The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#509 - 519)

 #509 Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64) – Summer 2014

Today the list becomes MARIO MANIA. At this point in 2014 I decided it was time to finally play the Mario Kart series, having not beaten anything besides the SNES original back in 1996. Heck I didn't even play some of them at all. This was a pretty exciting endeavor...once I managed to actually get all of them up and running, which took a lot of work.

Finding the actual games wasn't happening at this point in 2014 (outside of the most recent ones) so emulation was the answer. I played through the entire series and did posts, though posts for the DS and 3DS games had to wait another decade or so for me to have a capture card.

In any case, Mario Kart 64 is a super game that's probably the high point of the series for a lot of people. The 3D tracks were extremely novel at the time (1997) and the track quality is very high throughout. I didn't get to play it until 2014 but I still felt all the cultural nostalgia of the N64 era.

Favorite Track: Bowser Castle. Was awesome in 1997 to see that place come to life in 3D.

Post HERE. Has probably the wildest ending to any post ever.

#510 Mario Kart Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance) – Summer 2014

This is the closest thing we got to a straight "Super Mario Kart 2" and it shows. It doesn't really develop from that game's formula at all. Fairly basic game with primitive visuals. Probably the low point of the series due to the rough visuals and lack of innovation. And yet, I still liked it a lot. Getting rid of Koopa-Troopa was a bad move though. He was my main character on the SNES.

Favorite Track: The Desert. I have a thing for deserts.

Post HERE.

#511 Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube) – Summer 2014

Now here's a step up that actually does develop the formula and expand on it. This is a super good game that I think gets "top game in the series" marks from a lot of people. It certainly didn't have any weaknesses when I played it. After the previous game, this was a eureka moment and a "this is more like it". Besides the double-racer kart setup and gorgeous visuals, this game taps into the Super Mario Galaxy era with places like Isle Delfino.

Favorite Character: Koopa-Troopa. He's BACK.

Favorite Track: Isle Delfino looks incredible and I loved racing through it. Funny because I really wasn't a big fan of Mario Sunshine, the source material.

Post HERE.

#512 Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – Summer 2014

Main thing I remember about this one is that it had a big roster. Much like the ninth and tenth Fire Emblems, I saw Wii versions of things as being automatically superior to Gamecube, at the time, but in retrospect they usually weren't, and that's true here too. Double Dash is a considerably better game. That said, this one's good too. Not like this series has any lulls.

Favorite Track: Once again, the desert wins. It's even better here. I mean, look at it!

Post HERE.

#513 Shadows of the Empire (Nintendo 64) – Summer 2014

I remember this being the first big N64 game after Mario 64...and also that it was pretty disappointing for everybody. The first stage (Hoth) is super good and I just wish the whole game were more like that. I didn't hate the on-foot levels (the rest) but I wish it didn't go so overboard with sewer levels. The last level (space battle with Xizor's ship) is the second-best level and never really got any credit; most players probably didn't get to it. It's similar to the Hoth level in that it's an open flight stage, which is where this game excelled.

Favorite Level: Hoth Snowspeeder Battle. I mean, duh. It's the best level in the game and the one thing that was absolutely worth playing from this. At least they led with their best foot; too bad the rest of the game didn't measure up. Play the first level and then turn it off, unless you're somehow reading this from 1996 and it's the only thing you have to play on your new N64 because you 100%'d Mario 64 already.

Post HERE.

#514 Halo: Reach (Xbox 360) – Summer 2014

With Nathan Fillion in the voice-acting cast and a great story that pre-dates the original Halo, this is easily my favorite game in the series. Much as I liked ODST more than most, and had a blast playing the first two main series games with roommates, this was the game that made me feel something. Great story here and I wish I remembered more of it / had more to say about it.

#515 Super Smash Bros (Nintendo 64) – Summer 2014

Was never a Smash Bros guy and always thought these games were overrated and hard to control. I guess "nuanced fighting game" isn't the point here though, the point is to just have chaos with a bunch of people playing as characters from other games. And in that sense this does succeed.

Favorite Character: Samus

What Were They Thinking: This is the only Samus you're getting on the N64. She's rarer than an N64 RPG.

Post HERE.

#516 Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS) – Summer 2014

Swung back around to this series and played the two portable Mario Karts back-to-back to finish things off. At the time I vastly preferred Mario Kart 7 over this one due to the much nicer visuals. Playing them again now, I definitely underrated this. The track design in this game is very good and they'd clearly learned a lot from previous Kart games. This is a game that clearly tried very hard; even though I'm not really a fan of the original DS and its "early Playstation 1 3D" graphics, it had a few games that knocked it out of the park and this was one of them.

Favorite Track: DK Pass. Has that rad snowboarding feeling to it. I love snowboarding...in games. FF7 Remake Part 3 better give us some rad snowboarding. Note: This track gets remade in the game immediately after this and is better there.

Post HERE.

#517 Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo 3DS) - Summer 2014

The first actual 3DS game I played after getting a 3DS. This was one of the more exciting system pick-ups I'd had in a while at this point because I had a number of things lined up for it (mostly Mario). I liked it more than the previous game because of the better visuals at the time. This does look WAY nicer than Mario Kart DS. However, revisiting it later, it's pretty clear that the track design for this game isn't at the same level as the previous game and at times it feels more like this one exists to fill a quota rather than to innovate.

Favorite Track: Koopa City. It's a futuristic city at twilight with pouring rainfall. What's Blade Runner doing in Mario Kart?

Post HERE.

#518 New Super Mario Bros 2 (Nintendo 3DS) – Summer 2014

I've never been much of a fan of the NSMB series compared to the OG series, and was glad when they kinda dropped it to go back to basics in recent years. And this is definitely one of the weakest in a series that I'm already iffy towards. Mario became more like Wario when we weren't looking, as there's a "gold" theme to this whole game in terms of color scheme and having a zillion coins to collect and so forth. They raise the coin limit to 9,999,999 (wtf) and you get coins from everything. They just rain coins on you all game. Remember that one level in Super Mario Bros 3 that was basically entirely made of coins and you had to hit P-Switches to keep them from becoming blocks? Lots of that kind of thing here.

The result of the coin-inundation is having tons of extra lives at all times which pretty much trivializes the game and makes this probably the easiest Mario game I've ever played. Also the naming scheme is confusing. It's "NSMB2" yet it's the fourth game in that series. Regardless, I had fun with this, despite everything working against it. The yellow/gold color scheme sets this apart from the rest of the series, and it was fun enough that I actually replayed the whole thing multiple times over the years - something I haven't done with any of the other NSMB games to now, which were all one-shots. So this one must have done something right.

#519 Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo 3DS) – Fall 2014

A great 3D Mario that really needs to be up-scaled and included in a modern compilation or something. It's too good to be trapped on a retired portable system. This is a fairly basic 3D Mario that errs more towards the Mario 3D World formula with regular levels that are in three dimensions, rather than the Mario 64 formula of having fewer levels but more open-ness and goals/collectibles. So you're getting pretty standard, linear levels here...only 3D. It's an interesting experience in that regard and different from the usual, more open, 3D Marios. For what it is, it was a great diversion and I was able to relax with this one for a few days, which is all I can ask for out of a new system. Playing through this and NSMB2 back to back was pretty rad, and I just wish there was more of this game.

Favorite Level: I'm not sure, because the levels of this game all sorta blend together. It's much more of a "regular Mario game" in that regard. I can't really tell them apart.