[muyuu]

Then they mash the buttons away and win almost half of the time.

He's right, these games are meant to be played by people with about the same experience, or at least a decent amount of experience and then a bit of handicap.

They're not exactly Mario Party.

[ZeroGravitas]

Talking of Mario, Mario Kart is famous for it's "rubber banding" where if you fall behind you are showered with powerups that can put you right back in the game, while those in the lead get less powerups and get targetted by the blue shell.

[muyuu]

Yeah, but still it's a skill game for the most part, except some particular versions like Mario Kart 64 which IMO is piss poor.

That's why Diddy Kong Racing was such a massive success. The truly good party racing game for the N64.