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What are some really cool games to play that AREN'T front page/garbage ones?

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.

If that rumor is true, which I'm sure it is, I'm done with Mario Kart. Mario Kart is supposed to be MARIO Kart, and I can't imagine other Nintendo franchises having any part in that. And knowing Nintendo, if Mario Kart does become Nintendo Kart, it will stay as Nintendo Kart for a long time, quite possibly forever. In other words, I don't want anything to do with Mario Kart Crossroads. Sorry to be so negative, but I just had to get that off my chest.

RBY: Nidoking
GSC: Houndoom
RSE: Either Breloom or Metagross
DPP: Froslass
BW: Haxorus
XY: Tyrantrum
SM: Salazzle

I think you'll hate me for this everyone hates me on here anyway

Oh boy.. Idk if this is weird or just creepy but someone is obsessed with me. They keep sending me weird messages and keep saying "When can we start dating?"

Funny this is, I barely know them.

So please tell me, what should I do?

1. I don't like Super Mario 64 DS. Don't get me wrong, the game is good in quality, but it was heavily held back by the console it was on. D-pad movements were extremely difficult to manage along with an unintuitive camera angle, leading to many deaths that weren't the player's fault. Play it on a 3ds and all the issues are gone, but that's the thing. It wasn't designed for a 3ds.

For a Mario Kart opinion, Waluigi Pinball is WAY too overrated. And Waluigi as a character.

Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA is a really underrated game. It controls great and the track design is just as good.

I've always had a soft spot for Partners in Time, never got much of the hate for it. If anything, I think the only reason it's forgotten is because it's sandwiched in between 2 other great games, so it gets lost in the shuffle.

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.

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.

The short answer is anyone except Waluigi.
The long answer is that there were only 2 characters I was excited for before the release who didn't get in, being Shantae and Shadow. Most likely Shadow would be more feasible, most likely due to putting less work on the dev's part (almost guaranteeing they would make him a semi-clone (read: echo fighter) of Sonic), but Shantae would offer a bit more variety.
An honorable mention is Geno. He would be a nice pick that would be a crowd favorite but have fun getting the rights from Square Enix.
Ultimately though I don't put much thought into it, since I personally don't play Smash Ultimate. Tried it a couple times but I still prefer Brawl overall, even if it's very janky.