From: marms@python.cs.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Subject: Re: [SNES] mario kart: anyone gold in special?
Reply-To: sandia!marms@unmvax.unm.edu (Mike Arms)
Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 00:42:30 GMT

Stefan.Wenskat@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Stefan Wenskat) writes:
>I've acomplished this after 1 week of training.
>It's hard to reach because you have to beat always the same driver.
>I discovered that the winner or the rankings of each race are predetermed.
>e.g. if you pick Mario as your driver the ranking is DKjr,Joshi,Princess,
>Bowser,Luigi,Koopa,Toad. So you have to beat DKjr.
>If you manage to spin him out , he drives like hell to reach the pole position
>again.

This is true and is one of my big gripes about the game.  I know that it
would take more work for the game to really have each of the computer drivers
really competing against each other.  Not only that, but the computer drivers 
don't seem to have the accelleration problems as if you were that same driver.
When you are Bowser or Donkey Kong Jr, your accelleration is extremely slow.
Not so for the computer drivers.  As it stands now, the game predetermines
the order of the computer opponents.  They don't vary their positions a bit, 
unless you can make one of them spin out close to the finish line and the 
one behind passes by default.  I hate having to always be battling the same 
characters for the top slots depending upon who I am.  If Bowser is a great
driver, he should be competing for the top slots in most of the races.

>Back to gold in special, a nice outro appears,and the game resets.
>BUT there is a new category : 150cc.Hell to win,I've just accomplihed gold
>Flower Cup.

Is this true?  I read somewhere that there was something extra if you ever
take Gold in the 100cc Special Cup.  That is one damn hard Cup!  The drivers
are super aggressive, bonking you repeatedly so that you lose all of your
coins.  And the courses are very difficult.  One slip up, and your won't
make 1st place in a race.  And you need to take 1st place in at least 
three races out of five (as your top opponent almost never varies).

>I also like to mention that computer drivers have powers you have not,e.g.
>driving through stompers.

Yep, I object to this, too.  It also pisses me off that the computer drivers
never seem to make a wrong move on the Ghost courses where if you slip up
you fall off the side of the course.  Even the lousy cornerers never blow it.

Another wish that I have is that you could have the use of one special
ability per race.  The X button isn't even used, so that could be used
to activate your special.  The special would be dependant on the
driver, just like the computer.  Mario and Luigi could call up
invicibility once per race.  Bowser and Kong could have one turbo boost
per race (they need it for when they get slowed/stopped and need to get
back up to speed).  Yoshi and Princess could have one 10 second period
where they could jump like when using a feather per race.  And Koopa
and Toad could have one seeking missile attack per race.  This in
conjuction with the normal ?-mark box items would add more role-playing.

I also wish that more had been done with the battle modes.  This is a very
fun part of the game, but there is so much more that could be done.  How about
hazards on the course?  How about some turbo-boost pads (the yellow arrows)?
How about a turbo-boost pad followed by a jump pad so that you go sailing from 
one part of the course to another?  How about some computer opponents in
battle mode where you need to defeat all of them (would allow 1-player battle
mode)?  How about some non-random item boxes (i.e. you run over a particular 
box and get a known item)?

With all of these complaints and wishes, don't think that I don't like 
Super Mario Kart.  It is a very good game.  One of the best and most
entertaining for the SNES.  I just see a lot of ways that it could be 
better.  We may have to wait for a super gonzo SNES-CD version or something
to make it everything we want.  I'd like to have about 8 different Cup
races with 5 courses each.  Maybe more than 2-D.  More gradiation in
difficulty levels (i.e. the just from 50cc to 100cc is pretty severe, and
I can just imagine what 150cc is like!).  I'd like more special things to
find/do.  Still, Super Mario Kart is one of my must-buys.  This is only
the second game that I have bought for full retail ($45).  The other was
Zelda III.  And I have tremendously enjoyed both of them.

-- 
Mike Arms
Editor of Encounter magazine
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