What was Nintendo's golden decade?

[Omegajak]

The SNES Mario Kart is still seen as the best one

Huh? O-o

I agree with that statement.

Most of what make SMK good was that it relied more by chance rather than being completely balanced. so it was pretty fair and hell, it still has a lot of re-playability

That statement is an opinion pretty much everything in this thread is, but that more so than most everything else I've read.

Decade 2's Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, are probably the zenith of 2D game design. I don't know whom you talk to but Super Mario Kart is not where I go to quench my Kart thirsts. Diddy Kong Racing, and Mario Kart DS/7 however...I'm going to say the Kart formula was more perfected in the handheld 3D iterations because the Kart games are a pick up and play kind of thing when journeying somewhere. Even in the all play a video game at my place' Mario Kart for Super Nintendo is not first choice, nor second or third. I feel often times with Nintendo games we like to pretend the classics can never can be outdone. Kirbys Return to Dreamland I hear to some is better than even Superstar, is that true? I haven't played it yet but instead of just playing a game and saying oh because of how I feel of A and B I feel C I want to get the opinion of others.

Does Kirby's Return to Dreamland stack up to Super Star? What about Mario Kart SNES? is that better than any other iteration in the franchise?

[DarkMalfunction]

Opinions are fine as long as people don't try and shove them down other people's throats. Some people go out of their way to tell everyone about what they think and why, especially at my school xD

[Goemar]

Erm... Super Metroid was in Decade 1... (though I do agree about Yoshi's Island being the pinnacle of 2D platforming for a long time - Ubisoft now owns that crown).

Super Star was never seen as the best Kirby game, was it? I mean it was cool but the best? I've never heard that... Personally I liked Dream Land 2 (minus it's final boss) the most (a fish shooting light bulbs is just awesome). With Kirby I think his games are pretty consistent in quality, and with good spin-offs (Epic Yarn, Canvas Curse).

As for Mario Kart - I guess which ever one you played first is going to be seen as "the best" to most people, or at least the one you played competitively first anyway.

I had a lot of fun on Mario Kart 64 because I played it a lot with the bros and father, played the GBA one a LOT, hated the cube one, and liked the DS one (snaking and all). But for the true "prove yourself" Kart badge of honour the SNES one is where it's at. No blue shells, cheap tricks or anything - just pure Karting skill.

Also yes on a thread about people's opinions - most things here are going to be an opinion, so hopefully no one will start hating on anyone.

[Gors]

I wouldn't say that SNES Mario Kart is the best. Sure, it set most of the things up and it was a fair game, but personally I think it's too barebones if compared to other versions (mostly because of hardware limitation imposed by the SNES).

If something, they should do something akin to the SNES one in terms of gameplay, with the better visuals, tracks and some of the techniques of the newer ones.

(this being said I think that Mario Kart 7 is my favorite MK game)

[Gwen]

7 is my favorite as well, I have a lot of fun playing online against peeps and every once and awhile my friends and I get the competition rolling.

[Iceman404]

Mario Kart will never be able to beat Diddy Kong Racing.

I deeply love DKR too but this just sounds extremely biased. Which Mario Kart game, why? One of my main problems with DKR is that there's no form of rank based item balance at all, causing extremely one sided races even between pros and making it nearly impossible to catch up. This alone killed and used to frustrate such a perfect game for me, considering its one of the core mechanics.

[Goemar]

Not to mention it was as hard as balls (the N64 version anyway). God damn those silver coin challenges.

[Iceman404]

I still remember my brother almost breaking our TV when he tried to unlock T.T., hilarious to me anyways.

[Koopaul]

I deeply love DKR too but this just sounds extremely biased. Which Mario Kart game, why? One of my main problems with DKR is that there's no form of rank based item balance at all, causing extremely one sided races even between pros and making it nearly impossible to catch up. This alone killed and used to frustrate such a perfect game for me, considering its one of the core mechanics.

I felt the items weren't annoying like in these most recent Mario Karts.

On top of that, Diddy Kong Racing had different vehicles, boss racing, an overworld, and so much more.

[Goemar]

I'm just going to throw CTR in here as well, because that game was also awesome.