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Mario Kart 8 is the worst 3d mario kart

The Gameplay Is Conservative As Fuck - Again, I don't see this as much of a problem. 3D in MK64, the parts in MK7... were a sorta obvious addition. What would satisfy you here? 32 players? 12 players locally? MORE vehicle modes (sleighs? motorboats? pogo sticks?)
I would love to see these actually even though they would look so silly. There was a sleigh cart in mkwii, though
 

ffdgh

Member
Yeahhhh no...

The things I CAN agree with is battle mode(Still fun), the character balance is indeed horrendous. Seriously heavy weights are overpowered and light weights are nearly useless. Distance items is annoying outside of frantic, coins as items are stupid and Greens/triple reds are the devil. The roster...Eh I'm cool with it and like the koopalings (Iggy!) but I understand the hate. Glad Pink Gold Peach exist too since she and metal mario are the only heavies I like using for the most part.
KuGsj.gif


...Unrelated but acceleration tiers freaking suck!

MK8 is the "best" in the series in terms of presentation but MK7 is still the best for overall balance and items.
 

BillWalton

Neo Member
They played it too safe but I thought it was the best in the series. Much better than MK Wii. It's not even close to me. I like DD a lot, but MK8 is much more polished. I'm a N64 fanboy, but MK64 is overrated.

Also, Sonic and All-Star Racing Transformed single player > MK8 single player. MK really needs to step up it's single player offerings.
 

Instro

Member
OP is hyperbolic and Mario Kart 8 is the best in the series, but I agree with most of his points. Frankly, it puzzles me the game gets this much praise when most of the series issues are still there, or made even worse:

Agree on this stuff, the OP is exaggerated, but there are many valid criticisms to level at this game, many of which have been present in the series for a while. Widening tracks, online implementation, battle mode, etc. The game of feels like they were doing just enough, and they get away with a fair bit because it's a polished packaged that doesn't look like poop.
 

Yukinari

Member
Also, Sonic and All-Star Racing Transformed single player > MK8 single player. MK really needs to step up it's single player offerings.

Nintendo have been getting their butt kicked in terms of single player for MK the moment Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing came out. Kind of ridiculous how we still have no single player of any description in MK.
 

Boney

Banned
I will read since I'm interested in the discussion but first point to notice is that you're comparing GC Rainbow Road to the first level in 8. And that's rather disingenuous.
 

eXistor

Member
I think it's by far the best Mario Kart there is and I'e played them all since the very first one was released. The worst to me is Double Dash!! That was a snorefest with boring tracks. The only thing it lacked was a decent battle mode, but I'm sure everyone is saying that already. It's not perfect of course, but if anything it made me very excited to see what the next one is gonna be like, they really went all-out with MK8 imo.
 

Giever

Member
There has never been a single Mario Kart game with sound options. MK8 is the one that needs them the least, though.

No, it's infuriating because it needs them the most. I can hardly hear the glorious music over the sound effects. It's fucking awful.
 
Mario Kart 8 is so fucking good dude. I could see why people would prefer 7 or even DS I guess, but you seriously think it's worse than 64? Wii?
 
Battle mode and items are a legit issue, but the rest I can't really agree with.

Even if the game adds relatively few immediately-noticeable mechanics, the antigravity is a nice addition because it's subtle but does have a noticeable impact on game flow. It makes you want to stick around and bump into other players, or prevent them from getting close. And even aside from that, it's just a tight, well-rounded, super polished Mario Kart game system. Can't go wrong with that, really. If you're building on what's already great, then it's hard for me to really call that a downgrade.

I gotta be honest, I see the point on wide courses, but that's been a thing in the series for a long time. And the game moves so fast and has so much going on at once that it never occurs to me.

Speeding up Lakitu is pretty much an objective improvement. It speeds up the game pace and maintains a player's focus, and is far less punishing toward accidents or moments of dumb bad luck.

The Heavy thing... I've never run into that myself, but that's anecdotal. And that speed thing applies to EVERY Mario kart game. It's how the game is designed and balanced. It's not impossible to win with a light or medium character because they have their own advantages, and the kart customization can help compensate. Plus finding shortcuts, drifting smartly, etc...
 

IntelliHeath

As in "Heathcliff"
nbDeqKi.gif


Magical moments like these will never happen in Mario Kart 8. Even if it scars the player its happening to, its a part of what makes mario kart special, and I will not stand to see this removed. At the very least, Nintendo could give us the option in a settings menu to disable fast lakitu recovery in local multiplayer.

There are many magical moments in Mario Kart 8 when MarioKartGAF got together and do the session together. There are a lot of bullshit moments there and sometimes we would get mariokart'd pretty hard.

The GIF I provided isn't best example of the magical moments but it's one of those bullshit moment for Enforced. ;P

L2Alzhj.gif


Also, if people didn't know that we have Mario Kart GAF Community so feel free to visit the thread if some people are interested.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120110&page=58
 

Intel_89

Member
You forgot to mention how they managed to balance karts and bikes this time, Mario Kart Wii was incredibly unbalanced in that regard.
 
You forgot to mention how they managed to balance karts and bikes this time, Mario Kart Wii was incredibly unbalanced in that regard.

This is a good one. It's a subtle change that's not really played up so I forgot about it, but it goes a LONG way into making MK8 a superior entry.
 

m0t0k1

Member
I agree so much on the item parts. Which is why i find this the worst MK. Because they are really important to the gameplay. I think they fixed the tracks with the dlc and the music is already amazing.

You can already stop hoping to win after the first item box sometimes. If you are the one to get hit with the first green shell. Its over you cant win the race any more. You get so much hit stun from that thing. And since all items are weak in comeback there is now way you are coming back. Even if you are way faster there is always a barage of red shells incoming.

The other part what i didn't notice is how much i hate the coin item. You usually get it when you are in first place or second. So that means you grab the most coins and usually already have 10 coins. So its a wasted space usually. Also the worst thing about it is that you have no defence whatsoever. So many times it happend that i fought my way back and almost cought up with first place only to get a coin and the third place getting a red shell and getting a free hit on me.

The other thing i really hate is the mushroom nerf. They do fucking nothing. They only help you cut corners now.

Also agree on characters but heavies where always great in most mk especially in time trial. Almost everybody was using Funky and bowser bike in the Wii and Metal Mario in 7 so hope they can fix that for the next mk.
 
wide tracks sound good to me, new wipeouts are too thin and feel wrong

I didn't play this yet but maybe thats a huge plus. Why you don't wont any moving room?
 
Although not all the positives of MK8 have been pointed out, I agree with quite a lot with OP - thought it was just me well at least now there is 2 of us lol!!!

Especially agree with the Track comments more than anything.

Really surprised at the 64 dislike though by some!
 
You forgot to mention how they managed to balance karts and bikes this time, Mario Kart Wii was incredibly unbalanced in that regard.
Drifting was hard to do in mkwii with cars, online I would just use the sprinter car with automatic on and always did pretty good with it. Didn't have any problems after that.
Mario Kart 8 is so fucking good dude. I could see why people would prefer 7 or even DS I guess, but you seriously think it's worse than 64? Wii?
Wii's item balance was much fairer. People that weren't skilled could actually do well in MKWii. If the games keep playing like 8 does, casuals will abandon it. Also, the tracks in MKWii were light years better than 8. As for 64, it has the best battle mode in the series and even the racing, archaic as it is, has a rough charm about it and is more fun to me than the racing in 8, which boils down to holding r at every wide ass turn you see, of which there are many because the tracks in 8 are so bad.
 
OP says they played "over 3,300 online races" and then proceeds to call it the worst game of the series. Either you're lying to yourself, or you've played this game into the ground and it no longer holds its charm for you. I don't think one can play a game for that amount of time only to turn around and say it's terrible. That just sounds a little insane.
 
Tracks Are Wide As Shit
Battle Mode Still Sucks
You Can't Knock Players Off Track Anymore

I fully agree with all three of these points. I don't necessarily agree with all the others, but they're valid opinions.

8's the one I spent the least amount of time with. Maybe because it's because I'm outgrowing the Mario Kart series, but I feel like 8 didn't do enough to keep me with it.

Also, Double Dash is an incredible Mario Kart game. If you never played co-op, you're missing out on one of the best Mario Kart experiences around.
 
OP says they played "over 3,300 online races" and then proceeds to call it the worst game of the series. Either you're lying to yourself, or you've played this game into the ground and it no longer holds its charm for you. I don't think one can play a game for that amount of time only to turn around and say it's terrible. That just sounds a little insane.

Actually there's a simple explanation for that -
saltiness
 
OP says they played "over 3,300 online races" and then proceeds to call it the worst game of the series. Either you're lying to yourself, or you've played this game into the ground and it no longer holds its charm for you. I don't think one can play a game for that amount of time only to turn around and say it's terrible. That just sounds a little insane.
Its not hard to understand. In my op I said the game was fun at times. Unfortunately, I feel its a disaster compared to the glory of the prior games and a giant fat disappointment. Also, when you own a wii u you have to make do with the games you get.
And you don't have to put quotes around the number, the game records menu said I had 3400 something races logged, but I couldn't remember the exact number so I said over 3300 to be accurate.
 

Intel_89

Member
Drifting was hard to do in mkwii with cars, online I would just use the sprinter car with automatic on and always did pretty good with it. Didn't have any problems after that.

That's fair. Still, MKWii felt just as bare bones as MK8, one would assume that would be improved moving forward, but it wasn't so I guess you can say that's something against MK8. I also agree that the Battle Mode is shit, tracks don't feel that wide for the most part in regard to the new tracks (at least not to me), karts are generally bigger in this game too so they had to make this change, retro tracks feel a bit wierd at first but I don't mind it.
 

Blues1990

Member
I'll give you the lack of returning fan favourite characters, though I thought the Koopalings were long overdue to be included into the roster of a MK game & are much welcomed. Mario Kart 8 is an incredibly solid package & is arguably the best installment in the series.
 

Yukinari

Member
Although not all the positives of MK8 have been pointed out, I agree with quite a lot with OP - thought it was just me well at least now there is 2 of us lol!!!

Especially agree with the Track comments more than anything.

Really surprised at the 64 dislike though by some!

64 is held up on a pedestal for its battle mode and nothing else. The rest of the game is trash by todays standards but was fun back in the day.
 
The other part what i didn't notice is how much i hate the coin item. You usually get it when you are in first place or second. So that means you grab the most coins and usually already have 10 coins. So its a wasted space usually. Also the worst thing about it is that you have no defence whatsoever.

Literally everything you just described is part of how the game is balanced and the only reason why first-place advantage isn't as nearly infallible as it has been historically.

If you have 10 coins and pick up a coin item, hold it until you're about to hit the next set of item boxes. You'll get a small speed boost just for using it, and if you get hit, you can use it immediately to recover some of the coins lost.

And if you're in first or second, you have an inherent advantage since you're ahead of the chaos happening behind. The coin not providing any kind of defensive capability is designed to mitigate some of that advantage and make you more vulnerable.

The other thing i really hate is the mushroom nerf. They do fucking nothing. They only help you cut corners now.

Wii's item balance was much fairer. People that weren't skilled could actually do well in MKWii. If the games keep playing like 8 does, casuals will abandon it.

These two points, taken together, are a really big problem with the game, though. The items offer too much reward for skilled players relative to the tiny reward they offer less skilled players. In reality, that should be reversed.

And the best ways I can see to do that are:

- Offer a bigger boost from Mushrooms and the Star
- Get rid of bob-ombs and replace them with something like the giant shell from Double Dash or the Mega Mushroom from Wii
- Go back to the old style for Triple Bananas, where they're all held behind you instead of revolving around you
 
I don't know if I necessarily agree with all the points in the OP, but I definitely do not enjoy MK8 like I did with MKWii, Double Dash, MK64. Yes it is a beautiful game graphically, but it really lacks the fun factor that MKWii had for me. Plus battle mode is a travesty and I loved battle mode in the previous MK titles.
 

TI82

Banned
Yep, without a doubt this game is not good in my opinion. The roster and battle mode are the biggest WTF decisions, and instead of fixing them we got... Link and Animal Crossing? lol
 
Reading this made me want to play MK8 again, I love it. Couldn't disagree with OP more.

The only thing wrong with MK8 is 200cc, what a mess that is.
 

ajim

Member
I enjoyed it but agree it's overrated.

Sonic & all stars racing transformed is the best 'kart' racer in modern times.
 
OP says they played "over 3,300 online races" and then proceeds to call it the worst game of the series. Either you're lying to yourself, or you've played this game into the ground and it no longer holds its charm for you. I don't think one can play a game for that amount of time only to turn around and say it's terrible. That just sounds a little insane.

I've had this argument with another game.

Sometimes you really cannot understand you don't like the game yet you're playing, and it has nothing to do with it being great but wearing out. Actually this is the "little insane" part where the player is "lying to themself". Typical reason could be summed up as "hype". This does rarely show up with legitimately terrible games, but I doubt OP is going to compare MK8 to something like, I don't know, Techland racer.

Then you wake up. It's not like you're missing something. You simply don't like it.
 

Regginator

Member
There are many magical moments in Mario Kart 8 when MarioKartGAF got together and do the session together. There are a lot of bullshit moments there and sometimes we would get mariokart'd pretty hard.

The GIF I provided isn't best example of the magical moments but it's one of those bullshit moment for Enforced. ;P

L2Alzhj.gif


Also, if people didn't know that we have Mario Kart GAF Community so feel free to visit the thread if some people are interested.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120110&page=58

Yeah I don't think that was a good point of OP. In fact, one of the things I dislike about the otherwise sheer perfect MK8 is that it happens a lot, and it can be very frustrating. Especially playing online where everyone is so close up each others asses
 

yllekz

Banned
I don't think I've ever come across a thread here where literally everything OP says is wrong, but this one wins. Congrats OP.

What a bad review. The game is one of the best in the series (maybe not THE best, but it's in the top 3).

I think you have just played way too much and it's time for you to stop playing. The game is fine.
 

m0t0k1

Member
Literally everything you just described is part of how the game is balanced and the only reason why first-place advantage isn't as nearly infallible as it has been historically.

If you have 10 coins and pick up a coin item, hold it until you're about to hit the next set of item boxes. You'll get a small speed boost just for using it, and if you get hit, you can use it immediately to recover some of the coins lost.

And if you're in first or second, you have an inherent advantage since you're ahead of the chaos happening behind. The coin not providing any kind of defensive capability is designed to mitigate some of that advantage and make you more vulnerable.

I wasn't talking about the first place i was talking about being second. I drive better then the number 1 and 3 i close the gab with the number one only to get coins which is no problem but then when you finally took about a lap to get close bam you get hit and can start over again. 3 nowhere to be seen and 1 getting back all the advantage he had before the lap so i am driving around in no mans land for the rest of the race. Speed boost is neglectable from the coin. I am already using the coin exactly as you describe.

So the coin have more disadvantages for the person in second and third then it has for the first player. because people behind them can get the ocational good item. The only thing hurting the nr1 is the blue shell in races. If no shell appears and i am nr 1 I stay number 1 because of the item balancing.


And if you're in first or second, you have an inherent advantage since you're ahead of the chaos happening behind.

And that is exactly the problem i have with this game. If i start somewhere in the back i always stay in the back. And if i drive in front i usually stay in the top 3 because of those advantages and staying in front of the chaos. with luck needed to get in front. Unlike previous entries.
 
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