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Mario Kart 8


Crowbar Man
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Honestly this game may be one of the hardest Mario Kart's I've played. Not necessarily a bad thing, but kinda, hahahaha. It took me a while to realize what was making it hard, but I've figured most of it out.

For one, the handling in this game is much trickier. Not necessarily hard, but I've basically had to relearn how to drift in this game compared to other games. Granted, each and every single Mario Kart game kinda has a different drift mechanic and so I've had to learn how to do it in every single one. Double Dash remains my favorite with all the mechanics.

For two, as if it was hard enough to get back up to speed in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, it's only harder in this game. It's kinda a pain. I don't really like it. Again, getting back up to speed in Double Dash was my favorite because getting hit would definitely affect you, but you could easily get back up to speed so it wasn't frustrating as crap.

And for three, the red shells in this game are way faster than previous Mario Kart games. I think that goes for the green shells as well, because the mechanics for the shells cause green shells to be way more bound to hit someone in this game. I honestly get freaked out now when someone throws a green shell and it passes by me. Green shells are far more deadly in this game, which is funny to say. With red shells, I mean, just watch them. They go really freaking fast. So that basically is a really bad situation for an opponent that's right in front of another opponent holding a red shell. There's basically no way to defend that. The opponent ahead has no time to react and defend himself with an item or anything. So then it comes so suddenly and the player doesn't even realize what just--literally--hit him. So that can get frustrating as well.

My other issues with the game include the fact that they got rid of the map from the HUD on the screen and that honestly really frustrates me. I can get over it but they slowly but surely get rid of more and more stuff from the HUD every game. Again, this is where Double Dash nailed it. It had the top 4 places, your speed (which, let's be honest, was pointless, but I still loved it; but that was a reasonable thing to get rid of), the map, your place, and the time (speaking of time, they got rid of times in the results... -_- I liked to see how far in the lead I was or how close the race was, so that disappointed me). It had all the details and it wasn't cluttered. Every game I assume they were just trying to make it more simple by keeping as little on the screen as possible, but in all honesty it's just annoying because that was all useful information. Now they've basically got the laps, your coins, and your place, and that's it. They fit the map and other information on the gamepad, but let's be honest, we all know they did that just to try and give the stupid gamepad some use. The gamepad actually can be used for good, but a game like Mario Kart basically has no use for the gamepad. I'm not gonna wanna constantly move my head up and down from the screen to the gamepad looking for the information I need. It's just dumb. The map is also extremely useful in battle and it wasn't there, which was a little annoying.

And yeah, battle is kinda stupid. I got over it and I kinda like it now, but honestly it was an idea they had that didn't quite work. I kinda get what they were trying to do and it had potential I think, but it didn't go the way I think it should've gone. In fact it kinda felt like they had the idea but were on a major time crunch so they just put 8 maps from the race tracks and just stuck them in there and changed the rules to battle instead. If they had gone through and really worked on changing the stages to really work with battle, that would've been way cooler. But honestly, I can still enjoy battle in this game. And you can set to bob-ombs only so that's about the closest we're getting to Bob-omb Battle hahahaha

Honestly though, while it totally sounds like I'm bashing the game and the game isn't all that great, it truly is a really really fantastic game. I have no regrets for buying the game, despite its flaws, some being major ones. The game is honestly really great. Definitely a must-buy for the Wii U. In some regards I think this game is far better than its home console predecessor, Mario Kart Wii, and in other ways, it's not. But above all, Double Dash reigns forever as king of Mario Kart. Ok, maybe you don't all have to agree with any of that but I think Double Dash is the greatest Mario Kart existing. I'm in hopes they'll eventually make one that I love more but I honestly really doubt it.

Edited by Garrett Williamson
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Tomorrow night will be Frantic Friday. Powerful items will have a higher chance of appearing. I'm not sure how much higher, but I want to find out.

Need some people who aren't as good as Lemon on the OCR tourney, maybe someone who is worse than me (if that is even possible).

Tourney system is pretty cool though!

We also need some people who are better than me! :< Maverickk put up a good fight when we raced earlier in the week.

For one, the handling in this game is much trickier. Not necessarily hard, but I've basically had to relearn how to drift in this game compared to other games. Granted, each and every single Mario Kart game kinda has a different drift mechanic and so I've had to learn how to do it in every single one. Double Dash remains my favorite with all the mechanics.

Mario Kart Wii, 7, and 8 all have similar drifting styles (especially compared to how drastically they used to change it from game to game). Are you trying different vehicles? There are a few bikes that I can't handle at all because the drifting is completely different. Way too tight for me.

the mechanics for the shells cause green shells to be way more bound to hit someone in this game. I honestly get freaked out now when someone throws a green shell and it passes by me. Green shells are far more deadly in this game, which is funny to say.

What a nice segue into our first highlight video:

I'm gonna upload highlights as unlisted videos so I don't annoy my subscribers. I'll also post them to the tournament Miiverse community. If you do something awesome and/or horrifyingly cruel when I'm halfway around the track, you're probably on your own when it comes to highlighting it, though.

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I may join you guys tomorrow if I can correctly guess the hour when you play. Damn timezones.

The game should tell you in your own time if you check the tournament details.

I'm also making this post at 11:39PM my time. The tournament started two and a half hours ago. Check the timestamp, assuming your forum time is configured correctly.

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The game should tell you in your own time if you check the tournament details.

I'm also making this post at 11:39PM my time. The tournament started two and a half hours ago. Check the timestamp, assuming your forum time is configured correctly.

Your 11:39PM is our 12:39AM :-o You're a whole day ahead of us! Or an hour behind. HOW WOULD WE KNOW!!

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Mario Kart Wii, 7, and 8 all have similar drifting styles (especially compared to how drastically they used to change it from game to game). Are you trying different vehicles? There are a few bikes that I can't handle at all because the drifting is completely different. Way too tight for me.

Well there are 4 bikes that have inside drifting, similar to how bikes handled in Wii. I use one of them (Jet Bike) and it definitely took some getting used too, but I got it down because that bike is pretty fast.

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Well there are 4 bikes that have inside drifting, similar to how bikes handled in Wii. I use one of them (Jet Bike) and it definitely took some getting used too, but I got it down because that bike is pretty fast.

Inside drifting was actually really great in Mario Kart Wii and really hard to control in this one. My vehicle in Mario Kart Wii is the Mach Bike and it controls wonderfully with drift. It's much harder to do that stuff in this game.

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Tournaments work kind of like the communities from Mario Kart 7. The main difference is that I can set a specific day and/or time for it to run. With the current settings, the game will count points from 9-10PM CDT daily. It's "open" 24/7, but it's unlikely you'll find anyone outside the scheduled time unless you arrange it outside the game. We don't have enough OCR Karters for random matches all day.

Anyway. There aren't any brackets or long-term competitions; every night has separate point standings.

Also of note: Usually it'll be 150cc racing, all items. Tonight, items are set to frantic mode. I could even set team nights or no-item nights or the equivalent of bob-omb blast battle mode if anyone's interested. I want to try to keep things fresh. Mostly it'll be pretty standard, though.

Psst Crowbar Man, put the code in the first post already

Edited by Hylian Lemon
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If there's one thing I'm not satisfied with about the tournament setup, it's that it decides to split up a group of five people into two separate sets of races for no reason. We (Crowbar, wildfire, Mirby, jnWake, and me) got to race together as one group two or three times at the end, but most of the time we were separated. There are five of us, game. Put us together.

It was fun, anyway. Frantic mode gets more frantic the more people you have playing, so the 2-player races weren't really any more interesting than usual in terms of items, but the 5-player races were absolute bloodbaths.

Either way, lots of tense moments tonight.

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Yeah, I had to figure out how to get back into the group because idiot me was trying to toy with different kart combination (something I should of done before the tourney) and then when I came back i was like in my own new group. Everybody was racing without me! Wouldn't even let me spectate! Luckily I found (by the end of the tourney), I could see you guys on my friends list and rejoined the group.

I wonder if its because the amount of concurrent races are set to "No Limit"? I'll go look at these options and see what all settings there.

Other than that, it was fun! I'm literally terrible, but I had fun!

Edited by Crowbar Man
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I wonder if its because the amount of concurrent races are set to "No Limit"? I'll go look at these options and see what all settings there.

The "no limit" setting means that it won't stop counting your points after you do a certain number of races. I was in one tournament that tells you you're done after you finish 8 races.

For now, I'd say don't quit to change anything mid-tournament. Multiple people seem to have had problems with this. If you must, do what crowbar did and join back in through the friends page (if you aren't friends with any of us, there's a section for people you've recently raced).

Edited by Hylian Lemon
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I've been doing so many online races, I've forgotten how angry the computer players can make me in 150cc and mirror mode. Two more cups left to get three-star rankings in! I've gone through them like five times each only to get ruined at the end.

It's funny how comparatively not-angry I am when real players do the same thing to me.

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A friend and I were up at DarkeSword's house this weekend and I got a chance to put some serious time in with this. Holy shit, this game is fun! The highlight reels are amazing, of course, but it's a very solid quality Mario Kart even past that. I didn't get a chance to play Star or Special Cup, but I enjoyed all the new courses in Mushroom and Flower, and some of the modern recreations of the old stages are devious.

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