The Smogon Mario Kart 8 Thread

[Theorymon]

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT? MARIO KART 8 IS OUT!

What is this thread for?

Well we all know Mario Kart 8 is kick ass, but this thread is for more than just preaching to the choir about that. This thread is also going to be for a few other things.

1. Not yet (since people are still farming for parts), but very soon (probably sometime next week), we are going to put up the Smogon Mario Kart 8 tournament! Mario Kart 8 tournaments are very similar to Mario Kart 7 communities, so stay tuned for it!

2. Post your miiverse screenshots here. You can also use the Wii U menu to go to an image uploading site and upload higher quality images there!

3. Post your youtube videos here! Mario Kart 8 has this cool feature called Mario Kart TV, where you can actually upload highlight reels of your races, both single player and multiplayer! Just note, You can't name your youtube videos via the Wii U, but you can get on your youtube account and change the name of your video later! Also note, you can view the videos in Mario Kart TV as well, but the MKTV ones are in 60 frames per second, and you can slow them down, rewind them, etc.

4. Post your Nintendo ID here! Just note, I'd like for you all to post something else alongside your Nintendo ID, as to prevent plain old content-less posts.

5. And of course, general impressions are fine too. For example, you can talk about what kart customizations you are liking at the moment!

Here's my stuff to get yall started.

Nintendo ID: Theorymon

My first video

DO THE WARIO WAA HAA HAA!!!

Nintendo IDs submission form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12f...iXSTBQOL41Q/viewform?fbzx=-365004534728066077

And here is the spreadsheet to get the IDs! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avp_DKpFjlWsdGdUYUhieVBRdWE1Zjc0OXEyX1RoUHc&usp=drive_web#gid=0

 

[V4Victini]

>preaching to the quire

Got too cocky at the end here and almost lost 1st place :p
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADMUKlwpscxEA

 

[noobcubed]

Right, so I only got about half an hour's playtime in yesterday so this will be the briefest of impressions. In no particular order:

1) The online guys are still crapping on me, but then I never really played online Mario Kart that much before because at the time my internet connection wasn't always fast enough to support it.

2) Items are less dominant. The jury's still out on whether this is a good thing - on the one hand it makes for a less frustrating experience for the best players, but then on the other hand it does suppress the newcomers. Plus, items are what make Mario Kart Mario Kart, and most people accept their existence and unfairness going into a race. Same things can be said for the rubber band AI of Mario Kart Wii.

3) Although antigravity is the big new feature, I never played MK7 so customisable parts and the return of coins are really more significant changes to me. The antigravity sections come and go so smoothly that at times I barely notice they are there. Meanwhile the customisable parts are a really interesting feature, but at the same time they've kept it simple enough to stop it from being a Kart construction game rather than a Kart racing game. As for coins, I find that their greatest problem is that a leader can scoop up all the coins on the first lap of a circuit and then stay out in front. But I've been playing a lot of 50cc so maybe that has something to do with it.

4) The graphics are sweet. Mario's moustache wiggles. I'm sure you've seen people mention that before, by the way.

5) Favourite track so far: Twisted Mansion - beautiful-looking, and very rewarding if you nail a handbrake turn but at the same time forgiving if you screw one up.

6) I've not played battle mode yet. Having heard everything that's been said about it, I'm not sure I want to.

7) Why is unlocking stuff random? I guess it does mean that everyone, no matter how bad at the game, will eventually unlock everything regardless, but if I want to play as Baby Rosalina I want to know how to do that immediately.

8) My brother is still a whiny little runt who curtailed my play session by sulking and turning off the console because I was beating him (and apparently through sheer luck as well).

Okay, that wasn't very brief. Anyway, a great game overall, with some flaws and I think MKWii was better for its time, but still a great game well worth having especially with the Wii's Wi-Fi signal gone. My Nintendo ID is a-twig_0.75 (don't ask why).

 

[baddjordan]

6) I've not played battle mode yet. Having heard everything that's been said about it, I'm not sure I want to.

I lasted 2 minutes before I quit, will never play it again. DD had the best battle modes.

 

[reyscarface]

whats wrong with battle mode?

god damn i love mario kart and been a fan of it for as long as its existed, but fuck me i dont have the money to buy a wii u

 

[flash]

whats wrong with battle mode?

The tracks for battle mode are the same as the racing tracks so it's difficult to find other racers.. It's a shame that they didn't make more eliptical/circular tracks or rehash old ones.

Anyway, I must say Mario Kart 8 is a really beautiful game and enjoyable to play. I found drifting to be somewhat different than MK7 but it was easy to get use to. One big difference I found was that you can't hold a shell to the back of your kart and get another item at the same time. I guess this was the tradeoff for not losing items when you fall? Antigravity is really fun too but it takes alot of getting use to. I find myself tilting my head alot just to adjust to it. Well my NNID is flash6342 but I still have alot of practice to do to get better!

 

[KnightoftheWind]

Had to go to my cousin's house for five hours on MK8's launch so I couldn't play the shit out of it all day long :(. But I managed to unlock all the tracks and every character except Wendy and Rosalina before I decided to take a break (and let my Gamepad's battery recharge). I find the bikes to be incredibly strange to handle. I don't know if the bikes were like this in MK Wii, but they oversteer like crazy so I have to be really careful to always take turns from the outside. I don't have the perfect custom kart + racer combination that suits my needs, but I generally try and go for a heavy kart that's still balanced. I enjoy using heavy-weight characters in Mario Kart, smacking guys around as the King of Koopas is really satisfying. But if I'm going to be serious about this, I'll probably have to use Metal Mario instead of Bowser, he's not exactly as big of a target.

My NNID is HomingAttack, just so you know.

EDIT: Played a bit of on-line. I think I have my preferred combination. Larry + Varmint + Metal tyres. It's fast, handles well and overall is pretty badass. I had a really good race going in Wario Stadium. I was jumping and boosting in all the right places, I was well in front. Then a communication error happened and I got kicked out. But hey, at least the coins I got netted a Flower Glider.

 

[RODAN]

this game owns, got me to buy a wii u. spooky ghost track #1

 

[Lyto]

Finished the gps yesterday, decided to TT for a bit, got this time on Mario Circuit:

Hide

 

[chimp]

Ludwig is best Koopa.

 

[RotomPoison]

Just uploaded my first one (the race itself was pretty bad, since the video was just a test)

I want to 100% single player before working on VR. (so all the parts except the one you need 10,000 coins for, all stamps, 3 stars etc)

A bit dissapointing you can't upload the entire race, but 60 seconds of highlights didn't turn out as bad as I thought. May edit this post with more videos later.

 

[V4Victini]

Race against the Blue Shell for the finish!
https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADMUKlwsv7tKA

 

[Lyto]

Got the Mario Circuit WR, though with the game being new I don't expect it to last very long...

Hide

 

[RotomPoison]

I've been uploading more videos and so far it's been pretty fun, even if the battery always runs out way too fast. also brb breaking Lyto's WR

 

[Killah]

I find the bikes to be incredibly strange to handle. I don't know if the bikes were like this in MK Wii, but they oversteer like crazy so I have to be really careful to always take turns from the outside.

I feel like all the vehicles are strange to handle. The bikes feel like they oversteer, the karts feel like the understeer, and the ATVs just feel slow. I didn't play a ton yesterday, but I couldn't find a single combination that I felt comfortable with.

 

[TheMantyke]

Morton is best Koopa.

fixed

#MORTONMILITIA

Edit: Also can someone help me? I'm trying to upload mario kart 8 highlights to Youtube and I can get through most of the process up until there's this page about the Wii U video uploader and giving it permission to mess with my account. There's an accept and cancel button both grayed out that do nothing. Anyone know of a way to fix this?

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

NNID is 246_Tritone, and my only screencap on there as of now is from a (semi-crappy) run of Sunshine Airport, one of my favorite new tracks!

To add substance to this post, what do you all think of the new Rainbow Road? How does it compare to past Rainbow Roads? Also, favorite character combos? I like using Rosalina w/ the (Mach 8 / Circuit Special / Sports Coupe) + (Azure) Roller + Super Glider.

 

[DTC]

I lasted 2 minutes before I quit, will never play it again. DD had the best battle modes.

if you didn't play it on yoshi's valley it doesnt count

battle mode is not good on the other tracks but on yoshi's valley it's pretty great. toad harbor and sherbert land are ok too.

also using the gamepad for item spy and tracking people down is a must too.

KnightoftheWind your problem might be the combination that you are using has poor traction. low traction vechicles are very slippery on some tracks which makes it hard to properly steer. bone dry dunes is especially infuriating with low traction.

 

[Theorymon]

Holy fuck I can't believe I pulled that off`, Managed to get 3 stars in 150 CC Star Cup for it too!

Also shockingly enough, I've actually been enjoying battle mode. I sorta feel like I'm actually stalking people instead of just being like "WELL TIME TO KILL SHIT". Also I've been using Baby Rosalina in this, being small is pretty handy there!

 

[SgtWoodsy]

everyone that uses morton instead of bowser/wario is a scrub

 

[Osiris]

nnID: MindTricks

Playing with some friends online (V4Victini wins the race)!

A very close encounter with a bomb and an unexpected win.

 

[V4Victini]

nnID: MindTricks

Playing with some friends online (V4Victini wins the race)!

A very close encounter with a bomb and an unexpected win.

Pulled a bullshit win in that second one

 

[TheMantyke]

I'm the toadette in that video. That red shell in the highlight real was really painful since it set me flying off the track away from all the speed boosts everyone was hitting ;_;

But hey! There were a number of wins to go with the screw ups like that and if I could figure out the issues I'm having with Youtube I'll have more matches with smogon folks to share. Lotsa fun with you guys tonight. #pokemon is slowly becoming the mario kart channel.

 

[Osiris]

Pulled a bullshit win in that second one

I was really mad cause my brother was like oh I braked. And I'm like you did what?! Then we reviewed it in slow motion like three times and you can see the fire from the engine go out. :(

 

[V4Victini]

I was really mad cause my brother was like oh I braked. And I'm like you did what?! Then we reviewed it in slow motion like three times and you can see the fire from the engine go out. :(

Yea I thought that happened at the end there, but I couldn't figure out why he would brake and wrote it off :p