Topic: Mario Kart World

@Kairuuu

Penguin is cool,
but I prefer bumpties.

VR Rating would be a Versus Rating Rating ☝️🤓 /lh

As someone who never cared for Shine Thief and BibOmb Blast, I don’t mind only have ink my fave (coin runners) and a “just ok” (balloon battle) return. That said, I wouldn’t mind Ranegade Roundup reappearing.

@CaleBoi25 Oh, yeah. You right. 😅

@WaveBoy
It looks noticeably better imo but to the casual gamer I doubt they'd be wowed. But that's because the art style already made the game look nearly as good as it could so this isn't the type of game that will showcase the graphical leap as well as games like Street Fighter 6 and Hogwarts Legacy. The next gen leap is evident in gameplay though. There is no possible way a game like this would have been possible on the base Switch. Zelda had to be cell shaded and wasn't very detailed as assets were spread out in order to run and even then it still had frame rate issues. So I think the appeal will be in the game itself where younger gamers such as your niece will be drawn to how fun it looks to play rather than how much better it looks than the previous title, which isn't going to bear much fruit with that audience.

Does anybody else think that the open world gimmick in this game is kind of odd? It looks fun, no doubt, but I just don’t see why it’s such a big deal. I want to play Mario Kart, not Cars (I played what I got, okay?)! If it, like Cars, just allows you to just screw around while competing missions, then that’s fine. But if it’s an integral part of the gameplay? Then I’m worried. Again, it’s nice for a Mario Kart to offer more single player content, but it seems like that’s pushing aside the multiplayer content: there only seems to be 32 tracks, and the Battle Mode is also looking pretty bare-bones: simply having bigger tracks isn’t going to cut it. Hopefully, Nintendo proves me wrong, and the game will turn out to be a masterpiece. Does anybody else have any thoughts about this aspect?

@StewdaMegaManNerd
I was fine with Free Roaming as I have experienced from LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER which you can do free Roaming the LEGO CITY World with Chase McCain using / borrowing the vehicles on the street / water and riding around the city.
I think the Free Roaming mode for MKW is a separated mode which you can enjoy wandering around without engaging in racing competition.
The other similar games like MKW was LEGO DRIVE 2K, with free Roaming open World and your racer can't leave from vehicle since it's not LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER.
The only thing that me worried with MKW was the hefty price and No Mii availability was a disappointment for me as I'm not really hyped with the minor characters from Mario games, I don't really have strong interest with Mario characters either so Mii with a lot of customization is really my choice as somebody who played The SIMS games a lot and preferring custom characters than the default characters.

@Anti-Matter Nintendo can’t make up their minds on whether they like Miis or not.

@StewdaMegaManNerd
It's the same number of tracks every other MK had besides Deluxe, iirc (which was building on top of an already released game). And the same number of battle tracks too. So I don't see it as taking away tracks I see it as a massive addition above and beyond what we would normally get. I look back at MK8 on Wii U, and MK7 on 3DS, then I look at this title and I'm just blown away.

The formula has already been proven to be incredibly popular with games like Forza Horizon and Burnout Paradise. Racing is fun but it can also get old after a while so having a massive world to explore, which is really fun to do because the mechanics of driving are so fun and because there will be so many challenges and missions and secrets to find, is a huge boon to the experience.

There's 7 billion people in the world so of course I'm sure there are people who may not want that but I'm willing to bet most people are going to appreciate it. I know I do, at least.

@StewdaMegaManNerd
There will be another Mii game on Switch, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream by next year so it seems Nintendo still give one more chance for Mii have their own game on Switch and let's not forget Miitopia Switch version with some new features.
But the absence of Mii on MKW was really disappointing to me unless there will be one more trailer to show off the Mii as playable characters. I'm already tired using Mario characters all the time for Mario Kart games not because I don't like them but I have low interest using them as I prefer my own custom character that represent my identity.

The only thing I'm slightly disappointed by is that there doesn't seem to be any game-share functionally. Obviously game share takes up some resources and you'd effectively be doing full screen split screen so I get it. But also, you can do four screen split screen (at a lower resolution) in table top mode and there's supposedly a 120fps performance mode

It probably won't impact me ever because anyone I'm playing with local-wireless will surely have Kart. And most of the multiplayer Kart will be docked. But even so, would've been one hell of a selling point

@skywake
Ya it would have. Still, being able to detach the joycon and pass one to someone else does mean 2 people can play together with one copy of the game and one system. I know that started with Switch but it's the OG gameshare and still counts for something.

Fyi, Fast Fusion will have gameshare though.

@JaxonH
I guess you're right in that technically technically tabletop mode split between two JoyCons only needs a second person while GameShare, like DS Download play, requires a second system

TBH, I probably wouldn't have used it anyways. Honestly I'm not sure if I've even done shared JoyCon in tabletop mode on Switch since it launched. Usually I'm either playing by myself on the go or I'm docking it for multiplayer. Still.... would've been a nice additional option. And maybe would've even gone a good way to shutting down entirely the price panic

Fast Fusion having it through, that's fantastic. Especially given the install base for that game is going to be FAR lower than Mario Kart. And I also think just generally GameShare is a bit of a sleeper feature, I think at some point during the life of the Switch 2 there will be a game using it that'll just blow people's minds (while Wii U owners quietly chuckle having seen it before)

@JaxonH Yeah, I guess that makes sense, but I still hope they don’t just stick to adding more modes through updates rather than have them available at launch.

@NeonPizza
Anyways, Switch 2 will probably be the final Nintendo console with a noticeable stronger jump in power

I made this exact statement a few weeks ago. You're right. This is why people should enjoy the excitement of Switch 2 because after that, Kansas is going bye-bye. Never again will we experience the thrill of a sizeable jump in perceived visual fidelity and performance. This is it. Last ride of the circus before the theme park closes. Get it while it's hot.

@StewdaMegaManNerd @JaxonH I've had the amount of tracks on my mind too actually, I've been worried about this game just having the standard 32 tracks and that's it. I'd imagine the Knockout Tour routes would be a sort of equivalent of Mario Kart 8's DLC cups (on the Wii U - they're in 8 Deluxe's base game), however.

@NeonPizza @JaxonH
I would argue that there is still plenty of room for games to look better. Maybe not at the same rate they used to but still, there's certainly scope for it. But I think the limiting factor is more a question of development costs and the general slowdown in the rate that hardware is improving

In the 90s there was a perfect storm. You had a rapidly advancing hardware specs combined with a rapidly expanding market. Combine that with a fairly low fidelity starting point? We got some serious generational improvements that we'll never see again

Right now? The size of the gaming market has been fairly stagnant for over a decade and gamers fairly aggressively push back against any increase in pricing. So because inflation is a thing and studios have to pay the bills effectively development costs have to go down. Which obviously conflicts with the only reason why you would bother at all with something like a PS5

Then ontop of that crisis we've seen Moore's Law start to dry up, advancements are still happening but we're about 10x behind were we would've been if we kept following the curve set in the 80s and 90s. So even if development costs could keep up, and they can't, it wouldn't be the same rate of raw performance improvement that we had enjoyed in the 90s anyways

Then throw into that bucket of not much movement the lack of easy wins like increasing the resolution and framerate? I mean, think about it, 4x from 480p/15fps is 720p/30fps. That's nice, we've gone from unplayable to playable. 4x from 720p/30fps is 1080p/60fps. Ok, good, not as big, but we've gone from playable to nice. But then 4x from 1080p/60fps is 1440/120fps which..... is probably good enough. 4x from 1440p/120fps? 4K/240fps..... and at that point, why? So they have to find gains elsewhere. Which aren't as easy/cheap to do

So yeah, all these combined? We've hit a brick wall...... but stagnation doesn't mean we're at end-game

@skywake
We definitely haven't peaked, but as you say, we've crossed the threshold where future generational leaps will have less than half the increase in perceived fidelity than the leap from the prior generation. There will still be a notable gain for Switch 3 but it won't be nearly as impressive as the gains we're seeing on Switch 2. Mostly it'll be noticeable in terms of ability to run all games with satisfactory performance.

It's probably why we hear rumors of PS6 releasing alongside a PS5 handheld. Because they know good and well graphics and performance simply won't be able to sell the next generation of consoles. But with how expensive things are getting I don't see a lot of people picking up both a PlayStation console and handheld, I just see people choosing one or the other. And frankly, by that point we will have SteamDeck 2 which will run all the same third party games, and basically all the same PS first party, not to mention Xbox first party. But with free online and access to mods, and cross save with PC. Not that I think it'll take a huge chunk of the market but I think it'll eat at least 5 million sales out of Sony's bread basket.

They need to make a hybrid if they want me to buy one. I don't want to have a console and a handheld separately. I'd rather just play Switch 2. Even assuming tariffs are completely eliminated there's no way the next system costs less than the pro version of the current generation so we can expect a $700 price tag at minimum. and if you want a handheld to go along with that tack on another $500. Who's going to do that?

I would say I expect the handheld to be more successful than the home console, but the majority of their fan base wants a cinematic experience at home and has no interest in portable play. So the only ones who would buy the handheld are the 15 million or so core PS fans who bought Vita, and maybe 10 to 20 million Switch 2 gamers who favor portable play, don't buy Steamdeck 2 and want the additional console exclusives. But will those people also buy the PS6 console? If not, then they don't gain sales, they just shuffle them from console to handheld.

Hybrid is the future. Maybe releasing separate systems will work out for them but having to shell out $1,200 for both a TV and portable experience just seems outrageous to me. I don't think they'll do a hybrid because if they don't make the next system more powerful their core fan base will pitch a fit. And that's a shame because I really just want hybrids moving forward.

Hey guys,
perhaps you could help me. Do you know if the new mario kart on Switch2 can be played with the "old" Joy-Cons? Thx

@WiiSwitch2
Yes. You won't have Rumble 2 or the chat button, but Switch controllers are compatible for Switch 2 games, except for those specifically designed around Joycon 2 functionality like Welcome Tour, Drag x Drive and the Mario Party expansion.

@JaxonH
thank you very much.
So the old "Pro-Controller" should work too, I guess?