Showing posts with label Mario Kart DS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mario Kart DS. Show all posts

Stacking up the ratings for the Mario Kart games

1/13/2012 11:19:00 PM | Labels: , , , , , , | 1 comment

For several years, Game Rankings has compiled all of the reviews of games and given it an overall rating, much like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic in other places. It's an unscientific analysis, but it's one of the best ways to know whether a game is good because a lot of sites or people chime in.

I did a search of all the Mario Kart games to see how they stacked up, and it's somewhat of a surprise. Super Mario Kart is the leader with a 94.0 percent rating. However, it has the least amount of reviews, nine. This is probably related to the game being out in 1992, when the Internet wasn't widespread as it is today.

The worst-rated game of the seven — and I should use this term lightly — is Mario Kart Wii with an 82.0 rating. It's still an above-average rating for a game. It also has 72 reviews, tied for the most of the seven games.

Two other games broke 90.0 in addition to Super Mario Kart: Mario Kart Super Circuit (36 reviews) and Mario Kart DS (72 reviews). I find SC surprising since I think it's the worst of the seven games.

Mario Kart Double Dash, my favorite, is fifth at 87.0.

Here's the full list as of Saturday:

Super Mario Kart - 94.0 (9 reviews)
Mario Kart Super Circuit - 92.03 (36 reviews)
Mario Kart DS - 91.34 (72 reviews)
Mario Kart 64 - 87.23 (18 reviews)
Mario Kart Double Dash - 87.02 (72 reviews)
Mario Kart 7 - 85.11 (44 reviews)
Mario Kart Wii - 82.02 (72 reviews)

Mario Kart Wii the top seller in Japan in 2011

1/13/2012 06:03:00 PM | Labels: , , | No comment yet


NeoGaf, by way of Famitsu, has released the top 100 best-selling video games in Japan last year. The top seller was Mario Kart 7, which is amazing considering that the game was out in December. The tracking went from Dec. 27, 2010, to Dec. 25, 2011.

Mario Kart 7 beat out Super Mario 3D Land for the top spot by about 40,000 units sold. Those two games, as well as Monster Hunter Freedom 3, were the only games to sell more than 1 million copies.

It's great news and sad news at the same time.

Here's the good: With the amount of sales as well as the rise of community-based events all over the world, the 1 million mark within a month is a great sign (yes, I know people here who got the Japanese version). Keep in mind that many stores did not sell the game as part of a bundle package, and that probably was the case in Japan.

Here's the bad: Mario Kart 7's amount is the lowest for the top-selling game in Japan since 1996 and it's not even close. It joins Pokemon Red/Green/Blue in 1996, Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003, Animal Crossing Wild World in 2005 and Wii Sports in 2007 as the only games to be No. 1 and not break 2 million units sold in Japan.

Mario Kart Wii came in 23rd with more than 400,000 copies sold. It's now up to 3.3 million total.

Mario Kart DS was 60th, having sold 185,000 units. It's total is now at 3.8 million sold in the country.

Video shows snaking in Mario Kart 7

12/01/2011 10:54:00 PM | Labels: , , | No comment yet


Well today I am a happy person. It appears there is a form of snaking (straight-stretch mini turboing) in Mario Kart 7. It isn't as glaring as when it was in Mario Kart Double Dash or Mario Kart DS, but it is there, and it appears to give a considerable advantage to just driving the course.

I've forever been a supporter of snaking (SSMTing) and I think the elimination of it in Mario Kart Wii was a reason why the game was disappointing. I'll write later on about why I think this is great.

1Up hosting a Mario Kart event

11/27/2011 11:45:00 PM | Labels: , , | No comment yet

The people at 1Up are hosting a Mario Kart event Dec. 5 to celebrate the release of Mario Kart 7. There will be several tournaments, including one for Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart DS.

Hit the link for more info. Here's a sampling:

Nintendo's latest Mario Kart game, Mario Kart 7, is launching soon. Next weekend, as a matter of fact! To mark the arrival of the last big game of 2011 (besides that laggard The Old Republic, anyway), 1UP is hosting a community meet-up here at our offices featuring food, prizes, and the opportunity to humble your favorite (or least favorite) editors with a Blue Shell. Join us the evening of Monday, Dec. 5 (the day after Mario Kart 7's launch) at 5:30 p.m. to participate in a MK7 tournament and compete for prizes provided by Nintendo! 1UP's editors will be on-hand, and we'll try to strong-arm some of our friends from IGN into participating as well.

Amazon promoting Mario Kart DS ... sort of

11/25/2011 10:20:00 AM | Labels: | No comment yet

I was doing a search because of Amazon's lightning deals, and they showed that you could get as much as $14.50 in trade-in value for Mario Kart DS. That might be a good deal especially since Mario Kart 7 is coming out in a few days.

If you wanted to buy the game, though, the average price is $33.50. Go here for more.

Maybe there is snaking in Mario Kart 7

11/24/2011 11:46:00 PM | Labels: , , , | No comment yet
Then again, there probably isn't. I have yet to play the game, but many people have said it is not in the game. Mario Kart 7 reportedly uses the steering controls similar to what is in Mario Kart Wii. So any short-angle turboing is impossible, which was the key to getting repeated turbos in Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart DS.

However, one of the videos on the official Mario Kart 7 site shows something akin to repeated turboing (by the way, the official term is straight-stretch mini turboing).

Go to the items page on the Mario Kart 7 site, and click on the Blue Shell (spiny shell) link. Yoshi in the video appears to be snaking, but it's too tough to tell because of the camera angle.

Again, I'm more likely to put money down that there is no snaking in the game, so don't count on it when the game is released in a few days.
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