Should The Mario Kart and Luigi's Mansion arcade games should be ported to consoles?

[Sweet Snow]

There exist four Arcade Mario Kart games and one for Luigi's Mansion, also F-Zero AX, but that doesn't have to do with Mario, so, yeah.
Let's say you want to play these games but you can't find them anywhere near you and you know Nintendo will shut down any online conversation when they find it, what is one to do?
On the other hand, you would want a low price for these games since they are super simple due to only meant to be played for a small amount of times since you can't stay at a arcade forever, I doubt Hamster's Arcade Archives would touch these, so, would you like ports of these on the Switch at a price?

 

[Cayde]

If Nintendo wants them on Switch.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

I think while they're fun arcade games, there's just not much to do with them if they're on console. I've played Arcade GP 2 on emulator (yes it's doable with the Triforce branch of the Dolphin emulator) and it's an inferior experience to arcade though it's nice that you don't have to pay anything to try to actually achieve game progression. For Mario Kart Arcade, at least GP DX, you have no control over the kart you pick, so that'll severely hinder replay value. Also, those tracks are designed for an arcade booth: in a console they won't be as interesting since the controls are far more precise on console, and you lose out on the feedback provided by the arcade booth. The turns are really wide and not too often, and I think shortcuts are virtually nonexistent. There are many, many items in Mario Kart Arcade, but you'll only see a three at a time during a race, which really limits your options.

Never played Luigi's Mansion Arcade, but I can see it work instead as a side game like how Kirby games have them. Standalone game? No. Perhaps it can work too, but it definitely will be the eShop exclusive type or bundled with other arcade games.

 

[Mcmadness]

I feel like without the big giant poltergust replica the arcade game wouldn't be as fun.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Yeah, the big appeal of arcade games is sometimes not the games themselves, but the experience. The loud, festive atmosphere. The short-lived fleeting "in bursts" nature of arcade games. The Luigi's Mansion booth being covered by curtains to make the game seem dark. The sound effects playing inside the booth that surrounds you. The giant plastic thingies you use to point and aim at a screen that also play noises and rumble as feedback. You're going to miss all of that out if you get something ported to console. I think while Metal Slug works pretty well ported to console since you're really just controlling a sprite with a few joysticks and it's long enough to be a good experience, something like Mario Kart Arcade and Luigi's Mansion are designed to work with arcade machines and will lose a lot to the point I don't think it's worth porting to console.

 

[Fawfulthegreat64]

I think a better idea is just to make use of the arcade tracks, karts & items in console Mario Kart games.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Well, if you want to see a taste of what an arcade track ported to Mario Kart 8 looks like, you can see this port of Omatsuri Circuit.

And there's a port of Bowser's Castle.

But imo while that Bowser's Castle looks damn good, the track itself doesn't have the intricacies of its counterpart (such as hazards), and you can also call the first track a bit basic. Perhaps retooling them and adding more hazards, jumps, more turns will help a lot. But if zero budget modders can achieve a nice result, surely a big multinational corp like Nintendo can?

As for items, well, it actually has happened: the much maligned Thunder Cloud in Mario Kart Wii first appeared in Mario Kart Arcade GP 1 & 2, but didn't work quite the same way. It was a throwable item and put targets in a timer before they shrank whereas the one in Mario Kart Wii was one you got, activated automatically, gives you a speed boost and ignores off-road, shrank you if you had it too long, and you could pass it to others by bumping into them.

I don't know how much people really want that item to return in a future Mario Kart, but I like some other ideas Mario Kart Arcade GP trot out: the Black Shell I'd like to see since it's pretty much a combined Green Shell and Bob-omb. Gold Shells are just like Red Shells that explode too (though I think it can be retooled to release coins when it breaks instead). I also like to see the Banana Shot because sometimes, throwing bananas in an arc won't cut it for me. There's also the Pie Bazooka for comedy reasons as well as the Dash Bazooka that can cause racers to speed out of control; just can't argue with bazookas.

But while Mario Kart Arcade has a lot of items, they all seem to work very similar: there's the item that shoots in a straight line, an item that locks to opponents, there's an item you throw behind, there's a melee item. As for disruptive effects, guess it can vary between square tire, dizziness virus, interrupting frame, and broken wheel compared to just Blooper in the main games, but wasn't that significant to me.

 

[Mcmadness]

Why do Bowser's castle levels never look as cool as they do in Mario Kart?

 

[Yoshi The Nothing]

Hell yeah they should!

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Why do Bowser's castle levels never look as cool as they do in Mario Kart?

oh boy you probably should've seen some screenshots too, I didn't post 'em all

I don't know if the lighting is like this in the original game, but boy I love it in this screenshot. Don't think it looks nearly like this in the other Mario games I've played.

And this is how you make Koopas look imposing! Imposing stone statues that mimic medieval knights holding out their spears.

And that bright blue ceiling looks a bit out of place, but golly, this looks like some Magikoopa armory, and I like the placement of the copper pipes and the imposing steel bars that surround the room.

---

The one in the original arcade, Mario Kart Arcade GP 1 & 2, also looks pretty good too! I think it outdoes Mario Kart Double Dash in the visual department, which came around the same time (two years later)

There's more of imposing Koopa statues, but don't look like any existing Mario enemy.

This is Bowser's throne room, and I really like the nice touches they put on the walls there. Putting "king" on the throne seems a bit tacky for Bowser, but again, Bowser's not really the subtle type. Huh, wonder what that statue on the right looks like in full....

And of course Bowser would put tons of paintings of himself and his son all over the place. Just... of course.

 

[Mcmadness]

It's....so beautiful.

 

[Ray Trace]

i personally like the Yoshi Park levels from Mario Kart Arcade GP 2

not because i like yoshi

but because of something like these

do you really find fanservice of nonplayable characters in, like, any other mario kart game?

i know there are WEIRDOS who will complain about them being there and not playable but i was so happy to see this sort of art for Baby Mario and Baby Luigi that it's almost okay they're not playable.

 

[Noct]

It certainly would be nice, but if not then just port over the tracks with some updates in a future Mario Kart and bring our boi Robo Mario home already.

Also it would be cool to see a home port of the Luigi's Mansion arcade game too.

 

[Bob Craples]

I'm very interested in playing fps Luigi's Mansion 2 so yeah

 

[Vivian]

I think a better idea is just to make use of the arcade tracks, karts & items in console Mario Kart games.

and drivers!