So with the sequel to Sonic and All-Stars Racing on the way, I thought to see how both that and Mario Kart compare. Mario Kart has always been the sort of king of the childhood racing, but with SEGA offering something similar, does it still own that crown? The only way to find out is fight in a battle to see who's better. Let it begin:
Characters
One of the most important factors in games like these is the characters. Now while Mario and Sonic at the Olympics have had characters solely from the 2 franchises, All-Star Racing has not only Sonic characters but also characters from other SEGA franchises. This includes the likes of Jet Set Radio, Samba De Amigo, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5 and a few others. On some consoles, the game has some exclusive characters such as the Avatar and Mii on the Xbox 360 and Wii respectively. It also has had a few third party characters including Banjo & Kazooie and Wreck-It Ralph. As for Mario Kart, the majority of the characters come from the Mario franchise with Donkey and Diddy Kong and Yoshi who even though have their own franchises, are technically part of the Mario universe. On occasions, the games have had some other characters from third and first party franchises including ROB, Pac-Man and his ghosts and the Tamagotchi gang.
All-Stars Racing wins this round.
Tracks
Both games have got some pretty darn impressive tracks, which will make this round very difficult. So with Mario Kart, you get 8 cups (4 containing new and original tracks and 4 containing retro tracks) each with 4 tracks. Each of the tracks are based on something that's related to any of the Mario games and often use the name of a racer to identify the track (Daisy Circuit for example). In every game to date, there has been 2 reoccurring tracks that get remade each time. They are Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road. As for All-Stars, most of the tracks are based on a particular game from any of the franchises that are represented in the game. Unlike Mario Kart, there can be different variations of each track in the game and it can often get boring and too crowded.
On that note, Mario Kart wins this round.
Music
Both games have a good set of music. All-Stars racing have the original variations of the music in each stage (meaning that the music has been ported directly from one game to this game) but also have it's own music for the menus and some other areas to. It also has the song "So Much More" by Bentley Jones as the game's main theme. As for Mario Kart, all the music is made specifically for the game with new variations of music for the retro stages.
So because the music in Mario Kart is original and not ported, they win this round.
Online Features
Both games have some online features. Starting in Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart's online features allowed players to do races and battles online. Up to 7 players can be competing against each other in this mode. The 3DS game also uses StreetPass to send and receive challenges from other players. For All-Stars Racing, the online mode can be used for eight players for racing, but most of the features are the same as Mario Kart.
As Mario Kart did this first, they win once again.
Additional Features
All I can really say about the additional features are that both games have power ups that help the player move along in the race, whether it be defending themselves or to just get a boost. All-Star Racing has All-Star Moves where the player can use a character specific move to move them along in the race, however they are all the same (a boost more or less). The game also has a commentator who even though says the same things in each race, he is quite amusing at times. SEGA Miles can be acquired to buy additional music, characters and stages for the game. Mario Kart doesn't really have as much features as All-Stars Racing due to the limitation of the console's capabilities (Wii in particular).
So All-Star Racing wins this round.
Overall, Mario Kart wins this battle and whether All-Stars Racing can get better, we do not know, but well done to Mario.
Update: thanks for the 1000 views guys. Much appreciated.
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