Topic: Mario Kart World

@rallydefault
You are free to disagree. I think the world of World is beautiful, but there is nothing but relaxing busy work to do. There is just nothing to do. The gameplay of the open world is almost insulting, but at least Nintendo was nice enough this time, not to gift me golden poo, for finishing 400 P-Switches. If I try to remember the roads and only unimpressive and too often straight lines come to mind, the game already failed.

I like the core of gameplay too, it is fun. But what good does it, if I prefer the vibes and the tracks of the older games.

The developers are asking for a lot of money and as someone who paid 90€ for this disappointment, I think I am free to judge it as what I experienced. And everyone else is allowed to express their feelings towards a game.

I think the potential of the "intermission" courses is hinted at in the knockout tour (and this potential could begin to be realised if they eventually add custom knockout tours...).

I don't necessarily agree that they all lack character either but that character is limited by the fact that you only run across the course once. Infact I think that's an issue in general - you learn a course by replaying it over and over again (i.e. laps). By putting obstacles in the way of this process everything feels arbitrary and "one off".

At the same time I'm sure it's deliberate. Nintendo's developers aren't stupid or (whatever some online might think) lazy. The Mario Kart team has very deliberately positioned the series as a casual knockabout party game where skill will help you but it won't guarantee you anything. They don't want you to master the perfect racing line - it's against the design philosophy. That's the same reason they don't put the numbers of each racer/kart front and centre - they easily could, the numbers are there - they just don't really want players to min/max the fun out of the game.

The thing is though that Mario Kart has been like this since Mario Kart 64. The SNES original and the GBA game were primarily skill based racing games with items - they've moved away from that at every step. Their current design ideal seems to be closer to "rollercoaster theme park attraction" than "highly skilled kart racing with turtle shells thrown around for variety". I think there's nothing wrong with that - clearly lots of people want exactly what is being offered.

All that said I'd still personally like to see a mode in Mario Kart that takes the randomness out of item collection (like Diddy Kong Racing did very effectively) and reduce the power creep of items. Learnable courses would be a part of that too (and that would mean a return to traditional laps).

@Jhena
Yea I think we have entirely different tastes in games and what makes a game's price "worth" it lol

(Why does everyone on the internet have to keep actually typing that they're entitled to their opinion when someone disagrees with them? Nobody said you weren't. It's such a meme at this point.)

@rallydefault
Well, to me the part "It's no secret that I think the ways people judge games are arcane at best and unserious at worst", sounded like people are not fit to judge games. I told you they are, in the same way as you and me can judge a game.

@Jhena
Are you just choosing to ignore the whole “I think” phrase I prefaced that with?

@rallydefault
No, I did not ignore it. It does not even change anything. Besides I used, I think in my reply, too.

@Jhena
Uh huh.

@rallydefault
I am glad that you agree.

@Jhena
I don’t agree with anything you’ve said lol I was being sarcastic.

I think you are being unreasonable and hyperbolic and unrealistic with your expectations.

@rallydefault
Okay, if you do not want to discuss it politely, then I leave this conversation. Have a good day.

@Jhena
Just my opinion

Just want to check something - are my kid and I the only 2 who hate the controls? Most notably A to go instead of a trigger? Both of us complained about our thumbs hurting after doing 1 4 race cup. I had to stop playing.

To be fair to the game I haven't played a Mario Kart in nearly 10 years since we own it on Wii U but only the Switch version got all the dlc, and I have spent the past year playing Disney Speedstorm, which is way too money focused but mechanically a great racer, but I just can't get over the controls.

Besides A for gas the game has ramps, rails and driveable walls, but they couldn't be bothered to have a simple jump button. And to make matters worse there are no controller options? It's 2025 and they can't let me swap A to drift and R for gas? Or R for gas, L to drift, A/B to jump and X/Y for items?

I'm considering not playing the game again until they hopefully let us change the controls in our $80 game. I'll give it 1 more go w/ my Faux Pro, maybe it's the Joycon A cramping up my thumb, but it's not worth the discomfort to play it.

Such a disappointment from Nintendo. Open world but closed controls. 😝

@rjejr
There is an option for automatic acceleration, which I use since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, to protect my thumb.

@rjejr I think Nintendo just expects you to remap controls at system level if you want to remap them. Which would be fine if the execution of the button remapping feature wasn't so poor. If it remembered my settings for each individual game and changed the button prompts in-game to reflect my button mapping then I'd actually use it.

@rjejr
Yea, my thumb hurts after a bit. If you have a pro controller, a lot of people are remapping the gas to one of the new low trigger buttons.

There is a jump just like in MK8, but to get a jump with enough height to start most of the grinds on a taller rail you have to hold the jump button for a second to charge up, then you will spring up into the air. You can hold the stick left or right to change the direction of your spring, too.

@Jhena Automatic acceleration sounds like cheating but also something I should look into so I can play for more than 20 minutes at a time, thanks.

@BenAV Interesting, reply puts you where the cursor was in Forums unlike at the beginning in comments. Anyway I had read about the system wide button mapping w/ 5 set fixes but I haven't tried it yet. I've only played MKW so far and want to see what DKB is like first.

@rallydefault Thanks. Don't think we'll be getting a new Pro any time soon as we have 1 real one from Switch my kid uses and my wife and I have fake ones. I'm just not sure why we would need one, as unlike my very drifty Joycon the other 3 work OK. I mean sure we need to turn it on before sitting down but we're catching on to that.

I did another cup this afternoon w/ my Faux Pro and the A button was certainly better than the Joycon. I suppose I'll keep playing and get used to it. Have to get used to the game as a whole really. It hasn't really felt like I'm racing. 50cc is kinda slow but I think I understand what some of the negative reception of the game was - the tracks are too straight and wide. Though some of that is probably just driving track to track. Maybe I've just outgrown Kart games. Thinking about giving Sonic a try this holiday and see what's what.

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry for the negativity, but I've been waiting 10yrs for a new MK and it just feels all wrong. Skill issue I guess.😝

@rjejr
No worries. 50cc on the highways between tracks will feel slooooow. Can be downright painful, really lol

@rallydefault Discussed the game at dinner more w/ the fam. I've only done the 2 cups on 50cc so I was paying more attention to the controls, and winning, than the tracks. My kid explained to me how we do 3 laps 1st race, then drive and 1 lap each for the next 3. Who thought this was a good idea? I like driving between the tracks but it shouldn't take away from each race being 3 laps when you get there. The road between should determine starting position fir when the next 3 lap race starts. With 24 cars it's an incentive to come in near the front. Who Q&A this game that it released like this? Makes no sense the more I learn.🤪

@rjejr
You're welcome! Yeah, the reception to this Mario Kart is kinda mixed. You waited a long time and paid good money for it, if you do not enjoy it, you have every right to complain about it, if you ask me. I do not really mind if an opinion is positive or negative, as long as the opinion is honest.

I've been playing some Knockout Tour as it's the only mode in this game that I still actually like despite the lack of content for it but I really wish Nintendo would at least fix their matchmaking system. It's becomes a lot less fun when most rooms are half low rated players and half bots.