I have never before seen Muppet Race Mania and I can't stop laughing, it just looks so incredibly bizarre from visuals to camera, like a fake game from a movie or tv show
As someone who has played it before, I A. Didnt think anyone else knew it existed, and B. Have to say that all things considered, it was pretty fun (despite controlling like shit). The music and theming just worked. That might be the nostgia talking though.
It's honestly not too bad - it's a very strange feeling game, and there are some aspects of it that genuinely are just awful (the stunt race tracks are miserable and really feel like they were way too confident in these mechanics being able to pull off platforming), but it's really not that bad and pretty fun. Been playing it recently as part of a big kart racer deep-dive I've been doing off the back of diving into Ring Racers - there is much better, but it's hardly the worst kart racer you could play. (Just *try* enjoying anything about Shrek Swamp Kart GBA, I dare you.)
CTR Nitro-Fueled did make a small but impactful evolution on the base mechanics in that "blue fire" (a sort of mega turbo from certain boost pads designed to give you the extra speed to make big jumps) was now extended by additional boost reserves rather than overwritten. This gives the high momentum state of playing CTR well an even higher ceiling that is even harder to hold on to but extremely rewarding.
To complement the new Blue Fire mechanic, they also reworkd U-turning. For the uniciated: To U-urn you have to hold a diagonal down and break for a sharper turn, but this would spend your reserves super fast, not in Nitro Fueled though! First time I kept my Blue Fire through all of Cortex Castle I felt like a speed demon king lol.
They also did an amazing job with structuring tracks around the bluefire. While most of the new tracks were ok at best, the Big Top and Gas Station tracks in particular always blow me away in how fun and unique they feel. The new kart class is also such a fun and inventive one. If only they tweaked All-around so it wasn't Worst at Everything...
I loved nitro fueled so much for this, perfectly holding onto your blue boost to get to the shortcuts that needed it felt so good in a way no other racer has hit for me
I was a QA tester on CTR Nitro Fueled, and you are so right about how great and creative drifting was. I don't know if it was in the OG, but I loved how drifting let you preserve speed boosts from boost panels. Getting the boost from the start of Electron Avenue and carrying that speed through the entire stage by drifting was such a thrill. It really is a shame it never came to PC, and likely never will.
It wasn't in the original. It's why NF is much faster paced than CTR, because of blue fire. That to me is the biggest reason why to me NF was by far the best kart racer ever made, insanely tight controls and you can infinitely keep a boost forever. The fact it never got a pc port is genuinely heartbreaking...
@@gabrielstrong7322 Yeah don't blame you for that, it was such a bad blemish on an otherwise flawless game, it's just unfortunate it happened to begin with
@@gabrielstrong7322 I enjoyed testing it less when those were added. Winning our online tests stopped being about self-improvement and started being about affording self-expression. (Also testing shop functionality is dull).
@@arkauaIt absolutely was in the original, not counting the super boost pads (USF) on the hub 4 tracks and turbo track. Every other boost pad allows you to keep that boost for the whole track if you're good enough at the game
You touched on this a bit, but I think kart racers have a similar problem a lot of platform fighters do in that part of the original success of these games was seeing your favorite characters in a fun new context, and while many of them have been able to evolve on the gameplay of their inspirations, they're weirdly rooted in this idea of needing an established IP or character base to work off of, which is then compounded on with every new game until it's seen as this explicit requirement It's part of what makes something like Rivals of Aether so interesting to me in that it's one of the few platform fighters to feature a (mostly) original cast, but it feels like kart racers haven't hit that realization yet outside of Nighmare Kart (which ironically in itself started out as Bloodborne Mario Kart)
Nightmare Kart is better as an example than an exception imo. Yeah they took "bloodborne" out of the title and filed all the serial numbers off, but it's still clearly meant to be "the bloodborne kart racer game". Don't get me wrong there's still some really creative ideas in how they implemented the characters (micolash and lady maria being standouts), but it's like you said-- the draw is in seeing these familiar characters in a fun new context.
When it comes to indie kart racers, nothing comes close to KartKrew's Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers for me, it's a remarkably intricate game that greatly rewards the player for learning tech and feels immensely smooth once it clicks. Also it's free!
@@apagan0075I mean, considering the most popular servers have mods that REMOVE mechanics from the main game, I'd say people's complaints don't just come from them being unable to adapt. The game looks awful with its regular hitpause.
Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is definitely pushing the envelope alongside nightmare kart for indie devs and deserves a mention as many others have pointed out! SRB2K on its own was great but ring racers has the unique mechanics and depth on top of it to really make it scratch the itch of mastery and enjoyment. Beyond the cheeky tutorial is hours of playing with friends, grinding through an insane amount of grand prix cups in single player, a break the targets style side content for what is essentially the single mode for battle with time trials, and the chaos emerald chases which are satisfying to master and make me want to throw my controller at a wall if the music wasn't so unbelievably phenomenal. Highly recommend anyone to give it a shot, it's one of the most slept on games this year!
Personally can't recommend despite how much I love it, it's simply that it can be really hard for peers to wrap their head around. Some people I know already call SRB2Kart really hard and I can't say that's wrong in the base game, let alone the vastly different experiences top servers provide with the mods that add new mechanics. If you are willing to learn a bit more instead of play MK8DX, then you are in for a wild ride.
This has probably been beaten to death, but Sonic All-Star racing making Sonic drive a race car never fails to puzzle me. At least Sonic R had them actually hoof it.
stopping at the 21 minute mark to say play ring racers. im sure i wont be alone and i dont think it quite hits the highs of CTR mechanically but its definitely something special in its own right and will scratch that itch in a similar way
Some other comments have stated such, but you should DEFINITELY look into Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers. The game is a massive blend of F-Zero GX, Mario Kart, CTR, Sonic Riders, and even some fighting games. There is an argument that the game is maybe a little TOO mechanically dense as a kart racer, but once you get the hang of things it really is a fun time. The game also has a pretty notorious tutorial that is somehow both too long and yet it doesn't teach you everything you actually need to know. Quite a few mechanics are in the online manual for the game. Despite this, still highly recommend checking it out! Its also a fan game so its completely free and has a pretty active modding community.
nor The Karters 2. sad times. granted TK2 hasnt launched so fair enough, but that game is going to be the future of kart racing with its online mod support and incredibly controls
Hang on... as for the original Super Mario Kart, go watch world records and tell me they are not holing down the acceleration. It's just VERY difficult to learn how to drift, and you also need to learn a mechanic called a "counter drift" once you get past the corner. That means that you let go of the L or R buttons, then press and release it (doing a hop) while tapping the opposite direction on the D Pad to what you just drifted. This will straighten your cart out and means you don't have to let go of the gas; you will just pick Bower or DK Jr. and learn to start your drift WAAAY earlier than you think you would otherwise. Once you figure this out it is actually a lot of fun.
def woulda been mentioned if it was but i can see it being divisive, but to me just as a viewer of it its one of the coolest things ive ever seen in fangames as a whole
Ring racers is so good! (I personally don’t like srb2k bc it’s too slow 4 me but that’s besides the point) I really wish Leon talked about ring racers but sadly it’s p niche
@@PowerHungryFool the devs sped up the kart speed. The devs gave peeps more options to catch up. The only thing “slower” about ring racers is that its maps are bigger, other than that i can accel p easily by using the ring mechanic or other items that let me speed up.
YES SOMEONE GETS IT WITH CTR. also as someone also annoyed CTR didn't get a PC release, there's this game in the works called The Karters 2 that's heavily inspired by it coming out some time idk lol
Absolutely banger video. And since it didn't come up, special shoutout to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart for being one more kart racing uh....entity. I'm so bad at it but i feel like it's a fun (fan) mario kart clone
The original CTR was before my time but man Nitro Fuelled is so incredible. While it's mechanical depth has turned away some of my friends (and I still have All Stars Racing Transformed if I want that middle ground), learning the mechanics and the courses was so satisfying, carrying blue fire throughout an entire course was awesome. Chaining together combos felt really rewarding, especially when it let you incorporate really really clever shortcuts. My mind was blown when the Papu Pyramid N. Tropy ghost used the air controls to completely skip the last U-Turn. What an incredible game. Racing Transformed may not be as mechanically deep but it still has a lot of what I like (action combos for boost, carrying boost through an entire lap), being able to break it out with friends is awesome, the idea of the courses transforming between laps is incredibly cool, and it has my favourite item set out of any kart racer.
I get that it wasn’t that important to the overall point of the video, but Double Dash definitely deserved more than a footnote for how unique the handling model was.
i had the mystery bracket run of my life brutally killed by muppets racing and i could tell it was gonna happen 5 seconds into playing it. seeing it randomly pop up here and noticing how i looked away from my screen when it did just cemented it as a traumatic experience
Mario Kart Wii was just so ahead of its time that is pretty much the equivalent to what is Smash Bros Melee with Smash : - Can use multiple different controllers , from wii motes to Game Cube controllers and wii classic controller - The game was a beautiful broken mess that beyond that it rewards a lot of skills - Insane and very rewarding short cuts that rewards you with "skill" - First Mario Kart that upgraded from 8 racers to 12 racers - The introduction of bikes that give a layer of depth and while "they were better" , it was a nice addition to have from just karts - The online was insane , either you were in a lobby with sweaty try hards , or in a lobby with full random items going out - It even has a community long after nintendo stop supporting it , and it was pretty active - Back on the Mario Kart wii , a lot of people would still do Mario Kart Wii content even when Mario Kart 8 was around because of how depth the game was and how many intereactions you could still have - Game is from 2008 and to this day "2024" , more things are still being discovered , being improved , and a lot more without any patches - Just to put more emphasis into Mario Kart wii , its the Mario Kart used the most for "mods" and the one where the community would build and create custom tracks and more
True it was a nice addition for bikes and a trick system and we would never had bikes if it was for one of the developers that asked if bikes could be added in MKDS but it didn’t happen till the entry of Wii
I feel like everytime I try to explain Mario Kart Wii to a Melee player they have a hard time understanding everything, esp if they also casually play MK8D. However if I just say, "MKWii is the Melee of the series" they suddenly now understand everything. I have had that same opinion of the game for years now and I give this same, brief summary of the game like once a month at this point.
@@Latias38 to its I feel like the to 8dx player who never played Wii would have a bad experience since the game is unbalanced and not enjoyable since that Danm thundercloud always ruins experience.
So the beauty of Jak X and its genre mixing is that it’s one of few racing games with weapons where the lack of mario kart-esq mid drift control means you actually have to be concerned about the guy behind you lobbing grenades who can tell exactly where your cornering line is going to end or the guy with a machine gun intersecting your immediate path on more than a reactive level.
"Diddy Kong Racing is more than shovelware because of the narrative fulfillment of unlocking levels in a hub world instead of a menu, but also Majora's Mask belongs in the trash" is a pretty absurd opinion.
I was pretty lucky that I got to experience Crash Team Racing when it was new. I never would've expected that it would hold up so well years after the fact, but it does, partially because newer games in the genre kinda don't
Definitely one of the best retrospectives on kart racers here on RUclips. Kinda surprised Garfield Kart wasn't brought up among the more shovelware-y titles, though; that game's existence will continue to be such a hilarious anomaly to me.
The amount of effort and passion you pour into these videos never fails to impress me. Every time I see a new video, I know that I'll be invested in something I'm at least familiar with or something I didn't know about. Give this man a round of applause! He deserves it for his hard work.
Leon massey is the only youtuber I know of that is smart enough to use The Beginners Guide soundtrack as BGM for his videos. That soundtrack can make any topic sound more interesting.
the seventh gen is probably the peak of kart racing to me (if not racers in general): MKWii, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, ModNation... the holy trinity
I would add one to the list - Beetle Adventure Racing. It doesn't have carts and the drifting is quite basic, but it has a plethora of power ups and really interesting tracks full of tricks and unlockables. It's one of the most strangely great tie in games. The different routes in the tracks are awesome to explore. It also has a surprisingly good competitive mode. I think it holds up - just a shame about the frame rate.
Shout outs to 200cc mario kart 8 giving us mario kart gameplay thats challenging and having and insane sense of speed I am almost glad that mk8 very hard handedly forces you to go the intended way because on one hand without the obvious hand of the developer forcing you down to the ground would make some tracks comically and frustratingly unplayable but on the other there's a lot of cool shortcuts and the like that we're missing because of it
Sleeping on Sonic ASR Transofmed is such a shame, the game is, imo, the one with the most insane skill ceiling in the genre, but most people probably never got to that part of the game where you need to learn how to actually trick correctly
going fast in Transformed feels good, but it's too janky to really get comfortable with. the meta game ain't that interesting (characters with handling setups that give them high "speed" and "boost" stats just dominate the game.)
DUDE THE MOD NATION RACERS SHOUTOUT GOT ME SO HYPE THAT GAME WAS FUCKIN FANTASTIC!! ESPECIALLY THE TRACK CREATOR WAS SICK also yes CTR is bordering on masterpiece and I've never clicked with Mario kart because CTR was my introduction to the genre
Why am i only just getting recommended this, yt i request leon massey to be on my algorithms "if upload then immediatly put on my feed" currently containing funke, glarses, core a gaming, sajam, viscoseoce, pinguefy, i did a thing, daryl talks games asumsaus, the list goes on
Once again, the editing and refined, orangutan-like humor make this video an absolute banger. As someone who never played Crash Team Racing (but always heard it was great from fans that did) I loved hearing you talk about why it's goated. It reminds me of my feelings towards the Soulcalibur series (a series that's better in MANY ways to it's contemporaries but unfairly ignored due to capitalism).
You mentioning how Sim/SimCade differs from Kart Racers by how the planning before the corner is the most important aspect of cornering made me realise why I like GranTurismo, and also RTS games. The planning aspect and then the execution of that plan is what I enjoy, which is why Kart Racers aren't my thing due to the always throttle and random items being less to strategise around.
Hey, amazing video! ❤ We’re hoping to become that indie game that brings back everything great from past kart racers: Crash Team Racing for skill and boosting, Mario Kart for fun for everyone, and ModNation Racers for community-made tracks. 🔥 With extensive mod support and an amazing community, we’re on the right track! 💪 Check out our latest video on modding support to see how our community made over 500 mods already 😊
Yeah when it comes to Super Mario Kart I could only tolerate playing as Koopa or Toad since they aren't in danger of spinning out on normal turns. So you don't have to worry about the drifting mechanic and you only ever have to slow down if you go into the slippery areas.
@@X2011racer trucks is entirely performance based, you do good in the truck, or you doom. if I had to describe trucks in a word, it would be, "HELP!" as, in every way, shape and form, you need to be faster at speed, faster at dodging trees, longer at staying in the sky, and faster at slamming other trucks then they slam you, along with finding the mountain spawn triggers. bots meanwhile, the actual RACING of trick racing is nowhere near as important as the TRICKS of trick racing. again, getting first place? not important, finding which road contains the clown that you need to pie? TOP PRIORITY, along with the butterfly flower, the bowling pins, the running shoes, every single spin bar, the baseball, the field goal, and of course, playing the tamborine. trucks is about doing as many things WITH your truck as possible. bots is about GETTING your bot to as many things as possible.
What about The Karters 2: Turbo Charged? its a good alternative to CTR since it has the same mechanics as CTR but it innovates it with its reserve system and it includes Modded support 👍 its a really good game to look into. and yes. the game does have almost all CTR99 tracks. and characters.
CTR was my first game I ever played and it's a great first game to play. I also loved modnation racers since you could make your own tracks and karts and everything and post them online. Loved making tracks in that game it was peak.
outstanding visuals as always. Honestly this video might make me give CTR a shot. I had only played the second one and didn't remember much about it, but that does seem like a real fun mechanic to master.
This was a great watch, going to bring up The Karters 2: Turbo Charged as the Crash Team Racing improvement that you're looking for based on the footage and playtests that have come out so far, and as one of those indies that may help revitalize the genre as well.
The only kart racer I put as much time into as MK Wii was probably Pacman World Rally on the PS2. Sometimes I remember it and think "I should really find out if it's as good as I remember". It's one of those games I feel like I'm the last person alive who still remembers it (even if that's logically extremely unlikely)
Instead of adding to the pile of comments praising CTR and NF (games I do adore) I'm gonna add to the comments praising OutRun. It's just such a chill experience. I've shown the game to other people and they're like "wow, it looks so simple", and it might be decades removed from it but I still enjoy it quite a lot. I got introduced to it on Switch, but you better believe my day was made when I stumbled upon an arcade that had a cabinet. Nothing beats playing it with an actual wheel, and if i run into a sit in cabinet you better believe i'm hopping in that thing.
Small pro tip that you didn't mention for Crash Team Racing: If you hold the down direction while braking you will not lose your boost/reserves. This allows you to make insanely tight U turns while keeping your fire, such as the one in Dragon Mines or the ones in Turbo Track!
dude i thought you said in a stream you were gonna stop makin insane edible animations so u could make videos faster can't believe you would continue such a thing
SMK’s turning feels much better when you realize that by hopping/shortly pressing the power slide button and turning the opposite direction for just a brief moment, you can effectively reset your kart’s sideward momentum. I believe this is called “counter steering”. It’s also, unsurprisingly, an effective technique in Super Circuit. The tracks in SMK can be pretty atrocious though, I can’t argue with that, and using counter steering, while it helps with precision turning, doesn’t save some of the bad course design the game has.
I have never before seen Muppet Race Mania and I can't stop laughing, it just looks so incredibly bizarre from visuals to camera, like a fake game from a movie or tv show
As someone who has played it before, I A. Didnt think anyone else knew it existed, and B. Have to say that all things considered, it was pretty fun (despite controlling like shit). The music and theming just worked. That might be the nostgia talking though.
It's because it's a different kind of racing game like Toy Story Racer.
It's also really good.
It's honestly not too bad - it's a very strange feeling game, and there are some aspects of it that genuinely are just awful (the stunt race tracks are miserable and really feel like they were way too confident in these mechanics being able to pull off platforming), but it's really not that bad and pretty fun. Been playing it recently as part of a big kart racer deep-dive I've been doing off the back of diving into Ring Racers - there is much better, but it's hardly the worst kart racer you could play. (Just *try* enjoying anything about Shrek Swamp Kart GBA, I dare you.)
It also has one of the funniest loading screens on the PS1
CTR Nitro-Fueled did make a small but impactful evolution on the base mechanics in that "blue fire" (a sort of mega turbo from certain boost pads designed to give you the extra speed to make big jumps) was now extended by additional boost reserves rather than overwritten. This gives the high momentum state of playing CTR well an even higher ceiling that is even harder to hold on to but extremely rewarding.
To complement the new Blue Fire mechanic, they also reworkd U-turning. For the uniciated: To U-urn you have to hold a diagonal down and break for a sharper turn, but this would spend your reserves super fast, not in Nitro Fueled though!
First time I kept my Blue Fire through all of Cortex Castle I felt like a speed demon king lol.
They also did an amazing job with structuring tracks around the bluefire. While most of the new tracks were ok at best, the Big Top and Gas Station tracks in particular always blow me away in how fun and unique they feel. The new kart class is also such a fun and inventive one. If only they tweaked All-around so it wasn't Worst at Everything...
the skill ceiling that the blue fire added was crazy, when the online was alive I was "lapping" people on electron avenue lmao
I loved nitro fueled so much for this, perfectly holding onto your blue boost to get to the shortcuts that needed it felt so good in a way no other racer has hit for me
0:13 How did he get there in the top right
I was a QA tester on CTR Nitro Fueled, and you are so right about how great and creative drifting was. I don't know if it was in the OG, but I loved how drifting let you preserve speed boosts from boost panels. Getting the boost from the start of Electron Avenue and carrying that speed through the entire stage by drifting was such a thrill. It really is a shame it never came to PC, and likely never will.
It wasn't in the original. It's why NF is much faster paced than CTR, because of blue fire. That to me is the biggest reason why to me NF was by far the best kart racer ever made, insanely tight controls and you can infinitely keep a boost forever. The fact it never got a pc port is genuinely heartbreaking...
@arkaua i despise the micro transactions, that's why I never picked it up
@@gabrielstrong7322 Yeah don't blame you for that, it was such a bad blemish on an otherwise flawless game, it's just unfortunate it happened to begin with
@@gabrielstrong7322 I enjoyed testing it less when those were added. Winning our online tests stopped being about self-improvement and started being about affording self-expression. (Also testing shop functionality is dull).
@@arkauaIt absolutely was in the original, not counting the super boost pads (USF) on the hub 4 tracks and turbo track. Every other boost pad allows you to keep that boost for the whole track if you're good enough at the game
You touched on this a bit, but I think kart racers have a similar problem a lot of platform fighters do in that part of the original success of these games was seeing your favorite characters in a fun new context, and while many of them have been able to evolve on the gameplay of their inspirations, they're weirdly rooted in this idea of needing an established IP or character base to work off of, which is then compounded on with every new game until it's seen as this explicit requirement
It's part of what makes something like Rivals of Aether so interesting to me in that it's one of the few platform fighters to feature a (mostly) original cast, but it feels like kart racers haven't hit that realization yet outside of Nighmare Kart (which ironically in itself started out as Bloodborne Mario Kart)
Nightmare Kart is better as an example than an exception imo. Yeah they took "bloodborne" out of the title and filed all the serial numbers off, but it's still clearly meant to be "the bloodborne kart racer game". Don't get me wrong there's still some really creative ideas in how they implemented the characters (micolash and lady maria being standouts), but it's like you said-- the draw is in seeing these familiar characters in a fun new context.
Bro did a video to talk about CTR and MKWii but didn’t have jack about the other racing games.
When it comes to indie kart racers, nothing comes close to KartKrew's Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers for me, it's a remarkably intricate game that greatly rewards the player for learning tech and feels immensely smooth once it clicks.
Also it's free!
That game humble so many people, it’s hilarious. So many people crying in social media because “game too hard”
never touched ring racers but i did play srb2kart and it's really good
@@sbebular It’s the V2 of Kart but it’s own thing,just SRB2 Kart players unable to adapt.
@@apagan0075I really need to try Ring Racers. Today might be the day.
@@apagan0075I mean, considering the most popular servers have mods that REMOVE mechanics from the main game, I'd say people's complaints don't just come from them being unable to adapt. The game looks awful with its regular hitpause.
Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is definitely pushing the envelope alongside nightmare kart for indie devs and deserves a mention as many others have pointed out! SRB2K on its own was great but ring racers has the unique mechanics and depth on top of it to really make it scratch the itch of mastery and enjoyment. Beyond the cheeky tutorial is hours of playing with friends, grinding through an insane amount of grand prix cups in single player, a break the targets style side content for what is essentially the single mode for battle with time trials, and the chaos emerald chases which are satisfying to master and make me want to throw my controller at a wall if the music wasn't so unbelievably phenomenal. Highly recommend anyone to give it a shot, it's one of the most slept on games this year!
Personally can't recommend despite how much I love it, it's simply that it can be really hard for peers to wrap their head around. Some people I know already call SRB2Kart really hard and I can't say that's wrong in the base game, let alone the vastly different experiences top servers provide with the mods that add new mechanics. If you are willing to learn a bit more instead of play MK8DX, then you are in for a wild ride.
This has probably been beaten to death, but Sonic All-Star racing making Sonic drive a race car never fails to puzzle me. At least Sonic R had them actually hoof it.
I mean you got to give it to him, he is giving a fair challenge
by the time sonic all star racing came out, Sonic had had become too fast on foot in his own games to credibly be challenged by a car.
You don't bring a car to a bicycle race, do you?
I'm gonna hit you Sonic speed
It made more sense than Sonic and his friends driving cars in Team Sonic Racing.
stopping at the 21 minute mark to say play ring racers. im sure i wont be alone and i dont think it quite hits the highs of CTR mechanically but its definitely something special in its own right and will scratch that itch in a similar way
Some other comments have stated such, but you should DEFINITELY look into Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers. The game is a massive blend of F-Zero GX, Mario Kart, CTR, Sonic Riders, and even some fighting games. There is an argument that the game is maybe a little TOO mechanically dense as a kart racer, but once you get the hang of things it really is a fun time. The game also has a pretty notorious tutorial that is somehow both too long and yet it doesn't teach you everything you actually need to know. Quite a few mechanics are in the online manual for the game. Despite this, still highly recommend checking it out!
Its also a fan game so its completely free and has a pretty active modding community.
DRRR is so sick, I've spent hours on it and never even touched the online.
You should check out The Karters 2, an upcoming indie kart racing game that builds off of what CTR established
no mention of Ring Racers.... heartbreaking...
IK RIGHT????
nor The Karters 2. sad times. granted TK2 hasnt launched so fair enough, but that game is going to be the future of kart racing with its online mod support and incredibly controls
Well if it did get mentioned it would’ve been in the same way as Nightmare Kart right?
Hang on... as for the original Super Mario Kart, go watch world records and tell me they are not holing down the acceleration. It's just VERY difficult to learn how to drift, and you also need to learn a mechanic called a "counter drift" once you get past the corner. That means that you let go of the L or R buttons, then press and release it (doing a hop) while tapping the opposite direction on the D Pad to what you just drifted. This will straighten your cart out and means you don't have to let go of the gas; you will just pick Bower or DK Jr. and learn to start your drift WAAAY earlier than you think you would otherwise. Once you figure this out it is actually a lot of fun.
Dr. Robotniks Ring Racers? PLEASE?????
shocked and appalled SRB2K or Ring Racers didn't get a shout out
@@uallandme my day is ruined!!! xD
I know it's so sad :(
@@RiahGreen imma cry
Man crash team racing fucks so hard. My childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Truly my beloved
Yes dude
Can't wait for The Karters 2 Turbo Charged full release
Speaking of indie devs and kart racers...
Leon Massey, may me please talk about SRB2K and its successor, Robotniks Ring Racers. Thank you.
def woulda been mentioned if it was but i can see it being divisive, but to me just as a viewer of it its one of the coolest things ive ever seen in fangames as a whole
Ring racers is so good! (I personally don’t like srb2k bc it’s too slow 4 me but that’s besides the point) I really wish Leon talked about ring racers but sadly it’s p niche
@@timelesscatastrophe Ring racers is literally the slower game
@@timelesscatastrophe fuck ring racers all my homies hate ring racers. SRB2K is the better game undisputed
@@PowerHungryFool the devs sped up the kart speed. The devs gave peeps more options to catch up. The only thing “slower” about ring racers is that its maps are bigger, other than that i can accel p easily by using the ring mechanic or other items that let me speed up.
YES SOMEONE GETS IT WITH CTR. also as someone also annoyed CTR didn't get a PC release, there's this game in the works called The Karters 2 that's heavily inspired by it coming out some time idk lol
So excited for it, CTR:NF was the best Kart racer ever and it's so sad it got jailed
Absolutely banger video. And since it didn't come up, special shoutout to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart for being one more kart racing uh....entity. I'm so bad at it but i feel like it's a fun (fan) mario kart clone
The original CTR was before my time but man Nitro Fuelled is so incredible. While it's mechanical depth has turned away some of my friends (and I still have All Stars Racing Transformed if I want that middle ground), learning the mechanics and the courses was so satisfying, carrying blue fire throughout an entire course was awesome. Chaining together combos felt really rewarding, especially when it let you incorporate really really clever shortcuts. My mind was blown when the Papu Pyramid N. Tropy ghost used the air controls to completely skip the last U-Turn. What an incredible game.
Racing Transformed may not be as mechanically deep but it still has a lot of what I like (action combos for boost, carrying boost through an entire lap), being able to break it out with friends is awesome, the idea of the courses transforming between laps is incredibly cool, and it has my favourite item set out of any kart racer.
Excellent choice of music for the end credits. Thanks for this video!
Thank you Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers for saving video games.
Finally, someone with a love for CTR and a great sense of humor. +1 sub my friend, loved this
3:30 ....Phil?
I get that it wasn’t that important to the overall point of the video, but Double Dash definitely deserved more than a footnote for how unique the handling model was.
i had the mystery bracket run of my life brutally killed by muppets racing and i could tell it was gonna happen 5 seconds into playing it. seeing it randomly pop up here and noticing how i looked away from my screen when it did just cemented it as a traumatic experience
31:09 I'm sorry is this a horror kart racer
Yeah
It was called Bloodborne Kart up until like the day before it released because Sony
@@notpearl3590 What the fuuuuuck that's incredible - not from Sony, from the fan or team who made it
@@austinfletchermusic Same dev also made a Bloodborne PS1 demake with original content, she's great
Mario Kart Wii was just so ahead of its time that is pretty much the equivalent to what is Smash Bros Melee with Smash :
- Can use multiple different controllers , from wii motes to Game Cube controllers and wii classic controller
- The game was a beautiful broken mess that beyond that it rewards a lot of skills
- Insane and very rewarding short cuts that rewards you with "skill"
- First Mario Kart that upgraded from 8 racers to 12 racers
- The introduction of bikes that give a layer of depth and while "they were better" , it was a nice addition to have from just karts
- The online was insane , either you were in a lobby with sweaty try hards , or in a lobby with full random items going out
- It even has a community long after nintendo stop supporting it , and it was pretty active
- Back on the Mario Kart wii , a lot of people would still do Mario Kart Wii content even when Mario Kart 8 was around because of how depth the game was and how many intereactions you could still have
- Game is from 2008 and to this day "2024" , more things are still being discovered , being improved , and a lot more without any patches
- Just to put more emphasis into Mario Kart wii , its the Mario Kart used the most for "mods" and the one where the community would build and create custom tracks and more
It also introduced tricks, which add a layer of depth and interactivity, and have been a staple of the series ever since
True it was a nice addition for bikes and a trick system and we would never had bikes if it was for one of the developers that asked if bikes could be added in MKDS but it didn’t happen till the entry of Wii
I feel like everytime I try to explain Mario Kart Wii to a Melee player they have a hard time understanding everything, esp if they also casually play MK8D.
However if I just say, "MKWii is the Melee of the series" they suddenly now understand everything.
I have had that same opinion of the game for years now and I give this same, brief summary of the game like once a month at this point.
@@Latias38 to its I feel like the to 8dx player who never played Wii would have a bad experience since the game is unbalanced and not enjoyable since that Danm thundercloud always ruins experience.
I absolutely love your writing style
I have no idea why I sat through this video thinking "Oh, he's obviously going to talk about Snowboard Kids 2"
So the beauty of Jak X and its genre mixing is that it’s one of few racing games with weapons where the lack of mario kart-esq mid drift control means you actually have to be concerned about the guy behind you lobbing grenades who can tell exactly where your cornering line is going to end or the guy with a machine gun intersecting your immediate path on more than a reactive level.
1:52 "words like fun, fun, and *fun* where used by magazines in desperate need of a thesaurus."
This is S tier writing.
14:46 wild how Leon went “actually I haven’t vented enough about this barely tangential gripe I just mentioned”
Leon, your skill of captivating regardless of what you're talking about is truly not lost on me
"Diddy Kong Racing is more than shovelware because of the narrative fulfillment of unlocking levels in a hub world instead of a menu, but also Majora's Mask belongs in the trash" is a pretty absurd opinion.
RUclips commenter discovers hyperbole
Thank you for setting the record straight on Mario Kart DS, truly the best Mario Kart when you've not played any of the other ones
I was pretty lucky that I got to experience Crash Team Racing when it was new. I never would've expected that it would hold up so well years after the fact, but it does, partially because newer games in the genre kinda don't
Definitely one of the best retrospectives on kart racers here on RUclips. Kinda surprised Garfield Kart wasn't brought up among the more shovelware-y titles, though; that game's existence will continue to be such a hilarious anomaly to me.
The amount of effort and passion you pour into these videos never fails to impress me. Every time I see a new video, I know that I'll be invested in something I'm at least familiar with or something I didn't know about. Give this man a round of applause! He deserves it for his hard work.
Just taking a moment to appreciate the production - wow! This video could genuinely be on TV as a very well produced documentary.
Leon massey is the only youtuber I know of that is smart enough to use The Beginners Guide soundtrack as BGM for his videos. That soundtrack can make any topic sound more interesting.
ive just resigned that ctr will never be beaten and is god's gift to mankind
Damn, even Blur was forgotten by Leon. Feels bad man
Excellent editing and pacing as always. Fantastic video!
the seventh gen is probably the peak of kart racing to me (if not racers in general): MKWii, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, ModNation... the holy trinity
The Speed Racer video game is so good, but nobody ever talks about it
CTR is also very visually clear, I noticed. Everything is sharp and easily distinguishable.
I would add one to the list - Beetle Adventure Racing. It doesn't have carts and the drifting is quite basic, but it has a plethora of power ups and really interesting tracks full of tricks and unlockables. It's one of the most strangely great tie in games. The different routes in the tracks are awesome to explore. It also has a surprisingly good competitive mode. I think it holds up - just a shame about the frame rate.
Shout outs to 200cc mario kart 8 giving us mario kart gameplay thats challenging and having and insane sense of speed
I am almost glad that mk8 very hard handedly forces you to go the intended way because on one hand without the obvious hand of the developer forcing you down to the ground would make some tracks comically and frustratingly unplayable but on the other there's a lot of cool shortcuts and the like that we're missing because of it
I am still mad that Blur flopped. It did everything kart racers did, except better and with more style.
24:43 took me off guard so well, glad someone remembers Jak X tho
Underrated, I wish you had more recognition.
No Ring Racers mention??? I'm heartbroken
26:01 Dude that's so awesome that the game is so faithful to the books! I remember when Percy Jackson fought dinosaurs and met King Kong!
Sleeping on Sonic ASR Transofmed is such a shame, the game is, imo, the one with the most insane skill ceiling in the genre, but most people probably never got to that part of the game where you need to learn how to actually trick correctly
going fast in Transformed feels good, but it's too janky to really get comfortable with.
the meta game ain't that interesting (characters with handling setups that give them high "speed" and "boost" stats just dominate the game.)
Don't stop making fighting game content. Love this one as well, just missing the obscure fighting game essays.
DUDE THE MOD NATION RACERS SHOUTOUT GOT ME SO HYPE THAT GAME WAS FUCKIN FANTASTIC!! ESPECIALLY THE TRACK CREATOR WAS SICK
also yes CTR is bordering on masterpiece and I've never clicked with Mario kart because CTR was my introduction to the genre
yo im only a minute and the editting slaps as well as the script, nice one!
continuing to make some of the most high quality content on youtube.
Excellent, as always. Thanks for this!
Why am i only just getting recommended this, yt i request leon massey to be on my algorithms "if upload then immediatly put on my feed" currently containing funke, glarses, core a gaming, sajam, viscoseoce, pinguefy, i did a thing, daryl talks games asumsaus, the list goes on
you're my goat this video is sick
Mario Kart 8 and Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed are the best fight me
People dismissing transformed is such a crime, once you know how the tricks actually work changes EVERYTHING
Once again, the editing and refined, orangutan-like humor make this video an absolute banger. As someone who never played Crash Team Racing (but always heard it was great from fans that did) I loved hearing you talk about why it's goated. It reminds me of my feelings towards the Soulcalibur series (a series that's better in MANY ways to it's contemporaries but unfairly ignored due to capitalism).
You mentioning how Sim/SimCade differs from Kart Racers by how the planning before the corner is the most important aspect of cornering made me realise why I like GranTurismo, and also RTS games.
The planning aspect and then the execution of that plan is what I enjoy, which is why Kart Racers aren't my thing due to the always throttle and random items being less to strategise around.
Hey, amazing video! ❤ We’re hoping to become that indie game that brings back everything great from past kart racers: Crash Team Racing for skill and boosting, Mario Kart for fun for everyone, and ModNation Racers for community-made tracks. 🔥 With extensive mod support and an amazing community, we’re on the right track! 💪
Check out our latest video on modding support to see how our community made over 500 mods already 😊
Just finished the video and I think it's the best video about exclusively the Mario Kart franchise and no other video game
Thank you for existing Leon.
Yeah when it comes to Super Mario Kart I could only tolerate playing as Koopa or Toad since they aren't in danger of spinning out on normal turns. So you don't have to worry about the drifting mechanic and you only ever have to slow down if you go into the slippery areas.
You failed to mention the ACTUAL best kart racer on the wii: EXCITE TRUCK
Wouldn't that be Excite Bots?
@@X2011racer No!
@@X2011racer trucks is entirely performance based, you do good in the truck, or you doom. if I had to describe trucks in a word, it would be, "HELP!" as, in every way, shape and form, you need to be faster at speed, faster at dodging trees, longer at staying in the sky, and faster at slamming other trucks then they slam you, along with finding the mountain spawn triggers.
bots meanwhile, the actual RACING of trick racing is nowhere near as important as the TRICKS of trick racing. again, getting first place? not important, finding which road contains the clown that you need to pie? TOP PRIORITY, along with the butterfly flower, the bowling pins, the running shoes, every single spin bar, the baseball, the field goal, and of course, playing the tamborine.
trucks is about doing as many things WITH your truck as possible. bots is about GETTING your bot to as many things as possible.
11:55 clean transition. Had to replay it a few times to see what happened.
Amazing video, good work dude
20:00 Fun fact: the second skip on blizzard bluff has no guard rail in the demo version of the game (which can be found on the Spyro 2 disk).
"Sega has ever produced games that are above an 8/10" Boy, that aged fast.
he probably hasn't played enough non-Sonic SEGA games to be saying that
What about The Karters 2: Turbo Charged?
its a good alternative to CTR since it has the same mechanics as CTR but it innovates it with its reserve system and it includes Modded support 👍 its a really good game to look into.
and yes. the game does have almost all CTR99 tracks. and characters.
Bro you got me all excited but the game's not even out >:(
@@Hytheter Coming out before the end of 2024 but we already have a very active discord server :)
CTR was my first game I ever played and it's a great first game to play. I also loved modnation racers since you could make your own tracks and karts and everything and post them online. Loved making tracks in that game it was peak.
22:51 *FINALLY SOMEONE MENTIONS ONE OF THE GREATS OF THE PS3 AND EFFECTIVELY ITS SEQUEL, THANK YOU!*
Percy Jackson's King Kong 26:01
I desperately want to see that mash up now, haha
Percy Jackson and the King Kong of Leon Massey
Didn't expect it but this man never disappoints; Jak Franchise mentioned woooooooooooo
outstanding visuals as always. Honestly this video might make me give CTR a shot. I had only played the second one and didn't remember much about it, but that does seem like a real fun mechanic to master.
Just 101% the original CTRs adventure mode and can confirm it's every bit as good as it seems
Love your content almost as much as I love CTR!
This was a great watch, going to bring up The Karters 2: Turbo Charged as the Crash Team Racing improvement that you're looking for based on the footage and playtests that have come out so far, and as one of those indies that may help revitalize the genre as well.
Diddy Kong Racing is still my favrorite Kart racing game on the N64. But CTR is the best kart racer of all time
I love kart racers , thank you for this video !!
Can't believe there's no mention of the GOAT, Wipeout! Especially from a brit!
A 30 minute video right before im about to go to bed god damn you leon massive
The only kart racer I put as much time into as MK Wii was probably Pacman World Rally on the PS2. Sometimes I remember it and think "I should really find out if it's as good as I remember". It's one of those games I feel like I'm the last person alive who still remembers it (even if that's logically extremely unlikely)
omfg that johnny joke had me stop the video for a solid two minutes just to laugh
Not accepting Muppet Racemania slander mate that game is incredible
footage is suggesting otherwise champ but hey all our parents made mistakes y'know.
Had a jump scare at 3:19. For a moment I thought it was Hollow (Scavengers Reign) and made me panic
I love Mario Kart, but ModNation Racing is the most satisfying toon racer I ever played
Another video from the GOAT
Instead of adding to the pile of comments praising CTR and NF (games I do adore) I'm gonna add to the comments praising OutRun. It's just such a chill experience. I've shown the game to other people and they're like "wow, it looks so simple", and it might be decades removed from it but I still enjoy it quite a lot.
I got introduced to it on Switch, but you better believe my day was made when I stumbled upon an arcade that had a cabinet. Nothing beats playing it with an actual wheel, and if i run into a sit in cabinet you better believe i'm hopping in that thing.
Small pro tip that you didn't mention for Crash Team Racing: If you hold the down direction while braking you will not lose your boost/reserves. This allows you to make insanely tight U turns while keeping your fire, such as the one in Dragon Mines or the ones in Turbo Track!
nice seeing analysis of a new genre :)
BABE WAKE UP THERES A NEW MASSEY UPLOAD
dude i thought you said in a stream you were gonna stop makin insane edible animations so u could make videos faster can't believe you would continue such a thing
Goated documentaries. No way around it
23:24 Bro just pissed off every Yakuza fan on planet earth.
SMK’s turning feels much better when you realize that by hopping/shortly pressing the power slide button and turning the opposite direction for just a brief moment, you can effectively reset your kart’s sideward momentum. I believe this is called “counter steering”. It’s also, unsurprisingly, an effective technique in Super Circuit.
The tracks in SMK can be pretty atrocious though, I can’t argue with that, and using counter steering, while it helps with precision turning, doesn’t save some of the bad course design the game has.