Mario Golf is out now

[A Black Falcon]

Doom is not a 3D game. It's about as 3D as those "tennis court" areas in Contra. Doom is Contra but in a different perspective and no jumping. OooOOOooh! What amazing differences! And they have different enemies?? Holy crap, that makes them nothing alike!

Well obviously they have plenty of similarities, just like Outrun and Mario Kart... and 'different perspective and no jumping' creates a dramatically different game.

Oh, and if you want to just compare it to the 3d parts of Contra say so. Because otherwise it also includes the 2d levels which have little in common with Doom except for the fact you shoot stuff with guns.

That's complete crap. There may have been other "lap racers" in the past, but none like F-Zero and Mario Kart. The weapons and power-ups in Mario Kart were never done before, not even close. The powerslide was such a huge innovation that even the most sim-like of racing games today use it (Gran Turismo, for one). And then there's the battle mode which hadn't been done before and was a major addition to the genre (and actually, creating a whole new sub-genre). Where do you think the car combat genre came from?

It wasn't the first behind-the-car lap racing game. Obviously. Yes, it did use the new technology (just like F-Zero)... and that is good, and innovative.

And F-Zero did the laps/mode-7 thing first. Mario Kart has the powerslide and weapons, not laps/graphics, as new features. :)

I never said Mario Kart didn't add some big new features to the genre... I've said all along that it did. I just think it was slightly less influential on the games after it than you -- that some of those features weren't new.

Yes it added a lot of stuff. It didn't do much truly new except for powerslides, but it did a good job of improving previous games in various ways... as all great evolutionary games do. :)

As for battle mode... yeah, that was a great idea. It probably would have happened anyway, but Mario Kart did have it pretty early... not that shooting vehicles in arenas was a new idea (its a very old idea), but the way it presented it was.

That game got a high score from ign because there was nothing to compare it with on the N64. I have played POD, and it's really, really bad.

First... the N64 is easily my favorite console for racing games. Nothing else compares.

Next... Rush got a good score (Rush 1 also got a 8.9) BECAUSE THEY ARE GREAT GAMES! Rush is easily one of the best arcade racing game serieses out there... all three games are great, and each one improves on the one before it. Maybe you don't like it as much, but Rush has a LOT of fans. I am one of them... and the IGN reviewer who reviewed those three games.

Go to Gamespot if you want Rush reviews in the 7's... :)

As for Pod (you said you'd only played the DC one, not the far better PC version...), I know it didn't get the best scores, but its just so much fun to play... its a great, great pure racing arcade racing game.