Why mariokart Wii is a insulting piece of ...

[tongue_of_colicab]

I hate this game, I hate it. And I hate the people who made it even more. The game is a complete insult to those who are playing it. The only intention of this game is to screw the player over as much as possible, I honestly believe its programmed to base actions on how the player can be screwed.

I'll explain. Its not about the only, but about the Grand Prix mode. I'll leave out the 50 and 100cc mode but they are essentially the same only it shows less.

In 150cc mode its impossible to win based on skills. Now before you think I might suck, thats not it. I wont claim im such good at the game but when im driving #1 each race I should be good enough to win. That is, untill the game's build in defence mode comes into play.

I've never played the n64 and gc versions much but in the snes version and MK DS skill was needed to really win. Items have always played a role in such that sometimes you'd lose by them and sometimes you'd win because of them but in most cases skill would be rewarded.

Not in Mariokart wii. You cant win with skills because the game wont allow you to. What basically will happen every race in 150cc mode is that you will be #1 for about 2.5 laps and than the defence mode will kick in and rape you. All the things that are happening are impossible just by bad luck. I cant prove it but im sure the game is programmed that way.

A few examples are:
Green shields bouncing around hitting you in impossible places. For some very strange reason a green shield bouncing around will always find you sooner or later. This happens so often it cant be a matter of chance anymore.

Blue shields: The game is programmed to hit you when you are making a jump. So you dont only get hit by the shield but also drop in the gap and lose more time. This happens on such a regulair basis its not a matter of bad luck anymore.

Being hit by items: This is another perfect example of something that cant be just bad luck. What often happens is you will be #1 near the end of the race. You will get hit by a blue shield. Cpu's will pass you. You will be hit by a cpu with a star, by one with a rocket, hit by a green shield. And you'll be 10th with just a few meters to go. This will happen regulairy.

Item luck: How the .... is it possible that #2 will get 3 red shields near the end of the race and screw you that way? again this isnt something that happens on the rare occasion, its something that will happen once every GP if you have bad luck.

This are just a few examples of things that will happen time and time again. It makes me so angry because winning isnt a matter of skill anymore at all. Its just a matter of luck if you wont get screwed by the cpu for a change. I think its a pathetic attemt at making the game suited for everybody because all they did is make a game that isnt suited to anybody because the game just isnt fair. Whoever made the design dessions on this game is absolutely incompetent and should never be allowed to work on anything again imo as its just retarded how this game works.

 

[woundingchaney]

So how do you really feel??

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sounds like regular computers cheating to me. And they do! In FIFA if the computer is losing with seconds to go, it'll pull off a load of never-before-seen manoeuvres, muck up the player switching, and readily cruise in a blinder, the sort which you won't get one in ten, but the computer gets whenever it needs one. Eye Of Judgment similar cheats, pulling out just the right combo where statistically the chances of having the right cards at that time are very low. There's a big Fire God card that's very tough, but can be killed by moving it off a fire square. Only two cards in the standard deck can do this, and every time I've played my god card, the computer has had one of these to kill it off readily. Not me. No, I have to put up with this god beating me up continually as my God-killing cards are right at the bottom of my deck, but the computer never suffers such inconveniences.

The truth is computers are sore losers and cheat, in lots of games.

 

[JPT]

The truth is computers are sore losers and cheat, in lots of games.

There should be an option to ban the computer when it cheats.......

 

[fallguy]

The N64 version was very bad for this. You'd be 100 yards ahead, going full speed in first place, and they'd catch you just at the end. I got so mad, so many times. I cheated it, with cheats.

 

[Rangers]

I DESPISE rubber band AI.

The point IMO of playing the "AI" is having a CONSTANT yardstick to measure how good you are.

 

[pjbliverpool]

The N64 version was very bad for this. You'd be 100 yards ahead, going full speed in first place, and they'd catch you just at the end. I got so mad, so many times. I cheated it, with cheats.

Agreed. Speed meant literally nothing in that game. You could be going full pelt, knock out the guy in front of you with a shell - bringing him to a complete standsti as you pass, and then within about 3 seconds he's caught up and overtaking you!

If the Wii version is similar then i'm not impressed at all. As the OP said, The snes and GBA versions required true skill but the 64 version was more about luck and patience.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What N64's Mario Kart was for me was some of the best split-screen multiplayer action ever. The racing was okay, duped in a rush of karting games at the time where they were all much of a like. But the combat arenas were great fun, with no AI at all!

 

[V3]

My strategy with Mario Kart series especially the later ones when against the comp is to be number 2 and tail number 1 until near the finish line where you screw number 1 comp and mess up the comp championship point. And watch the comps screw each other. Just don't run away with the race because the comp will find away to screw you. If you want to run away with the race snake all the way, that way the comp can't catch you. But I heard you can't snake anymore on the Wii version, which is good, but probably bad news if you are against comp.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

The problem is that in what I think is a attempt to make the game ''playable'' for everyone they totally lost out on the balance of the game. What they essentially did is punish being fast but not being a good player isnt working either because in the middle of the field you dont have a chance either because you'll constantly be hit with items. In the end I dont think anyone will like that kind of balance. Good players will get frustrated and even novice players will notice they get screwed and what little skill they might have wont be rewarded.

There are just to many items and the strong items are given way to often. In the old snes days it was special to get a star or a lightning even when you were in last place. In MK wii you get hit by a lighning like 6 times every race. Than there are the blue shields that will hit you atleast 1 time every race if you are #1 and that stupid POW attack that will also get you atleast once and more likely twice every race. Also you can atleast get a item like 3 times every lap, but this is useless because as #1 you will never get anything good so all it does is load up the backmarkers with the items you cant dodge meaning you will get hit very often ruining the speed of the game and because all the cpu drivers stick together unlike the other MK games getting hit once or twice in a short time (which happens often) means you will be in the middle pack right away getting hit by even more shit. And what is even worse is that even there you wont get items to fight yourself back. Some speeds or a red shield most of the time, but that doesnt help much given how often you will be hit in the middle of the field.

Online I didnt noticed the balance problem so much yet, seems the really strong items dont get given so often and ofcourse the fact that the backmarkers online usually arnt very fast anyway also helps to divide the field some more. So atleast that is a plus as you probably turn out to play online more anyway though I still find the tracks arnt very good for most of the part. Just to wide and too easy, I much rather have snes style tracks that are very thin and really need some skill to overtake and be fast on.

 

[fallguy]

Agreed. Speed meant literally nothing in that game. You could be going full pelt, knock out the guy in front of you with a shell - bringing him to a complete standsti as you pass, and then within about 3 seconds he's caught up and overtaking you!

If the Wii version is similar then i'm not impressed at all. As the OP said, The snes and GBA versions required true skill but the 64 version was more about luck and patience.

Even worse, is that it that with multiplayer as well. It was actually a wise "strategy" to hold back a bit, till the last 1/2 lap, then pass up whoever you were racing at the end. Which of course was sandbagging.. and started an argument. :/

I hate racing games with this cheat feature enabled, its idiotic. If its this was in the multiplayer, its going to make racing not fun at all. There shouldnt be any handicap at all. If you suck, you suck. Get better.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The problem is that in what I think is a attempt to make the game ''playable'' for everyone they totally lost out on the balance of the game. What they essentially did is punish being fast but not being a good player isnt working either because in the middle of the field you dont have a chance either because you'll constantly be hit with items. In the end I dont think anyone will like that kind of balance. Good players will get frustrated and even novice players will notice they get screwed and what little skill they might have wont be rewarded.

Actually, on the truly casual end, which we're led to believe makes up a lot of the Wii owners, I don't think they care. I know people who play games without any sense of skill or fairness, just pressing buttons and seeing results and laughing wildly when stuff happens. Picking up items, shooting them off, no tactics, no sense of striving for first through skilful play. And they're happy and enjoy themselves. If there's any degree of skill to winning, the 'gamers' always win out and the 'non-gamers' get fed up with never being able to win, so don't bother playing. That's perhaps a big turn-off for non-gamers getting into games, which people maybe mistake for overly complex controls? If it's too hard for them to win, it's no fun so they stop trying. Especially in competitive multiplayer. Thus a truly level playing field has to be random chance so no-one has superiority,and in contrast to yourself I think there're lots of people who are happy with that balance.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

But how can they be happy with the balance? If I who's somewhat better than a non gamer cant win than how can a non gamer be satisfied with constantly being at the back, getting a good item and move up a bit, than get trown back again? And if they are satisfied with that than that makes mariokart wii even worse because than there wouldnt be a reason to make the game like it is to begin with and they could have just sticked with skill being the most important thing. You'd get the same results anyway only skilled people will be happy that skill pays off. Seems like a win win situation to me than.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

But how can they be happy with the balance? If I who's somewhat better than a non gamer cant win than how can a non gamer be satisfied with constantly being at the back, getting a good item and move up a bit, than get trown back again?

I haven't played MarioKart Wii yet so can't comment on its specific implementation. If a noob can't win through lucky pickups, then it won't work. Generally though the moving up and down the pack at random is all good fun to some folk, getting to blast rivals, get blasted at the finishing line, all in good humour. If you don't have a sense of superiority, you won't get upset by being trumped at the finish because that's all fair in the way the game is. It's only if you feel you deserve to win that an unlucky impact feels like being robbed, rather than another player getting lucky. If you pick 6 numbers for the lottery and don't win, and someone else does, do you get angry? Nope (I hope!). It's a fair game of chance. Some computer games go that route.

 

[taucias]

Mario Kart games have ALWAYS cheated. It's just worse now that they have the big blue shells and some other gameplay mechanics have been tweaked. The last decent Mario Kart game was the GBA one, and that was not as good as the SNES original.

Also the track design gets worse every iteration.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Have you played the DS version? that was pretty good. Also nice track design. I think the advantage the snes version has is its simplicity. Just a track and thats its, gfx dont matter. I cant wait untill the snes version gets released on the VC btw. I'll gladly buy a 20 euro points card for that.

 

[Vic]

I DESPISE rubber band AI.

The point IMO of playing the "AI" is having a CONSTANT yardstick to measure how good you are.

Motorstorm is terrible for this.

The number of times I had to repeat the level 4 and 5 races because of this was painful.

 

[MulciberXP]

...

 

[fallguy]

Ugh, and they nerfed the gamecube controller. Its better for the game, and they tried to equalize it, but not letting you remap X, and Y is the same as Z. No map the "trick" button to one of those either.

 

[NERO]

I purchased the game on launch day and cleared the 50cc (Kart) tourneys as an undefeated, but I am sure the game will start to get really cheap - just like all the other ones! I will post a better assesment once I get to the 150cc races, but Toc, you seem to be complaining about a problem that has always existed in this series. If it has gotten worse then I guess I'm going to find out soon, but all MK gameplay has gone for me as such:

First run through easy (50cc) I destroy the AI.
First run though normal (100cc) I destroy the AI most of the time, but lose (get 3rd or 4th) some of the time. After destroying 100cc I attempt 150cc.
First run through hard (150cc) the AI pretty much kills me and I win when they kill each other. Through repitition I eventually destroy 150cc.

I'm pretty sure MKW will unfold as above and am guessing that the cheapness will unfold when I am karting against my friends or online (which I have yet to test). I am just going to stick to the strategy that has alway worked; Race skillfully and when in front - despite getting only bananas and green shells - using items as shields. If I get hit with the blue shell, I just keep racing.