@Interzone Thats great, play on the PAL version Time Trials, if you get a full timeset you can join our World Rankings, we do updates every week: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/
@Interzone Thats great, do you still have your SNES console and SMK? You should join our Time Trial World Rankings. Yes my friend in France drove that time, I also made a 59"47 when at the Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) near Washington D.C in January:
The physics of the game is actually one of the most powerful parts about it. A lot of people who hadnt played it back in the day say "the controls are terrible". But Super Mario Kart actually has a very simple system to manually hop jump and countersteer hop to keep on the precise racing lines that you want to, so you can drive pixel perfectly which can not be done in the same way on the others. True it wasn't proper 3d, the mode 7 engine gave the illusion of it. But for such an old machine and game to give that illusion and make it work was quite something. The generation gap will obviously make this divide and it will be hard for gamers to get into a classic title where the graphics are different and the game play to what they are used to today. My friend's son was shocked that classic games sometimes didnt even have a save function (though they are short games), and said he wouldnt want to play anything like that.
Super Mario Kart was one of the earlier SNES titles, so the graphics were a little simpler. Yoshi's Island was one of the later titles where after the DKC series they pushed the graphics more, a fantastic game which i really enjoyed too!
More characters is great, but I realised, will i really use all of the characters, and all of the wheel / car types? Most of them are not good enough and only variations of the slick / monster wheels etc and certain cars are good. Just for enjoyment to use all the characters is nice, i like how they put Bowser' s kids. But it wouldnt make Super Mario Kart better if they had a DLC with 20 more characters either, as it is the play mechanics that is good. Music fine, that will improve over time. But online we have played for SMK for countless hours too, just not with a snes console, but by other means. We hope that Switch or the console after will provide this ability for SMK again.
You can have real 1v1 racing and tactical approaches in SMK which has a balance of skill along with the item usage. The majority of the sequels are reliant on triple red shell, bullet, blue shell, lightning blue shell etc etc and the race turns around. If players prefer that then that's fine. It just made the later versions less fair for serious competition, and they should be getting better. But for the casual gamer who is not worried about that, fair enough. In the end of the day, if the version the player is playing puts a smile on their face and they are enjoying the game, that is the most important thing
@Nashew apart from graphics and more tracks etc how are the later versions better than the original? I love how the series has evolved and that it continues to grow 25 years on. But i wanted to know why many feel that something about the new Mario Kart games really are better all round?
@Interzone you have made the point perfectly Super Circuit had similar handling so i liked it as well, just a shame they added mushrooms in Time Trial mode which complicated the strategies further.
@GrailUK hi, do you still have a PAL SNES console with Super Mario Kart? There is Worldwide Time Trial Competition heavily active on: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ if you know how to drive with Bowser you would be a great contender!
@VanillaLake Hopefully cross-play comes in future. Anyway Ghost Valley 3; I drove at Play Expo Blackpool on the NTSC version (which the Wii U version is based on, though most of the competition I do is on PAL). So you can see the racing lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTX3S4rUcE
@VanillaLake Ghost Valley 2 is superb aswell for keeping on the edge, we also like Ghost Valley 3 as you can do pretty cool gap jumps (as per Vanilla Lake 2). Are you based in Ireland? Just wondered if you had a PAL SNES console and Super Mario Kart, I could find out where you would rank Nationally as well on Time Trials.
@VanillaLake Hi there, just a quick question, is Vanilla Lake 2 your favourite track by any chance? It is one i really like, i wondered if you still played on the SNES console and SMK too? I gave some details in my post above that may interest you
I loved to see my favourite classic appear on 3DS; I understand that the lack of multiplayer option may have disappointed fans and there is a slight lag still as per playing on a CRT TV with original SNES, which was also present on the Wii U version though a little less. However it is still fun to play Time Trials and have a quick game, no doubt that Super Mario Kart will have further re-releases on future consoles again and maybe options for multiplayer / online could be available by then. In the meantime, a note for everyone that there is still Worldwide competition on original SNES console Super Mario Kart (only) where anyone is welcome to send their Time Trial Records in to our World Ranking website: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ and also Official World Championships held annually in France on the original; this year's event taking place in Strasbourg, between 24th - 28th August. Full information on that is on : http://www.ffsmk.org/. If you have any questions please feel free to ask; and if you still have your SNES consoles at home we would love it if more players can join in the Time Trial competition too
@Kobeskillz Its strange how they made so many small differences but noticeable when racing. I guess I really wish there could have just been one version so we don't need two separate rankings. But alas, it was not meant to be with the tv systems and technology at the time...
@Kobeskillz Actually the NTSC version has a lot of flaws, getting round some hairpin turns and executing certain moves, plus some additional shortcut ability which can end races too soon on some tracks. I compete in some records for NTSC but PAL is my primary mode and where all the UK rankings can be properly compared with it's widespread number of players. The speed difference is actually very small as PAL SMK was reprogrammed. The World Championships are always done on PAL too and we are used to the mechanics. We did attempt a short NTSC competition on console at the 2012 edition, the results were a bit random and the Time Trial one try competition saw a lot of missed zoom starts by everyone
@Danrenfroe2016 Thank you; not to a high level, only very briefly tried them for fun. I used to do records on Mario Kart 64 around 12-13 years ago, and Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA, plus a brief adventure on MKDS until PRB was discovered and mastered. By 2006 I had to return to SMK as I only really had time to focus on one version, plus this was the strongest one; and the World Championships on the SNES version were picking up by this stage.
@PinkSpider There are mini turbos in Super Mario Kart SNES much like those in all the other mario karts. If you look carefully you can see after i jump on a road the kart vibrates left-right-left-right very fast, if done well this can charge a boost then countersteer jump off road. An easy way to test this if you havent done before is do a powerslide holding R around the final corner of Donut Plains 1 then counter steering to release the boost, you will cut some grass without slowdown. The standard boost happens when you powerslide holding R round any hairpin turn, when you countersteer to straighten up at the end the engine sound goes up a moment and you get a little extra speed. This is the boost i am speaking about which you will have had many times im sure. It is just about executing it off road. Mario Circuit 1 is a tough one to get it right on as there is not much time to be saved there unless it is executed perfectly. The best option is to drive the classic way first hopping sharp around the corners, you can still get sub minute that way (i have a 59"49 video of this, let me know if you want to see it), then learn the off road boosting after that. Regards, Sami
Best of luck to all the contenders! Shout out for Stacy Needham and James Leare I will pop round in the late afternoon at EGX (Saturday) after finishing running a SNES Super Mario Kart Tournament at the Replay stand for the visitors. Lets all have a catchup then
@Gridatttack Yes that is correct; the game features 8 of the guys from the championships as the players and then I come in at the end to hand out the trophy. It was made in 2009 and a limited 39 copies were made around the globe. Only 6 exist in the UK.
@Chaos_Eevee Lets be positive and hope it all goes ok I'm sure the week will go smoothly and lots of stories to tell after.
@Luigifan141 No probs, please feel free to ask and will do my best to answer. Not in the exact same format but there have been discussions to do a joint one with Mario Kart 64 some day. However getting it all done in a week and keeping it as thorough as this in order to draw out accurate results, plus equipment etc will be tricky. There was a Mario Kart 64 meet in Europe last month I believe which a number of people I know attended. There were some form of competitions on different modes but I am not sure of the format. Thee mechanics of the game is very different to the snes with too many random factors on the multiplayer modes. We done a 64 tournament in Norway in 2007 and the results did not match those of the time trial ranking. For the other Mario Kart games I think smaller communities Nationally may arrange some things but not to this scale. It is for the time being the only retro Mario Kart that has a sponsoring by Nintendo of France and has been running every year since 2002. It started off as a French championship then eventually upgraded to Worldwide in 2008/2009. We have had players from Japan and Brazil in previous years and looking to get more of these guys back again next year. A lot of competitors have other commitments, job, family etc so they can't fly 12 hours to reach this every year but it is really nice to see them whenever they can do The friendships we make out of these meetings are definitely the best part. Lots of photos will go up on Facebook after we are back
@Luigifan141 For the SNES there are hundreds on the time trial world rankings website and we are linked up with the other karts too which are also huge. The snes championships are growing each year. Check this out from Tuesday night and Wednesday onwards.
@AyeHaley No there are a lot of people sitting around the webcam as well not in view. Or if it was the time trials some had popped our for the time. Last year's event had about 35 competitors. There will be more this year. The hall does actually have capacity for hundreds, but that's a good thing, more space the better, considering the summer and the heat.
@KevTastic84 It is fair that some still prefer NTSC over PAL and that's cool. There are some mechanics that are good on NTSC, but mainly it is more forgiving on some off road sections. Some of the water tracks in particular make a difference. We did try an NTSC tournament in the 2012 championships as an extra special due to the 20th anniversary, the zoom starts were awful in the Time Trial one try, i didn't participate in that, but it was hilarious to watch
@unrandomsam Super Mario Kart's PAL version has better turning mechanics, trust me fast enough speed can be made on this beast, just need to use the right characters. There will be some great action there this August on the twitch channel at the World Championships.
@JamieO Much appreciated Jamie, was great catching up with you and sharing some of the techniques at Play Blackpool. You have my card still yes? Please drop me an email to my yahoo on there then we can discuss the other projects / write-ups offline. Thanks again.
By the way here are my two new World Record improvements which I set at Play Blackpool this weekend:
@Kobeskillz No it is only marginally slower, like a second or two on a total track time. I feel the turn angles are better, but it is argued to be harder where the off road slowdown is worse and the length of the jumps is shorter making platforms harder to reach. But all in all it is similar difficulty, we do the championships in PAL as it is the home version for Europe. Plus most people play that by default. Though many of us have NTSC snes's as well and compete on both. Which leads on to my next comment...
Cheers mate, would be great if you got involved in the time trial and racing scene. Play BP has been good so far, some casual racing and record demonstrations tomorrow probably. Then got to prepare for August's world championship pretty much. Keep me posted on FB / twitter when you will do a time trial set on a snes and plans to do any racing.
@Excep7ional Yep the Championships are a big thing now and hoping to grow, check out the related articles as they have been put up recently. More news on the World Championships soon.
All: Much appreciated for the rest of the comments, if you have any further questions please feel free to ask.
@JamieO Yeh it does go quite deep. Since the magazines in 1992 / 1993 most people wrote the same things; the black borders being the first. Then "omg PAL is way too slow", and put a sticker on it straight away saying "I don't like it". Most people will be used to the versions they grew up with. The game has a lot of technical differences that do come into play as explained above. Definitely for Time Trialing most of the tracks the PAL feels more real for me, NTSC seems to slip off. I really wish they had the ability back then even with the 50hz / 60hz TV system difference to have made one generic version for the world, then we could all really compare times on one list. As a result we have separate PAL and NTSC rankings, and those from PAL who wanted to give NTSC a shot or vice versa can order an import console and try the other system. For the UK players as an example, pretty much everyone competes on PAL so if you wanted to know your true UK rank it would be best to try there, we have a number of the top players having competed on NTSC but there isn't as extensive a list to compare to. Fun to see where you rank regionally as well or in your local town / city
The PAL version was reprogrammed as it would have been way too slow with the 17% difference. They also adjusted the mechanics a little. However I have to say I don't like the turn angles on NTSC. It is more sluggish on some of the later tracks whereas the PAL one is better for fine tuning. Also NTSC has some extra shortcuts which are more extreme and easier to hit but also cut too much off the tracks. Donut Plains courses are an example. Getting round hairpins on MC4 and DP3 on NTSC 150cc are a nuisance, whereas you can do it on PAL. There is better dodging ability on PAL for red shells, however that can be both an advantage and disadvantage depending what you prefer. Longboosting is too aggressive to get round some corners with the shrooms on NTSC and worst of all, the mini turbo length on NTSC is too short in distance! PAL is longer and helps cut across the amount of dirt to you want to The boost starts are a nuisance on PAL but awful on NTSC, we done a few small NTSC tournaments in 2012 and it was frustrating experience for everyone, thankfully I didn't take part in the Time Trial section of that Theres lots more but il post that later as I remember it.
@PachterStation Probably harder for us to see as weve played it semi regularly through the years. But it is technically better for tournaments as the item probabilities are not over-done and you can see much closer edge to edge racing between close ranked players that aren't decided by the usual blue shells and lightnings.
@ledreppe Great to hear you are taking part, are you playing on a snes btw? Currently the Wii U version has a save state ability apparently which renders it like an emulator. Please make sure you are doing the timeset on snes console. And don't worry about your initial level, there are a wide range of players on there, tonnes to compete with on wherever you enter plus easy to improve when we show you some routes on a few vids. Looking forward to hear from you.
@NikkiChu Thank you for your post To answer your questions, we both use either D.K.Jr or Bowser as they have identical stats. Normally we have a favorite for time trial. For racing we don't mind using either. We have had some more female competitors in the last few years, and another joined from the UK last year. 2012 edition had a couple of ladies from France join with their partners. Training... short bursts and semi regularly works best. We have a lot of commitments including work and family so that must come first. But we mix up Time Trial and multiplayer training to keep it balanced. I think in the last week or two before the World Championships a lot of the players have some mini meets to practice together.
@xj0462 It is a 2D game, but because of the clever invention of Mode 7 graphics it gives the look of a 3D racer when you are driving. Very clever as it has tricked us into asking why the walls are flat, and things like that. The kart only pivots on the spot or moves up with jumps / items.
@James1993 It would be great, not sure if it will be done at least yet but we hope. But you don't need to wait for that if you want to try online racing. Get a snes to PC usp adaptor on ebay and you can compete on SNESOT via Hamachi. Can be set up to race quickly. Are you UK / London based? As per your first post asking if there is UK competition... we can organise something locally very easily vs one of the Top 5-10 players in the UK. They are ready when you are for some new competition
@James1993 Although it is not as smooth as on a CRT TV it is possible to race online via emulators. Other than that, do get involved on the Time Trials site listed in the article, as that you can do from home if you have a snes /smk and can record some replays of your records. Easy to do.
@Nintenjoe64 I don't have a Wii U, but a good friend of mine has one, I have only had a brief go on it so far. Ooh Mario Kart Wii, it is the one I played the least of the series, and I have barely touched it since 2010. Even before then probably a few goes on all the tracks. Funny you mentioned the retro MC3 track though as it is one of a few that I could get into as well. I have a very old time on the site which I did beat some years ago on a random go but don't seem to have posted so I may have to dig it out. It is probably at least 1'20" - 1'21 now. The UK record is 1'18"425; and World Record is still 1'18"107 held by a gentleman in USA.
@Luigifan141 Hi there, in the original SNES, Donkey Kong Jr, although Bowser is identical on driving stats. So normally using one or the other in a race is fine.
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Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@Interzone Thats great, play on the PAL version Time Trials, if you get a full timeset you can join our World Rankings, we do updates every week: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@Interzone Thats great, do you still have your SNES console and SMK? You should join our Time Trial World Rankings. Yes my friend in France drove that time, I also made a 59"47 when at the Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) near Washington D.C in January:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQif6zjS1Y
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
The physics of the game is actually one of the most powerful parts about it. A lot of people who hadnt played it back in the day say "the controls are terrible". But Super Mario Kart actually has a very simple system to manually hop jump and countersteer hop to keep on the precise racing lines that you want to, so you can drive pixel perfectly which can not be done in the same way on the others. True it wasn't proper 3d, the mode 7 engine gave the illusion of it. But for such an old machine and game to give that illusion and make it work was quite something. The generation gap will obviously make this divide and it will be hard for gamers to get into a classic title where the graphics are different and the game play to what they are used to today. My friend's son was shocked that classic games sometimes didnt even have a save function (though they are short games), and said he wouldnt want to play anything like that.
Super Mario Kart was one of the earlier SNES titles, so the graphics were a little simpler. Yoshi's Island was one of the later titles where after the DKC series they pushed the graphics more, a fantastic game which i really enjoyed too!
More characters is great, but I realised, will i really use all of the characters, and all of the wheel / car types? Most of them are not good enough and only variations of the slick / monster wheels etc and certain cars are good. Just for enjoyment to use all the characters is nice, i like how they put Bowser' s kids. But it wouldnt make Super Mario Kart better if they had a DLC with 20 more characters either, as it is the play mechanics that is good. Music fine, that will improve over time. But online we have played for SMK for countless hours too, just not with a snes console, but by other means. We hope that Switch or the console after will provide this ability for SMK again.
You can have real 1v1 racing and tactical approaches in SMK which has a balance of skill along with the item usage. The majority of the sequels are reliant on triple red shell, bullet, blue shell, lightning blue shell etc etc and the race turns around. If players prefer that then that's fine. It just made the later versions less fair for serious competition, and they should be getting better. But for the casual gamer who is not worried about that, fair enough. In the end of the day, if the version the player is playing puts a smile on their face and they are enjoying the game, that is the most important thing
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@Nashew apart from graphics and more tracks etc how are the later versions better than the original? I love how the series has evolved and that it continues to grow 25 years on. But i wanted to know why many feel that something about the new Mario Kart games really are better all round?
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@dew12333 thats great to hear, do you still play on the original SNES console?
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@Interzone you have made the point perfectly Super Circuit had similar handling so i liked it as well, just a shame they added mushrooms in Time Trial mode which complicated the strategies further.
Re: Famitsu Readers Choose Super Mario Kart as the Best Racing Game of All Time
@GrailUK hi, do you still have a PAL SNES console with Super Mario Kart? There is Worldwide Time Trial Competition heavily active on: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ if you know how to drive with Bowser you would be a great contender!
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (New 3DS / SNES)
@VanillaLake Hopefully cross-play comes in future. Anyway Ghost Valley 3; I drove at Play Expo Blackpool on the NTSC version (which the Wii U version is based on, though most of the competition I do is on PAL). So you can see the racing lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTX3S4rUcE
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (New 3DS / SNES)
@VanillaLake Ghost Valley 2 is superb aswell for keeping on the edge, we also like Ghost Valley 3 as you can do pretty cool gap jumps (as per Vanilla Lake 2). Are you based in Ireland? Just wondered if you had a PAL SNES console and Super Mario Kart, I could find out where you would rank Nationally as well on Time Trials.
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (New 3DS / SNES)
@VanillaLake Hi there, just a quick question, is Vanilla Lake 2 your favourite track by any chance? It is one i really like, i wondered if you still played on the SNES console and SMK too? I gave some details in my post above that may interest you
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (New 3DS / SNES)
I loved to see my favourite classic appear on 3DS; I understand that the lack of multiplayer option may have disappointed fans and there is a slight lag still as per playing on a CRT TV with original SNES, which was also present on the Wii U version though a little less. However it is still fun to play Time Trials and have a quick game, no doubt that Super Mario Kart will have further re-releases on future consoles again and maybe options for multiplayer / online could be available by then. In the meantime, a note for everyone that there is still Worldwide competition on original SNES console Super Mario Kart (only) where anyone is welcome to send their Time Trial Records in to our World Ranking website: http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ and also Official World Championships held annually in France on the original; this year's event taking place in Strasbourg, between 24th - 28th August. Full information on that is on : http://www.ffsmk.org/. If you have any questions please feel free to ask; and if you still have your SNES consoles at home we would love it if more players can join in the Time Trial competition too
Best Regards,
Sami Cetin
Re: Sami Cetin Breaks The NTSC Super Mario Kart World Record On Mario Circuit 1
@Kobeskillz Its strange how they made so many small differences but noticeable when racing. I guess I really wish there could have just been one version so we don't need two separate rankings. But alas, it was not meant to be with the tv systems and technology at the time...
Re: Sami Cetin Breaks The NTSC Super Mario Kart World Record On Mario Circuit 1
@Kobeskillz Actually the NTSC version has a lot of flaws, getting round some hairpin turns and executing certain moves, plus some additional shortcut ability which can end races too soon on some tracks. I compete in some records for NTSC but PAL is my primary mode and where all the UK rankings can be properly compared with it's widespread number of players. The speed difference is actually very small as PAL SMK was reprogrammed. The World Championships are always done on PAL too and we are used to the mechanics. We did attempt a short NTSC competition on console at the 2012 edition, the results were a bit random and the Time Trial one try competition saw a lot of missed zoom starts by everyone
Re: Sami Cetin Breaks The NTSC Super Mario Kart World Record On Mario Circuit 1
@Danrenfroe2016 Thank you; not to a high level, only very briefly tried them for fun. I used to do records on Mario Kart 64 around 12-13 years ago, and Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA, plus a brief adventure on MKDS until PRB was discovered and mastered. By 2006 I had to return to SMK as I only really had time to focus on one version, plus this was the strongest one; and the World Championships on the SNES version were picking up by this stage.
Re: Sami Cetin Breaks The NTSC Super Mario Kart World Record On Mario Circuit 1
@PinkSpider There are mini turbos in Super Mario Kart SNES much like those in all the other mario karts. If you look carefully you can see after i jump on a road the kart vibrates left-right-left-right very fast, if done well this can charge a boost then countersteer jump off road. An easy way to test this if you havent done before is do a powerslide holding R around the final corner of Donut Plains 1 then counter steering to release the boost, you will cut some grass without slowdown. The standard boost happens when you powerslide holding R round any hairpin turn, when you countersteer to straighten up at the end the engine sound goes up a moment and you get a little extra speed. This is the boost i am speaking about which you will have had many times im sure. It is just about executing it off road. Mario Circuit 1 is a tough one to get it right on as there is not much time to be saved there unless it is executed perfectly. The best option is to drive the classic way first hopping sharp around the corners, you can still get sub minute that way (i have a 59"49 video of this, let me know if you want to see it), then learn the off road boosting after that. Regards, Sami
Re: Video: See the B Dasher Tear it Up in This Mario Kart 8 DLC Trailer
I would really like a SNES D.K.Jr + kart for a future DLC.
B Dasher will be interesting, shame it wasn't a strong kart in MKDS.
Re: Player Profile: Mario Kart 8 Championship - Finalists 9-12
Best of luck to Daniel "WYLD-WOO" Harris
Re: Player Profile: Mario Kart 8 Championship - Finalists 1-4
Best of luck to all the contenders! Shout out for Stacy Needham and James Leare I will pop round in the late afternoon at EGX (Saturday) after finishing running a SNES Super Mario Kart Tournament at the Replay stand for the visitors. Lets all have a catchup then
Re: Player Profile: Mario Kart 8 Championship - Finalists 9-12
Wishing @Sarger001 the best of luck. Will have a catch up with you guys in the late afternoon there.
Re: Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships Race Onto The Grid on 12th August
@Gridatttack Yes that is correct; the game features 8 of the guys from the championships as the players and then I come in at the end to hand out the trophy. It was made in 2009 and a limited 39 copies were made around the globe. Only 6 exist in the UK.
@Chaos_Eevee Lets be positive and hope it all goes ok I'm sure the week will go smoothly and lots of stories to tell after.
Re: Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships Race Onto The Grid on 12th August
@Luigifan141 No probs, please feel free to ask and will do my best to answer. Not in the exact same format but there have been discussions to do a joint one with Mario Kart 64 some day. However getting it all done in a week and keeping it as thorough as this in order to draw out accurate results, plus equipment etc will be tricky. There was a Mario Kart 64 meet in Europe last month I believe which a number of people I know attended. There were some form of competitions on different modes but I am not sure of the format. Thee mechanics of the game is very different to the snes with too many random factors on the multiplayer modes. We done a 64 tournament in Norway in 2007 and the results did not match those of the time trial ranking. For the other Mario Kart games I think smaller communities Nationally may arrange some things but not to this scale. It is for the time being the only retro Mario Kart that has a sponsoring by Nintendo of France and has been running every year since 2002. It started off as a French championship then eventually upgraded to Worldwide in 2008/2009. We have had players from Japan and Brazil in previous years and looking to get more of these guys back again next year. A lot of competitors have other commitments, job, family etc so they can't fly 12 hours to reach this every year but it is really nice to see them whenever they can do The friendships we make out of these meetings are definitely the best part. Lots of photos will go up on Facebook after we are back
Re: Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships Race Onto The Grid on 12th August
@Luigifan141 For the SNES there are hundreds on the time trial world rankings website and we are linked up with the other karts too which are also huge. The snes championships are growing each year. Check this out from Tuesday night and Wednesday onwards.
Re: Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships Race Onto The Grid on 12th August
@AyeHaley No there are a lot of people sitting around the webcam as well not in view. Or if it was the time trials some had popped our for the time. Last year's event had about 35 competitors. There will be more this year. The hall does actually have capacity for hundreds, but that's a good thing, more space the better, considering the summer and the heat.
Re: Play: We'll Be Blasting Through Mario Kart 1-7 in a Twitch Marathon
@KevTastic84 It is fair that some still prefer NTSC over PAL and that's cool. There are some mechanics that are good on NTSC, but mainly it is more forgiving on some off road sections. Some of the water tracks in particular make a difference. We did try an NTSC tournament in the 2012 championships as an extra special due to the 20th anniversary, the zoom starts were awful in the Time Trial one try, i didn't participate in that, but it was hilarious to watch
Re: Play: We'll Be Blasting Through Mario Kart 1-7 in a Twitch Marathon
@unrandomsam
Super Mario Kart's PAL version has better turning mechanics, trust me fast enough speed can be made on this beast, just need to use the right characters. There will be some great action there this August on the twitch channel at the World Championships.
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@JamieO Much appreciated Jamie, was great catching up with you and sharing some of the techniques at Play Blackpool. You have my card still yes? Please drop me an email to my yahoo on there then we can discuss the other projects / write-ups offline. Thanks again.
By the way here are my two new World Record improvements which I set at Play Blackpool this weekend:
NTSC Ghost Valley 3 5-lap: 1'12"27*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iTX3S4rUcE
NTSC Ghost Valley 3 1-lap: 0'14"28*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_xBJCA8lFY
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@Jazzer94 Yep CRT will be the best option... zero lag.
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@WiiLovePeace
Hopefully will get some news up nearer the time with a reminder of the twitch link so people can watch during the week it happens
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@Jazzer94
If you want to join the Time Trials, play on either a snes or the original wii vc. SNES preferred.
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@KevTastic84
There'll be some news on this soon
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@Kobeskillz No it is only marginally slower, like a second or two on a total track time. I feel the turn angles are better, but it is argued to be harder where the off road slowdown is worse and the length of the jumps is shorter making platforms harder to reach. But all in all it is similar difficulty, we do the championships in PAL as it is the home version for Europe. Plus most people play that by default. Though many of us have NTSC snes's as well and compete on both. Which leads on to my next comment...
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@Excep7ional
Cheers mate, would be great if you got involved in the time trial and racing scene. Play BP has been good so far, some casual racing and record demonstrations tomorrow probably. Then got to prepare for August's world championship pretty much. Keep me posted on FB / twitter when you will do a time trial set on a snes and plans to do any racing.
Re: Ninterview: Sami Cetin On His Journey To Super Mario Kart Success
@Excep7ional Yep the Championships are a big thing now and hoping to grow, check out the related articles as they have been put up recently. More news on the World Championships soon.
All: Much appreciated for the rest of the comments, if you have any further questions please feel free to ask.
Re: Video: Nintendo Minute Kicks Off its Mario Kart May With Some SNES Racing
@Blue-Thunder
It would be great if it was made. Multiplayer is possible via emulators online however many people round the world meet up to play vs on the classic SNES SMK. The world championships are a yearly event where it all happens. You can read about it here : https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/feature_a_look_at_the_super_mario_kart_snes_world_championship_2014
Re: Video: Here's a Comparison of Mario Kart's Donut Plains 3 from SNES to Wii U
Will enjoy Time Trialing this one like the original The technicality of it was great, especially hopping over the last corner tight by the wall.
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@arizvega Hiya, do you have a SNES + SMK, would you be keen to join in some competition for either Time Trial / Multiplayer or both?
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@JamieO Yeh it does go quite deep. Since the magazines in 1992 / 1993 most people wrote the same things; the black borders being the first. Then "omg PAL is way too slow", and put a sticker on it straight away saying "I don't like it". Most people will be used to the versions they grew up with. The game has a lot of technical differences that do come into play as explained above. Definitely for Time Trialing most of the tracks the PAL feels more real for me, NTSC seems to slip off. I really wish they had the ability back then even with the 50hz / 60hz TV system difference to have made one generic version for the world, then we could all really compare times on one list. As a result we have separate PAL and NTSC rankings, and those from PAL who wanted to give NTSC a shot or vice versa can order an import console and try the other system. For the UK players as an example, pretty much everyone competes on PAL so if you wanted to know your true UK rank it would be best to try there, we have a number of the top players having competed on NTSC but there isn't as extensive a list to compare to. Fun to see where you rank regionally as well or in your local town / city
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@remivir @Andyliini @mandlecreed @JamieO
The PAL version was reprogrammed as it would have been way too slow with the 17% difference. They also adjusted the mechanics a little. However I have to say I don't like the turn angles on NTSC. It is more sluggish on some of the later tracks whereas the PAL one is better for fine tuning. Also NTSC has some extra shortcuts which are more extreme and easier to hit but also cut too much off the tracks. Donut Plains courses are an example. Getting round hairpins on MC4 and DP3 on NTSC 150cc are a nuisance, whereas you can do it on PAL. There is better dodging ability on PAL for red shells, however that can be both an advantage and disadvantage depending what you prefer. Longboosting is too aggressive to get round some corners with the shrooms on NTSC and worst of all, the mini turbo length on NTSC is too short in distance! PAL is longer and helps cut across the amount of dirt to you want to The boost starts are a nuisance on PAL but awful on NTSC, we done a few small NTSC tournaments in 2012 and it was frustrating experience for everyone, thankfully I didn't take part in the Time Trial section of that Theres lots more but il post that later as I remember it.
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@luke17 This does have online competition, via the use of emulators. There are also yearly World Championships, check out this article: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/feature_a_look_at_the_super_mario_kart_snes_world_championship_2014
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@ledreppe Cool mate cheers, looking forward to hear from you with your full timeset soon
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@PachterStation Probably harder for us to see as weve played it semi regularly through the years. But it is technically better for tournaments as the item probabilities are not over-done and you can see much closer edge to edge racing between close ranked players that aren't decided by the usual blue shells and lightnings.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@MadJay1664 We do have some UK Super Mario Kart SNES meets from time to time in London, let me know if you are keen to attend any.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@ledreppe Great to hear you are taking part, are you playing on a snes btw? Currently the Wii U version has a save state ability apparently which renders it like an emulator. Please make sure you are doing the timeset on snes console. And don't worry about your initial level, there are a wide range of players on there, tonnes to compete with on wherever you enter plus easy to improve when we show you some routes on a few vids. Looking forward to hear from you.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@NikkiChu Thank you for your post
To answer your questions, we both use either D.K.Jr or Bowser as they have identical stats. Normally we have a favorite for time trial. For racing we don't mind using either.
We have had some more female competitors in the last few years, and another joined from the UK last year. 2012 edition had a couple of ladies from France join with their partners.
Training... short bursts and semi regularly works best. We have a lot of commitments including work and family so that must come first. But we mix up Time Trial and multiplayer training to keep it balanced. I think in the last week or two before the World Championships a lot of the players have some mini meets to practice together.
Hope that helps
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@MarkS27 Keen to attend one of these?
Re: Review: Super Mario Kart (Wii U eShop / Super Nintendo)
@xj0462 It is a 2D game, but because of the clever invention of Mode 7 graphics it gives the look of a 3D racer when you are driving. Very clever as it has tricked us into asking why the walls are flat, and things like that. The kart only pivots on the spot or moves up with jumps / items.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@James1993 It would be great, not sure if it will be done at least yet but we hope. But you don't need to wait for that if you want to try online racing. Get a snes to PC usp adaptor on ebay and you can compete on SNESOT via Hamachi. Can be set up to race quickly. Are you UK / London based? As per your first post asking if there is UK competition... we can organise something locally very easily vs one of the Top 5-10 players in the UK. They are ready when you are for some new competition
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@James1993 Although it is not as smooth as on a CRT TV it is possible to race online via emulators. Other than that, do get involved on the Time Trials site listed in the article, as that you can do from home if you have a snes /smk and can record some replays of your records. Easy to do.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@Nintenjoe64 I don't have a Wii U, but a good friend of mine has one, I have only had a brief go on it so far. Ooh Mario Kart Wii, it is the one I played the least of the series, and I have barely touched it since 2010. Even before then probably a few goes on all the tracks. Funny you mentioned the retro MC3 track though as it is one of a few that I could get into as well. I have a very old time on the site which I did beat some years ago on a random go but don't seem to have posted so I may have to dig it out. It is probably at least 1'20" - 1'21 now. The UK record is 1'18"425; and World Record is still 1'18"107 held by a gentleman in USA.
Re: Feature: A Look At the Super Mario Kart (SNES) World Championship 2014
@Luigifan141 Hi there, in the original SNES, Donkey Kong Jr, although Bowser is identical on driving stats. So normally using one or the other in a race is fine.