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[chalkitdown1]

Time for a little list starting at the peak. (I've excluded shit games like that Donkey Kong racer)

N64

1080° Snowboarding
Diddy Kong Racing
Excitebike 64
F-Zero X
Mario Kart 64
Wave Race 64

Game Boy Advance

F-Zero GP Legend
F-Zero Maximum Velocity
Mario Kart Super Circuit

Gamecube

1080° Avalanche
F-Zero GX
Kirby's Air Ride
Mario Kart Double Dash!!
Wave Race Blue Storm

Nintendo DS

Mario Kart DS

Wii

ExciteBots
Excite Truck
Mario Kart Wii

Nintendo 3DS

Mario Kart 7

WiiU

Mario Kart 8

A clear downward trajectory. The N64/GCN era was a great time to be alive. Umm, what the fuck happened? Used to be a huge variety of racers from them, now it's just Mario Kart, Mario Kart and Mario Kart. Kinda depressing. I don't think we'll even get another one for the WiiU to be honest unless they surprise the world with a new F-Zero at E3. I miss the variety!

 

[Pikma]

Something that could be said about any genre, their lack of variety is a fucking shame, and they don't even seem to acknowledge it, so it's definitely staying. I'm really glad it's hurting them lately though, maybe that'll make them wake up.

 

[MisterHero]

They made Mario Kart 8 by merging it with F-Zero. It is also BY FAR their most popular racing series.

also calling MK8 "more Mario Kart" is a giant disservice to the game

 

[leroidys]

It's a dying genre. This is like, one of 5 things that actually isn't Iwata's fault.

 

[Zalman]

It's all your fault for not buying them.

 

[Witchfinder General]

Whilst Nintendo didn't develop it, Beetle Adventure Racing was one of my favourite games on the N64.

 

[Aostia]

It's a dying genre. This is like, one of 5 things that actually isn't Iwata's fault.

and it's obvious that they are struggling (resource-wise) in developing games today, compared to the past.
they grew, but not as much as the developments for actual consoles would need.
Btw, I'd like to see a new "Excite" by Monster games for the Wii U.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

At least they're still making 60 FPS racers, which I can't say for a lot of racing game developers lately.

 

[Easy_D]

Fuck, 1080 on the 3DS pls. I'd love to have a portable snowboard game.

 

[Crayolan]

I think the real issue here is they never made a Kirby's Air Ride 2. What the hell Nintendo? I know people who would buy a Wii U right now if they confirmed Air Ride 2.

 

[SolarPowered]

Nintendo used to be fantastic with local multiplayer shooters too. It sucks, but it is what it is. I would also classify stuff like Wave Race and 1080 as sports titles. They really had their hands dipped in more genres back in the day as Shikamaru Ninja has said before.

It's all your fault for not buying them.

The gamecube fan in me will always be bitter. You'd think at least 1/5th of PS2 owners at the time would have picked up the GC as a secondary console to complement the PS2.

oh well

 

[chalkitdown1]

Whilst Nintendo didn't develop it, Beetle Adventure Racing was one of my favourite games on the N64.

Indeed. The N64 had a lot of exclusive 3rd party racers, something we've never seen from Nintendo since. Things like Beetle, Extreme G, Wipeout 64, the underrated World Driver Championship and my personal favourite Top Gear Rally.

 

[Sponge]

Nintendo almost had this as a racer, too.

RIP Donkey Kong Racing.

Former Rare employee Lee Musgrave claimed this game had taken some inspiration from GTA III. What could have been.

 

[MisterHero]

I think the real issue here is they never made a Kirby's Air Ride 2. What the hell Nintendo? I know people who would buy a Wii U right now if they confirmed Air Ride 2.

Sakurai didn't like making Kirby games all the time so he left.

KAR almost cost Nintendo the Smash Bros. creator.

 

[MrCunningham]

I think you mean Sega...

But yeah Nintendo has always had a pretty good track record with non conventional racing games.

I always wanted to see a sequel to this, BTW:

 

[impact]

Nintendo used to be GOAT with a lot of things. Times change, too bad Nintendo refuses to.

 

[Jackano]

I don't think it's a dying genre. People like racers and if you release enough of them you will have a healthy genre on your system. OP's list make the pattern clear and reveal one more time the lacks of Wii U's library.

1080 is the winter one, Wave Race the summer one. F-Zero the futurist one. And Excite is a nice arcade addition with more variety. All out of the radar now. But that's with this kind of releases you build your consumer base for racers. Mario Kart alone can't do (every time) the job.

 

[ComputerMKII]

We'll never get another Project Gotham Racing or Burnout Paradise, will we?

 

[Sylverstone14]

Sales weren't spectacular.

 

[Pikma]

They made Mario Kart 8 by merging it with F-Zero. It is also BY FAR their most popular racing series.

also calling MK8 "more Mario Kart" is a giant disservice to the game

Well it wouldn't be the first time MK took advantage of The superior racing franchise's innovation. Having said that, I don't think MK8 has any resemblance to a true F-ZERO other than the 0 gravity guimmick, which is not even fully utilized anyways.

 

[Shiggy]

Who needs variety when there's always more Mario?

1080 Avalanche was so good. Too bad the team got smashed when Iwata wanted NST to focus on casual titles

 

[leroidys]

I don't think it's a dying genre. People like racers and if you release enough of them you will have a healthy genre on your system. OP's list make the pattern clear and reveal one more time the lacks of Wii U's library.

1080 is the winter one, Wave Race the summer one. F-Zero the futurist one. And Excite is a nice arcade addition with more variety. All out of the radar now. But that's with this kind of releases you build your consumer base for racers. Mario Kart alone can't do (every time) the job.

Where is Amped, Jet moto, Coolboarders, WipEout, sega GT, CTR, star wars racer, PGR, Rallisport, etc, etc, etc.

Singling out Nintendo for this is asinine. Racing games were huge in the 90s and Nintendo, as well as other companies, responded to it, and have in recent years slowed down on making them.

 

[SolarPowered]

We'll never get another Project Gotham Racing or Burnout Paradise, will we?

Only in a parallel universe where Iwata decided to save Bizarre from their grizzly fate instead of sitting on mountains of cash during the Wii era.

Where is Amped, Jet moto, Coolboarders, WipEout, sega GT, CTR, star wars racer, PGR, Rallisport, etc, etc, etc.

Singling out Nintendo for this is asinine. Racing games were huge in the 90s and Nintendo, as well as other companies, responded to it, and have in recent years slowed down on making them.

The OP made the thread about Nintendo. It's not like people are dogpiling Nintendo when this is what the OP INTENDED. If you make a thread about Sony or MS you'll get TONS of tears and gnashing of teeth from PGR and WipEout devotees.

Edit: I miss Amped soooooo much. Hell, I miss snowboarding games so much.

 

[MisterHero]

Well it wouldn't be the first time MK took advantage of The superior racing franchise's innovation. Having said that, I don't think MK8 has any resemblance to a true F-ZERO other than the 0 gravity guimmick, which is not even fully utilized anyways.

Of course not. Mario Kart games are supposed to be accessible. F-Zero [especially GX]... not so much.

 

[.:Wesker:.]

OP forgot about F-Zero Climax I feel like that should count too.

But yeah, it's a shame that Nintendo's racing game output has become... numbered Mario Karts. Where's my 30-player online F-Zero UX?

 

[Brainfreeze]

Because they do this with platformers now instead.

And they get a ton of shit for that too. So maybe a little presence in every genre would be better than a dominating presence in only one or two.

 

[Broritos]

It's all your fault for not buying them.

This.

I might have said this already, but ya'll don't deserve F-Zero!

Because they do this with platformers now instead.

And they get a ton of shit for that too. So maybe a little presence in every genre would be better than a dominating presence in only one or two.

This is a very good point too. If there were a lot of new Nintendo racing games right now people would complain that there are too many.

 

[chalkitdown1]

I guess I should have called this thread 'The 90's and early 00's used to be GOAT with non-sim racers'.

Although I did single out Nintendo, it does seem to be a sad state of affairs all 'round, really. Maybe this new gen will turn things around and we'll get something other than street racers and sims. Evolution making Drive Club instead of something like a Motorstorm is not a good early sign, though.

 

[SolarPowered]

This is a very good point too. If there were a lot of new Nintendo racing games right now people would complain that there are too many.

This never happened and it will never happen. Anyone who would call Nintendo a one trick pony for releasing new entries in Wave Race, 1080, F-Zero and Kirby's air ride is either a troll or an abnormal person. Having to compete against a human or a bot is about the only thing any of these games have in common. The themes, gameplay, music.... and just about everything are entirely different. It'd be like complaining about Metroid Prime, RE4, MGS:TS and Timesplitters 2. Never in my life have I heard any Nintendo (or MS/Sony) fan complain about this.

 

[Broritos]

This never happened and it will never happen. Anyone who would call Nintendo a one trick pony for releasing new entries in Wave Race, 1080, F-Zero and Kirby's air ride is either a troll or an abnormal person. Having to compete against a human or a bot is about the only thing any of these games have in common. The themes, gameplay, music.... and just about everything are entirely different. It'd be like complaining about Metroid Prime, RE4, MGS:TS. Never in my life have I heard any Nintendo (or MS/Sony) fan complain about this.

Okay? People are complaining now that there are too many platformers on Wii U and they're all different.

 

[danmaku]

The gamecube fan in me will always be bitter. You'd think at least 1/5th of PS2 owners at the time would have picked up the GC as a secondary console to complement the PS2.

oh well

When a console is as dominant as the PS2, not many people will feel the need of a secondary console. In the previous gen the market was divided more evenly so I guess there were more multiple console owners.

Also, racing games are still popular... if they feature real cars.

 

[HUELEN10]

OP, you forgot one of the best racers of all time.

Excitebike: World Rally

But yeah, situation kinda sucks.

 

[OnimaruXLR]

In case you haven't noticed, there aren't as many racing games made as much period, not just from Nintendo.

The same can be said of a lot of genres. Until gaming finds a sustainable middle ground between multi-million selling hogwash and couple of thousand unit selling indie darlings, we're going to not get a lot of variety on the mid-to-high end of things.

 

[Dennis]

F-Zero (SNES) and Wave Race (N64) are the GOAT

 

[Crayolan]

Sakurai didn't like making Kirby games all the time so he left.

KAR almost cost Nintendo the Smash Bros. creator.

I'd trade Brawl for Air Ride 2.

Spoiler

jk....kinda

 

[leroidys]

Only in a parallel universe where Iwata decided to save Bizarre from their grizzly fate instead of sitting on mountains of cash during the Wii era.

The OP made the thread about Nintendo. It's not like people are dogpiling Nintendo when this is what the OP INTENDED. If you make a thread about Sony or MS you'll get TONS of tears and gnashing of teeth from PGR and WipEout devotees.

Edit: I miss Amped soooooo much. Hell, I miss snowboarding games so much.

What? In my first post I was responding to the premise in the op, namely

What the hell happened?

In the second post, I'm not accusing people of dogpiling on nintendo, I was responding to a specific poster. I'm just pointing out that it's an industry wide trend.

Anyway, why would I have to take the premise of the OP as a fact in order to respond?

 

[TAJ]

F-Zero (SNES) and Wave Race (N64) are the GOAT

I'm amazed that Wave Race 64 was so good with the frame rate capped at 20fps.

 

[SolarPowered]

Okay? People are complaining now that there are too many platformers on Wii U and they're all different.

Clearly the markets do not agree.

When a console is as dominant as the PS2, not many people will feel the need of a secondary console. In the previous gen the market was divided more evenly so I guess there were more multiple console owners.

It's strange how that works when you consider how much more expensive gaming became after the 6th gen between hardware, software, DLC and subscription models. I can only chalk that up to increased awareness among gamers and teen PS2 owners entering the workforce (working those two jobs for a PS3 hehe). I know that was the case for me and my circle of friends. All of a sudden it was normal to have all three systems under the television. That was not a normal thing in the PS2 era outside the hardcore.

What? In my first post I was responding to the premise in the op, namely

In the second post, I'm not accusing people of dogpiling on nintendo, I was responding to a specific poster. I'm just pointing out that it's an industry wide trend.

You were responding to a specific poster and not the OP so I took it another way.

my bad

 

[UnluckyKate]

You can the fall : DS, Wii, Wii U, 3DS... Only Mario Kart left.

 

[Android18a]

I loved Waverace 64 so much. Pretty much defined the early N64 era to me, screw Mario Kart 64!

Spoiler

Also, I still have no idea what GOAT stands for, and google just takes me to the wikipedia page for goats.I feel like after so many years on GAF I should know this.

 

[leroidys]

I loved Waverace 64 so much. Pretty much defined the early N64 era to me, screw Mario Kart 64!

Spoiler

Also, I still have no idea what GOAT stands for, and google just takes me to the wikipedia page for goats.I feel like after so many years on GAF I should know this.

greatest of all time.

 

[Abounder]

I would buy HD versions of all of them especially if they had online multiplayer. But Mario Kart 8 is outstanding and it's always refreshing to see 60FPS

 

[Principate]

I loved Waverace 64 so much. Pretty much defined the early N64 era to me, screw Mario Kart 64!

Spoiler

Also, I still have no idea what GOAT stands for, and google just takes me to the wikipedia page for goats.I feel like after so many years on GAF I should know this.

Spoiler

Greatest Of All Time

 

[Jackano]

Where is Amped, Jet moto, Coolboarders, WipEout, sega GT, CTR, star wars racer, PGR, Rallisport, etc, etc, etc.

Singling out Nintendo for this is asinine. Racing games were huge in the 90s and Nintendo, as well as other companies, responded to it, and have in recent years slowed down on making them.

I think it's not because most of gamers are now only commited to Mario Kart and the two first-party AAA simulation (Gran Turismo and I forgot which is MS one, Forza something?) that there is no more place for the titles we mentioned. Particularly in Nintendo's case, who havn't a AAA simulation capable of challenging Sony and MS titles.
This thread and the numerous F-Zero begs the last few years prove the genre isn't entirely dead. Nintendo had this problem to feed the Wii U with games and make it with an appropriate user base for other developers, and the racers are one of the most easy genre to take care of.

 

[MarkMclovin]

All they need is F-Zero U to make it back to GOAT status.

 

[leroidys]

I think it's not because most of gamers are now only commited to Mario Kart and the two first-party AAA simulation (Gran Turismo and I forgot which is MS one, Forza something?) that there is no more place for the titles we mentioned. Particularly in Nintendo's case, who havn't a AAA simulation capable of challenging Sony and MS titles.
This thread and the numerous F-Zero begs the last few years prove the genre isn't entirely dead. Nintendo had this problem to feed the Wii U with games and make it with an appropriate user base for other developers, and the racers are one of the most easy genre to take care of.

I dunno I don't think the "if you build it they will come" mantra applies here. F-zero GX and Excitebots are basically at the pinnacle of the genre in terms of quality, but still managed to sell almost nothing, or spark interest in the genre on those platforms.

Now, should Nintendo try to make a sim racer to compete with Forza and GT? That might not be a bad idea.

 

[Broritos]

Clearly the markets do not agree.

I don't know what you're talking about.

It doesn't matter how different the games are, they're all racing games at their core. People just see that they're racing games and choose one. If the 'market' didn't agree that that isn't the case, then we would have had sequels to many of the games listed in the OP by now.

 

[chalkitdown1]

I dunno I don't think the "if you build it they will come" mantra applies here. F-zero GX and Excitebots are basically at the pinnacle of the genre in terms of quality, but still managed to sell almost nothing, or spark interest in the genre on those platforms.

Now, should Nintendo try to make a sim racer to compete with Forza and GT? That might not be a bad idea.

I think you may be the first person in history to refer to Excitebots as being the pinnacle of anything.

 

[leroidys]

I think you may be the first person in history to refer to Excitebots as being the pinnacle of anything.

Opinions maaaan. The most fun party racing game (yeah I'm making up a genre that excludes kart racers) since Beetle Adventure Racing.

If you think I'm the only person, you clearly weren't on GAF much in 2009.

 

[TheXfactor]

F zero in HD needs to happen