Mario Golf is out now

[A Black Falcon]

Your ignorance shines through yet again!

Calling Mario Kart a "racing platformer" is accurate because you use most of the items and power-ups from the Mario games and it has that fast of a pace. Now of course you don't jump from platform to platform like you do in Mario Bros., but everything else is very similar. I don't mean platformer in the strictest definition of the word, just that it's Mario Bros. on wheels.

When Mario Kart came out it was very different from any other racing game out there, just as much as Gradius is from Wing Commander. You of course do not know this because you weren't into games back then. Your view on this is from a post-Mario Kart perspective (where most racing games took something from that game) which is very limited, and it only makes you look like a fool when you argue about it.

I've been into PC games since we got our first one in the beginning of 1992. And GB since getting it in christmas '94. So saying "I wasn't into gaming then" is just false. "I never played much SNES" is true, but that isn't what you said. And anyway... I also was reading Nintendo Power as far back as 1992. And some older back issues, since I mostly got it from the library (they still get it so I still read it there sometimes...). So I wasn't exactly ignorant of Nintendo gaming even years before I had any Nintendo systems...

So there goes that arguement.

My first experience with Mario Kart was with PC Mario Kart clones Wacky Wheels and Skunny Kart... both clearly rip off Mario Kart and both are quite fun. I like them, especially Wacky Wheels. But just like Mario Kart they are racing games.

I am amazed that you are trying to say Mario Kart isn't a racing game (because that IS what you are saying by saying its as different as Gradius and Wing Commander -- Wing Commander and Gradius aren't in the same genre so by extrapolation you are saying that Mario Kart isn't a racing game... which is a totally insane statement...). IT IS.

YES, it did a few things new! I agree! IT did! BUT ADDING SOME NEW THINGS WHILE EXPANDING ON PREVIOUS THEMES DOESN'T CHANGE THE GENRE OF THE GAME!

It just makes it a unique-at-the-time racing game.

"racing platformer"? Gameplaywise it makes absolutely no sense. None. Mario Kart has nothing to do with platformers... except the fact that it looks like its set in Mario World. Setting it in Mario World doesn't mean that its a platformer, it means its a racing game with a Mario theme.

It plays like a R A C I N G game, not a platformer... the gameplay has nothing in common with platformers so I don't see where you get this arguement from.

What will you say to try to save your failed arguement now, that Gradius and Wing Commander are in the same genre?

I can admire Serious Sam for doing mindless shooting well even if I don't like it, but the Cruisin' games don't do simple racing well! And I'm not the only one that hates the series. Every single Cruisin' game has been critically panned by just about every game reviewer in the world. If you like it, that's fine. But don't try to tell me what makes a good racing game when you enjoy a series that's hated so much by most in the gaming community.

If 5's up to 7's means 'panned' and 'hated so much by most in the gaming community' means 'by OB1' then yes. I'd say 'mediocre reviews' myself, since that's a more accurate term...

And you'd have to show me proof that its "hated by the gaming community", because I've never seen any. That's because its not. It might be thought of as a somewhat mediocre series, but 'hated'? No, way too strong term there. "Very simple to the point of possibly too simple, and not original" sounds closer to what reviews say... they do not say "wow these games stink!" At least not usually.

And anyway its not like I'm the only person who likes it, as GR prooves.

Gamespot Cruisn Exotica review... its a 5.8, but by reading the review I see that its exactly the kind of thing I'd like. :)
http://www.gamespot.com/n64/driving/crui...eview.html