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Key · 12-27-2022, 07:37 AM

1992

This is one of those years where I look at the games that were released and I realize that I wouldn't really consider any of them in my personal favorites, so I'm breaking my own rule a little bit. As far as game releases go in general, much like 1991, there aren't very many games released this year that again, wouldn't really consider my favorites, but also would admit that I know close to nothing about these games. Other than an obvious select few, which in this case the one I'm choosing to highlight for this year is Super Mario Kart.

As I got older, the game collection started to grow a little bit, and growing up we had a NES and a SNES at some point, and I credit that time in my life to opening my eyes to gaming in general, which followed me all the way to where I am now. So despite games like Super Mario Kart and others not necessarily being my favorite games of all time, they still had and have a lot to do with my experience with gaming as a kid, then all the way to my 30's. Otherwise, the reason I chose Super Mario Kart for this year is truly because it's one of the few games I remember playing a lot of. Everything about the game just feels familiar even just by looking at screenshots, and while the series certainly got better over the years (much the same can be said about many game series), it had to start somewhere. I remember the game feeling pretty good to play, and while I was never the biggest racing game fan back in the day, and still probably today, I still feel like this allowed a lot of people to separate their dislike for racing games, and love for Mario games which I think had an enormous impact on how people view racing games in general. Not to mention the fact that even today, people are still anticipating any new mentions of any new Mario Kart game. It's the same thing with Super Smash Bros. Nintendo managed to merge genres together even back in the 90's to the point that people would follow these series all the way to current day.

One of my favorite things about Mario Kart games in general is the power ups, and I suppose the same can be said for most Mario games. But it really is a testament to how important it is that a Mario game have good power ups. And having power ups in a racing game just got better and better as the series evolved, but even Super Mario Kart had some great power ups to get you started on your path of never wanting to play a racing game without power ups. You've got the typical green and red shells, bananas, the simple stuff. But in a game like this, the simple stuff is not always the worst thing. I remember many times getting annoyed on the ghost levels because people would leave bananas around and subsequently would fall off the edge of the level leaving me frustrated and wanting to just restart the level. Some of that may just be my own thought of what the memory is, but I just remember hating the ghost levels. Creative, yes, but certainly annoying to race on. I get the difficulty though so it's not a fault of the game in any way. Hell, none of the levels in Super Mario Kart really feel out of place or anything because again, this is the first game to even do any of this, so it all feels sort of fresh and new, even if you decide to play it today. And you can obviously see inspiration for what they did with the series going forward, which is always neat to look into. See which types of level designs followed them throughout the years, etc etc.

Great game though, just not one of my favorites of all time.

12-27-2022, 07:37 AM	#5 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	1992 - Super Mario Kart 1992 This is one of those years where I look at the games that were released and I realize that I wouldn't really consider any of them in my personal favorites, so I'm breaking my own rule a little bit. As far as game releases go in general, much like 1991, there aren't very many games released this year that again, wouldn't really consider my favorites, but also would admit that I know close to nothing about these games. Other than an obvious select few, which in this case the one I'm choosing to highlight for this year is Super Mario Kart. As I got older, the game collection started to grow a little bit, and growing up we had a NES and a SNES at some point, and I credit that time in my life to opening my eyes to gaming in general, which followed me all the way to where I am now. So despite games like Super Mario Kart and others not necessarily being my favorite games of all time, they still had and have a lot to do with my experience with gaming as a kid, then all the way to my 30's. Otherwise, the reason I chose Super Mario Kart for this year is truly because it's one of the few games I remember playing a lot of. Everything about the game just feels familiar even just by looking at screenshots, and while the series certainly got better over the years (much the same can be said about many game series), it had to start somewhere. I remember the game feeling pretty good to play, and while I was never the biggest racing game fan back in the day, and still probably today, I still feel like this allowed a lot of people to separate their dislike for racing games, and love for Mario games which I think had an enormous impact on how people view racing games in general. Not to mention the fact that even today, people are still anticipating any new mentions of any new Mario Kart game. It's the same thing with Super Smash Bros. Nintendo managed to merge genres together even back in the 90's to the point that people would follow these series all the way to current day. One of my favorite things about Mario Kart games in general is the power ups, and I suppose the same can be said for most Mario games. But it really is a testament to how important it is that a Mario game have good power ups. And having power ups in a racing game just got better and better as the series evolved, but even Super Mario Kart had some great power ups to get you started on your path of never wanting to play a racing game without power ups. You've got the typical green and red shells, bananas, the simple stuff. But in a game like this, the simple stuff is not always the worst thing. I remember many times getting annoyed on the ghost levels because people would leave bananas around and subsequently would fall off the edge of the level leaving me frustrated and wanting to just restart the level. Some of that may just be my own thought of what the memory is, but I just remember hating the ghost levels. Creative, yes, but certainly annoying to race on. I get the difficulty though so it's not a fault of the game in any way. Hell, none of the levels in Super Mario Kart really feel out of place or anything because again, this is the first game to even do any of this, so it all feels sort of fresh and new, even if you decide to play it today. And you can obviously see inspiration for what they did with the series going forward, which is always neat to look into. See which types of level designs followed them throughout the years, etc etc. Great game though, just not one of my favorites of all time.