So . . . Mario Kart

[Team Mecha]

Donkey Kong Jr's exclusion has just become even more inexcusable.

He was one of the original eight!

Argh.

actually he's always been there, he just dropped the jr. part.

[FlashTHD]

Donkey Kong Jr's exclusion has just become even more inexcusable.

He was one of the original eight!

Argh.

actually he's always been there, he just dropped the jr. part.

Look who you're talking to :­\

[Esrever]

I'm having difficulty getting even remotely excited about this Mario Kart because it sounds like they totally broke balloon battle, which has always been my favourite part of the series.

Double Dash was bad enough with it's tiny, lackluster battle courses. But now we've got 8 mandatory computer controlled players in the offline battle mode! I understand the courses were designed with the 12-player online mode in mind and probably don't work well with only four players total. But seriously... in the offline mode, the computer players are going to outnumber human players 2 to 1. They're going to have a bigger impact on the game results than the actual people playing!

[P.P.A.]

Wait, no. From what I remember, Donkey Kong Jr. is Donkey Kong, just as a child. The big monkey in DK and DK Jr. was Cranky Kong. Both by the time of DKC have aged, Cranky has become an old ape and Donkey Kong (Jr.) grew to a muscular adult gorilla.
Diddy Kong is just... there.

[Meat]

That's what they want you to think.

Personally, I think Diddy Kong is the best thing to happen to that franchise ever.

[Yami CJMErl]

I'm sure Bowser Bones, Dry Bones, Baby Daisy, and Funky only made it in because they're just reskins of characters already present. Lazy bastards.

Dry Bones was already in Mario Kart DS, so he has precedence...to a point.

[FlashTHD]

O_O The Blue Falcon from F-Zero is a secret kart? Possible photo:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gohanrice/M ... 4509104498

Did they give it wheels? gheeey.

[Crazy Penguin]

Wait, no. From what I remember, Donkey Kong Jr. is Donkey Kong, just as a child. The big monkey in DK and DK Jr. was Cranky Kong. Both by the time of DKC have aged, Cranky has become an old ape and Donkey Kong (Jr.) grew to a muscular adult gorilla.

Cranky Kong has been consistently portrayed as the original Donkey Kong from the arcade games, that much is certain. He's always been referenced as the current Donkey Kong's grandfather, with the exception of Donkey Kong 64 where he's referenced as his father for some reason.

http://themushroomkingdom.net/kongtroversy.shtml
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0002/01/family1.html

Most recently Super Smash Bros Brawl went with the grandfather version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4-MbKKhKQs

Donkey Kong 64 is the odd one out so should probably be disregarded.

Donkey Kong Junior's continued absence is unfortunate considering his significance. He predates Luigi, he had a starring role in his debut appearance and he was part of the original Super Mario Kart cast.

[Ritz]

Donkey Kong Junior's continued absence is unfortunate considering his significance. He predates Luigi, he had a starring role in his debut appearance and he was part of the original Super Mario Kart cast.

He was also a really lame character. I mean, he's a smaller Donkey Kong in a wife beater- how could anyone love such a thing?

In other words, why is it that no one loves Diddy Kong as much as I do? :(

[Crazy Penguin]

DK Jr is better. Observe.

hideout.jpg

Case closed.

[G.Silver]

I think the reason they used DK Jr. in the first Mario Kart is because the "real" Donkey Kong would have been even bigger, or possibly just didn't look right in a go-kart. Also, they already had a "monster" bad guy in the form of Bowser, DK wasn't a hero for a couple more years until DKC came out.

[Yami CJMErl]

O_O The Blue Falcon from F-Zero is a secret kart? Possible photo:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gohanrice/M ... 4509104498

Did they give it wheels? gheeey.

Holy crap, that's...actually pretty damn awesome.

[Zeta]

I fully expect Diamond City to be a stage in the next installment.

Actually, it was already a stage in Mario Kart Arcade. It sucks that there was a bunch of stuff made for that game that most people will never play.

[Esrever]

I really wish they'd port the arcade game to... something! It's a lot of fun... I've played a little bit of it a Metrotown in Vancouver.

[Yami CJMErl]

I really wish they'd port the arcade game to... something! It's a lot of fun... I've played a little bit of it a Metrotown in Vancouver.

I concur. Either a disc-based release or WiiWare, this games needs to be made accessible to those of us (read: ALL of us) who don't have local arcades.

[K2J]

I actually played it once, but I never saw that particular stage. I guess that's the problem with going to an arcade that's about an hour away.

[P.P.A.]

I'd love to play it, but there are no arcades here in Germany. Really, I have not seen a single one anywhere here. The closest I ever got was a small casino in Bonn which had OUTRUN 2, OUTRUN 2 SP, VIRTUA STRIKER 4 and possible a few other machines, but they wouldn't let me in because as I said it was a casino with gambling machines and stuff and therefore under-age people (I'm 16) weren't allowed to enter. My heart was broken.

[gr4yJ4Y]

I played it a few times at the nearby (45 minute away) Gameworks, but they didn't really maintain the machines too well and now the steering wheel is messed up on one of the two. And it was something like a dollar per game or something ridiculous like that. I had a lot of fun with the camera stuff too. Nothing beats racing around with a picture of your contorted face with a Wario hat and mustache floating above you.

[G.Silver]

they didn't really maintain the machines too well and now the steering wheel is messed up on one of the two.

This sounds a lot like the state of anything you actually want to play at the Seattle Gameworks.

[K2J]

The US version released today. Anybody got it? I haven't had time to get it yet. I'm especially concerned about how the online stacks up.

[Crazy Penguin]

The reception to the game seems to be universally lukewarm.

I just want to know when the SNES Super Mario Kart will be available from Virtual Console.

[G.Silver]

I just got it. 0817 4175 0471 if anyone wants a friend code. I have yet to actually try the online, I just checked back here now to see if anyone else had their friend codes up.

The game has the usual problems with every Mario Kart since the original, the CPU has a huge number of things it can throw at you to make 1st place unhappy, you can't "lose" a race (meaning you also can't suicide and restart the course if you get robbed), and there's no co-op GP mode, so your friends have to sit by and watch as you unlock new courses. I'm not saying the original MK hit everything exactly right, but these don't seem like big things to change!

One nice thing (sort of) is that, as far as I can tell, the GC/Classic pad has no handicaps on it at all, everything you can do with the wheel you can do with it, and you can ready an item behind you without dropping it, to easily block red shells. With the wheel, you automatically throw items when you trigger them, so trying to block an incoming shell requires incredible timing. What the hell?

Edit: This is wrong, you can drag items by pressing left or right.

[G.Silver]

Ok, so, did an online game and it was excellent. I didn't notice anything amiss, but then, with a racing game, you aren't spending that much time looking at all the other racers so for all I know they could be lagging all over the place, but I did several matches and they were all a lot of fun. It's funny how just knowing that the other players are "real" makes it less frustrating to lose to stupid item attacks.

The overall player skill level at the moment (at least in the games I played) feels pretty stretched across the board, there was a definite distribution with a few players consistently fighting with me for first, and a mangy lot who trailed along the very back most of the time. I kinda felt bad for them! I don't know what the scoring in the online modes is for, but apparently you start with 5000 points and as you win or lose more points are added according to how well you did. It seems to vary not just on placement but also overall performance. I think the only players who actually lose points are the ones who don't even finish the track, there seems to be a cut-off point where it simply ends it for the players who haven't finished yet.

An interesting tradeoff for losing snaking or at least the "jiggle" to start your miniboosts, is that your boost will charge faster if you lean into a drift more tightly. Some times you can't do that and other times you can, and other times you can tap yourself into it a little more to speed it up a bit. So there is still some player control involved beyond just initiating the drift. The difference between a tight drift and a loose drift is pretty dramatic! I think the game would be more exciting if it were more like MKDS and I could initiate boosts as much as skill allowed, but it's still exciting to see the curves come up where a good drift is possible and go for it.

[DackAttac]

It's funny how just knowing that the other players are "real" makes it less frustrating to lose to stupid item attacks.

That's why I've been hoping Nintendo would push this online thing a lot harder. Strikers was much better playing the internet, since when I lost, I didn't need to think about me losing to a box with circuits in it. I could think of some other player simply outwitting me and could be a better sport about it in my head.

Then I remembered X-Box live and realized my opponent is probably joking with his other seventh-grade friends about what a faggot I am, and probably had no interest in finishing the match if he ever lost the lead. Now I'm back to frustrated.

As far as Mario Kart goes, I've bought it, but I have far too much work to do to bust it open before Wednesday.

[G.Silver]

my opponent is probably joking with his other seventh-grade friends about what a faggot I am, and probably had no interest in finishing the match if he ever lost the lead.

This is Mario Kart man, he'd have to drop carrier every time someone pulled a blue shell!

I dunno if they pulled a thing like SSBB where players continue to race even if they drop, but I didn't see anyone drop, and I saw some horrible racers and some odd things (like players parked by the side of the road, like they stopped to go pee or something). Also, once you start up you'll join a group, and that group will gain members as players leave, but that way you can also see who's sticking in the game and who's leaving. Most people stuck with it. Like I said, I don't know how the scoring works, but I think you still gain points even in 5th or 6th place. It's probably faster to gain those few points rather than to drop out and start over, hoping for more points on the next one. There's just not that much at risk.

The game is also pleasantly anonymous, especially with 12 people playing. From a "players are dicks" perspective things are pretty good until some hideous exploits get figured out.