Author: Chris Adams

Hi, my name is Chris Adams and I am a gamer. I play Nintendo games. I play some of them competitively. The games I play competitively are Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Smash Bros, and I speed run (beat as fast as possible) Super Mario 64

Mario Kart Wii vs. Mario Kart 8

Chris Adams on

Quick disclaimer, this will be my last post here ;-;

I hope you all have a great summer break, and enjoy the post below, it’s a big one!

Heya people, Chris here and today I have a quite controversial blog post, what’s better, Mario Kart Wii, or Mario Kart 8? Now, before we begin this blog is purely opinionated, and even if facts are used to prove an argument, that does not mean one game is superior in the end. This is purely my take, and if opinions are something you can’t handle, click off now and go read my last post, Super Mario Kart HD!

So many people here know I have a bitter hatred towards Mario Kart Wii, however, I’ll put aside that hatred and all, and actually look at this game with a clean, non biased approach. Though I must admit, that still may not help the game that much in this post. Or will it? Continue reading to find out…

So, let’s split this into categories, with the table being 4 key components, being, Appearance and presentation, controls, gameplay, and online, since we all know that is what catches most peoples eyes with any Mario Kart past DS. With that out of the way, let’s delve in…

Appearance and Presentation

Alright, this category may not seem fair, does it?

Well you’d be right, had I been discussing the games models and sights on the tracks. It’s obvious Mario Kart 8 would dominate that. However, thats not what I’m talking about, so you’re left asking “What does he mean? I’m confused”

Well, lets finally break the silence. Menu and HUD, and other such UI. The menus, the HUDS, the pause menu even, it all ties into how the game presents itself.

Mario kart Wii seems lost, confused, and unaware of how to present itself. The games menus don’t add up, some of the icons just change without notice. There’s no set pattern, no set layout or sizes of the buttons. It seems like developers just threw buttons wherever they felt and called it a day. The background of the menu wasn’t interesting at all either. Where other last titles used scrolling stars, spinning tires, the games Logo, or used the games title screen under a color and blur filter, Mario Kart Wii uses a simple, black and grey lines in the background. Talk about not interesting.

The actual race HUD itself is actually nice, and the item box finally has animations that set it apart from the past titles, which is a nice little addition. The numbers for placements could have looked different, as the stock ones are kinda bland, but it’s whatever. The warning icons look nice, and are prompt, they don’t get in the way.

Mario Kart 8s main menu is, way more neat. However, I personally say it lacks a lot of the Mario Kart charm. While it certainly isn’t as all over the place as Wii, it still didn’t quite scream “WELCOME TO MARIO KART!!!”

The games character select and course select are nice and neat, and look a lot more appealing than Mario Kart Wiis JPEGS slammed over a box texture.

Getting into the in game HUD, it’s clean. That’s all I have to say. The games item roulette ain’t as interesting as Wiis, as it lacks any animations to set it apart. The numbers for time and laps still has that digital clock look, much like Wii. However, one thing this HUD did nicer was the placement numbers. They added a nice little reflection effect, which is just nicer looking than flat numbers. Id also say the mini-map is also a bit better than Wiis, as it shows things like stars, bullets, and blue shells, something a few Mario kart games had in the past. It’s a nice little addition, while also holding good usage points.

Controls

Here’s what seperates the noobs from the pros. Both games have a ton of controller options, and there’s a lot of different combos to use ans experiment with for the ultimate experience. A note, Joy cons in a grip, joy cons in their straps, and joy cons sideways WILL BE COUNTED AS SEPERATE CONTROL OPTIONS!

Mario Kart Wii was mainly advertised with the Wii wheel, and while that controller was good and all, it had flaws. Stock, original Wii remotes simply wasn’t sensitive enough, they required a bit more to register your turning motion. The second model, Wii motion plus inside, were a tad TOO sensitive, making turning easier, but also more harsh, making mistakes, and running off the road more easier. These controls can both be mastered and perfected, and can pose an actual decent challenge to the player, making it a fun experience at times.

Nunchuck and Wiimote are probably ideal for most players, as it doesn’t require any claw grips to do tricks and wheelies with whilst retaining control over the vehicle. Also, who doesn’t have a nunchuck? It comes packed in with Wii consoles, so if you don’t have one, do you even Wii?🤔

Then, there is Classic, Classic Pro, and GameCube controllers. These controllers offer a traditional-ish experience to the older players should they be too good for a new experience. They all have one flaw with their mappings, and that’s mapping wheelies and tricks to the D-Pad, meaning you either have to take your thumb off the stick that controls your vehicle, or learn to claw. While claw personally isnt hard for me, many players find great discomfort in this, making them a bad controller choice for some.

Now, Mario Kart 8 supports every controller Wii does, minus the GameCube controller this time around. However, with the Wii U version, it supports 2 more, and with the switch version, it boosts that number by 5 ways.

Personally, I have never experienced the Wii U version, so excuse me for my lack of knowledge of how these control methods work. I’ll be skipping these, as I don’t want to judge something I haven’t held in my hand amd experienced myself.

However, the switch port boosts these numbers of control methods, with each version being listed below:

1. Joy Con grip

2. Joy Cons seperated

3. Sideways Singular Joy Con

4. Handheld mode

5. Pro Controller

Joycon grip, sperated, handheld, and pro controller all offer the same mappings, however they allow for comfort of choice.

Don’t like traditional controllers?

Use Joycon.

Don’t like the small Joycon?

Use the pro controller.

Don’t like playing on the TV?

Use handheld mode!

The switch port does much more comfort of choice than Wii did, as every method in Wii netted a different experience, but had a flaw or two with each setup to possibly chase people away. That’s not to say Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is god tier, no, it just says it has more comfortable control choices!

The Gameplay

Mario Kart is Mario Kart, so all the games in the end, feel similar in a sense. However these two Mario kart games control wildly differently, so much so going from one game to the other can require an adjustment period. Let’s discuss it now:

Mario Kart Wii has the loosest gameplay any Mario Kart has to offer. The limits are the walls, or the respawns, whatever stops you! The game doesn’t stop you from poking around and exploring, and you can drive wherever you want, within bounds, for as long as you wish! However, playing serious, as in actually racing, this exploration comes at a cost. The games physics engine is broken, meaning you can sometimes glitch or get shot off the road for seemingly no reason. Many Wii veterans call this “fun”, but in all honesty it sometimes really isn’t. Ask yourself, how fun is it racing Grumble Volcano and driving over one of the falling segments and it starts shaking, you hit that edge and then go flying off into the lava. That, that’s not fun, not in the slightest.

Mario Kart 8 offers…well, in all honesty it offers nothing. The games physics engine is nice, and refined, I’d honestly love to see it again. However, it’s bounds regions, aka respawn barriers, the game doesn’t offer any sort of exploring.

You try driving backwards?

Respawn

Try driving backwards?

Respawn

The games respawn engine is weirdly set up, in fact I’ll briefly explain it. The tracks have tubular respawn planes, meaning there’s a “tube” surrounding the road that will respawn you on the road the instant you hit it. While this fixed something Mario Kart Wii did terribly, which was Ultra Shortcuts which made online unbalanced, it also ruins any sort of exploring offline. Let’s also not forget that on time trials, you can’t exceed 10 minutes, the game ends at 10 minutes and the race concludes, meaning going on a sightseeing tour of the beautiful tracks is impossible to enjoy as long as you want.

Online

OOOOOOOOOH BOY, THIS ONES A TREAT!

So, any game that offers online has an online community. Wii has wiimmfi, and 8 has NSO and NN, both of which are still very alive. As for wiimmfi, it has nothing compared to either of the latter services in terms of active players.

Let’s disclose right away, Mario Kart Wii has possibly the most toxic playerbase online, and sometimes even offline, surrounding it. The players themselves don’t know what playing for fun is, and all go Funky Kong Flame Runner (Bowser Bike) when playing. You also see quite a few Daisy Mach Bikes. This, this ruins the point of calling it Mario “Kart”. The bikes are terribly balanced, and inside drift is flat out broken, so much so that going online, it’s almost a requirement you master it. Players who are new, are chased off as the community already there whoops them within an inch of their life, and then they get banned because their VR goes below the amount wiimmfi allows. For a game that’s supposedly “the best”, it’s community hasn’t grown for years because everyone chases them all away.

Modding community is also toxic, from being flat out a-holes, stealing work, defacing work, mocking those who mod the other games, stealing mods from the other games, and the list really goes on. They honestly are the worst part of Mario Kart Wii and it’s online presence, as they are the rudest people. Some golden gems are hidden in there, and they are really nice once you find them amongst the others. The modding community also has a huge Monopoly going on. The supposed “best” mod out there is CTGP, however there are other, possibly better, mods out there that gets unseen because of CTGP. This destroys any will for modders who actually like the game to go forward, and they eventually just submit their tracks for other hacks, or for CTGP, and even then their works can go unnoticed.

Mario Kart 8, both U and Deluxe, have avidly huge communities. While many Wii vets call them “dead”, that couldn’t be any more false. Mario Kart 8 still sees hundreds of thousands of players, including the Wii U version which still has very active servers. Wii is lucky to see 300+ unique players in a day, while 8 sees several hundred thousand within hours. The community around 8 is also less toxic, and won’t shame, bully, or other such to you. While 8s modding community is still small, advancements are being made and the game has a CTGP in beta.

So what do you think? In my opinion, Mario Kart 8 reigns superior in a lot of ways, however, it has its downsides compared to Wii!

Is Wii fun?

Yeah, it still has some fun left to squeeze out of it!

Let me know, what do you think? Comment below, and much thanks for reading this huge blog post!

Mario Kart 64 HD Mod

Chris Adams on

Heya peeps! It’s your local retard, Chris, back at you with a totally new post!

Recently, A+Start, aka the creator of the Son of a Glitch series, revealed how Mario kart 64 character sprites where made.

In short, I’ll sum it up right now. Mario Kart 64 uses pre-rendered sprites for the characters and karts. However, these sprites were made the same way as the original Donkey Kong Country games did, and had a fully 3d model animated, and was shot, converted into a file format, and then resized to match the image size the console could handle. That’s a lot of complicated mess simpled down, however, the post ain’t over yet.

I’m sure by now, some of you know that texture packs exist. There is currently a huge one in development for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! which remakes all the textures as truthfully as possible in HD. There’s a similar pack for Mario Kart Wii, however my own personal interest died on finding out whether or not that pack was ever finished or not.

Now, onto Mario Kart 64. This game wasn’t pretty…at all, not by any means. Since 4 player split screen was the main focus (and selling point) of MK64, that meant the tracks and graphics was designed around that. Since the console had to render 4 screens at once, tracks had to be super basic and characters HAD to be sprites. Come to think of it, this game would have looked much better had it focused on 2 players instead of 4, but oh well, the game was and still is a blast from time to time.

Now, onto my point. Making this game HD. What would need done?

Well for starters, the textures would need to be fully redone. There is no way reusing the original textures would be possible. The textures should stay true to the original game, in order to preserve the game in its original glory. Remember the goals to make it HD, not alter it.

Second, I think it would be wise to remake the track models to be higher poly. By today, emulation of the n64 is pretty much perfect with a few minor glitches, but by now technology has advanced enough that there’s not a PC that couldn’t run N64 emulation, unless it was older. However, the tracks low, low poly count caused the physics of the game to behave wildly in some areas, much like the future installment, Mario Kart Wii, which also had bad physics on certain tracks. Increasing poly counts would increase the amount of strain, so developing this would require a 4 player split screen test, to ensure that multiplayer would still function.

Third is player and cpu graphics. An amazing idea would be to recreate the original 3d models that was used to make the sprites and implement those as character models, animated and everything. This way, the game would look drastically different but at the same time, still feel like it’s old self!

Fourth, is the music! Honestly, MK64 soundtrack is good enough as is, however this is supposed to be an HD remake/port, sooooooo the music has to change. MK64 uses soundfonts and midi files to save space on the cartridge, and much like any Mario kart that was cartridge based, the instruments (soundfont) was compressed, making them lose their amplitude and bass, and overall sounding crummy. If I were involved, I’d fully recreate those instruments and replace them all, uncompressed and all, making the games audio stay exactly the same, but with crisp, non compressed music.

Lastly, let’s touch controls briefly. This game controls VERY weirdly, and as a MK64 player myself, I can admit the controls get very weird and frustrating at times. The Karts turn like crazy and drifting is a disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing. Now I know our goal is to keep this as true to the original as possible, but sometimes changes have to be made, and the kart controls have got to go. Personally, I’d say porting over the kart handling physics from say Mario Kart DS or 8 would greatly decrease the difficulty of driving. However, for those die-hard mk64 vets, there would be a toggle in the menu for old scheme and new scheme.

Alright, those are my thoughts on a possible mod for MK64. As of currently, mk64 is next to impossible to mod as the tools required are not available or simply don’t exist yet. However, what are some of your thoughts? What do you agree or disagree with? Let me know down below!

DS Airship Fortress Remix

Chris Adams on

Heyllo my lovely class mates <3

This weekend I decided to remix Airship Fortress, as  a request from an online friend!

Not much to say this week for my remix, except for I really nailed the bassline and drums!

Heres a link of the original, for comparison reasons:

And here is my remix!

This week, I highly recommend using headphones, because the bassline and drums are the main parts of this tracks theme, and it can be heard at its best with headphones!

Full Game Review: Mario Kart DS

Chris Adams on

Hello people, this time I have a full game review instead of the review of just a track this time around!

Let’s get this out of the way, MKDS is my absolute favorite Mario Kart game, it was my childhood and the reason why I went through 7-8 DSI consoles. The game to me is absolutely amazing, and if I could I wouldn’t point out anything bad, but unfortunately even in the best things there’s something to be done better, so here’s to me taking off nostalgia glasses and any biases I could possibly have and give this game an honest lookover!

1st up on the list, let’s discuss the graphics of the game!

It’s probably the least important part of a game, but presentation is always nice to have, and MKDS does a really well job at presenting itself. The game, unlike Wii, knows what it wants to look like. Wii had several different setups and such across menus and such, making it look a tad bit like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. DS did the look consistent, and the look of the menus and such are absolutely perfect! The blue aesthetic, the squares, the title of the game in the background, the layout is simple, yet just so pleasing! Mk7 tried to recreate this aesthetic, but like many other parts of 7, it failed to live up to MKDS.

The in game artstyle however is where the DS limitations begin to show. Due to tiny screens, and piss poor resolution, the game is really, really basic looking on the track. Pixels are basically rampant on screen, but for an earlier DS title it still looks decent at the very least. Textures are actually not half bad, but a tad bit washed out on 3ds consoles. The games lighting isn’t that great either, and playing this game on a 3ds really shows that.

Overall, the models are what really make a games graphics, as without them there’s nothing to look at! Models in this game are beyond basic, and are quite ugly for more bigger characters such as Bowser and Wario. Other characters look pretty alright, like Yoshi, Mario, and Daisy, who are a lot more simple and easier to model.

Now, many don’t base a game on graphics, so why waste time pondering on those when the real beef is the game play/modes, so let’s dive straight in!

So, where to even start? This game packed the absolute most single player content in any Mario Kart game to date, surpassing even the amount of modes in mk8d! And to think, such a small, compressed and limits out the ass game had more to it than something that has next to no limits. Kinda hurts Nintendo, kinda hurts :pensive:

This game has loads of content to choose from, rather you are just there for the Grand Prixs, a multiplayer fool, and time trialer, or the best mode of all Mario Kart games…mission mode :sunglasses:

Many people praise mission mode, and I’m here to tell you it deserves ALL the praise it gets. Not only does it give MK an extra layer of depth, it also gave Mario Kart more of a sense of accomplishment when you finally unlocked mission 7! It’s the only game to date that had it, and it flat out confuses me as to why Nintendo hasn’t officially remade it yet in a current or past installment after DS. (note to commenters, please don’t mention “well Mario kart Wii has custom missions”, I’m talking completely official, no mods here bud)

I can also say battle mode was at it’s best here in MKDS, and the only game to come close to rivaling it is Wii, but DS takes the prize this time round. Battle mode in this game, minus shine runners, is just so fucking fun. You can have a ffa, or a team battle, spare balloons, arena selection, it was just pure fun, and if you were lucky enough to get 8 players linked together, then this mode was REALLY the stuff! The frenzy of items, being able to assist teammates after getting eliminated, it just added up and up further to pure epicness! This is honestly the only game I find balloon battle fun, because the sense of survive or die is just so much more invigorating than “oh, I lost some points and respawned”

You have your standard Mario kart modes here as well, in the form of Grand Prix, Time Trials, and Versus mode. Everyone knows these modes, so I won’t focus to hard on these. Now, let’s move on to some more interesting things that really made DS stand out!

The game play this game had to offer was some of the absolute best to date! This game was extremely fast paced, much faster than the newer installments, and if you were an expert snaker then it was always faster than Wii. This game felt fluid and it felt fast, and it all came together quite nicely. The only issue is that massive jumps, although not common in this game, are a tad bit floaty. Much like Wii, you loose speed in the air, which also makes air time a bit of a drag. Drifting in this game is much, much more satisfying than in other titles in this game as well. For me, rapidly turning left and right to drift was just intriguing and challenges the player to get good at it. With Wii and above, this feature was sadly removed to balance the game out, but really all games that had this were fun, with DS doing it the best. Sure, it resulted in snaking being overpowered, but that also leads me to my next praise, and that’s the difficulty level.

This game is one of the more difficult ones, and it’s replayability I infinite. The game has so many things to master, such as controls, snaking, the PRB glitch, taking tight turns while snaking, mastering the karts, it was all a challenge that wasn’t even actually posed in the game! Replaying this game, you immediately feel a fast frenzy of fun, whether against yourself, against the ai, or against your friends or family, and the fun just never seems to end!

Now, let’s discuss the music, and omg this game has some of the best, underrated music to date. This game used an interesting technique to get it’s music due to limitations, but honestly despite all odds they still sounded amazing. Many people complain “oh it’s compressed” but in actuality, the game isn’t even that compressed, and the compression that’s there isn’t even that bad unless you sit and purposely listen for it. Now, about how this game handles music. This game uses midi like methods, where there is a file and certain instruments are assigned to certain notes of that file! This allowed for Nintendo to make music that sounded great while also keeping a smaller file size!

Mario Kart DS [OST] – Waluigi Pinball
Mario Kart DS [OST] – Wi-Fi Menu
Mario Kart DS [OST] – Mushroom Bridge (GCN)
Mario Kart DS [OST] – Main Menu

Lastly, I want to talk about miscellaneous features! Mario kart DS has several features that haven’t been seen since it, such as emblem editor, records on gp times, and other such. The emblem editor allowed for you to have your own custom icon displayed by your name and on your kart! Also, this mode can be considered a gallery for the in game characters and karts since you have free reign to take control of the camera and rotate and cycle through karts and characters. The gp times record menu showed details such as character, kart, and times it took to beat the cups. This mode sounds useless, but for some it poses a second challenge, and that’s going against your past records there too! You could literally time trial yourself in Grand Prix mode all because of this menu!

So, after all of that, I truly think Mario Kart DS is a game that will surely not die in vein! It’s an absolutely golden title in the franchise, and while it’s primitive, it still stands tall as a great game! Do I say ikt stands higher than Mario Kart Wii? Of course I do, it’s simply more fun and packs more modes! My rating of the game as a whole is as follows:

9.4/10

A 3RD REMIX?!

Chris Adams on

Heya guys, it looks like Ive made another remix! This time it’s from a different series instead of Mario Kart, but nonetheless it’s still something I’m actually very proud of!

This remix however, was much more challenging to do because the original was orchestrated, so I had my work cut out for me making the remix sound somewhat orchestrated where it needed to be! It posed a really great challenge, however after tweaking a little bit, I managed to get it to sound the way it needed to!

So here below, I’ll link my remix and the original, for comparison reasons! Remember, headphones are recommended so you can hear those sweet sweet details👀!

Heres the original:

And here’s my remix!

 

Track Review: DS Delfino Square

Chris Adams on

So, everyone loves a nice little rural market themed track, and- OH LOOK, DS TO THE RESCUE!

So, I’m sure many of you have played the title Mario Kart DS for the…do I really need to say the console it was on? 🤔

Okay fine… it was on the Nintendo DS🙄

Mario Kart DS featured many tracks that were excellent, not many of them were remotely bad *cough* except SNES Choco Island where the dirt and mud physics were just… no. 

However, we aren’t here for that track, we are here for Delfino Square. Delfino Square is a simple track for the Flower Cup in the nitros class. The tracks actually very good looking in the original despite using flat 2d textures to represent majority of the things going on. The tracks layout is simple, and takes place in a city market. Your first greeted at the start of the race by a straightaway, then you meet the actual square where you race around a fountain. Then, you race through the village, going down narrow pathways down 2 separate lanes. Your then in the martke region, where there are stands jutting from the walls of building holding the “goods” of the market as an obstacle, with some boxes scattered throughout.

There’s 3 shortcuts, which makes the track a little less linear, but it’s still a tad bit linear even with the shortcuts and separate paths. The linearity of the track really isn’t that bothersome. The track also has a Wii remake, but to save breath I’ll sum up that version simply down below.

The Wii remake of the track is majorly the same, with everything being fully 3d modeled whereas the original utilized flat textures for many of the sites.

So in all fairness, this tracks simply good. There isn’t much to complain about with this one. My rating for the two tracks are the same, so you can find it below:

Original & Remake: 8.5/10

 

Track Review: GBA Cheese Land

Chris Adams on

GBA Cheese Land is a track that has been remade in MK8, however it’s origins are from the GameBoy advance title, Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The track in the original game was super flat due to hardware limitations, however there were ramps in the track.

In my opinion, the original track was actually pretty bad, because the turns were super tight, the track was really flat, and there wasn’t many sights to look at other than a desert-esque background, some towers of cheese, and a few mice on the road as hazards. Other than that this tracks really boring, however things get changed for the better in the remake.

The original track was flat, as I have already mentioned. However, the track couldn’t be any more elevated in the remake, from hills, sideways turns, and a new anti-gravity section! The track has seen a graphical overhaul, and the track looks like cheese this time around rather than yellow dirt! The mice as obstacles have been removed, and the cheese towers are no longer really obstacles, however this is minor changes. The tracks absolutely stunning in HD, and with the improved model quality, improved textures, and overall improved sights, this track is by far at its prime in 8!

My ranking, of both versions respectively, are as follows:

Original: 6.5/10

Remake: 8/10

Another Remix?!

Chris Adams on

Hello boiz and goiyelz, I hath made another remix this weekend! 😀

Its quite a simple one and sounds really similar to its original counterpart, with the biggest difference being some different instruments, a different soundfont, and not being as compressed as the original one. I’ll link both the original and my remix down below, and remember headphones nets the best experience!

Here is the original:

And here is my remix of it:

 

Track Review: DS Shroom Ridge

Chris Adams on

Hello you lovely people’s! Today I’d like to give a review on an underrated track from MKDS, Shroom Ridge!

So first of all, I’d like to discuss the layout of the track. The layout is actually quite a simple one, and it’s pretty fitting of where it is in cups, which is the final track of the second nitro cup. This track features vehicles that the player has to avoid while racing, which has been a theme in all the 3d Mario Kart games! It is themed like a cliffside rural city, contrasting to Mushroom City/Bridge from Double Dash!!

The cars are a slight bit a challenge, but not a ridiculous amount of challenge. Remember this is the second cup, so the track is still relatively simple. The track however has one issue, and that’s it’s linearity. The track is super linear, featuring only 1 shortcut. The track actually is not that bad in terms of graphics, it looks good for being on a super low resolution DS screen, with really bright colors contrasting the asphalt road! The cliffside theme with grass covering the cliffs looks really good for a game that had super harsh limitations.

This track has no glitches that are currently known, which means the track was super well made!

My ratings, on this track, are as follows:

9/10