Mario Kart World

Stanley said:

I'm happy that's gone because:
1. Whenever I played with others, they would take ages to make a kart because they needed to make 3 different selections

2. The best options were always the ugliest.

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Ironically, in the original Mario Kart 8, the most abused online combos didn't even look all that ugly (such as seeing the Blue Falcon use the Slick tires). Of course, MK8's meta was speed focused, while MK8DX was mini-turbo focused.

Vehicle part stats add a fake sense of depth. I didn't understand why my friends were so concerned about statistics when they're subject to inopportune item luck or well executed sandbagging. I won't miss them this game.

That being said I'm not impressed that they're removing that aspect from the game rather than expand on it. At least make us customize these things, for once.

i've never had the slightest concern for "the meta" or whatever the most optimal combo was for that. Mario Kart has enough of a random element with its items that I don't feel like choosing the characters I like and the vehicles that look cool to me is a significant enough disadvantage.

The kart customization stuff was neat for aesthetic purposes for me, but honestly I'd rather just get emblems from MKDS back. That let me express myself much more personally than just choosing from a preset selection of things. It looks like they're doing something like that with sponsor labels, but sadly it's once again a preset selection of things therefore objectively lamer than what they had in MKDS.

When you think it over, there's probably a good reason why custom emblems never returned; players could potentially make inappropriate images with the feature.

People need to stop blaming the customization system for Mario Kart's terrible balancing. It's not the customization's fault Mario Kart can't balance for shit. Customization should have been expanded upon, not removed, and I'm a bit miffed that something like the Tiny Titan is stuck having tiny tires.

Hell a lot of the new vehicles just don't do it for me at all, and I'm someone who loves cars. They feel too much like kitschy toys than actual vehicles and some of the cars I do like, such as the Hot Rod, I don't really like its paint job at all (I want it looking more metallic than plastic, and a solid color) and guess what you can't change in this game...! The vehicle also looks way too small for Mario, giving it this toy look that I don't really like.



BTW for emblems, I don't want them returning and I think the new decal system is restrained bullshit that you barely see anyway. I want full blown decals you can decorate anywhere on the vehicle like this instead.







(this is not painted on or pngs, these were made out of basic shapes, and these are freely available for download)

MnSG said:

When you think it over, there's probably a good reason why custom emblems never returned; players could potentially make inappropriate images with the feature.

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Of course, this is 100% why we're not going to get any sort of user customization whatsoever, because they're too inept to moderate online, judging at how awfully they treat their Splatoon cheaters online, their restrained user pfps on the Nintendo Switch app, and the splurge of inappropriate games on their eshop.

Yeah, in spite of the argument that customizarion removal lends to better design, my sister and I don't dig the karts here most of the time. We find plenty of karts too... childish and kitschy, looking too small and overpowered by the relative size of the driver, like the roster is driving ride-on cars for children rather than actual vehicles.

Mario Kart always had the scaled down look for karts for sure, but this game seems pronounced here. Maybe these are bad screenshots with lighting and angling making their materials look like plastic, but yeah, none of the karts wow me this time. I could find plenty of karts in Tour I liked much more, on the other hand.

The bikes on the other hand, have overall better designs, I was drawn to a couple. Though I already have a preference for bikes and ATVs, I'm probably just biased or something.

MnSG said:

When you think it over, there's probably a good reason why custom emblems never returned; players could potentially make inappropriate images with the feature.

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People could draw inappropriate things on Miiverse, they can draw inappropriate things in Super Mario Maker 2 currently. That's not a good reason to just dismiss a feature like that, if they can moderate the content on those platforms they can moderate the emblems. SMM2 I've heard has an algorithm that can detect inappropriate imagery, and there's a report button for anything that isn't caught by that. Maybe at the time of Mario Kart DS it was more of a problem since their handling of online servers was primitive, but they're more than equipped to handle that now.

Whether they want to bother is another question, but that's not a question of their ability, it's a question of how lazy they are. IMO they have no good reason to avoid this feature and "we don't want to have to moderate it" isn't a good excuse imo.

Xiahou Ba said:

their restrained user pfps on the Nintendo Switch app

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now that you mention this, I can understand why they might not want you to be able to add your own pngs to this, but I'd personally go for yes, just do it and ban people for using inappropriate images. But if they don't want to do that, the MKDS style emblem maker is a good alternative and would be easier to moderate imo. I'm frankly sick of Nintendo being so overly anti-expression for fear of bad actors that they just only allow their handpicked selection of presets.

Wittgenstein said:

People could draw inappropriate things on Miiverse, they can draw inappropriate things in Super Mario Maker 2 currently. That's not a good reason to just dismiss a feature like that, if they can moderate the content on those platforms they can moderate the emblems. SMM2 I've heard has an algorithm that can detect inappropriate imagery, and there's a report button for anything that isn't caught by that. Maybe at the time of Mario Kart DS it was more of a problem since their handling of online servers was primitive, but they're more than equipped to handle that now.

Whether they want to bother is another question, but that's not a question of their ability, it's a question of how lazy they are. IMO they have no good reason to avoid this feature and "we don't want to have to moderate it" isn't a good excuse imo.

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To be honest, it can feel baffling that the Nintendo developers would decide to ditch features in later games (such as abandoning the vehicle customization features from MK7 and MK8 completely), instead of expanding on them further. And as you said yourself, moderation has improved since the Nintendo DS days.

Of course, when you look at Super Mario Maker 2, and the decision to ditch the Mystery Mushroom, the reason for its removal makes sense when you consider that Nintendo didn't want to go through the copyright hurdles involving the characters that it doesn't have the full rights to.

Moderation costs money, that's why Nintendo doesn't do it and that's why they heavily restrict custom features. They'd rather leverage responsibilities of moderation on users with restrictions on what they want you to do than they do any of it themselves. And when they do, their platform is complete nanny state like Miiverse where you can get your posts deleted because you externally linked your original source image for an image an artist traced over (happened to me yes).

I'm tired of Nintendo forcing you to play their games the way they intended it, whether it's using their curated shit pfps or using these awful shit preset decals in Mario Kart World. It's why accessibility features are horrendous and why we don't even have basic things like sound options in their games, because they decided they made the perfect game and that you ought to enjoy it how they designed it. It is why it's a pleasant surprise they actually added an item switch in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, that broke the game completely and thus made it very fun to play with.

Unfortunately, custom items turns off the Spiny Shell icon on the map, meaning that you're literally blind to any incoming Spiny Shell attacks, much like in the older Mario Kart titles that lacked item spy features.

But if there's one thing that I really don't get about MK8 and MK8DX is why the CPUs are locked into using specific vehicle combinations. For some examples, Donkey Kong (and Funky Kong) ALWAYS uses the Monster (alongside the Standard Kart, Sports Coupe, and Varmint) or Hot Monster (alongside the Standard ATV) tires, while a CPU Bowser is "never" seen using the Badwagon, despite using that very vehicle body on some of the promotional screenshots. Heck, the Blue Falcon vehicle body is never used by the CPU at all.

Anyway, I fear that Mario Kart World will also lock CPU characters into using specific vehicles. Want to see Bowser use anything besides the Bowser Bruiser? Probably not likely if he's controlled by the CPU.

Mario Kart 7 did it best, where characters can still use most combinations, but they have preferred combos in that they're more frequently seen in some bodies than other times (like Wario loves using the Bumble Vee and the Egg One, Toad likes using the Cact-X, Koopa likes using the Soda Jet...but you can still see them driving other bodies).

I mean why not give players more degree of control of setting individual players. Why do we have to rely on randomization to set teams? For years I've been wanting a way to set who's on your team and what car they're driving. And I don't think I'm the only one nor am I in some obscure tiny minority of players.

Mario Kart DS and 7's team kind of let you do this by constantly smacking left and right until you got a setup, but every other game you have to reroll over and over and there's zero way of selecting what karts they drive. Mario Kart 8 kinda already had a theme going on with Mario Super Motor vs. Lord Bowser but why can we not actually set themed matches here, why not have good guys vs bad guys, red guys vs blue guys, and so on. Hell why not even set their individual skill level?

Modding is the closest thing that gives us any semblance of control over how to set the games (too bad the vehicle preferences are hard coded in Kart 8), which includes basic f*cking things like speedometer and music settings but time and time again has shown that they're extremely hostile to the fact maybe people want to enjoy these games differently than how they personally set up.

I really think people reviewing these games and giving them glowing reviews really need to set down their biases when appraising this game, look past the part that it's Made By Nintendo and point out what's missing in these games, for decades, and Mario Kart has been missing a TON of stuff consistently, giving us virtually the same game every time, while trying to distract us with gimmicks like open world and anti-gravity and the 20th redux of a nostalgic theme with the horns, sax, violins, and guitars ensemble.

It does feel rather biased when reviewers don't take the time to look at the things where a game falls flat at. In terms of Mario Kart World's shortcomings (so far)...

• Vehicle customization has been ditched completely, which can be very disappointing for those whom actually liked the approach that MK7 and MK8 took. Now you're pretty much stuck with vehicles that have fixed stats that can't be changed without changing your character.
• In all the Grand Prix cups, after the first race, the route to the next course is always set up in sections, which can be considered a massive letdown for players; once you reach the next course, you only do one full lap, and that's it.
• Knockout Tour does not offer a custom tour feature, which can be disappointing as well. After enough playthroughs on the 8 rallies, the game mode can end up turning stale, as you know exactly what to expect with each section.
• Battle Mode feels way more chaotic with 24 players, and really not all that fun if you're someone who's more into racing.
• Free Roam can feel barren (based on what was shown to us so far), and what can be unlocked seems to only consist of aesthetic items.
• 32 courses feels like a regression when compared to the 48 courses (32 base game, 16 DLC) that the original Mario Kart 8 offered. Of course, we do not know if DLC is being planned for the game.
• Ditching certain veterans in favor of generics can be considered highly questionable.
• It would feel like a waste if the 24 characters whom appeared in the teaser trailer are the only ones to get alternate outfits.
• To have alternate outfits be considered separate characters feels like an awkward decision.

As things stand right now, Mario Kart World isn't exactly giving us a legitimate reason why it has that $80 price tag.

I wouldn't pick apart the game this badly if it wasn't priced 80 dollars. I keep repeating this throughout this thread but I'm still baffled at the utter gall to buck the standard industry pricing and charge 80 dollars for a kart racing game for children.