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Console: Wii
Game: Could not fucking remember for the life of me, but probably Wii Sports.
Date: Christmas Day 2008

I still have that Wii but I need to replace the disk drive...again.

Might as well provide my two cents on this

Perhaps earlier but I wasn't alive to see it.


All of those social media platforms have essentially plateaued in registered user count besides maybe Discord (which was designed more as a competitor to IM platforms, mainly Skype and TeamSpeak). Their time in the limelight is essentially up, they either have to adapt to the times or die trying. Hence everyone (mainly Discord and Twitter dot com) jumping on the sinking NFT ship, Youtube shamelessly aping TikTok's style of videos (which itself was a variation of Vine's content, which was essentially the wacky humor of early 2010's Youtube compressed into 6 second long clips. It all comes full circle), and the overall increase in advertisement on all platforms (Please download AdBlockPlus on your computer). I'd say it's become less genuine but I'd really say none of these platforms (besides Discord pre-covid) were all that genuine to begin with. Such is the evolution of the internet.


I haven't seen this roll out, at least where I'm based out of. Not like I'd ever pay for it but I'd imagine a lot of people will. There's definitely more opportunity to make money on the internet than there was 10 years ago, not even just creating content but just reacting to other people's content, a trend which I will never understand.


People are fickle. The internet enables their fickleness. There are certainly Youtubers that have transcended time to keep putting out moderately popular content well after their heyday (Cinemassacre is probably the first one to come to my mind), but the Youtube darlings of 10 years ago (Smosh, nigahiga, JackSepticEye, GoodMythicalMorning, Daneboe, etc) have largely faded from the public eye, as I'd imagine today's Youtube darlings will also largely fade from the public eye within 10 years. Such is how the internet works.


It's a quick and easy way to reach the people for them to virtue signal most effectively and gauge support in real time. Though knowing Twitter dot com that support will be negligible at best.


There's definitely a mix of good and bad in it compared to where it was 10 years ago. I do kinda miss that early Web 2.0 experience but that's just me with the rose-tinted glasses on. The internet is now no longer the Wild West that (according to my parents) was filled with child predators and scammers, it's now the definitive place to get news, network with people, research data, and really whatever the fuck you want to do. Content creator is a viable career for the short-term if you can successfully "game the algorithm". Unfortunately I think with the successful proliferation of the internet into the mainstream as the later Millennials and early Gen Z come of age, so to did that mysteriousness go with it. Content generally feels less authentic as more people try to get their 15 minutes of fame, to the point where people can and will make up stories to push their personal agenda. There's a lot more predictability to the content now and overall the web has gotten more hostile, especially on sites like Twitter dot com. I think the death of it had to be the successful proliferation of politics into every sphere of the internet circa 2016. Now, in the words of EmpLemon, "if you don't spread your platform to spread awareness about John C. Calhoun's toenail, then you don't care about the world's problems." It's fucking inescapable. To all those who are young enough (or have good enough parents) to not have social media accounts yet. Don't get them. They're really not worth the trouble.


Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes.


Legacy media services were unable to compete with the internet in terms of both cost and service provided. So they're largely dying out.


I've elaborated on the political climate on the internet...as for World War III, in the words of Albert Einstein, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”


This, unfortunately, is the new normal. Things are never going to go back to the way they were, and if they are it's not happening in my lifetime. The lockdowns have no reason to end, not in the eyes of those tied to the CDC and Pfizer. They've pretty much established their control of every aspect of public life early on when lockdowns started raining down, and as the virus mutates to grow more contagious and less severe, people will see the number of cases and demand to stay home. I know people who have pretty much stopped the clock in March 2020. Maybe it's worth it to them, but not to me. The same goes for vaccine mandates, they're never going away (I do find it slightly amusing that in certain parts of the US you need to show proof of vaccination to eat at an Applebees, but you don't need a form of ID to vote. Go figure.), and if anything I see them cracking down on said mandates, and thus leading to more political polarization with the issue. Both sides: vaccinated and unvaccinated, at this point are waiting for the other to start dropping dead on the streets.


The internet makes it easier than ever to show your support towards an often popular cause nearly instantly to hundreds of thousands of people...without actually doing anything to further the cause. This is called virtue signalling. With the rise of politics on the internet, so to that has come into vogue. I've talked about this with regards to popularity earlier, so I'll cut it here.


Honestly the message forum is a dying breed and I love them to death. Changing this would be a disservice to its users. Reddit still has some aspects of it but more resembles your other social media platforms, and really the only "platform" in the mainstream that resembles the message forums of old would be 4chan, a site so contaminated by the rest of the internet that it's not even worth visiting unless you're there for porn.


Honestly this was a great question to ask, I've seen the internet grow as I did, and I guess now after wringing out every last dopamine neurotransmitter I have for it, I can finally realize what's changed for the good and for the bad, or even what's stayed the same.
Don't forget, you're here forever.

Might as well. This happened about a week ago. Apologies in advance for language.

So seeing as lockdowns are starting to loosen (for now anyways), life is starting to return to normal for real this time, concerts included. So one of my favorite bands (The Black Dahlia Murder, if anyone's curious) are coming to a little showroom fairly close to my location. Seeing as I have no idea when they'll be coming around again, I book tickets for the event. I'm pretty excited, to say the least.
A little later on (a week ago, as described), I'm making sure of COVID and whatever regulations that are put in place at the venue because I don't want to end up at the door denied because of some random bullshit I didn't know of. Well I was in for a rude awakening.
Starting October 1st, all attendees are required to show proof of full vaccination. A negative covid test is not acceptable for them. Seeing as a) the event is after October 1st and b) I have no intention to disclose my vaccine status to complete strangers, I can't go according to their rules and regulations.
Ok, so I'm slightly mad, now I have to go and refund my ticket. Except the ticketing service I bought it from declared that all sales are final. No refunds.
Needless to say, I'm fucking livid. I basically dumped $60 in the toilet.
The venue service said that there would be "limited refund availability, guided by local regulations, closer to October 1st". That's some pretty fishy language if I've seen it, and the fact that it's limited means that those $60 could be gone forever. Fuck me I guess.

A lot of people cream themselves over CTGP (an expansion to Mario Kart Wii), but I think for every at least decent track there's at least a clunker that doesn't work. There's also CTGP for Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7 but I haven't tried those out yet.
As for free for PC games...I'm fairly certain Mario Kart Roblox Dash doesn't exist anymore. There may be some flash games floating around but I think those are fairly simple in execution. Same goes for any still existing Roblox Kart games.

I have one, it's in an unofficial category but as far as I know it's the fastest time for it.


I got this in a voice call with someone blaring hentai and it was beautiful.

From my experience in MKSC, probably Yoshi Desert or Broken Pier. Both offer a nice balance of complexity and fun while keeping the track decently short.

CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.
BUT EVEN WITH CRUISE CONTROL YOU STILL HAVE TO STEER.

Apologies in advance for bumping a topic that's not been bumped for about a week, but I might as well throw my two cents into the mix.

I might as well elaborate now that I'm given the chance!

9. MK8D:
This is a lazy port that took away nearly every competitive aspect MK8U had, with very little payback that wasn't already in MK8U.

8. MKDD:
By far the weakest of the original karts. The graphics looks better than ever (even if everything looks a little bit plasticky), and you can get nearly-neck deep in the competitive mechanics of the game (as you can every kart pre-MKW). It's too bad that it controls like dogshit. Every track is the ice track, and none of the tracks seem to compliment the control scheme. It's like they designed the tracks first and then attempted to make the controls around it and failed miserably with one or two exceptions.

7. MK8U:
The first game that I ever preordered at the young age of 11 definitely left something to be desired. Competitively, this might be the most complex since the days of MKDS, but elsewhere the entire package is lacking. Many of the tracks I felt were half-baked and sometimes didn't exactly coalesce with the controls. This is probably the most "just another Mario Kart" that is up to this point.

6. MKW:
I feel Nintendo definitely took a bit of a risk with the Wii, and by extension MKW. Gone are the input-heavy days of yore, replaced with a more streamlined experience geared more towards a casual audience that works for the most part. The track/control combo is generally more stable, and while none of them feel great, they all generally work. The pace of the game has also massively slowed down partially due to a lack of easy way to acheive MT speed, but comparing the scale of the retro tracks to the originals (especially the DS tracks) also leaves a different story. This ultimately results in a slightly more boring experience all around, and generally signals the "beginning of the end" for Mario Kart's quality peak.
(I am aware of CTGP's existence, but I'm not accounting it in the ranking here. Not like it would affect it much.)

5. MK7:
The best nu-kart of the bunch, for all the wrong reasons. MK7 sees the streamlining taken to a whole new level, leading to the most straightforward karting experience up to this point. Weirdly enough though, it works. The tracks generally feel complete and most of them (with the exception of Rosalina's Ice World) all work with the controls given. The advent of kart customization is a neat idea, with additional glider and underwater mechanics also adding to the variety presented, you have one of the most diverse karts to this date.
As to be expected with any nu-kart though, the pace of the game is generally slower comparative to those MKDS backwards, and it's actually probably the slowest kart experience that you'll get from a mainline game. The amount of extra bells and whistles in tech is also near zero, with possibly the most emphasis on pure lines in any game since MKSC. This game should be a disaster. It isn't. Consider this as a last hurrah before Mario Kart's dive into mediocrity.

4. SMK:
Half of this kart's ranking is due to sheer influence alone, but it also holds up damn near 30 years on. The tracks are for the most part simple with the controls mostly working with the track design with the obvious exception of the 2 Vanilla Lake tracks. It's a little bit hard to grasp for sure, but once it's been grasped it's very rewarding.

3. MK64:
SMK may have been the blueprint to the kart racing formula, but MK64 was the realization of it in its purest form. These tracks are zany, cartoony, and contol surprisingly well. These tracks are huge but the pace is still fast, even on the obscenely long ones like Toad's Turnpike and Rainbow Road. This is also the most technically complex kart bar none, with so many ways to increase your speed and optimize your play. The beginning of the true manual MT increases the skill ceiling to near-infinity. There are still some tracks that don't exactly work, mostly due to RNG elements but they're pretty few and far in between. 25 years later and on a system that was woefully underpowered compared to its competitors, it still holds up as a fun albeit slightly frustrating kart racer.

1. MKSC + MKDS:
Trying to rank one game over another here is near impossible, so here they share the top spot. Both games are equally great for different reasons. On MKSC's side, you have the sheer quantity and quality of the tracks, the small scale of the tracks (the smallest scale MK would ever get to), the consistent track/control alliance. On MKDS's side, you have the insane input-heavy gameplay, the extremely fast pace at which tracks are taken, and the introduction of online play. I see MKDS as having the higher peaks, but MKSC being more consistent in its greatness. Both games control extremely well, with MKSC offering a refinement of the SMK control scheme and MKDS offering a faster-paced and less slippery version of MKDD's controls. The track selection for all is a joy to play through. It all comes together here exactly twice, and all for it.

Please bear in mind that I'm not accounting for MKT or MKHC, as I don't really consider those as "mainline" karts. I have no intention of ever playing MKHC and I played about 15 minutes of MKT once on a friend's phone and swore to never play it again. It goes without saying that MKT would be dead last if it were counted here.
The arcade versions should be viewed as they are, fun little excursions that aren't really worth much critical evaluation.

Welcome to the club
In all seriousness online leaderboards just work like that. You gain points if you win, and lose points if you don't. Sometimes you run into a cold streak that just sees you lose like 15 of 17 games that day, other times you get a miracle run and win those 15 of 17 games. It's part of the unpredictable nature of online multiplayer.
It's best not to give the points too much importance. I've been in that spot and it's created nothing but anguish on my end. I mean I can't stop you from giving the points importance, but it's best if you don't, in my eyes anyways.

If we're talking stuff strictly under the Mario name, that honor probably goes to Galaxy 1.
If we're talking games that at least feature Mario, then that honor goes to Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Simple. MKDS controls better than any kart ever has and likely ever will.
It's deceptively simple really, it's a transition away from the more slidey controls of MKDD backward, but still retains the insane input-heaviness of the older karts, and even more. There's a reason MKDS has a reputation of being the game where thumbs go to die, and while it isn't exactly true, if you look at any top level time that'd likely be your first impression.

I'd also hardly call the nitro courses on MKDS lacking compared to those of MK8D. Obviously you have the fan-favorites of Waluigi Pinball, Tick Tock Clock and Airship Fortress to name a few. But even past the big names there's still a lot of good tracks, Shroom Ridge takes what Toad's Turnpike did and blasts it into the modern age with some quality-of-life improvements from MKDD. The same goes for Wario Stadium. There's also the most ambitious Mario Circuit to date, whatever the hell DK Pass is supposed to be, and obviously its iteration of Rainbow Road.

The retros, well they're mostly 1 to 1 ports from the original, scaled to the DS and removing some features here and there (mostly for the MKDD retros). It's the first time Nintendo ever tried it (MKSC did it first but that wasn't even developed by Nintendo) and it was on a system less powerful than the N64, and as such went with simpler tracks that don't pop out as much. You could say they don't change a lot. You could even say that for MKW's retros.
I'd say for MK8D they changed too much. MK8 was the third straight game in which Nintendo added on bells and whistles to the formula. As such, likely in order to give the retro tracks the love they deserve, those bells and whistles were incorporated into the tracks, to fairly mixed results. Obviously the scale of tracks is altered (especially the MK64 retros), but even then there's a lot of...bloat at hand. MK8 also started the trend of simplifying the retro track's layouts for some reason that I'm really not sure of. Most of the changes are fairly innocuous, and for the newest retros (mostly the MKW and MK7 selections), I'd dare call them improvements over the original, graphically anyways. However the further back you go, the more apparent it is that Nintendo crammed the new features into the retro tracks not because they fit into the layout, they cram it in because they felt like it. There's no logical reason to give Dry Dry Desert a water section. There's no reason to give Wario Stadium anti-gravity. Same goes with Yoshi Valley and Sherbet Land. There's no reason to load MK64's Rainbow Road with unnecessary anti-gravity and gliding sections. And the DLC tracks are even worse in that regard. Ribbon Road was utterly butchered by the change, replacing a large chunk of the track with a glider segment that wasn't needed. We don't need to see SMK's Rainbow Road remade for the 9 millionth time. And we certainly don't talk about what they did to Sky Garden.
In essence what I'm trying to say here is that having more features in and of itself isn't a good thing when the game's control has taken a massive hit. Nintendo drastically decreased the skill ceiling starting with MKW, and it keeps lowering with every passing game. So in order to keep tracks interesting, they add on bells and whistles to the track's features in order to add the illusion of progress during the race when in reality, the driving is stale and boring, lacking any technical mastery or sheer skill, just let the game play itself while you watch the pretty pictures pass by.

And I don't think we even need to talk about shortcuts when MKDS has PRB up its sleeve. Not visually flashy (like MKW's shortcuts) but one of the most technically impressive feats in any kart games, and you can use it on over half the tracks.
You wanted your "real reason", you got it!

I played MKT on a friend's phone for about 15 minutes once. Swore to never play it again. Needless to say I don't have a positive view of the game.
Most of my qualms with the game are outlined here, so I won't waste my breath.



I think Infi and I are really the only true defenders of MKDS over here, and other than its community you'll almost never see it ranked as the best. Other inferior karts (mostly MKW or MK8D) usually get that spot among the general public.
MKSC also technically introduced retro courses. Not the first but MKDS made it a mainstay.

Sometimes if a moment really resonates with you, it can influence your opinion of a game for a while. It's been coming up on 8 years since Nintendo WFC shutdown and I still remember playing online for like 2 hours every night during the summer of 2013, and absolutely loving it. It's a memory that I don't think will ever leave me, and while it doesn't affect my opinion of MKW that much, it does at least rise it to slightly above where it should be. I would also have a moment (or a series of) like that for MK64 and MKDS, both happening 5ish years down the line.
It'll be different for others though.


People like things for different reasons. Be it a critical analysis, growing up with it, having a strong memory associated with it, we all like what we like for different reasons, and we probably like different things about what we like, since we all see different parts of a game as mattering more or less than others.
Me personally I've always been in the camp of MKDS being the best. I wouldn't call it the most technical kart but it's definitely the most input heavy, and the controls align very well with most of the tracks. It's that kind of transition from the "classic karts" (MKDD backwards) to the "nu karts" (MKW forward), bringing the best of both worlds together in a package that just...controls amazingly. It's not a flawless game but it's a damn good one and I doubt Nintendo will ever top it with regards to new MKs. Some people will like MKDS for different reasons (mission mode, the intro of online play, "proper" retro tracks, emblems, etc), some people will dislike MKDS for the reasons I like it, and others still will see apply reasoning of the "best of both worlds" to another kart. Such is how we appreciate forms of art (something derived from subjective opinion).

Just off the top of my head...
-Simpleflips
-Vargskelethor
-Werster
-ExoParadigmGamer
-OfficialDuckStudios
-CGP Grey
-Marcel Vos
Some others I 100% forgot.

I'm opening up MKDS's retro track selection seeing as I'd imagine most people would see those retro tracks as at least underwhelming.

Shell Cup
SNES Koopa Beach 1
3DS Shy Guy Bazaar
GCN Mushroom Bridge
GBA Lakeside Park

Banana Cup
Wii Toad's Factory
WiiU Sweet Sweet Canyon
SNES Bowser Castle 2
N64 Wario Stadium

Leaf Cup
SNES Mario Circuit 4
3DS Maka Wuhu
GBA Yoshi Desert
DS Shroom Ridge

Lightning Cup
GCN Wario Colosseum
Wii DK Summit
N64 Banshee Boardwalk
GBA Bowser Castle 4

Tried to take into consideration how cool a potential remake would be as well as how much a remake for said track is needed.

I mean that's a lot of the draw to most speedrun.com kiddies towards MKW (as well as CTGP giving the game a million categories, so some average Joe could claim a WR in an irrelevant category). People like seeing the game broken in a lot of ways, and those shortcuts are the perfect representation of it. This is also why MKW (and MK64, a comparatively "broken" game) often gets more traction than something like MKDD (a "polished" game with very few unintended shortcuts).
MKW's overrated to shit but really you're looking at the wrong factors.

Yeah the line was too long.

Motion controls are a non-issue at best, since they are optional and every Wii comes with a nunchuck. They suck but an alternative is easy to come by.


Rosalina can be unlocked in 3 different ways, being:
-Get at least 1 star in all mirror cups
-Play 4950 races
-Play 50 races and have a Super Mario Galaxy save file present on your Wii.
The third method is how I personally unlocked her when I was younger. To my surprise, Ebay has copies of Galaxy for about $15-20, although I expect those prices to skyrocket in the coming years as the Wii nostalgia hype grows.


Funnily enough it was the first I played too, but apparently I don't have much nostalgia for this game despite remembering more details on my first time playing than any sane man should remember. (The date was July 24 2009, I was playing on Yoshi Falls, and I was using Wario in the Wario Bike in Vs. Mode, 50cc).
I do still have a lot of good memories playing Mario Kart Wii, specifically I remember during summer 2013 just grinding out online for something like 2 hours every night while listening to the however many songs that were on my iPod Touch (which has since been lost to time, I couldn't tell you specifics, but it was mostly whatever was on top charts that I happened to like).
I do look upon those nights fondly, as a time of innocence and happiness. Wiimmfi just isn't the same...


I've said this before, but the controls have pretty much fully transitioned from the slipperiness of the first 4 karts to a stiffer and less complex control scheme. It's certainly the least input-heavy kart up to this point by virtue of removing manually-charged MTs.
Optimal combinations you'll be seeing a lot because it's optimal, Funky Kong/Flame Runner has just been pretty much ingrained in the minds of pop culture to the point of parody because it's so prevalent. Had the first 4 karts had online in any capacity, we would be memeing those combinations too.


Mario Kart Wii's got a weird plasticky feel to it, not nearly as prevalent to Double Dash but it's still certainly there. The downgraded graphics were apparently for online optimization but I don't remember Nintendo's servers being too great back then. Probably just Nintendo not bothering to optimize shit because they can get away with that, considering that this is the second best-selling Mario game of all time (for now anyways, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe isn't too far behind).

That someone would be me. :P
I certainly don't think any kart from Mario Kart DS onwards has any major flaw from a casual standpoint. By then, Nintendo moved away from their sometimes hard to grasp controls to a stiffer and easier controlling scheme, so those games your average Joe could pick up and play with little to no adjustment. For me at least though, again it's a matter of technicality and lasting, and MKW is the first game where I could see myself getting legitimately bored at the top level.
Controls I don't have much feeling on but I feel the stiffness of the drifting is a bit odd. Other than that it's completely passable.


As far as I know, while the Wii does use a primitive version of Bluetooth, I don't think it supports a PS4 controller.
As for being the prototype for motion controls, Sony's Eyetoy released in October 2003. Not nearly as well known as the Wii, seeing as it was an add-on for the Playstation 2 as opposed to being its own thing.
No doubt I love the Wii, but it's moreso for the titles that came out for it than the niche of motion controls itself, which I see mostly as a gimmick.

Recently I've come to terms with it being overrated as hell, along with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. While 8 Deluxe sometimes gets the hate it rightfully deserves, Mario Kart Wii is more often than not seen as the gold standard of karts. And honestly I don't know why.

First, I feel that many people judge Mario Kart Wii as Mario Kart Wii + CTGP. While I do like CTGP, bear in mind that if we're using the base version of other games, it seems fair to use the base version of Mario Kart Wii when comparing it to other karts.

Second, the mechanics of the game have been dumbed down, possibly in response to Mario Kart DS's mechanics. For the first time in Mario Kart's lifetime, you cannot actively charge MTs, instead it uses a timer system similar to that of Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart Super Circuit. While both of those games had somewhat wonky drifting systems allowing you to abuse the timer system and "manually" charge your MT, Mario Kart Wii possesses no such equivalent. You instead wait for your MT to charge up, and then you release it. While you can affect the optimization of your MTs through soft drifting and delay drifting, this massively limits the potential of the game. With previous entries, there's always something to improve, being that the nature of repetitive MTing always loses time to tool-assisted runs. On Mario Kart DS's Bowser Castle, the current WR (1'49"876 by Taiga) still loses to Suuper W's TAS time of 1'43"430 by about 6 and a half seconds. In addition, this also lowers the difficulty curve perpetuating the src kiddie myth that wrs are easy to achieve and that anyone can casually get them.

Third, the tracks often feel too wide for the controls given. While I may have my gripes with Mario Kart Double Dash's control system and how the track design actively works against the controls, most of the tracks were still pretty brisk in pace. Mario Kart Wii's tracks feel bland and overly wide. It makes the game feel large in comparison to the karts, especially on the retro tracks. Even on the nitro tracks where the kart feels more in scale compared to the tracks, the track design feels relatively tame, I could probably count 2 or 3 tricky sections throughout the 16 track run. Compare this to Mario Kart DS, where even in the Mushroom Cup there are some legitimately tricky sections to maneuver the kart through optimally.

Is it a bad game? Certainly not. I respect it for introducing me to the series back in 2009. But I feel it's the beginning of the end, with each subsequent kart becoming more boring, more safe, easier, less technical, etc.

At least I like it more than Double Dash.

God it's been a hot minute since I've regularly listened to nightcore. I do remember quite enjoying it some 6-7 years ago.

Might as well link some of my favorites from then.




WE RISE AND WE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL
WE'LL STAY
WE'LL STAY UNTOUCHABLEEE

Definitely takes me back to the summer/fall of 2015 either staying up until 3am playing Roblox, chilling listening to it on the bus to school, or grinding out MK7 online. A much simpler time for sure. I'm pretty sure if my journey with music didn't steer me towards heavy metal I would still be listening to it regularly.