From: marms@python.cs.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: [SNES] Super Mario Kart vs. F-Zero
Date: 12 Dec 92 00:11:48 GMT
Reply-To: sandia!marms@unmvax.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Organization: Sandia National Laboratories

Washito Sasamoto <was@afe11.larc.nasa.gov> writes:
>so now that you've purchased smk ... and you own f0 ... how do they stack up
>against each other?  you mentioned that someone complained about smk being
>slow.  is it really slower than f0?  i'm considering getting the latter given
>the rating (9.5) horowitz gave it.  thankx in advance.

Let's see.  There are several ways to evaluate and compare the two
games.  The biggie is that SMK has 2-player whereas F0 does not.  This
is a BIG plus for me as I love multi-player games.  But this really is
important though only if you have two players of roughly equivalent
skill level in the game.  Otherwise, what I see most often is that I'll
cream the other guy (me coming in 1st while him 8th).  This is not all
that much fun, for either player.  This is a common problem in any
competitive 2-player game, except for Street Fighter 2 which allowed
players to set their own levels independently in the option menu.  When
you do have to equivalently skilled players, it is a lot of fun to
compete.

In the 50cc class (SMK) which is the beginner difficulty level, the cars
are pretty slow.  But you need this to get used to the mechanics of the
game.  It still took me a lot of games to get the Gold in each of the three
50cc Cups (each Cup is a set of 5 races).  Then onward to the 100cc level.
This one is a lot faster and the computer opponents are very aggressive.
I can easily get the Gold in the first two 100cc Cups, but the 3rd Cup is
still difficult (I can take Gold in it about 30% of the time).  When you
win Gold in each of the three 100cc Cups, it then opens up the 100cc
Special Cup.  These are 5 very difficult races, especially the 5th one.
So far I can only place 1st on the 1st race, 3rd on the 2nd, 4th on the
3rd, and out of the top four on the 4th race.

For continued difficulty, players on the Net indicate that when you win Gold
in the 100cc Special Cup, the game opens up the 150cc difficulty level.  So
lots of replayability in the game (except the difficulty ramp is pretty
steep between the levels).

The Battle Mode in SMK is a lot of fun.  I would have liked more (with
easter egg stuff and other battle courses).  My friends and I tend to spend
more time in the Battle Modes than in 2-player Grand Prix.

So is SMK slow?  Compared to F0, the illusion of speed is quite a bit less.
But I am a lot busier in SMK than F0.  The pick-up items and attacks of
your opponents make this very true.  Also, some of the SMK courses are
a lot harder than most of the F0 courses (except for Fire Zone, the last
race course in F0).  You have more to worry about in SMK than F0 in each
race.  And then there's the point summation for each Cup to worry about
in SMK.  Both are great games.  F0 is more of a pure race game.  SMK is
a racing game with a combat twist.  I have spent a lot of hours with SMK
and enjoyed it all.  If I had to buy only one, I'd go for SMK.  But F0
is definitely a keeper for me, so I'd recommend both.  Let's hope that
the rumors of a 2-player F-Zero (part 2?) for the SNES are true.  Ideally
this would come on SNES-CD and have tons of race courses and lots more cars
to choose from.  Or even a semi-RPG aspect where you can buy repairs and
improvements for your car between some races in a Campaign Mode.

-- 
Mike Arms
Editor of Encounter magazine
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