The Mario Kart Thread

[Sakura Leic]

But I still have a backlog of 3DS and DS games to get, and no job.

[Police Girl]

DS is probably a lost cause at this point, you'd need to hit amazon and ebay for those.

But job comes first.

[Sakura Leic]

It's not the availability of the system, it's the fact that there's still not enough games I want to play to warrant me getting a Wii U compared to the games on the 3DS that I want to get. 

[Hypershell]

So, Blue & I are gonna play some Mario Kart sometime tonight, hopefully around 10PM EST.

Anyone else wanna join in?

Well, work and all, I usually crash around 10.  Maybe I can push it for a round or two, though.

At least in this game, the item distribution isn't so butchered to add to said imbalance.

I sense this will become one of my "broken record" issues, but I feel that 8's distribution is among the worst of any online kart.  The part imbalance is noticeable but not overwhelming, but the item distribution is absolutely horrid when playing online.  You can get something as deadly as a triple red shell in second, but most of the time, just coins and mushrooms regardless of your place.  And ENTIRELY too often one gets a single mushroom in a low place while people ahead of you get triples.  The lean to coins and mushrooms both makes it difficult to use items in any satisfying/offensive way, and also makes it a little too noticeable what tracks are and aren't designed to exploit mushrooms.

I understand that conceptually, they were trying to base the items off of distance rather than ranking, and that is a good idea, but there's a LOT of fine tuning needed.  Many of the "better" items are situational and border on useless at long distances (Fire Flower, Boomerang, Piranha Plant, Starman), meaning you are more likely to get them at exactly the worst times.

[Blue Valkyrie]

I had a few really bad matches where I got knocked to last by a string of bad hits and the game refused to give me anything remotely decent, bananas and green shells are not usefull at all in last place. >.>

[Phi]

They're literally just sitting on store shelves, waiting for people to buy them. At this point I'd just buy the games for when you actually do get the console so you don't have a backlog or anything.

I still have MK8 and Wonderful 101 on my shelf, taunting me until my Wii U comes back from repair. D:

[Blue Valkyrie]

Okay so now I know for sure I am terrible at mario kart. PB you stomped me nearly every match nice driving! 

[Protoman Blues]

A lot of randomness online, but thanks for the compliment! 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I had a lot of issues with random green shells in the last few matches. 

[Protoman Blues]

Random Green Shells are the bane of MK8. They're scarier than the Blue Shell.

And I LOVE it!

I sense this will become one of my "broken record" issues, but I feel that 8's distribution is among the worst of any online kart.  The part imbalance is noticeable but not overwhelming, but the item distribution is absolutely horrid when playing online.  You can get something as deadly as a triple red shell in second, but most of the time, just coins and mushrooms regardless of your place.  And ENTIRELY too often one gets a single mushroom in a low place while people ahead of you get triples.  The lean to coins and mushrooms both makes it difficult to use items in any satisfying/offensive way, and also makes it a little too noticeable what tracks are and aren't designed to exploit mushrooms.

I understand that conceptually, they were trying to base the items off of distance rather than ranking, and that is a good idea, but there's a LOT of fine tuning needed.  Many of the "better" items are situational and border on useless at long distances (Fire Flower, Boomerang, Piranha Plant, Starman), meaning you are more likely to get them at exactly the worst times.

I haven't played enough online to see this, but from what I saw today it seems fair. Even when I was in 7th or 9th place, I made a legit push for 1st with the items I got. The only real thing I'll say, which is what I said before, is that you get coins too low, like in 7th or 9th place. They're useless there. Also, man is the Starman nerf'd beyond belief.

BUT what I'm not getting is oversaturation of Blue Shells and Lightning while in first. I get hit with more Green Shells and Red Shells while in 1st. There's no perfect shield anymore, and I love it!

[Mirby]

The other issue with the item distribution is that it doesn't work on the new Rainbow Road. When playing online I almost ALWAYS get Mushrooms.

And if you use a Mushroom on that course you're almost guaranteed to fall off unless you're at the perfect angle to go somewhere you want to.

[Hypershell]

Mushrooming in the middle of a power slide is actually pretty easy (normal sliding, anyway; haven't tried with Sports Bikes).  Mushrooming BEFORE a slide, yeah, that's basically suicide.  Drives me nuts on Royal Raceway; much as I love the course, 8's item distribution doesn't do it any favors.

[Blue Valkyrie]

If you have already started your power slide on a bike the mushroom doesn't mess it up too much, but doing it before you get your momentum can be disastrous, might depend on the bike though?

[Protoman Blues]

For the time being, I've found my favorite Kart Combo with Roy. 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I noticed.

Rosalina mostly, she's my stand in for Blue in Mario Kart.

[Hypershell]

Daisy's my favorite racer, but I cycle through several different part combinations.  Never really landed on a definite favorite, but Pipe Frame has probably been my most frequent pick lately.

If you have already started your power slide on a bike the mushroom doesn't mess it up too much, but doing it before you get your momentum can be disastrous, might depend on the bike though?

Sports Bike and its clones (Comet, Jet Bike, Yoshi Bike) have different drift mechanics than all other vehicles.  Their power sliding is much sharper.  You can spot them easily: Their icon on the menu is different from other bikes, and the rider leans further forward on them instead of sitting upright.

Incidentally, every other Bike/ATV in the game has identical stats to one of the karts.

[Protoman Blues]

Yeah, Pipe Frame is definitely my go-to kart.

[Hypershell]

I would LIKE to use Larry more often, but lightweights got screwed in this game.  From a speed/acceleration standpoint, choosing anyone lighter than Mario and Luigi will only put you at a disadvantage.  I just suck it up for Daisy and Yoshi, but I don't go any lighter online unless I'm deliberately trying to challenge myself.

[Protoman Blues]

I have to use Koopa Troopa more. Just love Roy so much!

[Archer]

I really need to try out MK8 again, when I first got it when it came out I couldn't get the online to work 90% of the time. I wonder if it'll go fine now?

[Protoman Blues]

The other day there was a weird error where I couldn't join my friend in her race, but she joined mine no problem. Same with Blue. Yeah, hopefully it's resolved and we can get some races going.

[Blue Valkyrie]

The connection error thing? Yeah I seem to get that every so often, was able to race with Hypershell without any problems last night though.

[Hypershell]

I assume that error is supposed to happen if the person you're trying to join is part of a full group of 12 already.  I have gotten a random disconnect, but it's fairly rare.

[Phi]

Completed all the cups for 100cc. Far from done, obviously, as I need to 3-star everything, unlock parts, etc.

I love the game, but I have to say, I think I prefer MK7 a bit more. Especially when it came to Rainbow Road; 7 had the best [tornado fang]ing Rainbow Road.

[Police Girl]

You should've just 3-starred 150cc instead.