It's not a question of its fairness moreso than its idiocy. Like.. uh.. someone up above here said, there's more skill involved in the game than just snaking. It's just not fun. When you start doing it, it means if anyone wants a COMPETITION, they have to do it too. You see, when you start snaking, you're saying, "You have to play this my way if you want a chance." You're taking the fun away. You're not playing Mario Kart.

Who cares if you don't need GameShark to do it? Who cares if they programmed it? You take a single way to boost through a whole race, and you think that's fine because you CAN? You can ignore the rest of the aspects of the game (that were made to make the game what it is) so you can win? You say people that can't do it and complain are babies and whiners, but you've got it backwards. A whiner is someone who has to constantly defend how they ruined an entire game of something so that they could win and feel like they earned it.

Well guess what, you did earn it. You used "skill" as you said. You left the others in the dust. It must have have been fun for you because you were better than them, right? More "skilled" because you could, and they couldn't. Pat yourself on the shoulder and feel like the big Manly-man you are, because you've earned it, a-hole.

On a semi-side note...

I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Brink, about rollerblading and all that, but the protagonists lived for "soul-skating" (skating for the fun of it), while the antagonists believed in skating to win. Well those antagonists... they got hosed, Timmy. They got hosed.

I don't think snaking is cheating because it was a function put into a game, but it is one that was not meant to be a central part of winning. It creates a great imbalance, which makes for less fun competetive play.

To me, people that do it just want to win and nothing else. Winning is fun, but winning because you have a "skill" that others don't in a game that is about Mario Kart racing, that is, accelerating, turning corners, collecting items, making effecient use of those items, etc. etc., nevertheless with a skill that is not one of those common things, is a bit unfair.

Let's say the programmers added a giant "I Win" button on the Wii Mario Kart, that if you press it first, you win, race is over, and everyone leaves. Would you bother playing online? I sure wouldn't. I play games competetively sometimes, but the best part of it, win or lose, is the fun I have in it. I like losing and saying, "Good race" to whoever won, because they raced better than me.

Mario Kart isn't about snaking. It's not made for you to constantly do that the whole race. You can just see that because otherwise, they wouldn't have added the function of items, or braking, or anything else really.

If you have low self esteem and can't afford a self help group to raise your self-esteem, by all means, snake. Otherwise, try having fun once in a while.

I believe, and this is roughly from memory, that Cranky Kong (from DKC) was the original Donkey Kong that used to throw barrels and the such. The current DK from DKC is a hero to his family and all that, fighting K. Rool. However, I can't really say between Mario and Donkey Kong.

See... DK would try to hit Mario with those barrels and stuff, which is kinda mean. But Mario tried to beat the **** out of a BABY CHIMP in Donkey Kong Junior, when the DK Jr. Was trying to save his pop-pop.

So in the end... I don't really know.