Princess Rescuer
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2018
On an unrelated note, I just watched a playthrough of Mario Kart World.
First of all, my earliest gaming memories are with Mario Kart. I've beaten every game (except arcade ones, Augmented Reality, and Tour of course) and I've stuck with it through thick and thin.
Where do I even begin? Previews of Mario Kart World made the game seem like it was about to be full of long, wide, bland highways and commutes every bit as loathsome as the ones you'll do in real life after you turn the console off. And I can't say they're guilty of false advertising. Mario Kart World looks BORING. Lifeless in fact. Tracks almost all feel the same regardless of theme or tone. Possibly to accommodate the fact that there are 24 racers, they are far too wide and lack obstacles. Many parts of them include cars with ramps on the back and boost arrows strewn about with no artistic passion. And since the game was made for the Switch 1 throughout most of its development, it isn't even that pretty. There are tracks from 8 that looked much more polished and visually distinct, compared to World's garish theme park rides.
Much of the music isn't original and has the same tone, even if the original songs had varying ones. The tracks don't feel like places, they feel like theme park versions of Mario Kart tracks. Drive past a Boom Boom in Bowser's Castle, and your reaction isn't "the Boom Boom is coming to get me, I better slip by quick!" it's "oh hey, they made a reference to a Boom Boom, that's kind of nice". Even many of the retro tracks are devoid of original obstacles that made them so exciting. Tracks feel like the aftermath of designers laying them down upon what used to be the untamed lands of old in previous games. Outside of "circuit" tracks, you would go to all corners of the world to get to various tracks. Even when you saw a "tour cruise" ship in Jungle Parkway, it didn't seem like some tacky, corporate, theme park ride, it felt like you were in the deep jungle, in the territory of its natives, going past waterfalls and into a cave, and there happened to be a regular tour ship that has nothing to do with your current race. Choco Mountain went from being a remote mountain to another theme park attraction overlooking other theme park attractions.
Even the obstacles they did bring back don't work right. Some of the highway tracks in previous games had not just regular cars and buses, but bombs on wheels. Run into these and it won't explode, you'll just bump into it like a normal car. Even the minor interactivity the tracks could have had has been reduced. The old tracks are changed to the point of unrecognizability to fit the new gimmicks, and even new tracks are nothing special either. That Boo Cinema track that's been in the previews doesn't reference any particular movies, all it does is have a 3-2-1 circle screen, the one you see BEFORE a movie would start, before driving on a (very bland) film reel and out of a big screen, between the seats of an old-style theater. Again making references to movie-related things but no actual movie scenes. Items make a return, but with no purpose. The Feather was useful in Super because you could cleverly use it to jump over walls and items. In Bowser Castle 3, a difficult track that I struggle with, I like it when I get a feather because it means I can veer to the right after driving over the speed arrow and time a jump to the 3-lane part, skipping the Thwomp barrier, still holding right so I can be prepared to drive in the correct direction. What's the point in a game where tracks are so long and wide and there are no walls or shortcuts? What advantage does it offer?
The final insults come in the form of Bowser Castle and Rainbow Road. As well as three original Mario Circuit Tracks. First off, we are being asked to accept a very compromising definition of "castle", as this Bowser's Castle has normal roads, a restaurant, barely any indoors places with windows, a part where you're launched into space for a disjointed road section, didn't know those were something castles could have, and you finish the track in one lap even though it counts as 5 (not 3?). Rainbow Road has, I kid you not, a blue sea (not rainbow just blue), an orange part with the same kind of tiles as the rainbow part, don't know why they would put more effort into making it less rainbow, a train (in the background, it's not part of the track), and, you won't believe this, a plain grey road with white lines in the middle, I'm serious. There's also a part much like Bowser's Castle where you launch into space... even though Rainbow Road is already in space. There's a "new" track that's the first three Mario Circuit tracks put together into one track (don't know why 4 keeps getting snubbed) and despite the fact that they're the same bland, easy, flat tracks they've always been, they're towards the end of the game for some reason.
Mario Kart World is also unfinished. The game will not start with 200cc as an option. There are 7 cups ( 2014 Wii U Mario Kart 8 started with 8 ), and parts of the "world" are left un-filled-in. The game just seems like it has no soul. This isn't game design by people who don't make eye contact and need to go outside, this is game design by an AI game generator. Despite its bad gameplay, Mario Kart 64 had artistry, as did other games in the series. People can remember being frightened by Bowser Castle, feel like they were in distant places in Sherbet Land, brave the cliffs of Yoshi Valley, and stream tears of joy during the credits. Even other bad racing games such as Cosmic Race, Atari Karts, and Final Lap Special have certain charms and reasons to exist. Kiwi Farms has exploded with a thread that resulted from a lawsuit about Donkey Kong Arcade High Scores. Will anyone care about Best Times in Mario Kart World decades from now?
First of all, my earliest gaming memories are with Mario Kart. I've beaten every game (except arcade ones, Augmented Reality, and Tour of course) and I've stuck with it through thick and thin.
Where do I even begin? Previews of Mario Kart World made the game seem like it was about to be full of long, wide, bland highways and commutes every bit as loathsome as the ones you'll do in real life after you turn the console off. And I can't say they're guilty of false advertising. Mario Kart World looks BORING. Lifeless in fact. Tracks almost all feel the same regardless of theme or tone. Possibly to accommodate the fact that there are 24 racers, they are far too wide and lack obstacles. Many parts of them include cars with ramps on the back and boost arrows strewn about with no artistic passion. And since the game was made for the Switch 1 throughout most of its development, it isn't even that pretty. There are tracks from 8 that looked much more polished and visually distinct, compared to World's garish theme park rides.
Much of the music isn't original and has the same tone, even if the original songs had varying ones. The tracks don't feel like places, they feel like theme park versions of Mario Kart tracks. Drive past a Boom Boom in Bowser's Castle, and your reaction isn't "the Boom Boom is coming to get me, I better slip by quick!" it's "oh hey, they made a reference to a Boom Boom, that's kind of nice". Even many of the retro tracks are devoid of original obstacles that made them so exciting. Tracks feel like the aftermath of designers laying them down upon what used to be the untamed lands of old in previous games. Outside of "circuit" tracks, you would go to all corners of the world to get to various tracks. Even when you saw a "tour cruise" ship in Jungle Parkway, it didn't seem like some tacky, corporate, theme park ride, it felt like you were in the deep jungle, in the territory of its natives, going past waterfalls and into a cave, and there happened to be a regular tour ship that has nothing to do with your current race. Choco Mountain went from being a remote mountain to another theme park attraction overlooking other theme park attractions.
Even the obstacles they did bring back don't work right. Some of the highway tracks in previous games had not just regular cars and buses, but bombs on wheels. Run into these and it won't explode, you'll just bump into it like a normal car. Even the minor interactivity the tracks could have had has been reduced. The old tracks are changed to the point of unrecognizability to fit the new gimmicks, and even new tracks are nothing special either. That Boo Cinema track that's been in the previews doesn't reference any particular movies, all it does is have a 3-2-1 circle screen, the one you see BEFORE a movie would start, before driving on a (very bland) film reel and out of a big screen, between the seats of an old-style theater. Again making references to movie-related things but no actual movie scenes. Items make a return, but with no purpose. The Feather was useful in Super because you could cleverly use it to jump over walls and items. In Bowser Castle 3, a difficult track that I struggle with, I like it when I get a feather because it means I can veer to the right after driving over the speed arrow and time a jump to the 3-lane part, skipping the Thwomp barrier, still holding right so I can be prepared to drive in the correct direction. What's the point in a game where tracks are so long and wide and there are no walls or shortcuts? What advantage does it offer?
The final insults come in the form of Bowser Castle and Rainbow Road. As well as three original Mario Circuit Tracks. First off, we are being asked to accept a very compromising definition of "castle", as this Bowser's Castle has normal roads, a restaurant, barely any indoors places with windows, a part where you're launched into space for a disjointed road section, didn't know those were something castles could have, and you finish the track in one lap even though it counts as 5 (not 3?). Rainbow Road has, I kid you not, a blue sea (not rainbow just blue), an orange part with the same kind of tiles as the rainbow part, don't know why they would put more effort into making it less rainbow, a train (in the background, it's not part of the track), and, you won't believe this, a plain grey road with white lines in the middle, I'm serious. There's also a part much like Bowser's Castle where you launch into space... even though Rainbow Road is already in space. There's a "new" track that's the first three Mario Circuit tracks put together into one track (don't know why 4 keeps getting snubbed) and despite the fact that they're the same bland, easy, flat tracks they've always been, they're towards the end of the game for some reason.
Mario Kart World is also unfinished. The game will not start with 200cc as an option. There are 7 cups ( 2014 Wii U Mario Kart 8 started with 8 ), and parts of the "world" are left un-filled-in. The game just seems like it has no soul. This isn't game design by people who don't make eye contact and need to go outside, this is game design by an AI game generator. Despite its bad gameplay, Mario Kart 64 had artistry, as did other games in the series. People can remember being frightened by Bowser Castle, feel like they were in distant places in Sherbet Land, brave the cliffs of Yoshi Valley, and stream tears of joy during the credits. Even other bad racing games such as Cosmic Race, Atari Karts, and Final Lap Special have certain charms and reasons to exist. Kiwi Farms has exploded with a thread that resulted from a lawsuit about Donkey Kong Arcade High Scores. Will anyone care about Best Times in Mario Kart World decades from now?
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