Topic: Mario Kart World

@MrCarlos46 The only real crumbs of info from the devs are that Kosuke Yabuki said "I'm afraid I can't say anything at this time" about Diddy Kong being in the game (which seems too insubstantial of a remark to mean anything too major) and made a similar remark about 200cc, though that at least had the implication of "we will do some stuff post-launch"

@PikaPhantom Isn’t there also a possibility that they’re not being added this time around?

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't add 200cc this time, actually.

But I think we'll be seeing other areas of the world and more courses, for sure.

I've been having a blast with this game in all honesty but what annoys me the most is bagging. It's such a cringe strategy but it feels almost impossible to win online if you don't do it.

@Kairuuu it's too bad it's so good, but I try my best not to - makes it all the more satisfying to win!

@CaleBoi25 Yeah, it's kinda lame when people just stay at the back for most of the race.

I still find the races quite fun and chaotic anyway so it's not a huge problem.

After taking a long break, I decided to play Mario Kart World again. Played three gran prix tournaments and it is still good fun. I won two tournaments without losing a single race. Either I got very lucky or the game is easier now.

I wish it wasn't true and it pains me to say it, but MKW straight up sucks. I've quickly lost all interest in it. Despite it being old and tired now, 8 is soo much better. I am so immensely disappointed with it, especially after waiting a literal decade for it.

I hope it is improved with updates in the future, but as of right now, I'd rather just play old 8.

@vio funny you should say that, I played it yesterday and came here to say basically the opposite 😂 I know World has issues from an objective standpoint, but to me personally? This is the most fun I've had in Mario Kart since the Wii! 8/DX never really clicked for me - they were fun, polished games, but despite being literal bestsellers, I only ever played if I was outvoted at a friend's house. I didn't even buy a copy of the game! World on the other hand, I got day1 via the bundle. No regrets there! It's stupid fun, and say what you will but chilling in Free Roam is sooooo fun!

I've seen a lot of people around the internet complaining that 24 players makes it impossible to escape a barrage of items and thus eliminates skill expression. I held this belief too until one day, while doing an online race on Dandelion Depths, I took the technically slower elevated path and quickly went up from a middling placement to 1st place. There is absolutely skill expression in Mario Kart World; it just involves knowing how to get away from the pack.

@vio It pains me to say it, but I completely agree. I beat all the cups in World, won a few online matches, and haven’t touched the game since basically launch. I do find myself loading up MK8 though. Perhaps it’s not fair to compare a new game vs one that had so much time to develop and get all the DLC out there, but none of the “improvements” of World are anything I’m interested in unfortunately. Hopefully some updates and DLC turn Mario Kart World around in the future.

@CaleBoi25 I get what you're saying, this is all just my opinion of course(though it seems my opinion is shared by A LOT of people). However I need to mention I got 8 for my Wii U in July 2014 when it brand spanking new and I immediately fell in love with it. I never got tired of it, I never stopped playing it. Don't get me wrong, there are things I like about World, but as a whole, it is a massive disappointment. I'm an old fart, I was playing Super Mario Kart on my SNES way back in the early 90s so I have been playing Mario Kart for over 30 years now. It has been one of my favorite gaming franchises since I was a kid and I have NEVER felt this way about a Mario Kart before, which says a lot IMO. I also personally hate open world games and am sick of them. I did not want an open world Mario Kart. Free roam bores me to death. I just want to race competively online. I do like knockout tour, but even that has lost a lot of it's luster. Now I am back to playing MK 8 and Splatoon 3, which leaves me wondering if I even needed to get a Switch 2 right now.. I do still have hope that Nintendo will improve World with updates, but how long will that take? Years? Right now they are hell bent on barely letting us even play traditional 3-lap mode. Blah..

Hopefully Metroid Prime 4 will make me feel like throwing down 500 bucks for a Switch 2 was worth it. Edit: Come to think of it, probably not since Prime 4 is going to be on the Switch 1 as well..

@vio Oh, yeah, I know my opinion is unpopular haha! I get why there's criticism, I just don't share in it lol

Probably should have posted these here originally instead of the NSW2 thread but thats where I tend to hang out most.

I didnt really play Mario Kart World the first 4 months after release, but recently started doing the grand prix cups in handheld mode, and I'm seriously blown away by how fun this game is! I love the heck out of it. I went on a tear taking screenshots on the final race of the 2nd cup, which I got gold on, barely bumping me to 1st place for a gold trophy. It was exhilarating after settling for silver on the first cup.

My little goombah was trouncing these chumps 😀

@JaxonH nice pics! The last 2 especially are really good!!

@JaxonH Glad you're still enjoying it! I think I put in maybe 25-30 hours upon release, managed to get 3*** rankings in all the 150cc/mirror modes (across both Grand Prix and also Knockout)

I'm actually not a huge MK fan, but the bundle price was too good to pass on. It was a fun time-sink but the adaptive AI is really bizarre..... to the point that the worse you drive (no drifts, no items) the CPU drivers are a lot more forgiving! To get 3*** on knockout was rock hard though, maybe as frustrating as Silksong at times!

@CJD87
It's tough, that's for sure! I set a world record time in Mario Kart 64 as a teen. GamePro magazine had an article showing pictures of time trial world records held at that time, and one was Wario Stadium at 22.00 seconds flat. I learned you could time a jump off the first ramp and hop the wall, then turn around and jump a high wall just behind the finish line, and if you did it all 3 times in a row thats how you could get such a low time.

Took me all weekend but eventually I did it, and stuck a 21.92 second run! A new world record! Got my Kodak camera and took a picture of my time, but the film got exposed to light and ruined the pics. And since my time trial was on my friend's cartridge at his house I never got an opportunity to retake the pic.

All that to say, Im well versed in Mario Kart. And I only managed to get a Silver Trophy on the first cup on my first try in 150cc. I imagine it'll take me quite a while to get Gold Trophies on all cups on 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and Mirror Mode. I love the balance of skill and luck. Enough skill is involved that if youre good, you're more likely to win than not, but enough luck is involved that even if youre good, winning is never a guarantee.

I only tried knockout tour once so far and got 6th place. Actually played Free Roam today for over 2 hours just driving anywhere and everywhere, hitting P switches and completing challenges, finding meals for costume unlocks, grabbing Peach medallions and just having fun. And it was a blast! The world is so huge, and there's so many P-switch challenges to find and complete. I even did one where I had to do 3 laps against all these other CPU characters through a makeshift "track" that went all off-road and through a river and onto a real track for a bit then off a boost ramp over a cliff... the variety in challenges is genuinely impressive.

Tbh when I heard criticisms of the game, I kinda bought into it because they seemed so convincing, and having not actually played much I had no frame of reference to oppose those viewpoints. But now... I'm like, wtf was everyone on about? This game is incredible! It's not that the subjects of those criticisms arent "true", they're just factual observations, it's that they don't bother me, not in the slightest.

I heard the tracks weren't as good as before. Definitely disagree with that. Theyre different, but equally good imo. I heard lack of anti-gravity made it feel inferior. Again, hard disagree. Tracks still wind in crazy angles and slopes, even without anti-grav. I heard the intermissions made Grand Prixs less fun. Once again, I disagree. I love them and the variety it brings as opposed to looping a track 3 times and thats it. Not that looping 3 times is bad as it allows focus and has its own merits letting you learn the track, but mixing it up has equal merits. I heard the open world had little to keep you engaged. Disagree yet again. I couldn't get enough of those P-switch challenges, and finding meals to unlock new characters and outfits and collecting coins to unlock carts.

I wont say I like World more than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just yet, because that would be premature, and I adore Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. But I do think it's more likely than not that World will ultimately become my favorite game in the series. Especially with its Grand Prix, Free Roam, Battle Mode, Time Trials and Knockout Tour modes, together which make a nicely rounded package.

@JaxonH Haha well done on the MK64 world record... to your knowledge do you remain the reigning champ??

Yeh MKW has landed divisively, and I'm not too sure how I weigh in. I wouldn't have picked this up had it not been part of the bundle, just because I'm not a huge racing game fan. However, I can see that long-time fans who have waited years for a new MK might seem a little short changed...

The open world stuff is probably much more manageable now, considering they patched in a means of tracking the various collectibles? Absolute insanity this feature wasn't a day1...!

You should definitely go for the 3*** gold ranking on knockout, considering your weighty status as a world-record champ! Knockout is super challenging though, as to get 3*** you basically need to be in 1st position at the point of crossing EVERY checkpoint/stage/lap.

I went ahead and looked up the current WR and safe to say it's been optimized lol! Kudos to @JaxonH though for holding it for a time!

Not sure if they actually said this somewhere, but didn’t one of the developers for the game say the game is perfect as is and wouldn’t really need DLC?