Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

These Mario Kart DLC courses are excellent!

Ninja Hideout is a brand new course. I was under the impression they'd all be Remastered from other entries. And while most are, this track is completely new, and easily the best of the bunch imo.

That's not to say the others aren't great too, though. It's so awesome experiencing GBA tracks remastered into 3D graphics, and Choco Mountain which was a classic from N64 days. The Tour tracks are particularly interesting as they feature real world locations and the laps change similar to Sonic All Stars Racing. It adds variety that really spices things up.

I'd forgotten just how much fun Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is. It's such a popular series it almost feels played out to say it's one of your favorite games, but it really is one of my favorite games. It's so good!

But I'm specifically referring to the Switch version, which is almost a completely different game than the Wii U version at this point. The new battle mode alone was enough to elevate it to 10/10 status (that really hurt the original release) but seeing the total number of base game + expansion courses (48) get doubled (96) with this new Booster Pack? Ya, they're not even the same game anymore. The Wii U version is like the alpha version of the real game now.

@JaxonH Ninja Hideaway is from Tour though? I still really need to try out the expansion pass myself, but glad to hear it's so good so far.

@link3710
Is it?

Then the articles reporting on it being brand new must be wrong. It's also not labeled as being from any other entry in-game, and the other Tour tracks are distinctly based on real world locations (Paris Promenade, Tokyo Blur) and feature routes that change for different laps.

But I've never played Tour so, I wouldn't know.

Gamerant Article Incorrectly Claiming Ninja Hideaway Is Brand New
https://gamerant.com/mario-kart-8-deluxe-new-tracks-unique-fe...

It's so hard to get accurate information when media can't be trusted to verify information before publishing

@JaxonH, it is indeed from Tour.

Source: my phone's screenshot file.

Have the expansion pack now and played some of the N64 games. I... don't really understand the complaints. I tried a few of the games that I've played before, and they feel fine, aside from some awkward button mappings.

@kkslider5552000 Mario Kart, but with the sort of sp content found in CTR is what I want most from the series.

With that said, considering Link and a few other characters are already in "Mario" Kart now, I feel like turning it into a Smash-esque celebration of Nintendo is overdue.

@RR529
Lol I didn't need screenshot proof 🙃 Photo evidence is for convincing someone who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge something.

I already acknowledged it was in Tour in my previous statement, where I called out the incorrect article making the claim.

Anyways, since you play Tour on your phone, can you comment on the graphical comparison to the Switch version? I saw a GameXplain video comparing the two and Switch looked waaaay better- the Tour footage looked 480p and stuttering around 20 fps. I suspect they were running the game on a decade old phone.

Would be nice to see a real comparison from a modern phone in HD, or impressions from someone who's played both (granted, the smaller phone screen will likely make it look much better than it would if the screens were the same size)

@Ralizah
They patched some games up so the experience now is much better than it was at launch, at least for certain games like Zelda Ocarina of Time.

That said, I always felt the games were fine- certainly a step up from the Wii U with its darker image. Every game I've played has looked and played great, with the exception of F-Zero X, which unfortunately suffers frame rate drops occasionally. It's still playable but, when it happens from time to time, it's very noticeable. I'm hoping they'll fix it though like they did with Zelda.

As for the next Mario Kart, Deluxe is peak Mario Kart in its current form. The anti gravity, large roster and 96 total tracks has taken it as far as it can go without a major change up, imo.

Maybe they will count Tour as the 9th game and use the Roman numeral for 10 on the next entry, as it would have double meaning for "Cross", since a Smash Bros style mish mash is the next logical step.

By crossing over with other series it would allow for a much more interesting roster, a massive well to draw from for track design, and new mechanics could include dynamic tracks similar to Sonic Racing Transformed. They flirted with the idea in some Tour tracks but the next entry could go all out with the idea.

@link3710 The Tokyo Mirage Sessions port fits more with the angle I was taking as Chrom is in that game. That said I am making an assumption that Ridley and Dark Samus will be in Metroid Prime 4 which may not be the case so either works I guess.

@Ralizah It's a gradual improvement situation, what you see now is improved from how things were in October.

@JaxonH I definitely agree. With the DLC playing both with non-mario characters (original DLC) and changing tracks (current DLC) there's no way these things aren't experiments for the next game. Whether they move forward with them or not, they at least have to be under consideration.

But seriously, tracks inspired by Zora's Domain, Sky Sanctuary, Forest of Hope, or Lunar Sanctum could be gorgeous and totally different from anything Mario Kart has done before.

@link3710
We've gotten a taste of it with the Hyrule Castle, Animal Crossing, Excite Bike and 2 different F-Zero courses.

But a full blown crossover with 30-40 tracks from dozens of different franchises could be really interesting.

@Grumblevolcano @JaxonH Sounds like waiting to subscribe was the right choice, then. I'll probably wait for Nintendo to do whatever with F-Zero, in that case.

Yeah, they fixed those complaints but even at launch, the majority of games were fine.

I feel like Mario Kart should do a lot more for Mario stuff that isn't the same characters that are always in the multiplayer Mario games before they spend much time looking towards other series. Be a better Mario love letter before that. Like it really annoys me nowadays that Mario relies so much on familiar characters and settings and everything to sell itself and yet refuses to acknowledge almost anything that isn't the mainline platformers, and sometimes not even in creative, new ways.

(also it makes sense to save non-Mario stuff for DLC imo)

@Ralizah
Oh ya. If we're talking full price, I'd still be waiting in all likelihood. Though to be fair, if I didn't care about owning expansions and DLC and just cared about playing them, that probably would have sold me. At $25/pop, just one of them covers the extra cost for that yr (and we've already gotten 2 in the last 6 months), and the N64/Genesis is kinda like a freebie.

If you can get in on a family plan though with some other members here, I wouldn't hesitate. At $10/yr it's actually half the price of the base membership, with N64 (and even though I don't play the Genesis much, it is nice having them all in one collection without lag like the other retail collection had, and without having individual Ages releases). Sin and Punishment is excellent (and in English), Mario Kart 64 and F-Zero X with online is a dream come true, and there's actually a really solid selection despite the relatively small total number of games. Almost every single one is a banger. I expect by the end of this year, we'll have quite the N64 collection.

@JaxonH I'd probably never sub individually. I used to go in with a forum member on a family plan, but I've transitioned to an actual family plan with my family, since most of us play on the Switch.

Will probably never play MK64 again with MK8D having actual post-launch support, but it'll be nice having access to portable versions of Banjo-Kazooie, Paper Mario, Sin and Punishment, and so on.

@Ralizah
Paper Mario is so good. It holds up beautifully and actually looks pretty good in HD thanks to its style.

@JaxonH Yes, yes, absolutely YES. Paper Mario is probably my favourite game on the entire service. I have over 15 hours in it already and it's so much fun to time attacks/blocks, explore the locals and interact with the at times absolutely bonkers characters. It's just a really wholesome experience that I would wholeheartedly recommend to everyone who has the service.

Imagine a track based on "Garden of Hope" from Pikmin.

A Paper Mario track (honestly surprised they haven't done this yet).

A Kid Icarus track with that fantastic theme tune and lots of floating ancient Greek style architecture.

Personally I'd like to see Fourside from Earthbound. Moonside could be an upside down anti-gravity section under the main city.

Of course they could even make a "Smash Bros." themed course with Master hand occasionally crushing racers.

I'm not sure which I'd prefer because I found it really cool how they turned Frontier Village into a Mario track (Wild Woods) but at the same time having it stay as a Xenoblade track with Shulk added to Mario Kart would've also been really cool.

I do think however the Mario side of things being expanded should be what comes first, MK8 Deluxe doesn't even have characters such as Birdo and Diddy Kong which previously appeared in Double Dash and Wii.

I'm sure Nintendo will keep the Mario Kart name even if they heavily expand the number of other franchises featured in it. And I do think Mario should always be the main focus; I like seeing more obscure Mario characters and locations show up, and there'd probably be less of those if it was a full-on Nintendo Kart.

@Grumblevolcano Is Wild Woods confirmed to be based on Frontier Village or is it just speculation?

@Grumblevolcano I kind of feel like Diddy Kong not being there is deliberate because they still have it somewhere in their Nintendo lizard brain that they might one day do "Diddy Kong Racing 2".