I wanted to like this game, seeing as it's the start of one of my favorite genres, and has a lot going for it in terms of charm. I love the soundtrack in this game and its unique sound (its version of Rainbow Road is my favorite), as well as the sprite work and general presentation of the game. I even kind of like the look of the Mode 7-as-hell tracks, for the most part. But man, this game is aggressive in how off-putting it is to anyone who's played a kart racer released after this one.
For one thing, driving is just really hard to get a handle of. I never felt like I fully understood my character's speed or turning ability or anything that would allow me to handle better. I tried different characters, but even after finishing several cups I could never really say I fully "got" this game's feel, which is totally different from any other kart racer I've played.
When I started playing at 150CC after unlocking it, I actually ended up getting a better handle of the driving though. The problem there is that most of these courses seem to be designed in such a way to be as abrasive and hard to read as possible. The way this game looks resulted in a lot of instances of not being able to see the walls on the ground and just bumping into them for three seconds straight. This game also really likes square-ass corners, which are almost always no fun for me. The latter half of the cups in general feature courses that demand so much out of controls that just aren't up to the task.
I'm not against the idea of a kart racer having difficult courses, some of my favorite ones involve really demanding courses near the end of the game that require both good adaptability to obstacles and some memorization for future laps. But where this game really falls apart is the A.I. This is the game that supports every argument about kart racer single player being bad because of cheating A.I, it's actually unhinged in this game. If you're racing against Mario and Luigi, they can just activate a star whenever they want, meaning if they're in first you won't be getting past them. In fact, every A.I has a special item they can just use whenever, and they will use it frequently on you specifically. They will almost never hit each other, in fact they can jump over nearly every thrown item on the course, which you can't do. I'm pretty sure I've seen them just go through some pipes on the course, though that just may be another byproduct of these Mode 7-ass courses. And of course, they rubberband like hell, especially the characters that have been chosen to be your "rival" for each cup, they will never not be right on your ass (and God help you if you picked a character that's Mario or Luigi's rival).
I could imagine multiplayer grand prix alleviating some of this, since you could share the suffering with someone else, but then I have to ask why play this game instead of any other. Unless you grew up with it, there really is no reason. Everything this game does has been greatly improved upon, and no kart racer since has reached this level of straight up bullshit. I don't want to outright say its a bad game because it is important and I'm sure people have fond memories of it, but man I was not ready for this to be as unpleasant as it is. If you want a kart racer similar to this in mechanics and style, I would recommend Konami Krazy Racers on the GBA as a much better alternative.
For one thing, driving is just really hard to get a handle of. I never felt like I fully understood my character's speed or turning ability or anything that would allow me to handle better. I tried different characters, but even after finishing several cups I could never really say I fully "got" this game's feel, which is totally different from any other kart racer I've played.
When I started playing at 150CC after unlocking it, I actually ended up getting a better handle of the driving though. The problem there is that most of these courses seem to be designed in such a way to be as abrasive and hard to read as possible. The way this game looks resulted in a lot of instances of not being able to see the walls on the ground and just bumping into them for three seconds straight. This game also really likes square-ass corners, which are almost always no fun for me. The latter half of the cups in general feature courses that demand so much out of controls that just aren't up to the task.
I'm not against the idea of a kart racer having difficult courses, some of my favorite ones involve really demanding courses near the end of the game that require both good adaptability to obstacles and some memorization for future laps. But where this game really falls apart is the A.I. This is the game that supports every argument about kart racer single player being bad because of cheating A.I, it's actually unhinged in this game. If you're racing against Mario and Luigi, they can just activate a star whenever they want, meaning if they're in first you won't be getting past them. In fact, every A.I has a special item they can just use whenever, and they will use it frequently on you specifically. They will almost never hit each other, in fact they can jump over nearly every thrown item on the course, which you can't do. I'm pretty sure I've seen them just go through some pipes on the course, though that just may be another byproduct of these Mode 7-ass courses. And of course, they rubberband like hell, especially the characters that have been chosen to be your "rival" for each cup, they will never not be right on your ass (and God help you if you picked a character that's Mario or Luigi's rival).
I could imagine multiplayer grand prix alleviating some of this, since you could share the suffering with someone else, but then I have to ask why play this game instead of any other. Unless you grew up with it, there really is no reason. Everything this game does has been greatly improved upon, and no kart racer since has reached this level of straight up bullshit. I don't want to outright say its a bad game because it is important and I'm sure people have fond memories of it, but man I was not ready for this to be as unpleasant as it is. If you want a kart racer similar to this in mechanics and style, I would recommend Konami Krazy Racers on the GBA as a much better alternative.