i was gonna go through and try to unlock as much in this game as i could but honestly after having played each track a few times in grand prix i kinda didn't feel all that compelled to keep playing. by no means is it a bad mario kart game but i definitely don't feel the same way as a lot of other people do since many claim this is the best one. i play it every once in a while at a friend's place and it's actually pretty fun when we get a group of 4 together, it's even pretty fun when you're all playing on tilt controls because that's all your friend has. that said i still think id rather be playing some of the other titles over this one. i think a big part of it is just that this game missed me as i was growing up, i never played it until i came to college and just had my expectations set too high before playing it for the first time.

also this is a bit of a side tangent but i wanna acknowledge that the speedrunning and online competitive communities for this game seem really cool, but i feel like in the way people dub this the melee of mario kart (which in all fairness it seems like it is) that also just attracts people calling it the "funky kong flame runner only" game in the way people call melee the "fox only no items final destination" game and it just kinda becomes clear that those people probably have the most surface level knowledge about the game. in reality, it isnt always played like that and it gets annoying sometimes because it enables people to keep making the same lame ass unfunny jokes all the time