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Friday 8 February, 2008
For my third game log I chose to play Mario Kart 64 on the Nintendo 64. It is an exhilarating adventure racer where you find the main characters from the Mario series racing and trying to kill each other in go karts.
I’ve played this game many times as a child and loved it every time. It seems as though it would get repetitive but the fact that you can do almost anything you want in the game (except drive through walls) makes the player have a different experience every time they play. The thing I enjoy the most about the game is that the game has two main games within it, racing which is always fun on its own, but also fighting with all sorts of weapons with other players to get closer to the front of the pack. There are “question mark” boxes that when you drive over you get a certain weapon varying from a banana to a star or lightning. I played the two player version where there are 6 computers playing with my friend and me. The game is very captivating as at the end of every race I would be screaming in joy for getting first place or almost in tears for letting a computer beat me. Level design is very creative as every one of the 16 levels is different and they only get harder as you go on. The game also gets frustrating as there were certain levels that were even to a seasoned veteran hard to finish in fourth place or better, the game forces you to replay the level if neither of the human players got at least fourth place. There was a lot of positive feedback which is one of the things that makes the game fun to play like getting to start in the pole position if you win a race which gives you a clear advantage in the race. The variety of outcomes also leads to the games enjoyment. Picking up different weapons, cutting through short cuts and avoiding allsorts of obstacles like cars on a freeway make the game fun to play every time you pick up a controller. There is no story line to the game as it is a racing game.
For my second play of this game nothing changed but which levels we played. Since there is no plot you have the choice of playing whatever cup you want as there is no link between the cups(each cup has four races). The level of fun only increased as we were getting closer to finishing all 16 races and I wanted to do finish with a better record than my friend. It turns out there is a significant amount of strategy in the game, knowing when to use your weapons or knowing how to use the weapons to the best of their abilities. I enjoyed playing this game very much and will keep on playing it for the rest of my life as every time I play something will be different and every race will be at least as exhilarating as the last time I played. It might have been so interesting because my friend and I both think we are top notch players so there was a little more effort in our play. One thing I really enjoyed about this game is that I felt like I was in the middle of the magic Circle, it was very strong, very captivating and I thought of nothing but the game while playing, leaning into turns both with my head and my torso, pressing “gas” harder and harder almost breaking the button to try to go faster even though that doesn’t do anything.
Design: Out of all the Mario Kart games this is the first one in 3d. I really enjoyed level designs as levels varied from deserts to snow plains to Choco Mountain to castle and rainbow road. No level looked like another and everyone was harder to master than the one before. Different backgrounds and different racetracks lead to the variety in levels in addition to the weapon selection. I think the game is kept interesting by the variety of outcomes different tracks different weapons and the unlimited freedom of movement. In certain levels there is more then one path to take so by trail and error you figure out witch is the shortest route. This is a fully progressive game no emergence present. I found ourselves always screaming and yelling at each other, trash talking when we would shoot another. The fact that you will always face 7 different opponents each having their own strengths keeps the game from being mundane. I enjoy the difficulty of the game as in the hardest mode I don’t always win, I also enjoy that there is some connection between what place your in and what weapon the game will give you. if your in first they will probably give you a banana or a single green shell, while in eighth you’ll get stars and lightning to give you a chance.
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