LogFAQs > #949566270

68. Mario Kart 64 (N64, 1997)

If I were making this list solely on how much I liked a game when it first came out, this would undoubtedly be higher. It's pretty common to knock N64-era games for how they hold up, and in MK64's case there's a little bit of truth and exaggeration when it comes to that. Race mode is still totally playable, but multiplayer really chugs at the framerate. I think the courses are still relatively decent nowadays, though there's obviously a degree where just driving around in 3D was super novel and some of the simpler courses are basically just that. The AI is also comically rubber-bandy, you can take the classic Rainbow Road shortcut and skip 40% of a lap and those suckers will still slingshot their way back toward you by the end.
Battle mode, though, still absolutely rules. The more modern adaptations of battle mode are definitely enjoyable, and are much more streamlined with a more robust set of modes and options, but I absolutely love the classic three-strikes-you're-out player elimination knockout balloon battle in MK64. Matches of Block Fort or Double Deck that would go on for ages while the bottom layers were littered with perpetually bouncing green shells and strategically hidden fake ? blocks - that was the stuff of legends. I played hours of back-and-forth first-to-X-wins games with friends and it still hasn't gotten old. Skyscraper is a garbage level though.
There are other MK games I have yet to rate; I first played Mario Kart on my cousins' SNES in the mid-90's and I was immediately hooked, so I was always somewhat attached to the series. But MK64 was probably the one I specifically loved the most at any given time, it's just been passed up over time by its technically superior predecessors.
Top 5 Tracks: Toad's Turnpike - Yoshi Valley - Rainbow Road - Royal Raceway - Mario Raceway

67. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)

I actually only played this for the first time last summer, so this is a pretty fresh experience. Mario Galaxy 2 is the most sequelly sequel that ever sequeled - it aggressively pinpoints everything that people liked and wanted more of from the original and gives you exactly that. And hey, that isn't totally a complaint; more is good, and the unique concept of Galaxy's gravity-shifting planet-hopping really had a lot more creative value to be extracted. And after replaying Galaxy 1 via 3D All-Stars, I really appreciated all the unique things that Galaxy 2 had going for it, and the way that the games complement each other - there's a lot of ideas very briefly touched on in the original that get fleshed out with more stars in the sequel.
On the other hand, I absolutely love the main Mario franchise, and particularly adore just about every one of the 3D releases - if there was ever a time to get nitpicky, this is it. Galaxy 2 frustrates me in some ways where it just fails to match the charm and design sensibilities of the original. (At least, in my opinion.) The simplified hub world is a plus, allowing you to quickly and easily get into stages via a simple level selector - but that makes the teeny storyline bits with Lubba and the faceship all the more tedious, annoying, and unnecessary. The game cuts down on the comet challenges (especially purple coins) from the first game, but that makes each unique galaxy feel a lot less fleshed out and comprehensive. The whole experience is streamlined to maximize playability, but in doing so loses out on so much of the charm and sense of world-building that made the first game such a magical experience.
Galaxy 2's individual level design has some absolute gems, on par or better with the very best from the first, but the complete experience is lacking something that made the original shine so brightly upon its release. Obviously, as you can tell from this whole writeup, that game is coming much later here and I'll touch upon those particular strengths when we get there, but at this point I'm putting Galaxy 2 down in a tier with a bunch of other very enjoyable but not "greatest-of-all-time"-level games from series that I love.

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