Best Mario Kart clones

[Samba de Amigo]

Does anyone have a list of their favorite Mario Kart clones? I thought Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing made Mario Kart Wii look pretty vanilla in comparison, but I know other franchises have had their own knockoffs too (Crash, Digimon, Final Fantasy, and Mega Man come to mind). Let me know what hidden gems you've found among all the go-kart games.

[Pr3tty F1y]

Wacky Wheels (DOS)

Atari Karts (Atari Jaguar) - although it's goodness is debatable, I like it's vibe

Street Racer (practically any system that was around in 1995) - Each version is slightly different, but the SNES version is Mode 7 (without the DSP-1 so no scaling scenery items and it looks quite flat).

[Jorpho]

Diddy Kong Racing, surely? Has a few obnoxiously tough bits, though.

[InsaneDavid]

Konami Krazy Racers.

[kupomogli]

The character models look incredibly stupid and the weapon models really make little sense until the player actually puts time into the game, but in terms of gameplay, Mod Nation Racers is one of the best kart racers I've played. So what makes the game stand out is the drift mechanic. Now, the drift mechanic on its own doesn't do anything special, so unlike Mario Kart 7 where you can get away with snaking to break the game, this game uses drift like you would in pretty much any game. However, whenever you drift you will slowly build this meter. This charge meter will then allow you to pull up a shield around yourself or use turbo for however long the meter lasts. An example would be x amount of meter per second while holding either shield or turbo. So yeah. It's a really good game, it just looks, well.... stupid.

You'd think devs would be able to make a good game that actually also looks good. Not just graphically, but also appealing to look at.

Oh, and the above is about the PS3 version. There's a Vita version but it feels pretty much unplayable with the amount of lag within the menu system. Once you get to the racing it's more playable, but outside of the absurd load times and the lag within the menus, it is literally unplayable.

So anyways, one of the ones I like a lot is Chocobo Racing. I'm aware part of it may be I'm a fan of Final Fantasy, but the game has good mechanics. Being a Final Fantasy fan is just what got me into the game. It certainly plays with a more arcade like feel than your average kart game but that doesn't make it bad, just different mechanics. The spells that you can pick up for your attack items are simple and to the point, and you can collect three of them to power them up to your higher levels. I didn't mention it above, but Mod Nation Racers also allows this which I find is a very good mechanic. Use what you have immediately or try and hold off for a much bigger and better attack. On Chocobo Racing however, the spells are materia orbs that follow the player, so other players can run into the materia orbs and steal them from other players, now of course unless it's materia that you're already going for it's going to be pretty useless but you can steal it and then just waste it. On top of that each player can choose a special power. From dash which just increases your speed for a small amount of time, to protect where it instantly nullifies the next attack that attempts to hit you, or even mug which steals from the next player in front of you.

[YoshiM]

Out of the ones I have played, "Sonic & All Stars Racing: Transformed" is pretty good. The transforming gives the game a nice change up through a race and the themed tracks makes the Sega part of my gaming heart flutter.

[Nz17]

From my library, F1 Race Stars seems like one. What about Re-Volt and Toybox Turbos - are those similar enough to Mario Kart for you?