I know what you mean, when Reggie said the casual gamers will be able to stay bumper to bumper with a mario kart veteran I didnt realise they meant this. :( still fun though dont get me wrong.

it wasn't all noobs was a world wide race 12players with 4players with 8000+ VR points giant star the rest was decent . And that one dude with his Mii B character and Bike dominated every match staying first far ahead or 2nd never lower. I stayed behind him for couple seconds learnt some pretty neat tricks with the hops and routes that he takes.

Makingmusic746 and Taomaster from this site were there too they can prove it if you don't believe me :) 

it's not that I don't believe you, but I need to play more MK before I talk more about this.. :)

If you are in a race of people with equivalent skill then yes this can be true. Notice the disclaimer though. The more skilled racer will always win. The claim I am disputing is the game is too random and skill is not the ultimate determining factor.

The player's skill has very little to do with what items the CPU gets in Mario Kart. As I said, when I play, it usually isn't that the computer is good, it's that I'm being pummeled with several items at once, that's beyond my control. I don't think it's rubberbanding AI, I think it's just balance issues when it really gets down to it. The Mario Kart Franchise has always given the better, more helpful items to those who are far behind in a race.

The winged koopa-shell bomb is pretty annoying but its always fairly easy to get back into 1st place on 50cc or 100cc. Its not like the game is particularly difficult.

what Gnizmo says Arlando is that if you are good enough you will have such a huge lead that you will recover in time from all those strikes and still lead and drive to victory..

You shouldn't be getting pummeled with items. Once you hit first place all that should be hitting you is the rare blue shell or effects that hit the whole battle field. Red and green shells should only hit you on the extremely rare occasion you don't have an item to block them.

No, 100cc and 50cc are disturbingly easy. Even when the items are unbalanced. 150cc, though, can be murder when you're suddenly pummeled with several items at one time. Like I said, I don't think skill is a factor when it comes to the items the CPU gets. If you get hit with four items back to back to back there's not much you can do. On early laps it's no problem getting back into first. On the last lap, though, when you're just moments from the goal and you're hit by four or five items back to back and you hardly have time to gain control, it can be annoying. But again, those are factors that are beyond the player's control. On 50 and 100cc I've never had a problem getting back into first and winning the race. But on 150cc, a little breathing room between being pummeled with items would be nice. I usually just stay in second place for the majority of the race. Usually a blue shell or something comes around. In first place you're apt to get mostly bananas (which can help when people are sending red shells your way), fake item boxes or green shells. I can't see why you'd need something like a bullet bill or a star anyway when you're cruising in first place anyway. But yeah, you do get pummeled with a lot of items. Like I said, in one race I was about to win but got hit by a blue shell, red shell, POW and lightning all at once. It's a little over the top. To the point where just being good at the game doesn't help. I've come in first place on all the races in all the cc's, but not without a little luck on my side.

Usually a big lead comes around. Then it's fine. Although sometimes it's hard to keep when you're hit by so many items at once. I don't always have the items to block a red shell, though. I love this game, though. Especially going online. It's pretty fun then.