Month: June 2014

Mario Kart 8 – Friend Race #1

I had my first Mario Kart 8 get-together tonight, and it was somewhat of an experiment just to test everything out. I’ll normally have these get-togethers on a weekend afternoon, but I couldn’t wait to give it all a try. So I opened up a lobby; Josh and Ash joined in. Mario Kart 8 supports voice chat in friend lobbies, but I wasn’t interested in using it. But oddly enough, if you turn your microphone off by pressing the “-” button, you’re also unable to hear anyone who may be talking (it plays music instead). I do not understand the logic to that at all.

There are about two dozen pre-selected messages you can enter, and those are helpful. But if someone is speaking to you when you have your mic off, you won’t know what they’re saying…and apparently, they won’t know you don’t hear them. The whole thing isn’t very intuitive. And unfortunately, the game does not support a USB keyboard.

When I was ready, I chose to start the race and an options screen popped up. The first option gives the host the ability to choose the mode (100cc, 150cc, etc.), and that is a welcome addition. I’m not a fan of the mirror tracks in general, so this means I’ll be able to avoid them in my get-togethers if I choose. Good deal.

You can also choose to have teams or no teams, and then there are a variety of choices for items. For example, you can choose to race with all items, no items, shells only, mushrooms only, etc. However, there does not seem to be a way to fully customize which items can or can not be used. I’ve heard that the game allows you to turn blue shells off, but I did not see a way to do that. If any of you know, please leave a comment below. The other options are for round time (I’m assuming this is for battle mode) and you can choose whether or not to have computer-controller characters race with you. I chose not to, at least for this time.

The Mario Kart 8 options for friend races.After that, we were able to select our courses. And thankfully, friend matches allow you to choose from all of the courses! You’re not forced into just three choices like you are in the random races.

Cup #1

The races began, and it quickly became clear that Ash and Josh are significantly better at the game than I am. I would occasionally get a 2nd place here or there, but I finished in last place most of the time. I definitely need a lot more practice, and I need to learn these tracks and their shortcuts. These were the results of the first cup (four races):

  1. Ash – 12 pts.
  2. Josh – 11 pts.
  3. Jeff – 5 pts.
Cup #2

We started another cup with the three of us again. But after the first race, Meli joined in too! The fact that people can join mid-cup is a big improvement over Mario Kart Wii. On Wii, if someone wanted to join in and just missed the start, they’d have to wait for the entire four races to complete before they could join. That would often take 15-20 minutes, so I’m glad to see this change. It also means I won’t have to wait around for people at the beginning of each cup, since they can join in whenever they arrive.

Anyway, I beat Meli for 3rd place in the first race with her, but even that limited success didn’t last long. I was soon back to getting last place most of the time. Even when I was having a decent race, like being in 2nd place in Moo Moo Meadows heading into the final corner, I’d get hit with a shell and finish last. It was not my night. I did end the second cup tied with Meli for third place though. Here are the results of the second cup:

  1. Ash – 19 pts.
  2. Josh – 11 pts.
  3. Jeff – 5 pts.
  4. Meli – 5 pts.
A glowing Waluigi finishes in last place (Mario Kart 8).Cup #3

Ash won the third cup as well:

  1. Ash – 18 pts.
  2. Josh – 12 pts.
  3. Meli – 8 pts.
  4. Jeff – 6 pts.
Cup #4

In our fourth and final cup, we finished off with N64 Rainbow Road. I still hate how they turned the longest track into one of the shortest, though (by only making it one lap). I did get 2nd place on this final track though, and that was about my only bright spot for the night. Here are the results of the last cup:

  1. Ash – 20 pts.
  2. Josh – 10 pts.
  3. Meli – 8 pts.
  4. Jeff – 6 pts.

Waluigi races on N64 Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 (MK8) on Wii U.It was fun, so thanks to everyone who came. The next get-together will probably be on a weekend sometime, so hopefully more people can come. In the meantime, I need some practice. See you all next time!

Mario Kart 8 – First Online Races

After winning all the grand prix cups in 100cc, I decided to try out some online races for the first time in the Wii wee hours of the morning. I chose a worldwide vs. race, and I soon noticed that the starting vs. rating (VR) is 1000. In Mario Kart Wii, the default rating was 5000; so you really have to work your way up in Mario Kart 8.

I chose my character, and I’m now playing as Walugi again (as I started to in Mario Kart Wii towards the end). As much as I like Koopa Troopa, I seem to do better with Waluigi. I found myself in a lobby, which quickly filled up to the maximum of 12 racers. We could vote for a track to race on, but there was one huge problem: There were only three tracks to vote on, plus a random option. Are you kidding me? Mario Kart Wii would let you vote for any of the 32 tracks in the game, so this is a huge step backwards.

The game randomly selected one of the three tracks, and all the Miis in the lobby reacted excitedly. Yeah, let’s pretend we’re happy with only being able to choose from 3 of the 32 tracks in the game.

The Miis in the lobby act excited (Mario Kart 8).Despite that big disappointment, I continued on and began my first race on the GCN Sherbet Land track. I hadn’t spent a ton of time with the game so far, so I wasn’t expecting to do very well. And indeed, I finished in 7th place out of 12 racers.

But the second race was a different story. It took place on the Bowser’s Castle track, and within about 30 seconds, I took the lead. Once I did, I never saw anyone else the rest of the race and finished with an easy win. Of course, the other players were probably noobs like me, but it still felt good to win my second online race. Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.

Waluigi celebrates a win in front of fireballs in Mario Kart 8.I raced on a total of nine tracks before ending for the night. For the most part, I was finishing in the middle of the pack, and occasionally doing better. Here are my results:

  • 7th / 12 – GCN Sherbet Land
  • 1st / 12 – Bowser’s Castle
  • 5th / 12 – N64 Yoshi Valley
  • 5th / 10 – Cloudtop Cruise
  • 6th / 12 – Thwomp Ruins
  • 1st / 10 – Electrodome
  • 5th / 12 – GCN Dry Dry Desert
  • 4th / 12 – Mount Wario
  • 5th / 12 – DS Cheep Cheep Beach

I finished the night with a versus rating of 1111. Despite the limited choices when choosing tracks, I had a lot of fun racing online. I’m going to be having my first get-together very soon. But I won’t be sending everyone an individual invitation message like I did for Mario Kart Wii get-togethers. I’ll be posting on Twitter and Facebook, so if you’re on my roster and want to be notified, make sure you follow me on one of those two places.

Or if you’re not on Twitter or Facebook, you can still bookmark those pages and check them out from time to time. Don’t feel bad if you can’t make it to any certain get-together though, because I’ll be having them fairly often.

Waluigi races through Dry Dry Desert in Mario Kart 8.UPDATE: I’ve heard from some people who said the new method prevents people from choosing the same courses over and over. That is a good point, but limiting the choices for everybody is not the ideal (or only) way that goal could be achieved. What if the last five courses played in a lobby were grayed out and unselectable? That would keep things varied, while still letting people choose their favorite tracks.

Mario Kart 8 – Retro Tracks

I’ve recently completed the 50cc grand prix cups of Mario Kart 8, and I’m going to share my thoughts on the retro tracks included in the game. Keep in mind that I haven’t played Mario Kart DS or Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, so I still haven’t formed much of an opinion on those tracks yet since I’ve only played them one time so far. But let’s start with a list of the retro tracks in the game:

Shell Cup:

  • Wii – Moo Moo Meadows
  • GBA – Mario Circuit
  • DS – Cheep Cheep Beach
  • N64 – Toad’s Turnpike

Banana Cup:

  • GCN – Dry Dry Desert
  • SNES – Donut Plains 3
  • N64 – Royal Raceway
  • 3DS – DK Jungle

Leaf Cup:

  • DS – Wario Stadium
  • GCN – Sherbet Land
  • 3DS – Music Park
  • N64 – Yoshi Valley

Lightning Cup:

  • DS – Tick-Tock Clock
  • 3DS – Piranha Plant Slide
  • Wii – Grumble Volcano
  • N64 – Rainbow Road

There are some good things and some bad things about this list.

What I Don’t Like: 

No love for SNES. Why is there only one SNES track?! The original Super Mario Kart gets almost no love from Nintendo here. Especially when there are…

Four N64 tracks, three from 3DS. Including four N64 tracks is mind-boggling, especially when Super Mario Kart (SNES) and Super Circuit (GBA) are so under-represented. And Mario Kart 7 (3DS) is the most recent release, so why should it have so many tracks? Many players are still playing these tracks on 3DS! If anything, 3DS should be the system with only one track in Mario Kart 8, and everything else should have at least two.

The Wii tracks. Moo Moo Meadows and Grumble Volcano aren’t awful tracks or anything. But there are so many better tracks in Mario Kart Wii that would have made better returns. Unfortunately, a lot of the best Wii tracks were already used in Mario Kart 7, such as Koopa Cape, Coconut Mall, and Maple Treeway. And I can understand them not wanting to use those in consecutive games. But I still would have preferred Wario’s Gold Mine or DK Summit over Moo Moo Meadows and Grumble Volcano.

What I do Like:

Donut Plains 3. Even though there’s only one track from Super Mario Kart, it’s one of my favorites. I love the graphical overhaul it got, while it still retains elements of the SNES track such as the broken bridges and the Monty Moles that pop up out at you. I’m really glad to see this track again.

Donut Plains 3 - Mario Kart 8N64 Rainbow Road. Mario Kart 64 wasn’t my favorite Mario Kart game, although some of that was because it didn’t have Koopa Troopa in it for some reason. But it’s hard to argue that it had an epic version of Rainbow Road, and I’m quite glad to see it back again with an impressive makeover. However, I do have one complaint about it. The N64 track was incredibly long, so instead of having three laps in MK8, you only race one lap! It’s divided by checkpoints so that it shows as three laps, but it’s really just one full circuit.

N64 Rainbow Road - Mario Kart 8There are two other things I’d like to point out about Mario Kart 8. After completing a track in the grand prix mode, the default option isn’t to continue to the next race. Instead, the default is to view a highlight reel. Why? Do they think watching replays is more important than racing?

Also, one thing I’ve noticed about the Blooper power-ups, which spray ink on players’ screens. In Mario Kart Wii, it wasn’t much of a hidrance to see through/around the ink. But in Mario Kart 8, the ink blots are a bit more concentrated and the opaque part is larger on-screen. They’re a bit more of a problem in this game.

mk8-inkI’ll be playing much more Mario Kart 8 in the weeks and months to come, so stay tuned for more.