of them Bowser had blue eyes (in fact, in the Amada series, which is based directly on Super Mario Bros. 3, Bowser even sometimes had a cape!)!
I think I would rather like a vector art 2D Mario platformer with true temporal and resolution independence, that would be a timeless classic in every sense!
Re: Mario History: Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Arcade GP - 2005
After it was released on Wii U Virtual Console, I gave Mario Kart DS a try and after a few hours I must say that I am quite impressed by it: it's very easy to learn the controls which are quite responsive (and the game itself is smooth at 60 fps!), the combination of jumps and manually charged Mini-Turbo is interesting and probably is the best example of manually charged Mini-Turbos of the series, and along with them there are many welcome returning elements such as drafting and the ability of carry behind items to defend yourself and get 2 items at once. Mission mode is really fun, and I really like some missions, including fighting bosses! But it's the Nitro tracks which shines, with the return of a ghost track (finally!), that epic Airship Fortress, the Rainbow Road which predates Mario Kart 8 with antigravity sections and that Waluigi Pinball which is the most awesome idea for a track I've ever seen so far in the series.
So, yes, I am happy to be finally able to play this little gem, and I must say that really, this time its 30 fps videos on the internet don't do it justice!
P.S.: honestly I might be the only one, but after 25 years since their introduction I was VERY happy to finally being able to play in Mario Kart 8 as the Koopalings which are part of my childhood memories: my friend had a NES and a SNES and we played Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World A LOT! For me it's even more incredible if we think that Dry Bones, itself introduced with Super Mario Bros. 3, was a playable character since 9 years and that Bowser Jr., 1 year after Super Mario Sunshine, was already playable in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, to the point that when they were announced in Mario Kart 8 I was really puzzled because it was the last thing I was expecting!