Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[yaktaur]

Super Mario 3D World is the worst mainline Mario game.

I mean, it's still a fine enough game to snooze through but it's very uninspired. I put it below Mario Sunshine because at least that game was trying to something.

[Sload Soap]

I understand that Mario Kart has been a mostly multi-player oriented experience since MK64 but I still feel that the following games in the series failed in that aspect as well (DS excluded, 8 included). I thought the battle modes in DD sucked and the lack of pace killed it for standard races, while Wii, as AJ alludes to, is just an absolute fuckfest of power-ups flying everywhere, an overabundance of pick-ups intended to hit multiple or all racers and cheap unavoidable hits. I know it can be enjoyable for people in a more casual party setting (booze helps) but I never found it anything other than a fragmented and unsatisfying experience. It never got more playtime in my friend group than a race or two before it was back to Smash and Wii Sports.

As for competitors, the All-Star racing series is seriously up there for me. They have their issues but I put them way ahead of DD and MKwii and any other kart racer I've played in recent years, at least until I played MK8. Lots of lovely Sega fan service as well.

[marurun]

Mario Kart Wii wasn't disliked by me because it does the usual Mario Kart shenanigans, but because it punishes the middle of the road players harder than any others, and because the number of weapons and the power of the weapons means that you're being interrupted from racing more frequently.

They seem to have balanced the items better in 7 and 8, and I like those a whole lot more.

Ah, well, the folks I play with are all middle-of-the-road players, so it seems pretty OK most of the time to us. I don't think I would enjoy the game much single-player, but I do still enjoy it. It may be that as a party gamer (as far as MK is concerned) and not a dedicated MK racer it's easier for me to forgive those missteps.

[Xeogred]

At this point it's clearly unpopular to be a fan of Mario 3D World. I loved it.

[yaktaur]

I loved 3D Land. I'm not sure why it rang so hollow to me on the transition to World

[BogusMeatFactory]

At this point it's clearly unpopular to be a fan of Mario 3D World. I loved it.

Same here, of course I co-oped my way through its entirety with my wife and we had an absolute blast. We found it to be the perfect level of challenge and introducing new mechanics and ideas at just the right time. I also loved the worlds and visuals. You can't look at that final boss and tell me it was not exciting!

[alienjesus]

3D World might be my favourite Mario game actually. I thought it was great.

[pierrot]

Mario Kart was really designed as as multiplayer game first, and as a party-style multiplayer game. In that sense, the rubber-banding and blue shell crap really competitive gamers hate further the design goals. When you get a bunch of friends together and race, if someone is not very good, they'll probably still come in near last, but the way power-ups are handed out make it so that even though they are unlikely to turn things into a win, it will at least keep them from falling too many laps behind. And for players are are more competitive, it increases the likelihood of turnover, which keeps things more exciting for casual play. Mario Kart isn't F-Zero or Daytona USA and it isn't trying to be. I really think the biggest complaints about Mario Kart titles aren't that they are necessarily bad games, but that they are a slightly different kind of game than many more dedicated players want them to me.

Granted, but you still have to play single player in order to unlock modes of play, etc. So I'm not entirely convinced that multiplayer was their only, or necessarily their foremost goal in developing the series. I should restate, though, that while the shenanigans are annoying, I think Super Mario Kart, and Mario Kart 64 have the worst feel in terms of driving, and controls--I would probably characterize them as "poor." Solely in that respect, I think DS, Double Dash, and Wii are all considerably better Mario Kart games.

[Gunstar Green]

I loved 3D Land. I'm not sure why it rang so hollow to me on the transition to World

I'm not a fan of 3D platformers in general but I really enjoyed 3D Land. It's one of the few games that really uses the hardware gimmick to its full potential and one of the only games I actually play in 3D. I felt like it meshed elements of 2D and 3D Mario games very well. I haven't played 3D World so I can't say anything about it.

I wish they would have done a sequel on the 3DS instead, though. I thought they hit upon a good thing that they might not ever revisit now.

[Sarge]

I thought both 3D Land and 3D World were great, but World had more of a spark for me.

Now, NSMBU is the game that I just never really "felt it" in. I thought NSMB Wii was the much better game.