When Mario Kart 8 was released on the Wii U competitive players were quick to seek out tactics which would give them an advantage over their rivals, and one such sneaky trick was "fire hopping", which allowed players to shave seconds off each lap.
Nintendo didn't address this trick with a patch, forcing many to use it when playing online and trying to top leaderboards. However, it would seem that the company has now taken action with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as fire hopping no longer works - in fact, it actually slows you down, according to GameXplain:
Why Nintendo has waited until now to patch this trick is anyone's guess; it could (and possibly should) have patched it back on the Wii U. Even so, it's good to see the playing field has been levelled again - until someone else finds another exploit, of course.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 102
Better late than never.
Maybe now we'll have a bit more pure racing...with crazy items....Maybe I'm over thinking Mario Kart a bit. Ha.
All seriousness though I'm fine with this. I've enjoyed this seried a ton since the original on SNES, and always have enjoyed playing against friends and family through the years, but the super competitive stuff is just not for me.
Good. This might be the one redeeming quality I think of the Switch version as I do not care much for battle mode. Fire Hopping always made it hard to play online when everybody would use it and I was stuck in the back due to my inability to do it and not wanting to because it felt wrong.
Good riddance.
If I wasn't already planning to get the game, this would have been enough to convince me.
If it weren't for the comment sections of NLife, I'd never known of fire hopping. Probably explains why I would lose so much when I first started playing on line. Since, my pts went from 7K to 15K in a shorter span. With this, and double items back, it's going to be interesting to see how I perform on line.
9 more days!!! See you on the track!
Good news, and i was one who used it
Oh you mean online is now playable? Finally!
Good I don't have to target them in this version. I forced a lot of fire hoppers to quit
@Retron Snaking ruined the ds Mario kart big time for me. I liked using heavier karts, which meant I was basically out of luck in every online race
i never used this trick. but it would be nice for Nintendo to bring it back at least as an option in offline multiplayer modes. it might come in use in one of the balloon battle stages.
Seems like I'm the only person here to be upset by this news. It's not a deal breaker for me or anything, but I liked having more mechanics to perform during races, especially during time trials. I guess it does make the playing field fairer now, it'll just take me a bit to adjust to limiting my hops.
That's kinda sad. I never knew about fire hopping until this article (and I managed to stay in top 3 in a lot of online races on Wii U), but it doesn't really feel like a cheat after watching the video. Heck, it only saves you a couple of seconds and it's hard to perform, making it a perfect technique to distinguish pro races from casuals.
If it was easy to perform and would put you on 1st place all the time, then I understand it could be a game-breaking move, but the way it is? I don't get all the hate against it
@wiggleronacid same boat. I liked firehopping for time trials
Delighted to see that scourge has been removed. Couldn't they patch that into the Wii U version please? Oh they could, but they won't.
Never knew of Fire Hopping until now. I was a pretty average player. Typically found myself in Top 4-6 in most races. Whether I knew about it or not, probably wouldn't have made a difference. It does sound like a glitch, so in the end I am glad.
I am waiting for the day when it's all about the fun and luck of the items. And not about the Karts/Bikes, Techniques and so. Mario Kart 8 was more than halfway there. I doubt the deluxe improved on that.
OK... now you've sold me on this version.
I never comment but this is so anoying to me. How about people just get good at the game? Firehopping was not like snaking at all, it added an element of risk. It took practice and skill just like drifting, but people have to complain because they want to be able to beat people who actually practice and improve themselves at the game. 200cc basically even killed fire hopping but then people moaned that 200cc was too hard!!! Cry me a river. How about if you want to win some races you git gud and stop complaining just because people are better than you. I'm actually disapointed in Nintendo for this move, bendin over for complainers. 200cc was the correct response to fire hopping but still people couldnt git gud so I guess they had no other option.
They should have just added a tutorial for it instead - pitched it as an advanced move. That would be completely un-Nintendo though.
@Gitgud You know I think if your response wasn't so immature, or you had a different name people would agree with you. It's a glitch get over it, a glitch not everyone knew about as well.
@Gitgud But it was an exploited glitch. There's a reason Nintendo have removed it.
It's about time. Nintendo waited awhile after much complaining. But now the exploit is over.
Honestly I never care about any tricks in any game, if I found a way to win I will try it. If someone found a way to overcome that I'll use another trick.
@Gitgud I agree
Fire hopping didn't really affect online play it benefitted time trials the most especial all the record holders.
Even when playing Mario kart 8 online you always play with your ranked players
Never knew it existed before today, never stopped me from winning most of my races, never going to care that it's been removed.
Hot Hot Hot!?
More like:
Cold Cold Cold! ❄⛄
Never even heard of it. So shrugs
I'm glad they patched it out. Kart is already "unfair" in enough ways. Blue shells and star holding is plenty. Some skill and strategy should be shown and necessary for credibility. Kart build strategy is what more need to focus on.
My only complaint with any MARIO kart game is blue shells. I ____ hate them.
Excellent news. As for why the Wii U version wasn't patched, might it have something to do with time trials? As in, top times (with associated ghosts) that used fire hopping would get messed up after the patch?
Whiney little bee-yotches!
This has been a part of Mario Kart since the beginning!
Learn to play or don't bother! Especially since you need a move like this to get times down!
@Gitgud It was never even intended to be in the game. It was an exploit. Whenever a glitch or exploit is found in a game, people abuse the heck out of it. THAT is what is annoying.
I just want to be able to race, without having to resort to hopping like a total moron just because it's faster. I hated when people did this, and it absolutely ruined my personal experience of MK8, and I surely wasn't the only one.
If you really love this technique so much, stick with the Wii U version. Every flippin' (online) Mario Kart game to date has had some kind of stupid issue that was abused constantly and made them less fun to play. Let those who DON'T like such things have their fun this time.
Really, this is not even about 'getting good', this is all about whether people want to exploit a glitch or not to win. People who just want to play the game the way it's meant to be played, vs people who want to play the game using every method possible, including glitches and exploits.
If there is a glitch in the game that would make you literally invincible, even if it would be very difficult to perform, I'm sure you would want that to remain as well. Because people just have to GET GOOD and learn the technique. Am I right?
@Retron
It wasn't a glitch.
It was in every game!
Stop being a puss
@BensonUii @Yosher @SLIGEACH_EIRE @Nintendoforlife
It was NOT a glitch.
It has been in EVERY Mario Kart game!
@Slim1999 You forced a lot of fire hoppers to quit huh..? Excellent 👍🏾
@Gitgud here's a tissue for all your crying lol
@Gen0neD yep I'd lose the race but so would they.lol kinda funny what red shells can do when you target one player.please take in mind I only did that to fire hoppers.
@Gold_Ranger try to fire hop in mk64 and see how good that goes lol
@Gold_Ranger Except it hasn't.
Glitches and exploits have been in pretty much every Mario Kart game, yes. Firehopping specifically has only been in Mario Kart 8.
You do know why every succeeding Mario Kart has removed the previous games' 'fast technique', right? Because it was never meant to be in there in the first place. The only exception is the wheelie in MKWii, which was just poorly balanced.
Didn't even know this was a thing, although I never played much online, and when I did, I didn't really care that much to be first, just to have fun racing.
I think everyone is overreacting to this on both sides. This isn't a glitch, but it is an exploit much like wave dashing was in melee. It is just part of the physics that we have learned to bend.
Was it meant to be like this? No
Is it cheating? Not in my opinion
Its not like this was snaking. Fire hopping maybe helped me average one place higher online, but the fact that items are part of the game practically negate this.
Again, my opinion.
@brettwayne So what do you call something that appears in a game, but is not supposed to be there? Oh and if it's not a glitch, why would it be "patched"
Meh. If someone sucks to the point where they can't hop back and forth correctly I doubt they're much of a threat to me in the first place. Unfortunate that this skews things more towards luck, but I'll probably play more battle mode than races anyway.
@Gitgud In total agreement. I never used it during racing, but it was worthwhile in time trials.
The thing is that the mechanic was available to everyone. And as I've spouted for over 20 years, (whether devs intended or not), "It's not cheating, if the game allows you to do it."
@Nintendoforlife It is called an "exploit"
For example: Wave dashing, you make your character slide across the ground for better positioning. It is the equivalent to sliding on ice.
Now try this, while wearing socks jump forward on a tile or hard wood floor. What happens? You slide forward.
In melee you have the ability to air dodge in any direction which is also a fast movement. So if you air dodge into the ground with a character with less friction they should slide. Stopping in their tracks would make no sense.
Now if you jump and air dodge down and into the angle quick enough the character doesn't look like they jump and they just slide in one direction.
So were those physics supposed to be there? Yes
Did the developers expect players to use said physics to create wave dashing? No
Therefore it is meant to be in the game but not meant to be used in that fashion which in turn means it is an "exploit", not a "glitch".
Is it fun to fire hop?
@brettwayne Hmm you're right, I apologize for any perceived hostility.
this is great news. I was on the fence about purchasing this version, but this sold me. I'm looking forward to dominating the online arena.
@Nintendoforlife It is all good.
To answer your question (since I didn't answer it in my reply above), I think it got patched because it gives players unfair advantage and is considered cheating.
So silly to defend this like it was a legitimate part of the game. If it was supposed to be in the game, Nintendo wouldn't have removed it. I guess the people who specialised in exploits and bugs will now have to "git gud" at actual racing. That must suck.
For those wondering why this isn't patched in the original its because Nintendo doesn't want to remove exploits in generally. Only way for Nintendo is to patch the exploits is by making port or next game without them.
Remember Mario Kart 7 glitch with track skipping?
"We are aware that it is possible to navigate a certain part of the track in Wuhu Island in a way that allows a large part of the course to be bypassed. There are no plans to update the game to remove this shortcut as doing so would create an unfair advantage for the users of the original release of the game."
Also Sakurai the Smash Bros developer doesn't like the Melee players play and added tripping to Super Smash Bros Brawl. This is an quote by Sakurai below.
"If we direct Smash ONLY at the competitive players, it will have no future."
I'm not surprised if they did bring Melee back in remaster form will remove wavedashing and other "exploits".
My point is that they knowledges exploits are there but don't want to lose all those fans that are competitive. Which is why they trying to fix Smash Bros 4 without tripping and added omega stages.
Should have just added a tutuorial so that everyone knew it was an option. Instead of remove it completely.
Though I definitely didn't expect that.
Better late than never.
Good bye and good riddance. Lets hope the next abusive trick isn't found and spread until everyone had their fair share of online fun.
Yay, so happy it's gone! Online should be much more fun now!
When was it controversial?
Removing it seems unnecessary to me. I never noticed an impact online and if you really didn't like its existence you could play 200cc instead (it doesn't work in that mode).
Fire hopping was not a big advantage online. It was a big advantage on time trials.
I guess they wanted Mario kart 8 delux to be pure luck and no skill
@Nintendoforlife
You meant: "... if your response wasn't so immature...", right?
And, as others have said, it is an exploit, specially since physically makes sense.
@maceng Yes, that's what I meant.
I'm glad it's gone, brings back the good ol' days of karts not being OP.
Finally! Too bad that Nintendo is too lazy to fix this exploit in the Wii U version.
I never knew about this. Never had a problem doing decent in Mario kart 8. probably in the top 3 in 3 out of 5 races and that's average. I'm not for cheating but if the game lets you do it then its fair game to me.
I never used it since I was already too good without it. Unless someone was actually smoking me online by using it...then that's when I start using it as well.
This is good news. There's nothing fun about having to excessively hop in order to get the best times.
@Super_Gravy I take it you are unaware that they did patch MK7 to remove the Wuhu glitch. You cannot play online without installing the update that fixes it.
I never really noticed it on Mariokart 8 online (and I played tons of it), but I'm not against getting rid of it. If they didn't patch it out of the Wii U version since it was like a secret feature/glitch then that's fine, but removing it from the DEFINITIVE version of the game was a must.
For me fire hopping was fun to learn and pull off. While I don't mind that it's gone, I will miss it some what. Now I gotta fix my habit of hopping though. Lol
I'm happy they got rid of it, I'm likely to buy this for Switch when I get one because I imagine the Wii U community will die off at some point.
Making it more fair for everyone, that's good
Can't say I saw too many people taking advantage of it. Or that it gave much advantage.
@wazlon Trust me it will slowly decrease in popularity. When there will always be players, Nintendo will highly likely stop Wii-U internet soon, like in a year or 2. Just like with the Wii.
Almost 150 hours spent on this game, and this is the first time I hear about this trick. Now I get why I sucked so much in the online... lol
Whoever says this shouldn´t be removed, it´s because they actually KNEW about this stuff. But I think most people didn´t, which is unfair therefore. It´s not that we COULDN´T do it, it´s simply that we didn´t even know that this possibility existed.
So yeah, good news.
Explains the edition of the purple drift boost. As someone who regularly used this online, it'll be sad to see it go. At the same time I'll be accepting this change with open arms, the tournament game will probably focus more on tight line racing which I personally love!
@BezBot Yeah, I was expecting Nintendo to do that too. Guess I need to look out for other games which have online functionality. No doubt the Splatoon community will go downhill once Splatoon 2 is released.
I actually don't know about this trick. Might have to jump on MK8 on the Wii U tonight and try it out to see if it can up my ranking a bit.
So glad this is gone and glad that everyone else is glad too. 😃👍
@Donutman
Don't worry.
Equip yourself with Big Horn.
Use it wisely when Blue Shell is about to Blast you.
Just slam it to the ground and POOOF...!!!
A Deflector !
I never liked that exploit in the first place. Makes me wonder if they will just think of a new way to get ahead in the leaderboards.
I'm glad to see the back of this exploit!
@willobee
Yes I was aware of the patch but forgot to put it in my comment. Took them a while to patch it though.
I would complain, but it's mario kart (so it can't be taken seriously competitive) but I don't see why people complained about that (get good instead of complaining :> ) It made it more risk/reward since you could go off track, like the video explains.
Besides, didn't the game ranked you with players who were on your level? it's not like in MKDS where you either snake or lose
Might have to double dip and get this for the switch, having Mario kart 8 portable and with a battle mode is all the convincing I need
It seems gone, and I'm glad. Of course, Nintendo can't do things properly so the easiest fix would have been to extinguish the turbo if a kart hops.
@Super_Gravy Much of that is Nintendo spin. More likely it couldn't be fixed. Software needs "hooks" for patches or updates, and I'd say with such a core gameplay mechanic, they couldn't access it. It's not like adding extra tracks or a speed class. That's essentially "numbers" or adding a new menu.
Haha, I used to intentionally slow down when I saw some idiot fire hopping behind me just so I could hit them over and over with items. Wanna use an exploit? Then I'll use one too :3 Nothing makes me laugh more than beating people at their own cheesy game. Can't get away when I'm suddenly fire hopping too so I can keep pace and hit you with items
Glad it's gone. Now I can go back to targeting xXSephirothXx, DonaldTrump2016, and anyone named after a Youtube star.
@BezBot internet is still on Wii.I just bought super adventure island 2 and final fantasy 2 yesterday lol
Wonder if this will have an effect on drifting+turbo+trick boost?
I just hope they address the item distribution. I really don't know why 8th gets Gold Coin, 5th gets Squid, and third gets Golden Mushroom.
I'd also like to see a mode where coins buy items.
What is wrong with you people. It's not a glitch, it's a technique! The game is worse without it. Firehopping is a skill you can learn. Once again whinny fans are gonna ruin a good thing. No wonder Mario party and Paper Mario suck now. Oh well, enjoy your new mk8.
this just in...Nintendo sells 1 million WII U and 1 million copies of Mario kart 8....
All in all, it's a good thing... I stopped playing MK online on WiiU partly because of this exploit which made the game 'not fun' to play... Now, I'm hyper hyped by MK8 deluxe, so cool !
@beautifulstrong I guess you're the kind of guys who used Action Replay back in the days...
Now patch it out of the WiiU version as well. PLEASE
@mateq I think the gate for it's that it just ''feels wrong''. Like people refuse to use it, even if they can.
Aside from time trials this barely made a different online anyway, especially not in 200cc where there was a strong risk of going off-track if you used this.
@ElGrego These are two different thing... Fire hopping in MK8 is kind of like doing combo attacks in Mortal Kombat. You spend time to learn it, and once you know how and when it's best to use it - you use it. That makes you a better player. You wouldn't want a Mortal Kombat to be a game with just punches and kicks because other players cannot master (or don't feel like mastering) particular combos, right?
Fire Hopping is not a game-braking glitch which puts you on top position automatically - you can still win the game without using it. But it is a technique to distinguish pro players from newbies.
I've never heard of fire hopping until this articles (and I've won many MK8 online races) and I'm sad they are removing it
@RaphaBoss for the above reason I also don't understand why it 'feels wrong'. It's not a cheat, it's a technique
@Slim1999 You cannot play with others online anymore
@mateq Then it might be because you never heard of it before... It's nothing like combos in fighting games... Combos are completely part of the game, they are set by devs... Fire Hoping is simply exploiting a glitch... Anyway, I'm happy that Nintendo suppressed this bug when porting the game to switch
@ElGrego How do we even know Fire Hopping wasn't intentional? I just had a quick search online and there's no official statement from Nintendo that Fire Hopping is a glitch or exploit. Honestly, it kinda looks to me like it was meant to be in the game and devs put it in on purpose
It gives too little of an advantage while being relatively hard to perform to be a glitch. It seems to me Nintendo put it in game on purpose
@mateq : whatever man, you obviously wanna be right on a subject you don't know much about... So be it
@ElGrego lol, I'm just discussing, exchanging arguments. I just like the games with hidden mechanics to master, and to me this looks like one so obviously I would defend it. Kinda sad I won't be able to try it anymore, but if majority of people are happy without it, so be it.
I feel that Mario Kart is about 60% luck, 40% skill so anything to balance this ratio is a welcome addition to me
Shame, it looked like a neat trick.
@HalBailman
You may be right about that. Maybe its an core codes that need to be fixed.
@ElGrego No, I never have. There is no code for fire hopping either. This is where you are confused. Fire hopping is not a sure way to win. It's very easy to lose control while doing it. But if you practice, you get good at it. It's fun to do also. Mabye you're the type of gal that can't do it? I don't know, but try it, it's fun is all I'm saying. I'm gonna miss it!!!
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