Mario Kart 8

andyman949 wrote:

Sorry to hear that SMM, nothing worse than a game you're excited for not arriving (I had the same with Watch_Dogs on tuesday).

I'm really enjoying MK8 so far, the new tracks are all brilliant and the only really naff retro one is Toads Turnpike. Only problem is trying to find a character/kart/wheel combo I actually like. The customisation gives me too much choice and I can't simply work through them all to work out what works for me.

Thanks! And I'm sorry to hear that WD was delayed for you.
Anyway, after my post on here saying that it didn't come out on Friday, I did check the mail and thankfully it was there. First impressions are excellent in that the online play is smooth and consistent without any lagging at all. Of course, I've not touched Battle Mode (and I doubt I ever will) but this game feels right.

The controls are so tight and I'd honestly say that this is the best MK to date, even more so than my beloved MK64. My one complaint though is that Rainbow Road from the N64 version has been cut to a 3 stage race instead of 3 laps.

I'm one of these fannies that ordered this from Zavvi. It's disappointing that they didn't receive the stock on time, as they did OK with Super Mario 3D World - it arrived the day after launch - but I'm expecting my Mario Kart 8 order to be much like the one for LEGO City Undercover, which arrived something like eight days after release. Still, with the mystery vouchers I've made some decent savings - through Zavvi I'm not expecting to pay any more than £26 for MK8. They're also compensating me with another 10% discount code and a keychain.

Really enjoying this, I'm happy Nintendo has given us another distinctively different Mario Kart rather than iterating on a previous game. I can't play online at the moment unless I purchase data for tethering on my phone, which is a bummer, but otherwise this has the strongest single player Mario Kart experience in years, so I'm surprisingly satisfied despite the aforementioned lack of online multiplayer.

I particularly love: the soundtrack, the new physics model, the sheer attention to detail littered across the courses, Mount Wario, the new, smarter AI.

Dropping down to even 5th place is a gruelling experience in 150cc/Mirror mode, it really takes a lot of effort to try and claw yourself back to 1st, and certainly prevents me from trying out my old favourite alternative tactic when I'm bored of racing competitively of slipping down to 12th and getting better items to win...

Glad I'm not the only one who's found that the AI are smarter this time. I was worried I was just rubbish!

And yes, it's much harder to ascend through the ranks this time around. Much easier to stay in first as well, and the coins seem to make more of a difference to speed. I still get blue shelled then red shelled with annoying frequency, though.

Agreed with SMM about the controls too (and Rainbow Road). I've now played through all the Grand Prixes and played a bit of local multiplayer, and unless online spectacularly drops the ball, I think I'm jumping on the "new favourite Mario Kart" bandwagon.

Aye, everything seems to have been rebalanced, played Mario Kart Wii in local multiplayer on Friday evening (I think, Thursday was Mario Kart 8 ) and I noticed that banana skins are more lethal in Mario Kart 8 -- they have similar effects to getting hit by a shell, whereas on Wii you just spin briefly and lose a bit of speed.

Maybe my eyesight is just bad, but I find banana skins in general to be a lot more lethal this time around, I keep mistaking them for coins. And is it me or have the sizes of the skins themselves been rescaled to be a bit bigger now?

Agreed too about Rainbow Road, I'm struggling to win every race in Lightning Cup just because I always come in second on it, there's no room for error.

I always seem to flop on Shy Guy Falls. I bump into the walls of the tunnel near the end without fail.

I've started to fall out a bit with the single player. There's only so many times I can get hit with 4-5 items in a row to have my chances at 3*ing a cup ruined. It's always one specific track in each cup that makes it worse. My annoyances were only amplified when I play Bone Dry Dunes several times and only achieved a 1st place on the time I fell off the stage 3 times.

It's great online though, when I don't feel so much pressure to always be first.

andyman949 wrote:

I've started to fall out a bit with the single player. There's only so many times I can get hit with 4-5 items in a row to have my chances at 3*ing a cup ruined. It's always one specific track in each cup that makes it worse. My annoyances were only amplified when I play Bone Dry Dunes several times and only achieved a 1st place on the time I fell off the stage 3 times.

It's great online though, when I don't feel so much pressure to always be first.

The 'coin' item is what always gets me, I'm expecting a defensive item when I'm in first (especially so now you can't hoard them and stock up whilst dragging one) and just about as often I get a coin. Bah.

Definitely, it's made even more devastating knowing you could've got a horn to protect yourself from even a blue shell.

Normally I'd keep dropping defensive items until I got a horn, but the bloody coin makes it too much of a lottery.  In first, though, it's not too irritating - keeps you from being absolutely invulnerable to red shells (it's the ricocheting greens that get you instead, if you're me, which I am).  It's when you get one in fourth that it's taking the mickey a bit.

Regarding the single-player, I've double-starred every cup, with double stars on Flower (150cc and Mirror), Star (150cc) and Special (Mirror). Can't be bothered with those last four, but I might take up time trialling to get the remaining stamps.

Check your calenders, look what day it is... IT'S MARIO KART SUNDAY!!!

So these days we have tournaments which we can create and race under. I was nominated to create the tournament for the forum, so here's the code to join: 3059-7515-5795.

Hopefully the settings I've applied will be okay for us, I think they can be changed if need be. The tournament is open from six until twelve on Sunday nights (I don't fully understand how all this works, but I guess we'll see in practice), so come along tonight if you can for the return of Mario Kart Sunday!

Aw, shame I can't join until two Sundays' time. Hoping Tomodachi Life doesn't drown out the buzz surrounding this by then.

Cool I was going to say anyone up for some online tonight.

Not a bad price Cappa, I ended up paying about £18 cash for my limited edition.

Dusty Knackers wrote:

Check your calenders, look what day it is... IT'S MARIO KART SUNDAY!!!

So these days we have tournaments which we can create and race under. I was nominated to create the tournament for the forum, so here's the code to join: 3059-7515-5795.

Hopefully the settings I've applied will be okay for us, I think they can be changed if need be. The tournament is open from six until twelve on Sunday nights (I don't fully understand how all this works, but I guess we'll see in practice), so come along tonight if you can for the return of Mario Kart Sunday!

It all depends on how many races you have chosen for us to do, if for example its 8 you will only get a score in those 8 races (which are classed as ranked races) depending on how you position.

After you have finished those 8 races you can continue to have matches but there will be no change to the overall leader board for that tournament.

EDIT: I just joined and the number of races are on no limit meaning all races will be ranked (probably the best choice for our weekly set up) though I'm thinking we shorten the the time frame a bit so we don't get folk racing for longer thus getting more points.

It's set to 'unlimited'.

I edited my post above.

So Jas could play in 20 races and me 4 but both would be scored in the tournament. I can understand setting a room/tournament for us to play in is easier but it's not really going to be a tournament is it unless we do only play 8 or or so tracks.

That's why I suggest we all agree to a set time (9pm to 11pm?) that way if we all join at the same time we should all be on an even playing field by racing the same amount of matches for that week.

I think I posted that the same time you edited your post, yeah I'm having dinner and then going to be on and play some SP but will join the lobby let's say at 9pm.

But then if people miss a week, they'll fall behind in the scoring and complain...

Look, it's early days, we'll just go with it under these settings for now, and see how things work. If we hate the current set-up, we can always make a new tournament (probably when more forumites actually get the game)

dusty wrote:

But then if people miss a week, they'll fall behind in the scoring and complain...

True but I think that may be inevitable anyway (as not everyone can play every week due to other commitments etc) & that can still happen with the current set up too, just pointing out the leader board is going to be all kinds of messed up which is the whole point of having a tournament.

Erm...  Honestly, I'd rather just play without my ineptitude being recorded in numbers.  Free play, non-tournament. Sorry Dusty. 

Balladeer wrote:

Erm...  Honestly, I'd rather just play without my ineptitude being recorded in numbers.  Free play, non-tournament.  Sorry Dusty. 

spoilsport!   you're still scored in friend matches just under the normal GP rules though.

So is 9 the time we're all playing at then?

aye I can play at 9.