I can sympathize with the idea that some players prefer to play a certain way, but man do certain people online have a way of making themselves sound like entitled brats.

Truth be told I was getting pretty tired of random being picked so often anyway, so maybe that’s why I don’t mind as much. But again, I really like the new system they have going on here and I think it’s fine if Nintendo wants to focus on that rather than continually doing the same style of gameplay. Not every game has to do everything.

The "intermission" stuff has grown on me a bit so I wouldn't say the change is a killer but it does kind of suck for people who just want to race the tracks normally. You still have a chance to do that, but it's a tiny chance now.

Also, Nintendo seems really stuck on the idea that intermissions HAVE to be from wherever you currently are, which yeah, makes sense conceptually but when it comes to online mode picking tracks it is a bit strange to be stuck on that. "Random" is a weird beast now, where roughly half the time you get 1 of the 3 courses Nintendo selected for you, usually (but not always) an intermission course, and the other half you get one of the many other courses, which all seem to be in regular multi lap mode. If the goal here was to add more intermission, why not let random still be random but it also randomly chooses between intermission and multi lap?!

I've seen a lot of buzz online for wanting Nintendo to add two different modes, one intermission mode and one multi-lap mode. Sort of makes sense but somehow I don't see Nintendo splitting the userbase this way. I think a decent compromise could be something like not getting too stuck on the map and just having say, 4 courses to choose from (2 intermission, 2 multi lap) and then random as a fifth option, and it will also randomly be intermission or multi lap. Of course, then you lose the sense of intermission really being between where you currently are to somewhere else. But I'm not sure that it important to people who are just playing a few matches online? Plus the knockout mode is still 100% that so it's not like it would destroy the concept.

@TriforceBun

These people loving the game to the point of obsession while also declaring three weeks in that they understand it better than its designers betray a really arrogant "games as software" mindset that I find grotesque. They really think that Nintendo marred the best kart racer ever with boring stretches that serve no greater purpose at all? No meta or feeling that might emerge as time goes on? I'm not even saying that that's impossible; games can have flaws, and developers can have agendas. But rebellion so soon after release is childish.

I had a magical moment last night in Free Roam where the trick system really clicked for me and I realized that this whole world is even more of a playground than I'd thought. It took me like 30-40 hours to get to that point! I can't imagine how much deeper the rabbit hole goes. If there are broken strategies or boring stretches in the long run, let's absolutely criticize them, but let's wait and see.

EDIT: Haha, I wrote this post against the abstract "entitled brats" you were describing, and then maybe the mistake of checking Resetera to see for myself. You've gotta block that site man, those people aren't well.

@Secret_Tunnel
Haha trust me, I don’t even go there. I’m seeing it elsewhere on stuff like Reddit and NintendoLife’s comment sections. I’m not a stranger to criticizing things myself, but there’s sometimes just a certain way that people do it that drives me up to the wall. And now I’m criticizing criticizing!

@TriforceBun

Just gotta remember that for every one of these people, there are literally 10,000 others enjoying the game and not caring. There's this weird midwit thing that goes on with Nintendo where we enlightened mega-fans on sites like Negative World tend to be way more aligned with people who play one game a year than we are with the hardcore gamer experts.

I'm enjoying the game here and there.

In Free Roam, I've found all the ? Blocks, and am around 50% completion for the P Switches and Peach Coins. The P challenges do a nice job of pointing out potential skips and strategies, and I like the little bit of planning that goes into getting the Peach coins once you find them. Getting a new sticker feels nice, too.

I do wish the Free Roam mode had a way of steering me towards new P switches and Peach coins. Waypoints or checklists might be a bit much, but maybe a radar or something would be nice. I made a pretty concerted effort to drive as many roads as I could looking for them, but a lot of the roads look and feel pretty interchangeable, so it's hard to remember which ones I've explored and which ones I haven't.

As for the matchmaking change, I agree with the whiners that shifting the odds in favor of more highway races is a bit of a letdown. They're not terrible or anything, but they're just not as fun as the main courses, and the game has surprisingly few modes where you get to actually do the main courses on their own as it is. It does seem like an issue that people were picking Random so often specifically to avoid the highway races, and I don't know what a perfect solution would be, but this particular response feels very, "I saw you using a ladder to sneak into the cookie jar, so now it's a rice cakes jar :) "

@Zero On the other hand, I feel like there’s gams with smaller user bases that have more playlists. I think MKW could survive a classic playlist addition. Probably not the best example here, but it’s not unlike how they used to have “For fun” and “For glory” in Smash.

I like the intermission tracks but I do think they make Knockout and GP feel too similar. I also feel like there are some courses I’ve literally only driven one lap on, despite putting many hours into the game.

The intermission tracks can be really cool though, especially when they really flow into some sort of climax. There’s times though where it does feel like you’re just wanting to cut to the chase, so to speak.

...I only just realized there are two Crown Cities and Peach Stadiums in Grand Prix.

Great video:



After watching it, I suggested we switch from Grand Prix to Versus Mode, and it's been great! Grand Prix is a fraction of the game!

I've been downloading the top ghosts of a few tracks just to see how the best of the best are playing and it has been pretty enlightening. It's a LOT of grinding rails. They go through some of these courses on paths I didn't even know existed. But it's also skipping a lot of rails too. Some help, some don't.

Also it's cool that you can do that. Just download the ghosts of the best players. I don't have to guess what paths / rails / walls are the best. I can just watch. With that said, I can't even begin to pull off a lot of what these people do. But at least I have a sense of what I could be doing!

I'm now into 150cc with Grand Prix and things aren't a cakewalk anymore! I still win mostly, but it is much closer. Definitely feels like the "real" game at this point. I hear there is a 200cc and if so I'm probably not going to three star every cup, ha ha.

TriforceBun said:

I can sympathize with the idea that some players prefer to play a certain way, but man do certain people online have a way of making themselves sound like entitled brats.

"Sound like."

I'm at 336 P Switches, 126 ? Panels, and 105 Peach Medallions without using guides or checklists, just from exploring the world and enjoying driving around. That's 50 hours of playtime, with probably 2/3 of that in Free Roam, and I'm only now finding it to be getting a bit boring. Incredible. I'll keep playing a little versus mode with the missus here and there. Bring on Donkey Kong!

New update!

Increased the frequency of lap-type courses appearing in the selection when choosing the next course in “VS Race” and wireless races.

Look like they walked back the last update a bit. Not sure how much.

Came back to this for the first time in awhile and almost won my first Knockout Tour! Almost. Was in 2nd and someone behind me shot a blue shell but the 1st place racer crossed the finish line right before it hit. So I had to live with 2nd. The funny thing is I was just squeezing in every single round, was surprised I almost took it all.

Also I think Knockout Tour works better than the regular racing because well... 24 players is just too much with all of the straightaways and items and such. It's hard to really even move much without getting blasted by something. And obviously in Knockout Tour that is true as well at first, but if you get past the first few rounds you have much less players to go up against. And at the very end you can actually kind of just race a bit without getting bombarded?!

Version 1.3.0 is out. Bolded some of the (to me) most important updates. Sounds like some nice balances, like longer invincibility after you get hit. And finally can see the p-blocks you have collected on the map! Interesting that they're moving even further from the "intermission" tracks too. It's been a bit divisive to say the least. (I personally like both types so a good balance would be nice.)

• You can now join friends playing "Knockout Tour" by selecting "Friends" from "Online Play" "1p."
• Up to 2 players can now play "Free Roam" while waiting if the game was full when trying to join friends playing "Race," "Knockout Tour" or "Battle" in "Online Play."
• The "Free Roam" map now displays the locations of P Switches you've run over and Peach Medallions you've obtained.
• You can now select a P Switch from the map and move to a location near the P Switch.
• In "Free Roam", you can now transform into the character pulled into the UFO.
• If "Dash Food" in "Settings/Controller" is set to "Doesn’t transform" then you will not transform.
• It is now easier to encounter UFOs in "Free Roam."
• The conditions for the appearance of some Peach Medallions in "Free Roam" have been adjusted.
• When spectating in "Knockout Tour" or "Balloon Battle" in "Online Play" or "Wireless Play", you can now choose who to watch, even if you are holding the Joy-Con 2 or Joy-Con horizontally.
• Decreased the time between when an item box is taken by someone and the next time it is revived.
• Increased the invincible time after spinning or crashing during a race.
• Reduced the force of jumps when landing on a rival from above.
• Decreased the amount of time between when you finish and when spectating begins in "Knockout Tour" or "Balloon Battle" in "Online Play" or "Wireless Play."
• Decreased the amount of time between passing through the checkpoint and when the ranking is displayed in "Knockout Tour" in "Wireless Play" and "LAN Play."
• Further increased the frequency of lap-type courses appearing in the selection when choosing the next course in "VS Race" and wireless races.

And a bunch of fixes.

Ok I did like 10 races and I don't really see lap type courses appearing any more often? Must be a subtle change.

The item box revival time has definitely sped up though, it's almost impossible to miss it now unless you're RIGHT behind someone.

The longer invincibility is tough for me to judge but anecdotally I'd say there was less of me getting hit then hit then hit before I can recover than there used to be. Actually felt a tad bit more like racing mattered. A tad bit.

Why don’t they just have a Classic GP playlist and a World GP playlist? Surely there’s millions of people that can populate rooms for these? All of these online games tend to have multiple modes and playlists. Look at something like Splatoon.

Is it that they’re just stubborn and don’t want to admit that the new way is just less popular? Do they feel like it’s an admission of failure? I get that Nintendo wants simplicity but this doesn’t seem to be too complicated. Just have a World GP and maybe a “Pro” or Classic mode that puts more emphasis on racing on the actual tracks, fewer racers, etc.

That's the thing, this is an evergreen title, most companies with that kind of title will continually do new playlists / updates and such, but with Nintendo it's like, you get what you get.

@PogueSquadron
Could be that, could be that they're concerned about splitting the userbase? I fall on the side of really liking the new approach so I'm good but there are still some omissions I'd like to see: 2P (online and off) Free Roam and a dedicated jukebox for the music.