A new Nintendo system means a new Mario Kart game. That’s just how things work. So here we are with the seventh entry in the chaotic kart racing series (not including the Namco co-developed arcade games). Aside from it being one of the very few first party games currently available on the 3DS, why should you care about yet another Mario Kart game?

The answer is simple: Mario Kart 7 is easily one of the best games in the series.

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You know that moment in gaming where you’re no longer making conscious decisions and instead find yourself relying on pure, razor fast instinct? This is how I felt for almost the entirety of the time I spent with SkyDrift. Much like the fantastic Split/Second, SkyDrift‘s brand of racing puts you on the verge of death constantly, and everytime you manage to narrowly escape certain doom at the hands of the track’s terrain or your opponent’s weapons it feels like a miracle.

It’s amazing how much the concept of flight changes how a racing game plays. The added verticality of racing in an airplane instead of a car allows for a sense of freedom that really makes every race play out differently. This is also helped by some really superb track design. There aren’t a ton of tracks, but the ones that are there are filled to the brim with branching pathways, a ton of variety, and plenty of extra dangerous obstacles that reward players willing to take risks.

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How many airplane racing games can you think of off the top of your head? Any? Without resorting to Google, all I could come up with was one third of Diddy Kong Racing. This is exactly why I was instantly fascinated by Digital Reality’s SkyDrift. It’s in a sub-genre that’s rarely explored.

You could call it “Mario Kart in the sky”, but that really isn’t fair to the game. SkyDrift may be a weapons-based racer, but it’s far more deliberate and skill-based than any racing I’ve ever done in the Mushroom Kingdom. The fact that you need a second analogue stick to control your plane’s knife position is proof enough that the game is deeper than some of its contemporaries.

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I’m a bit hard pressed to think of what to say about Mario Kart on the 3DS. I mean… it’s Mario Kart. Based on what I played, Nintendo hasn’t strayed too far from the DS and Wii versions with this, which is probably for the better.  That’s not to say there isn’t anything new, just that what is new may not matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

“It has been 50 years since the nuclear disaster. The sport of sprint racing is now a ruthless battle between armed cars. These races take place on tracks built in the ruins of the dangerous nuclear zone known only as the BADLANDS. This is sprint racing gone BAD! It’s all-out war on the track as players blast away at the drones (and each other) to finish first! Players shoot playfield targets for extra points and bonus missiles!” -Badlands Manual

Badlands is a top down racing game set 50 years after a nuclear disaster. Sprint racing is now a ruthless battle set in a post apocalyptic wasteland. As the games manual eloquently puts it, “This is sprint racing gone BAD!” Three cars race on a single screen track, dodging obstacles like mines, retractable barricades, and oil slicks.

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Sure, you could play a racing game where you drive a car on a road like you have so many times before. But why not play a game where things are randomly on fire? Why not play a game that let’s you jump over hot air balloons? While nail’d might not be the most polished racer on the block, it let’s you do all these things. And thanks to your close personal friend, WingDamage, you’ll be able to do all these things for free.

That’s right, we’re giving a way a free copy of nail’d for the Xbox 360 to one lucky reader. All you need to do is read the rules below and tell us a one-word name for a new racing game of your own creation along the same lines as titles like nail’d, Blur, Pure, and DiRT.

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Nail’d is an offroad arcade style racer that has taken the laws of physics and blasted them out the window. Like a mid 90′s Mountain Dew commercial, nail’d is extreme to the max.

Think of it as an off-off road game. Races take place in the sky almost as often as on the ground. You’ll be leaping over speeding trains and flying over hot air balloons as you tear through the courses.

But does all this extreme-nessity make for a fun game?

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I’m quite fond of Split/Second to put it lightly. If I had to make a complaint about the game, it would be that there simply isn’t more of it. Or rather, there wasn’t.

The very appropriately titled Quarry Onslaught DLC pack expands the explosive racer by adding one new track, the Quarry, and one new mode, Onslaught. This pack will run you 800 Space Bucks ($10).

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"Explosive Movie Chase Scene: The Racing Game."

When my cohorts and I attended PAX last year, an unexpected game caught Jonah’s attention. It was an explosive new racer by the name of Split/Second. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to try it while I was there due to the long lines and numerous other games to check out. While it looked interesting enough, I quickly forgot about the game’s existence and it never entered my radar.

All that changed when the Xbox Live demo was released. Curious to give it a shot, I downloaded it. Not only was my racing itch scratched, it was done so in ways that felt fresh, exciting, and extremely polished. But the demo was just the beginning.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

In Electronic Arts’ Genesis classic, Road Rash, you take on the roll of a street biker who has to punch, club, and speed his/her way to victory.

You aren’t racing on a giant circle completing laps – you are competing in illegal street races for stacks of cash.

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