To expand a bit on what Sami has said.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:- NTSC Runs slightly faster by a few seconds give or take, depending on the track, it will be noticeably easier on some of the water / mud / ice tracks as the off-road terrain / water slowdown is less, which allows for better acceleration. Vanilla Lake 2 was not a favoured track by many, and you can drive much faster times clipping water on NTSC rather than PAL. This does not mean fact in the book that NTSC is better because of this, only that it is easier for an intermediate driving level. The solution to the problem is to just learn to drive the track without crashing on both versions. Then there is no more problem.
I've given this exact advice for VL2 before. The main difference here is that on PAL you want to take a slightly longer route near the end of the lap, unless you're either going for a lap record or are desperate to gain time. We call the NTSC route the "NTSC last corner" on PAL because while it's the "normal" way to do the corner on NTSC, on PAL it's a high-risk move due to (1) the kart's shorter jumping distance and (2) the huge amount of time lost if you fail to make it.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:Gap jumping, platform jumps, larger feather shortcuts can be made easier on NTSC, which many enjoy. PAL version is just nearer that borderline of being too difficult to do and requires extra effort. Ghost Valley 1 and 2 5/5 platform jump is a good example where it is much more enjoyable to do on NTSC.
See above; the kart doesn't jump quite as far on PAL. Also, it's lengthy to fully explain in detail here, but because PAL runs at 25 frames per second and NTSC runs at 30, the kart travels slightly farther between frames so there's less likely to be a frame on which you are close enough to make the jumps successfully.
GV3's platform jump is not affected by this; it's no harder to make on PAL than on NTSC.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:Items are much more fast paced and frantic on NTSC which is great on Battle Mode. Though on PAL you can do some dodges a little easier as there is a bit more time to make a decision and side jump properly.
I wouldn't know this, since I haven't played Battle Mode or Match Race against anyone in PAL and only rarely play GP in either version. I've always been a TT guy myself.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:The zoom start timings are generally better on NTSC and more consistent, although still a nightmare on Match Race for both versions. The zoom starts overall on SMK are one of the biggest annoyances of the game, which was fixed in the later sequels of the Mario Kart franchise.
You have to wait a little longer after the first light on PAL. I'd say that on NTSC you wait about 0.3 seconds after you hear the first beep, but on PAL it's more like 0.6 seconds. You will definitely false-start a lot on PAL if you're an NTSC native like me.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:The turn angles are much wider on the hairpin turns where you have to get into a jump slide with Bowser or D.K.Jr. Not too much of an issue on Time Trial, though Mario Circuit 3, 4 and Donut Plains 3 will be a little difficult to start with, but on 150cc GP NTSC it is. PAL has sharper cornering ability which is just perfectly balanced.
This is one of the few things that's harder about NTSC than PAL. I don't find the difference to be particularly great, though.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:Only a few realise this, but NTSC has a nasty habit of veering inwards when you initially start turning and hopping into a corner. So if you turn a bit too early you can clip the inside before the corner appears. On PAL the kart drifts outwards very slightly to set up a better turn angle. For example, if you wanted to do an extremely aggressive one try on Ghost Valley 2 PAL without the platform jump, lets say for arguments sake... a 1'02"8x as I think Karel performed in the recent years. Try to do the exact same sharpness on NTSC immediately after with no practice runs, and you will see what I mean. You literally have to position yourself differently and begin your turns at completely different points. The 3rd corner pipe on Mario Circuit 1 is another one, you can't start this turn too early on NTSC and keep the kart in sharp. If you have overturned on a corner, and keep jumping sideways until you recover, it will likely be too late on NTSC and you will hit the inner turn somewhere, but on PAL as the kart drifts out a bit, you can just about recover yourself, or have a bit of time to. This is key and usually overlooked. Or worse, not widely known.
If this is tl;dr for you, I'll give you the short version: the kart starts drifting inwards sooner on NTSC. On PAL there's somewhat of a delay before the kart starts to turn, making the PAL kart feel "heavier" in a sense as you hop around corners. However, once the kart does start to make the turn, it will turn a little sharper on PAL, as mentioned in the previous point.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:Off road boosts (NBT), this is something for much later. But they are easier to execute on NTSC due to the much nicer charge times. However, why oh why the length of the boosts are shorter than PAL is beyond me. PAL is a godsend for this, where certain grass / sand / mud cuts you want to go that bit further and you can.
I'm not a particularly advanced NBT driver so I really never noticed that the PAL boosts last longer, but I am aware that they take a bit longer to charge. I guess it evens out, except in areas where I have to do two NBTs in quick succession (e.g. my MC4 flap strat); in PAL where there's less time to transition from one boost to the next, I get better results by just foregoing one NBT or the other.
Sami de la SMK wrote on 07/17/19 at 02:33:08:I have seen on youtube videos that people prefer NTSC games for the whole full screen thing, rather than PAL's one. Ignore all of that as it has nothing to do with the gameplay. That was more for other games / casual play etc and while you are concentrating playing SMK, no one notices or ever mentions it in passing.
PAL games on the SNES are usually letterboxed. You will see black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. This is because the NTSC screen is divided into 525 rows of pixels while the PAL screen has 625. PAL releases of SNES games generally still use 525-row pictures, since the graphics would have to be redrawn completely to fit a 625-row display. It's easier just to leave 50 rows each on the top and bottom unused. I haven't played PAL versions of more recent games than SMK so I can't say if later generations of consoles worked to solve this problem. As it's just a 15% or so difference in picture height, I'm not bothered by it anyhow.
P.S. If you play PAL on an American TV, your picture will probably be in black and white like mine is. (If you watched my MC1 Non-NBT video you've seen this already). This is due to NTSC and PAL having different color encoding standards.
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