Topic: Mario Kart World

@ShieldHero Watch them add blue shells only and see what that bring in

I let a family member play World. He wanted to try every mode. I let him play the modes, but later I realised, that I forgot to let him play the free roam mode. I am not joking, I forgot the mode exists. Oh boy, that mode did not make an impression on me at all...

Right now I'm looking forward to Matt McMuscles or someone doing a video on this game's development, because the story behind it must be nuts. The fact that they had to update it almost two months after launch so players could tell whether they had found all of the collectibles indicates this game was definitely not finished when it shipped.

I think they will, with the exception of allowing a Kamek-only mode. That would be fun, no doubt, but also would become a racer-farming system lol.

@CaleBoi25, a Kamek-only option would me much appreciated, so that if I get the game, I won't have to do as much RNG to get all the drivers. 🤣

@Jhena you obviously didnt spend countless hours upon hours doing hundreds of tedious p switch games, collecting peach medallions, or lucky panels. obviously!
thats so real though

@OctolingKing13
I know, scary, right? How forgettable content can be. But I think that is exactly the reason why I forgot about it. Free roam is just the slightly more fun version of korok seed collecting.

Well, after this little episode, I lost my respect for World.

I'm just gonna repeat my point that I have no idea why anyone would 100% a game ASAP unless they actively enjoyed playing it that way. If I didn't, I would at the very least take a break for a while and do something else.

@kkslider5552000
Agreed. Some of my fondest gaming memories are returning to games I've beaten weeks or months prior to swing back through and find the stuff I didn't get the first time around. It's just like the tried-and-true method of walking away from something for a bit to get fresh eyes and further appreciate it when you return.

Very few games are so engrossing that I can bear repeating the same mechanics for dozens and dozens of hours without wanting something fresh to spice things up. I think the last game for me that I 100% on the first pass was Mario Bros. Wonder.

I've been away from World for a few weeks now, but I can say I'm starting to get the itch to come back to it and do some more stuff.

I think the most I've really focused on a game the past few years was Xenoblade 2 for chapters 4-10, and that was heavily based on the specific situation of "oh my tv is inexplicably working again, better play through it before it breaks again", since the game both looks super great and is notably not great in handheld mode compared to most Switch games. And that was both a game I had three different long breaks from and one where attempting to do a large chunk of its sidequest for the sake of doing it made it an often worse experience by the end. (so my point is less "this is all good actually" and more "why do this if you really don't want to?")

Like maybe Great Ace Attorney 2, because I was super into it by its second half.

And I think part of it is that I'm not a kid anymore: I can buy games whenever I want.

When I was a kid, I got two games a year: one for my birthday and one for Christmas. So, yea... those were the only two new games I would have to play for 12 months lol

Kind of had to play the heck out of them and get everything. That or loop back through the old games again.

Reached 200 P Switches last night, so about half way! I really love Free Roam, it's such a relaxing way to wind down at the end of the day, especially with that amazing music.

Also this should be an unlockable "outfit" for Pokey:

@Suketoudara nice work! I love it too, and yes, I wish the NPCs had gotten palette swaps, at the very least, but oh well.

After 60 hours of playtime, I finally unlocked fish bone. That was my last unlock I needed!

Crazy how those work in this game.

Put in about a week on this game, and my opinion is about the same as the popular consensus. The gameplay is probably the best Mario Kart has seen, pulling off tricks off of walls and rails is a blast, but the tracks they let you do it in are where the game falls a little flat. The intermissions (for the most part, there are some good ones) honestly don’t even accomplish the “fun during multiplayer when you don’t care all that much” niche that I think Nintendo was going for, as getting hit by a random car never feels fun when you can’t see it coming on your small portion of the screen during split screen play, and many intermissions are just boring when there’s not the pressure of Knockout Tour on your mind. The actual three lap tracks are, at a baseline standard, all good (with the exception of Desert Hills), but only a few of them are great, with many of the new tracks prioritizing 24 racers over interesting track design. I was surprised at how much I enjoy the Free Roam, although some sort of hint as to P-Switch/Peach Medallion progression would drastically improve my enjoyment of it. The music is phenomenal, obviously, and Knockout Tour is a blast. But when the main mode-the Grand Prix, consists of such uneven quality, I cannot say that World is worth the $80 asking price that Nintendo will soon force people to pay, especially when 8 hasn’t gone anywhere.
And the character unlock mechanism is stupid I WANT TO PLAY AS MY BOY CATAQUACK NINTENDO WHY CAN’T I HAVE HIM

I've been back to playing lots of online matches since the update. I'm around 8k VR, up and down, so that seems to be my skill level right now.

The track-only option appears about a third of the time now, which is nice. I'd like to see it ALWAYS give a 3-lap option, frankly, but we're getting closer lol. Random is also about a 33% chance to get a track-only choice.

Anyway, I don't really mind the highway sections and sort of enjoy them. They're really not that bad because... well, it's Mario Kart. People are throwing items, there are usually hazards and area-themed things going on. Sometimes there are rails to grind and alternate paths to take (sometimes, key word). Some of them can be a bit twisty - they're all rather different when you dig into them. Just like the tracks, some are better than others.

The thing I don't like about the highway sections is that you only get to play 1 lap of the course once you get there. That's the true bummer, in my eyes. No chance to use certain shortcuts, not much of a chance to catch up usually, etc.

OK, I know it doesn't really matter, but everyone calling them "Intermissions" bugs me. "Intermission" is the term used for the little open-world lobbies between matches. The things you drive on are called "Routes." Please get this right, people!! (rant over)

Having 3-lap races be less common than routes makes sense--there are hundreds of routes, and only 30 courses. I do think having a toggle that allows you to drive the route and then do 3 laps would be nice, but I doubt we'll see it anytime soon. Personally, I just stick with Knockout Tour--and I am hoping we get randomized or custom Tours as an option soon!

@CaleBoi25 If they want to be called by their right name, they shouldn't be trash. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

@Bigmanfan Maybe I'm misreading your reply, but that came off sounding oddly rude to me...?

@CaleBoi25 Nah, it's just my drier humor. Sorry if it was rude, wasn't my intention. (Still stand by the take though)