Mario Kart 8 (Wii-U)

[Mystwalker]

I'd guess that the problem with how items 'feel' in this game is not just the weird distance mechanics or the changes to the power of some items, but the lack of ability to hold more than one item at a time. I always felt kind of discouraged using items offensively online because using them would mean the player is defenseless until the next item box... and then, due to the way item boxes work, the player would have a gamble to get either a really good or a really bad item for the situation he's in (or a chain of bad items...). Sure, I can see this makes items more valuable than before (and come to think of it in previous Mario Karts defensive item usage made it so that only a Blue Shell would take 1st place down), but at the same time I feel the player doesn't have quite as much power to change the outcome of the race as it did before. It's as if the dev team made a few too many changes to the way items work in one go.

 

If they, for example, changed the power of items such as the Blue Shell or Star yet kept the "Items by Placement" or the multi item hold system somewhat intact, maybe the game wouldn't feel as overwhelming and different to play (going by the ongoing item discussion that is) as it feels now.

 

The game is fun, but as far as racing online I keep hesitating to enter a random online VS Race since November or so. Playing with friends in friend rooms/tournaments is fun, but playing against random people doesn't give me the same thrill as it did in MKWii. I don't really know why... maybe it's because there's something in all those changes to the item system that makes me feel not as accomplished as before. Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad if players could at least get hold of an extra item at a time, but yeah, that's probably just polishing one side of a rough stone.

 

 

I'm looking forward to play some 200cc though! Seems like you can pull a whole lot of crazy new stunts in there.

[DarkRula]

Just had a good session of online racing. Over an hour of it. Won most of the races with my great Toad set up. Then, who should arrive but a hacker. Blasting around the track as though with unlimited boost. And as per normal, he stopped right next to the finish line, waiting. Then when I got within sight of it - bam! He was over it. 61000 VR he had as well.

[jords]

Did you at least save the matches with him in it? I would like to see.

[DarkRula]

It was the last match I took part in.

In fact, I think I might have a look myself.

 

EDIT: Looking at the full race from the point of view of the player, I can't really tell if it is a hack. It almost looks as though they're spamming drifts and that fire hopping thing. But then there are some parts, like driving on grass where it seems he's still going normal speed. And then there's some jerkiness to some of the parts as well, as well as the fact it sometimes doesn't look as though there's a jump into drift.

 

Could only get a minute of it from the highlight reels, but it shows enough to know for sure.

[jords]

I dunno its hard to tell because some people can pull off these tricks consistently and keep their speed, he probably practices time trial a lot so he must of used those tactics to do so well.

The jerkyness is probably lag, even though you saved the race, it'll still show the lag that was seen in your race.

With the driving on the grass its actually possible to jump over the grass to the ramp without the mushroom as I have done it before, the lag probably made it look like he was driving on the grass.

Either way its hard to tell but that that's what I think. Also thanks for the video.

[DarkRula]

Thanks for the appraisal. It was really just the 61000 VR that struck me. Especially since the room was full of people with less than 2000.

As for the videos, I still make a point of uploading semi-regularly.

[Dantemustdie00]

I still can't believe Nintendo hasn't done a thing about that Fire Hopping and drift crap, unless this was somehow intentional.

 

I can only imagine how much of a pain this would be in 200cc.

[jords]

I can see how much of a pain to even perform it without crashing or falling off course. But those time trial guys will sure be going crazy over this.

It sucks that many people can easily dominate with these tactics. When facing one of these guys its pretty much trying to catch him before they zoom ahead and becomes impossible to hit him or catch up.

And knowing how the items work in this game, getting ahead of them will be hard because everyone is so close to each other in the beginning of the race even in last place you'll mostly end up with a 5th-1st item.

[Nexthehedgehog]

Its a secret to everybody... 

As Tracker shown in the SSMB Status Updates, there is a strong rumor that reveal some of the upcomming tracks for the Animal Crossing DLC

Here is the link to perfectly nintendo in spoiler to avoid... well spoilers!

http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/mario-kart-8-second-dlc-pack-to-include-baby-park-and-metroid-track/

 

Baby Park 200CC Welcome to Nascar.

[Mystwalker]

I think those were the same files that were datamined by (I think it was) Mr. Bean, somewhat around the time the first DLC pack was released. Going by the article it doesn't seem like anything new has been added, but if the files stood around until today maybe there's a good chance these files will be included in pack 2.

 

Never thought "Metro" could stand for Metroid before though. That perks my interest!

[Blue Blood]

Its a secret to everybody... 

As Tracker shown in the SSMB Status Updates, there is a strong rumor that reveal some of the upcomming tracks for the Animal Crossing DLC

Here is the link to perfectly nintendo in spoiler to avoid... well spoilers!

http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/mario-kart-8-second-dlc-pack-to-include-baby-park-and-metroid-track/

 

Baby Park 200CC Welcome to Nascar.

 

You can hide links like this: Mario Kart 8 DLC spoilers. Highlight the text that you want to be a link, and then click on the "insert link" button. Or, type this:

 

[url=http://www.this-is-the-link.com/]This is the text you'll see[/url]

[jords]

Well I know I'll be excited for 2 tracks.

Baby park is gonna be a mad House and I'm very excited for that. Especially in 200cc mode.

I'm so okay with Neo bowser castle too, it was also one of my favorites in Mario kart 7 like pirhana plant slide. That track was pretty much drift city, lots of tight turns and constantly drifting, it will definitely be one of the harder tracks in Mario kart 8 when you got 12 people racing and 200cc mode.

[-Robin-]

It's apparently fake.

[jords]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

great, I was hoping it was real. Neo bowser castle and baby park would of been so good.

[Tracker_TD]

Two speeds.

 

Fast.

 

AND WAY TOO FAST.

 

[Willsy]

Before people were complaining that Mario Kart was too slow, now they will be complaining that it's too fast. However, some tracks like Rumble Volcano look like absolute hell in 200cc. I don't think putting handling over speed when customising your kart would be a bad idea at all...

[DarkRula]

As I think I've said before, I can't wait to get my Toad combo into 200cc. At last they seem to have given us lightweight users an advantage with something.

[CelerinaTheJackrabbit]

Indeed. Can't wait to rock my Toadette combo.

[jords]

Now most courses lightweight players will have the advantage instead of heavyweights assuming the heavyweights would have trouble making perfect tight turns at high speed

Taking some shortcuts may be a bad idea for most people with bad handling.

Mute city will probably be in favor for the heavy weights through since that stage is all about speed.

Thinking off the top of my head I feel like these tracks will be in favor for lightweights,

Wario stadium, Rainbow road, donut plains, sweet sweet canyon, and more I can't think of right now.

[Gabz Girl]

Goddammit I was hoping that rumour of Baby Park in Mario Kart 8 was true. Just imagine that hilariously frantic stage on 200cc! >w<

[Sean]

I think Baby Park would have been a complete waste of a track slot tbh. It'd be amusing to do a couple races in 200cc, but that's the extent of its novelty

[Autosaver]

Isn't the Excitebike stage pretty much a more exciting Baby Park anyways?

[jords]

Isn't the Excitebike stage pretty much a more exciting Baby Park anyways?

I'd guess so in track design, going in a loop with a whole lot of ramps and a couple mud puddles each turn. Baby park is small with no bumbs or hazards, just items and the racers in a really small loop. That's a pretty different experience.

I just realize something, double dash had lots of items that would drop on the ground and usually you'll find a whole lot of items on the ground laying there, mushrooms, stars, green and red shells, bowser shells, bananas and giant bananas, and I think a few more.

In Mario kart 8, most items you'll see are bananas....sometimes green shells or red shells.

Its pretty rare to find a star or a mushroom lying around on the ground in most games because most powerful items don't knock them out of you anymore. And that might make baby park not as epic as double dash at least I think.

But with 12 racers and 200cc it should still be fun, just with less items being everwhere on the ground and stuff I guess.

[Mystwalker]

Stars on the ground in MK8 happen only when a Lightning Bolt strikes a player with a Crazy 8 Star on hand I believe. Pretty darn rare to see it happen though.

 

Yeah, to me Baby Park was really fun in MK Double Dash, but not so much afterward. The special items made the track incredibly hilarious to play on (Bowser Shells, I'm looking at ya), plus the fact items could traverse over the center wall to the other side meaning that even lead players could try to sabotage the players in the back at any time, and vice-versa, encouraging item spam over anything else. MKDS's version didn't felt quite as amusing without those two features.

[JezMM]

Here's a reminder of the tourney info (with updated post-DLC2 rules) for any newcomers:

________________________________________________________________________________

SSMB Daily Tourney: 3089-8091-8109

200cc, all vehicles allowed, all items, no teams, no CPU.

Track selection contains all 48 tracks - You must purchase both DLC packs to participate.

Ranked Races run daily from 11pm - Midnight UK time.  It is recommended you join on time at 11pm for the best experience.

(A flag will appear next to the Tourney's name when ranked races are active, though note that it does not appear automatically - you must exit the tourney selection menu and re-enter for it to appear once ranked racing time is active).

 

For those unfamiliar with how the tourney works:

Unranked races can be played any time between Midnight and 11pm UK time to attempt to connect with other SSMB players for casual fun.  During the hour of ranked races, each player participates in up to 8 races to earn points.  Once 8 races have been played - including races you have quit or disconnected from - your points for the day are final and you can only participate in unranked races again with fellow players who have completed their 8 ranked races that day, until 11pm the next day, even if the current day's hour of ranked races has not yet finished.  Unlike when the game launched, I no longer have the time/passion to announce the daily winners for each week.  Enjoy your victories like a summer breeze, satisfying yet fleeting, beautiful yet irrelevant in the long run.  And know that your losses are only temporary on the ranking boards, even if they are forever in your heart.

________________________________________________________________________________

().

 

 

Regarding this tourney (if people still want to use it), I'll be doing the same as I did previous DLC - for the first two days of the DLC's launch, the track selection will be limited just to DLC so we can get some good mileage out of the new tracks, and I'll of course be setting the speed up to 200cc.

 

After the first two days, I'll change the track selection to base game + all DLC and leave the speed on 200cc permanently, unless there's any outcry to return to 150cc.

 

 

I'll most likely set it to feature tracks from both DLC 1 and 2, since I assume like myself, most people haven't played those tracks to death yet like the base game and they're still considered fairly fresh and new.  If anyone would rather I do JUST DLC 2 for the first days, post to make yourself heard!