There are some series I don't follow with every game despite the fact that I enjoy them when I do. And Mario Kart and Smash are not annualized franchises. They make one of these per generation, typically market them as a platform rather than as individual games, and in the case of Smash, the only handheld Smash they ever made was Smash 4 3DS. I got my Gamecube more with Wind Waker in mind than Melee, and I wasn't sure how big Smash 4 would be given the rather weak-selling platforms it was on. With Mario Kart, I never was interested in the 2D Mario Karts (Super Mario Kart and Super Ciruit), Double Dash got back-burnered for Zelda and Tales of Symphonia, and with MK Wii, I hesitated because of the motion controls. Most of what I know about those games comes from playing Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 8.


