It sucks for things like when you have one shell or bannana.

pokepal148 said:

It sucks for things like when you have one shell or bannana.

Absolutely!

@MasterSandman II Totes agree mate.

@Mr_Mustache

Sorry dude, I'll be out to dinner. Aunt and uncle are staying with us too. Friday night might be a long shot.

I'm hopping on. Anyone, feel free to join in.

Its almost 5am. Might play a few rounds. I probably should be going to bed, so I'm well rested by noon. Damn, Nintendo's stream better be silky smooth this year!!! If the stream starts lagging, even a tiny bit, them I'm just going back to bed and I'll watch it later on youtube or through the Wii U's eshop.

I was sick yesterday and could barely move. I started yesterday needing two more 150cc cups to have all three-stars in everything and had 56/90 stamps. I finished yesterday having all cups three-starred and 80/90 stamps (all new courses finished).

@TheOldManFromZeldayou're killing me.

@Mop it up Do you mean in battle mode or racing mode? I've played racing mode online and I love the item balance. They finally turned down the arms war nature of their items and took a step back, so instead of more and more uber items with uber items being the only items worth using, there is a much bigger focus on regular items.

@Zero Yeah, I mean racing online. It may feel like it's better at first, but in this game, if you get screwed by items, there's nothing that's going to help you catch back up to even things out. Not to mention, you'll lose all your coins and be slower than the 1st place, maybe 2nd and 3rd as well, who can easily grab and keep ten coins. The rest of the pack will be clobbering each other and losing coins left and right, all the while the top places gaining more of a lead, and since things like the spiny shell got nerfed there's not really anything to stop them now. Many races are decided in the first few seconds, whoever escapes from the pack will have a mostly uncontested first the whole race, unless they suck at driving. That ain't balance, it's luck.

@Mop it up I'd argue things are way less luck based now. 1st might have some kind of huge unfair advantage if they can pull far ahead from the pack (though I've never quite agreed with the logic of that), but it's also not nearly as likely anymore that you will get a huge dose of luck that propels you to a far ahead 1st, because due to there being less of the uber items everywhere, there are less of those uber explosions that take out half the pack going on... to get far ahead of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. you actually kind of have to outrace them in most cases.

You also seem to get a lot more mushrooms now in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. while 1st pretty much never gets them.

Also I've been in 2nd with a single red shell and nailed the person in 1st, something that just never happened in the most recent Mario Kart games. Feels so sweet.

I dunno. It is a bit tougher to catch up when you're behind now, but it's also not as common to get totally screwed out of nowhere, and I prefer that to the old "it sort of doesn't matter what place you're in until the last 30 seconds because you're probably going to get randomly Fed anyway" feel of the older games. It's more of a... gasp... racing game now? As in, if you're behind someone, you actually (sort of) have to race better than they are to catch up. And you can get into a decent rhythm with your racing without worrying about getting stopped in your tracks every 10 or 20 seconds or so. I like that.

This feels a lot closer to "strategic items" from the Wii version, my favorite mode which wasn't playable online and thus I rarely got to play.

@Zero Keep playing, it'll happen. Especially as your ranking increases and you find better players. I've been in plenty of rooms where there were tonnes of items flying around, and it's a toss up right until the end. Lots of races have ended with getting screwed over at every turn, especially during the last 30 seconds. Also if you had a red in second and first place had gotten a coin from the item box, that ain't skill, that's luck. And even if you are better than the racers ahead of you, you won't be catching them if you have zero coins and they have lots of coins.

I'm not the only one who feels this way either, there are plenty of discussions on the Internet about how unbalanced this game actually is.

Your description of past Mario Kart games is the opposite of my experience in Mario Kart Wii, I had no trouble consistently getting the top ranks in that game. Even if things went badly, there was a certain method to that game's madness, skillful ways to race and use items that would allow me to catch up and keep it up. It felt like the most balanced Mario Kart game to me, the original notwithstanding.

Well sure, there will be times when items are flying everywhere, but I like that this isn't the norm anymore. As for coins, I pretty much always have the max by halfway through the race. Another benefit of not getting hit by items every 10 seconds.

I'm not sure what "plenty of discussions on the Internet" about how unbalanced it is really means. There are always tons of discussions on the Internet about how unbalanced Mario Kart games are.

Whatever the case I've already put in like 3 or 4 hours online and I'm enjoying it way more than any other recent Mario Kart game's racing. I don't expect that to just up and change. It feels so nice to not worry about getting constantly bombarded. I'll take that over perceived imbalances any day.

@Zero It has been the norm for me, most players get hit every 10-20 seconds in races I play. Coins flying everywhere. I suspect that your experience has been more luck-based than you've realised, as this game can sometimes do a good job of hiding its balance issues. Like if you luck into first and don't see how much the rest of the players are killing each other, one might think it's more balanced. The imbalance is there, whether or not everyone notices is a different matter.

I've seen more discussions on MKVIII's balance than any other. And they revolve around it being the least balanced in the series rather than just discussions of how balanced the game actually is, so it's a little different this time.

Yeah I don't know, I feel like first place is just way more within reach now. I felt like before, the person that could get out in front would be there, especially if they were using a bike or something to pull off wheelies (which were harder to pull off in the thick of the pack). When I race online in MK8, I consistently see the same people come out on top. If I see some guy always coming in first or second, I rarely see him plummet down to 6th or something. It's all about getting to the front and ditching items until you can play more defensively. I hated how racers in earlier games could just be way too defended in first place. It made winning a race way harder unless someone jumped out of the pack early.

@PogueSquadron Yeah, when it comes to characters and vehicles then Mario Kart VIII is more balanced than MKWii and probably some other games in the series as well. They did a good job there. When I talk balance then I just mean the item and coin systems, that's worse now.

Now that you mention it, the coins are basically this game's version of the wheelie. It would be a much more balanced game without coins.

I dunno, I can only get lucky for so many hours in a row before I consider it a trend. I've played with a bunch of different people, tons of races, been in various spots in the pack. Rarely last though, which also feels so nice, because I'm not really a poor enough racer to be in last... I just would end up there in the other games a lot because of getting pounded by items.

Oh yeah, can I mention how much I love that it takes a lot less time for Lakitu to get you back on the track when you get knocked off as well? So sweet. They removed a bunch of the frustrations for me.

I think it's probably a matter of taste too. The best item balances to me have been the original Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart Wii's strategic items mode. That should tell you something about my tastes. I despise the push towards more and more uber items in well... pretty much every Mario Kart game since the 64.

I haven't gotten last either and I've gotten plenty of top three wins. But most of the time I feel like I lucked into them. Also, maybe you just like the way this game controls better so you're actually more skilled at this game than previous Mario Kart games? I hope this doesn't sound disrespectful, but it is a possibility.

Yeah, the faster recovery for falling off is nice, especially because most often I get pushed off course by a racer or item, so it doesn't add much more lost time. I kind of feel like some of the items should have more of a kick though, the boomerang for example barely slows down whoever it hits.

You may be right about the taste thing too, I love chaos. Love it. But, I still like there to be a method to the madness, and I felt one out in Mario Kart Wii. I haven't found one in this game yet, it just feels too random to me. Also, I should acknowledge that I may be speaking too soon. This game just came out, so maybe I will figure out a method to its madness over time. This is just my first impression of it, I s'pose.

I actually kind of maybe prefer the controls in 7 though? As I stated up above somewhere, things feel a tad loose in this game. Although I'd love if it turned out I was more skilled in it.

I like chaos in certain tracks, like Baby Park. I hate when it feels like every track is chaos...

@Mop it up I feel like the coins don't really make you that much faster. Do they?

I've liked the item balance. I feel like they mostly always give you what you need to advance. You get a ton of triple mushrooms now, but if you know the tracks, it can really help you out a lot.