Mario Kart

chimp

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Let’s discuss our favorite games in the series and get hype for Mario Kart World. Perhaps we can get some tournaments going? Discussion on other Kart Racing games are welcome, too!

Anyway: Mario Kart World is looking like a dream-come true Mario Kart game for me. Especially when it comes to the playable roster. I know some have given the game shit for being mostly just random enemies instead of named characters, but I seriously love that. I mean, Shy Guy, Boo, Dry Bones and more were also just random enemies until they started being used in random Mario spin-offs, right? Regardless… I’m just glad the Piantas are back.

I do miss Diddy Kong, though. Nintendo’s been weirdly inconsistent with him, lately. I am holding out hope that its because they have a re-design for him in mind like they did with DK, but given that he wasn’t made by Nintendo themselves got me worried. And don’t get me started on Funky.

Whats your favorite all-time track? Not sure if its my top of all time but I have a soft spot for Mushroom Bridge from Double Dash. It’s always had such peaceful vibes to me (even when getting run over by a bus)
 
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I like that they’re adding more generic characters because they feel more like a proxy for the player than playing as a named character

My favorite tracks all time though are Koopa Cape, Wii Rainbow Road, and Squeaky Clean Sprint - I’m really hoping for a return of some of them in World
 
This is my first post on the Forums in… how long has it been exactly? I’ve been taking another break from posting to focus on my mental wellness, and while I’m doing better now than I was, that’s not why I’m here. Obviously. The reason I’m here is because I debated back and forth with myself for a while on it I wanted to make a dedicated Mario Kart thread when I eventually decide to come back. And as luck would have it, someone beat me to the punch. Not that I mind or anything, of course. I like when people make threads about my so-called “special interests” (is my neurodivergence showing?).

I was first introduced to Mario Kart through the DS installment, much like many people. It makes sense- at the time, DS was the best-selling game in the Mario Kart series and the DS itself was an astronomical success for Nintendo as well as many players’ first Nintendo system outright. Mario Kart DS in hindsight felt like the beginning of the “modern era” of Mario Kart, what with the addition of retro courses from past games, being the first Nintendo game period to have online play, and also having more single player content than previous entries.

Mario Kart DS would eventually lay the foundation for Mario Katy’s most famous, iconic stretch of mainline games to date. As impactful as the DS entry was for many people including myself, I’m sure most people would agree with me when I say that Mario Kart Wii was the game that built upon DS’s foundation and allowed the series to have its true breakout moment. Mario Kart Wii definitely has its issues, specifically with how poorly balanced its meta was and the removal of DS’s Mission Mode in favor of online exclusive Tournaments, but just about everything else was an improvement in my eyes. Wii’s success and nostalgia for millions of players would be followed up again by DS’s 3DS successor, Mario Kart 7, as well as Wii’s own successor in Mario Kart 8. All four of Wii, 7, 8, and 8 Deluxe are some of Nintendo’s most popular and successful titles of their respective hardware, seriously giving off 1990s Pokémon vibes with how the series’s success has been this sustainable and dominant for so long.

So, why is it that I’m really worried about Mario Kart World for the Switch 2? This may be an unpopular opinion, but the $80 USD price tag isn’t what bothers me. Expensive? For sure, but the combined total of both versions of 8 and both of those DLCs was over $140 USD across the Wii U and the original Switch. No, what bothers me more is that Mario Kart World hasn’t impressed me or really innovated the series in any notable ways. I understand that Mario Kart has historically been very archetypal of the kart racing sub-genre over the years, and that it’s generally other, lesser known series that tend to push the boundaries of these kinds of games more than Mario Kart does. That being said, within its own series, the lack of innovation has been a problem for me since the 3DS era. I just feel like every game since Mario Kart 7 has played more or less the same as one another. 64, Super Circuit to an extent, Double Dash, DS, and Wii all did various things to make the characters and vehicles stand out from one another, ranging from different drifting mechanics in each game to different ways to make the most of driving speed and designing each game’s new courses around those mechanics. With the newer games, though, everything feels mechanically similar, lacking a lot of the nuanced depth that made installments like 64, DS, and Wii fun for both casual and hardcore players alike.
 
Me personally, I've always been a sucker for Wild Woods. Idk, I've always enjoyed nature levels, and man did it deliver. Riding up the giant tree trunk and branches, passing through the shy guy village, riding down the stream and tricking off of the lily pads on the pond... It just pushes all the right buttons for me. Oh, and as a neat topper, the soundtrack for it is pretty amazing!
Beyond that, my other favorites include Koopa Cape, Dolphin Shoals, Sherbet Land and Music Park! Yoshi's Island also looks neat, but I sadly haven't been able to play it.

As far as characters go, I remember that when I played at my cousin's house I always alternated between Koopa Troopa, Toad, Yoshi and Baby Mario. Nowadays I still enjoy those characters, but I gravitate more towards Shy Guy instead of Baby Mario, and I've also picked up animal crossing villager (I sadly don't have high hopes for em to come back in world tho...). I'd also main Wiggler, but my friend who owns the game hasn't bought the DLC, so that hasn't happened. Ah well.

As for new characters, oh man I LOVE this new roster. It's pretty wacky and kinda insane, to the point where if someone had shown it to me before seeing it with my own eyes, I would've thought they were wishing unrealistically. Personally I'm most excited for playing with Coin Coffer, Fish Bones, Swoop, Cataquack and Sidestepper. As for new characters, I hope they finally free Blooper (ik they're an item, but like, in Mario Party boos can hire other boos with coins to steal from other players, as well as getting stolen from themselves. I don't think their current status could disqualify Bloopers entirely). Beyond that, I'm also hopeful for:
- Lumas
- Huckit Crabs (ik Sidesteppers are already in, but like, there's both Monty Moles and Rocky Wrenches in the roster, I don't think redundancy is a factor)
- Nockis
- Bulbers
- Jellybeams
- Bramballs
- Tostarenans
- Volbonans
- Cappy
- Prince Florian
There's more tbh, but those are the ones that'd excite me the most.

All in all, I'm pretty excited for Mario Kart World! It might just be the game that gets me to buy the switch 2! Saving up for it's gonna be tough, but I'm willing to pull it off.
 
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Me personally, I've always been a sucker for Wild Woods. Idk, I've always enjoyed nature levels, and man did it deliver. Riding up the giant tree trunk and branches, passing through the shy guy village, riding down the stream and tricking off of the lily pads on the pond... It just pushes all the right buttons for me. Oh, and as a neat topper, the soundtrack for it is pretty amazing!
Wild Woods was always one of the more overlooked courses from the DLC of base Mario Kart 8 back on the Wii U. Back then, I remember people were mainly focused on the five crossover courses and the various remakes. If I remember correctly Wild Woods was a part of DLC Pack 2, and there it was one of my favorite parts of that pack just behind Big Blue and the two GBA remakes. It visually looks great, and it’s one of the few courses from 8 that I feel like made use of the anti-gravity mechanics in such a way that actually changed the gameplay approach. Solid B-Tier course for me, really only being held back by base 8’s Mini-Turbo mechanics not feeling as good here as 8 Deluxe’s updated system on longer turns into a few straights.

As for my own favorite course theme across the series, it’s really hard to say. Wii’s Moonview Highway has always been a personal favorite of mine in part because it feels like a mini-celebration of all of the traffic courses from previous games, and I tend to be a big fan of beach and resort themed areas in almost every game I’ve played, with both the SNES and N64 iterations of Koopa Troopa Beach being among my top favorites in those classic titles, as well as Wii Koopa Cape. If I had to pick I would say either the traffic maps or the beach maps are my favorite theme overall, but this is a series with so many bangers to pick from even from the themes that don’t see a lot of representation. Plus, I don’t exactly know how they could combine a beach map and a well-designed traffic map together into a course that plays well and looks even better. To Mario Kart World’s credit, though, that game could be as good a time as any to give that idea a shot and see what works.


I do miss Diddy Kong, though. Nintendo’s been weirdly inconsistent with him, lately. I am holding out hope that its because they have a re-design for him in mind like they did with DK, but given that he wasn’t made by Nintendo themselves got me worried. And don’t get me started on Funky.
Haven’t gotten a chance until just now to comment on this, but I personally like my head-canon… fan theory… whatever you want to call it that Nintendo’s leaving out Diddy Kong because of the allegations against a… uh, certain someone. Those allegations have nothing to do with these Switch 2 games, obviously, but what this does do is promote discussion about the game by fueling ridiculous theories about a fictional character’s name. That’s one way to get the Internet talking about Diddy Kong, I guess…
 
So, why is it that I’m really worried about Mario Kart World for the Switch 2? This may be an unpopular opinion, but the $80 USD price tag isn’t what bothers me. Expensive? For sure, but the combined total of both versions of 8 and both of those DLCs was over $140 USD across the Wii U and the original Switch. No, what bothers me more is that Mario Kart World hasn’t impressed me or really innovated the series in any notable ways. I understand that Mario Kart has historically been very archetypal of the kart racing sub-genre over the years, and that it’s generally other, lesser known series that tend to push the boundaries of these kinds of games more than Mario Kart does. That being said, within its own series, the lack of innovation has been a problem for me since the 3DS era. I just feel like every game since Mario Kart 7 has played more or less the same as one another. 64, Super Circuit to an extent, Double Dash, DS, and Wii all did various things to make the characters and vehicles stand out from one another, ranging from different drifting mechanics in each game to different ways to make the most of driving speed and designing each game’s new courses around those mechanics. With the newer games, though, everything feels mechanically similar, lacking a lot of the nuanced depth that made installments like 64, DS, and Wii fun for both casual and hardcore players alike.

I’m holding off on any criticisms until after the direct tomorrow. The fact that we are getting a whole World centric direct so close after the reveal is telling me that there is something big that they haven’t told us yet. If I am right, then I hope that it is involves content within the open world. So far thats the biggest concern to me. Are there things to find and do in this open world?

That said I can’t be too harsh on people who are critical of the game so far. The treehouse streams were not exactly glamorous. I hope that there are faster CCs than what they were playing, and I hope there is a Grand Prix mode that is more like the original games and doesn’t involve driving in between tracks. So… a lot is riding on this Direct tomorrow.
 
I never got into smash, did play brawlhalla for a while though. Mario kart is definitely a comfort game for me. I did really well competitively in 8 deluxe while I still had Nintendo switch online, using my guy Bowser Jr. As for the next installment I think it'll be fun for sure. Open world is really questionable to me though. Open world in Pokemon makes sense, but this... ehhh? I mean in real racing they don't drive for the track they just finished to the next one. I have so many questions. Will there be a time limit for the time traveling between tracks? Will it be a glitchy mess with all those racers? Will it be too long making it more boring? Is there collectibles in the free-roam? Why not let the racers leave their karts to do mini-games around the map? :tymp:
 
they can add the fucking bone fish but not diddy :(
I can't read this monkey's name without thinking of a... certain individual

Like he needs a rebrand but if Nintendo did that, they'd only put attention on these two sharing a name

It's like how there are guys called Charles Manson or the journalist that's called Jeffrey Epstein. They didn't do shit, but they just happen to have... unfortunate names
 
I’m holding off on any criticisms until after the direct tomorrow. The fact that we are getting a whole World centric direct so close after the reveal is telling me that there is something big that they haven’t told us yet. If I am right, then I hope that it is involves content within the open world. So far thats the biggest concern to me. Are there things to find and do in this open world?

That said I can’t be too harsh on people who are critical of the game so far. The treehouse streams were not exactly glamorous. I hope that there are faster CCs than what they were playing, and I hope there is a Grand Prix mode that is more like the original games and doesn’t involve driving in between tracks. So… a lot is riding on this Direct tomorrow.
How’d you feel about it? I was waiting for some “big reveal” or whatever but I don’t think it ever really came. I still think it looks like a great game and will most likely be getting the Switch 2 bundle with it but yeah, I didn’t see anything that truly wowed me beyond the initial wow factor that I got from the first time it was showed at a direct. The open world P-Switches/Medallions/Hidden blocks seem to be the “mission mode” to an extent so I hope there’s some variety in there but I don’t think it’ll be as extensive as what I was hoping for

If we’re talking favorite tracks though Coconut Mall is elite
 
How’d you feel about it? I was waiting for some “big reveal” or whatever but I don’t think it ever really came. I still think it looks like a great game and will most likely be getting the Switch 2 bundle with it but yeah, I didn’t see anything that truly wowed me beyond the initial wow factor that I got from the first time it was showed at a direct. The open world P-Switches/Medallions/Hidden blocks seem to be the “mission mode” to an extent so I hope there’s some variety in there but I don’t think it’ll be as extensive as what I was hoping for

If we’re talking favorite tracks though Coconut Mall is elite
Coconut mall is the best, have a special place in my heart for mushroom gorge and moo moo meadows

the direct was interesting. Probably won't get the game and the switch 2 for that matter right now
 
How’d you feel about it? I was waiting for some “big reveal” or whatever but I don’t think it ever really came. I still think it looks like a great game and will most likely be getting the Switch 2 bundle with it but yeah, I didn’t see anything that truly wowed me beyond the initial wow factor that I got from the first time it was showed at a direct. The open world P-Switches/Medallions/Hidden blocks seem to be the “mission mode” to an extent so I hope there’s some variety in there but I don’t think it’ll be as extensive as what I was hoping for

If we’re talking favorite tracks though Coconut Mall is elite
Finally got time to watch it.

I agree there wasn’t any one specific “wow” factor moment, but for me the whole game just seems like an incredible package. I’m usually more pessimistic about these sorts of things, but this looks like the exact perfect next-gen Mario Kart game I could’ve ever asked for. I worried they were gonna make MK even more casualized, but instead, to my great awe and surprise, we got the opposite; more tricks, chaining jumps and wall bouncing- it looks like there is a lot of room for skill and creativity and that really is so cool. Between that, the open world, Knockout Mode, gliders acting more like planes, boats, and some absolute dream roster picks (Pianta my beloved)…. Yeah, I’m really hyped.

I can understand how some might not be, though- in many circles Mario Kart is still but a family-friendly party game, and this Direct didn’t have much to really combat that notion. I already know I’m boutta put 800 hours into it, though.

Literally the only thing weird thing is having costumes be separate on the character select screen, which is odd but I guess they want to inflate that a lot. The free roam stuff also seemed pretty good, should be able to serve as a decent few hours of content. But they definitely could’ve maybe taken one or two more little steps and thrown in like a boss fight or something.
 
Diddy Kong clearly isn’t in for legal reasons. If he saw that Mario had this big ol’ world you could explore inbetween races, that monkey would be taking Mario’s ass to court!

I think all of the new wacky characters are first and foremost an asset flip. They have to make very detailed characters in backgrounds this time around. You can just roll up to most of them, instead of them being trapped in the unapproachable stands, a cardboard visage forever undulating. It may be a clever reuse of what they’ve already built, but I also think it’s neat having these wacky-ass newcomers. The cow and dolphinception are amazing. Can’t believe a cataquack of all things is playable in 2025.

I never bought 8D. Base 8 was enough for me. Might get this just because I’m 100% getting a switch 2 for PLZA. Here’s hoping my boy Morton gets in at some point so his jovial fat albert noises can warm all our hearts once more.
 
I took some time to look at the direct and at the streams

I was already skeptical after the trailer but ngl it looks pretty bad

A Mario Kart where you can drive around freely sounds nice but Nintendo has proven several times that they suck at open world. They are reluctant on systems and make games that are wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle on principle. And that's how it looks like. Even the fact that they recycled assets from the tracks as characters to make a bigger character selection...

How the fuck do racers with different finishes get the same points? That's awful

And why is it so... weird? The UI looks absolutely awful, deeply unintuitive and bizarre. Why are costumes seperate character slots? Why is the already limited stats screen even more restricted? And why is Moo Moo called "cow"? Moo Moo is their name! That's like calling Mario Italian Plumber...
 
Nintendo has proven several times that they suck at open world.
Your thoughts are valid however this seems like a weird take to me. BOTW and TOTK are considered revolutionary landmarks of the open world genre. Bowser’s Fury was a great example of a 3D Mario open world in miniature. Other than that, what do they really have? Sure, Scarlet and Violet were booty cheeks but thats primarily Game Freak and can hardly be compared to in-house first party Nintendo. Xenoblade?
 
How the fuck do racers with different finishes get the same points? That's awful
In addition to what chimp said above, this… isn’t remotely new by Kart standards either. Both Super and Super Circuit give you 0 points from 5th to 8th. World has 24 playable characters, what do you actually expect out of the point system? Decimals?
 
I think the problem is 'open world' doesn't do much for a game in the long term, and especially not within Nintendo's philosophies.

One of the big pluses is that you're, well, building a world to live in and learn about. But if there's one thing Mario directors loathe, it's continuity. We're probably getting next to no context for what this huge island is, how any of the tracks on it got there or interact with one another, or what life in these cities is like. Because that creates an obligation to the past, and whenever a new Mario concept comes around, it's easiest to start from scratch. It's why the character roster is being filled out with random, harmless, 'canon' NPCs and enemies you could see in any mainline Mario platformer instead of beloved spinoff characters. Acknowledging spinoffs could create confusion among casual consumers and stifling expectations from fans. From a huge, fandom-independent, creativity-driven company's perspective, this is a lose-lose. In the same vein, creating a world people genuinely care about would only mean bitter disappointment when it never matters again. Thus, we at Nintendo shall make the open world so we have a strong selling point. We will embrace the model's weaknesses (large swaths of land with nothing meaningful) and get away with not worldbuilding because our game will be fun to control, be recognizably 'Mario Kart-y', and have lots of 'content' (collecting coins and hitting buttons in challenges you'll immediately forget about) so it will review well from vapid media outlets and social media consumers on launch week.

Pretty quickly though, people will converge on the stuff that resembles a more concise game experience. BOTW doesn't get remembered for its overall brilliant world design, it gets remembered for the Great Plateau (an isolated area whose small size and imposed constraints lead to much stronger game essence) and handful of other cool things that can happen to you, like the main quest, the dragons, and Satori Mountain. Nobody remembers The Genius Design of Your 50th Bokoblin Camp (90 min video essay). And then TOTK was so bitterly disappointing because it scorned the players who earnestly engaged with the world anyway. The few NPCs of note don't recognize you and knowledge of the original map isn't rewarded. We have More in the sky and depths now. Go do the More. Consume your Game Content. For MK World, people will ultimately just wanna race on the tracks. Tracks are where you can drift and take shortcuts, crucial to the intermediate MK experience. The interconnectivity is a 'neat i guess' flourish with no shelf life, as it seems to be failing to justify itself within MK mechanics. Now, a game doesn't have to be elegant to be a smash hit, but I do encourage people to think twice about the assumption that an open world game is automatically worth paying a premium. You may be getting the same base experience as 8 with $20 of filler.
 
I think the problem is 'open world' doesn't do much for a game in the long term, and especially not within Nintendo's philosophies.

One of the big pluses is that you're, well, building a world to live in and learn about. But if there's one thing Mario directors loathe, it's continuity. We're probably getting next to no context for what this huge island is, how any of the tracks on it got there or interact with one another, or what life in these cities is like. Because that creates an obligation to the past, and whenever a new Mario concept comes around, it's easiest to start from scratch. It's why the character roster is being filled out with random, harmless, 'canon' NPCs and enemies you could see in any mainline Mario platformer instead of beloved spinoff characters. Acknowledging spinoffs could create confusion among casual consumers and stifling expectations from fans. From a huge, fandom-independent, creativity-driven company's perspective, this is a lose-lose. In the same vein, creating a world people genuinely care about would only mean bitter disappointment when it never matters again. Thus, we at Nintendo shall make the open world so we have a strong selling point. We will embrace the model's weaknesses (large swaths of land with nothing meaningful) and get away with not worldbuilding because our game will be fun to control, be recognizably 'Mario Kart-y', and have lots of 'content' (collecting coins and hitting buttons in challenges you'll immediately forget about) so it will review well from vapid media outlets and social media consumers on launch week.

Pretty quickly though, people will converge on the stuff that resembles a more concise game experience. BOTW doesn't get remembered for its overall brilliant world design, it gets remembered for the Great Plateau (an isolated area whose small size and imposed constraints lead to much stronger game essence) and handful of other cool things that can happen to you, like the main quest, the dragons, and Satori Mountain. Nobody remembers The Genius Design of Your 50th Bokoblin Camp (90 min video essay). And then TOTK was so bitterly disappointing because it scorned the players who earnestly engaged with the world anyway. The few NPCs of note don't recognize you and knowledge of the original map isn't rewarded. We have More in the sky and depths now. Go do the More. Consume your Game Content. For MK World, people will ultimately just wanna race on the tracks. Tracks are where you can drift and take shortcuts, crucial to the intermediate MK experience. The interconnectivity is a 'neat i guess' flourish with no shelf life, as it seems to be failing to justify itself within MK mechanics. Now, a game doesn't have to be elegant to be a smash hit, but I do encourage people to think twice about the assumption that an open world game is automatically worth paying a premium. You may be getting the same base experience as 8 with $20 of filler.
I think this a valid criticism but Nintendo has always been a gameplay first company. The open world just needs to justify itself on a purely gameplay standard. The game at its core seems to be about player creativity and skill expression via wall jumping, grinding, etc. With this in mind, I’d argue that the open world is indeed justified. It is the natural next step for the experience of finding new shortcuts and faster times, and to me that is something as compelling as simply racing on the pre-determined tracks themselves. Not to mention the mechanic of creating “grand prixs” out of tracks which are all interconnected, meaning that the open-world system can provide literal thousands of different combinations of racing circuits, a feat not possible without the interconnectivity of the open world. Granted, its impossible to say how meaningful this will all feel on release, but the portions of the “in-between” tracks seem fairly well designed, and anyway I’d rather them take a chance on it then not.

I’ve always felt that the strength of open-world games should rely on how fun that open-world is to traverse. To this end, BOTW’s use of the open world was revolutionary because it was the first game to really embrace that; between being up to climb, glide, shield-slide etc. Your points about the story notwithstanding, I’d argue that these games do completely justify the large open-worlds. (I will say though that I care less about BOTW than the average Nintendo fan, honestly, and I haven’t played TOTK).
 
BOTW and TOTK are considered revolutionary landmarks of the open world genre.
that's true and I fully recognize that, however, with TotK especially, you have a swat of people that became increasingly frustrated with the game and Nintendo's design philosophy

I always really struggled to express my main issue but essentially these are games that become increasingly shallower the longer you play them. The dungeons are often cited, as they no longer contain exclusive gameplay mechanics that make them stand out and lost intricacy through something like keys no longer existing. And that's kinda these whole games. You have a handful of interesting mechanics but none of them are particularly deep or intricate, none of them are ever really pushed in a regular playthrough and the games just kinda incentivise to use the simplest solutions

And there are so many, absolutely baffling Nintendo decisions that no other game company would ever make. Why can the memories be collected out of order? So that the design philosophy of exploring the game on your terms can be upkept? That's just stupid and ruined the experience for many people

They are also really empty games. Like there are landmarks and shrines and all that but there's so much empty space inbetween. And even if there is something, it's maybe just the thousandst map boss that becomes trivial after a few hours of play (like every other enemy in the game) or another shrine that's just a straight line. This video expresses my thoughts quite well


And this is a video that explains in general pretty well why I haven't enjoyed a Nintedo game in like... 10 years?


In addition to what chimp said above, this… isn’t remotely new by Kart standards either. Both Super and Super Circuit give you 0 points from 5th to 8th. World has 24 playable characters, what do you actually expect out of the point system? Decimals?
Super and Super Circuit are decades old by now. Nintendo learnt how it was done in MK64 and always followed that. The point could've been something like: 1st place 30 points, 2nd place 25 points, 3rd place 21 points and then just deduct every place a point until last place gets 0 points. It's a very volatile game by nature and comebacks are always possible, there's no need to give last place any points or to not reward 1st place greatly

with the system now, 3rd place is 10 spots ahead of 13th place, but somehow only 5 points ahead? That's insane. I mean look:

1744999191341.png


You can consistently underperform another player and somehow be rewarded more points

edit: sorry I completely forgot: I haven't played Bowser's Fury. Heard it's good but can't judge on that

We're probably getting next to no context for what this huge island is, how any of the tracks on it got there or interact with one another, or what life in these cities is like.
I completely agree with you post and this sentence was noticeable to me because I really, really hate how Mario worlds are designed

It's an island with designated zones. That's it every single time. I like Mario World a lot because the world interconnects and makes sense. Something like the sunken ghost ship or Donut Plains, it's intuitive and forms a world that feels natural. Other Mario maps are just "oh here's the grassy area. Now comes desert. Here's the sky world." and it always feels lazy. Like there's an obligation to have these zones and the map is forced to have them. Which in a game where the overworld is just a level select screen isn't too bad, but in an open world game... yeah can't imagine that's gonna be great

Generally, the more I think about it, the less a open world Mario Kart makes sense...
 
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that's true and I fully recognize that, however, with TotK especially, you have a swat of people that became increasingly frustrated with the game and Nintendo's design philosophy

I always really struggled to express my main issue but essentially these are games that become increasingly shallower the longer you play them. The dungeons are often cited, as they no longer contain exclusive gameplay mechanics that make them stand out and lost intricacy through something like keys no longer existing. And that's kinda these whole games. You have a handful of interesting mechanics but none of them are particularly deep or intricate, none of them are ever really pushed in a regular playthrough and the games just kinda incentivise to use the simplest solutions

And there are so many, absolutely baffling Nintendo decisions that no other game company would ever make. Why can the memories be collected out of order? So that the design philosophy of exploring the game on your terms can be upkept? That's just stupid and ruined the experience for many people

They are also really empty games. Like there are landmarks and shrines and all that but there's so much empty space inbetween. And even if there is something, it's maybe just the thousandst map boss that becomes trivial after a few hours of play (like every other enemy in the game) or another shrine that's just a straight line. This video expresses my thoughts quite well


And this is a video that explains in general pretty well why I haven't enjoyed a Nintedo game in like... 10 years?



Super and Super Circuit are decades old by now. Nintendo learnt how it was done in MK64 and always followed that. The point could've been something like: 1st place 30 points, 2nd place 25 points, 3rd place 21 points and then just deduct every place a point until last place gets 0 points. It's a very volatile game by nature and comebacks are always possible, there's no need to give last place any points or to not reward 1st place greatly

with the system now, 3rd place is 10 spots ahead of 13th place, but somehow only 5 points ahead? That's insane. I mean look:

View attachment 733371

You can consistently underperform another player and somehow be rewarded more points

edit: sorry I completely forgot: I haven't played Bowser's Fury. Heard it's good but can't judge on that


I completely agree with you post and this sentence was noticeable to me because I really, really hate how Mario worlds are designed

It's an island with designated zones. That's it every single time. I like Mario World a lot because the world interconnects and makes sense. Something like the sunken ghost ship or Donut Plains, it's intuitive and forms a world that feels natural. Other Mario maps are just "oh here's the grassy area. Now comes desert. Here's the sky world." and it always feels lazy. Like there's an obligation to have these zones and the map is forced to have them. Which in a game where the overworld is just a level select screen isn't too bad, but in an open world game... yeah can't imagine that's gonna be great

Generally, the more I think about it, the less a open world Mario Kart makes sense...
Out of curiosity, where are you getting these numbers? Is it possible they are a little wonky because they are from the Team mode, perhaps it adjusts the point values if there are 4 teams competing at once.

Edit: Nvm I rewatched the direct and saw it. Honestly I don't think its that egregious. You don't want one player getting a 24th placement and being completely and utterly out of it. Keeps it more competitive.
 
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Out of curiosity, where are you getting these numbers? Is it possible they are a little wonky because they are from the Team mode, perhaps it adjusts the point values if there are 4 teams competing at once.

Edit: Nvm I rewatched the direct and saw it. Honestly I don't think its that egregious. You don't want one player getting a 24th placement and being completely and utterly out of it. Keeps it more competitive.
I feel in practice the new point system doesn't matter. Didn't you get points in MK8 DX bases on your VR in online races anyways? The online system will likely distribute points similarly.

So far, MKW looks pretty hype. I love MK8DX, but it's nice finally getting a fresh take on the MK formula after playing the same damn game for 11 years. Only issue i may have at launch is the number of courses being cut back to 32 from the 96 we saw in MK8DX.

I think Nintendo making everything an open world is somewhat of a mixed bag, but imo it's a positive here. Exploring a sandbox in a car is fun + I'd imagine routing the missions will be fun for speed runners. For Mario Kart specifically, I think cracking the tracks and world wide open is nice change of pace from Mario Kart 8 DX where lakitu could feel restrictive.
 
Edit: Nvm I rewatched the direct and saw it. Honestly I don't think its that egregious. You don't want one player getting a 24th placement and being completely and utterly out of it. Keeps it more competitive.
My issue is that again, you can consistently underperform another player and still be rewarded more points

I think if you're last of 24, you don't deserve a point. It's Mario Kart, you can always make comebacks. In a game this volatile, you really need a system that consistently rewards the better player to some degree

I don't know, I don't wanna be a negative nancy but I just can't see myself enjoy this game. Won't get it, will maybe emulate it once that is possible
 
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