| the_dengle said: I didn't say MK8 has more battle mode content than previous entries, just that the mode is still present and has a decent amount of variety, so you need not laugh on my account. Looking exclusively at what's on disc would be folly, since the game has received a couple of completely free updates in the year since its release, most notably adding 200cc. Additionally, the paid DLC is priced so low it can't be ignored. Even if one of those packs was on-disc and the other cost the full $12, it would be a very attractive price for what you'd get. The game costs $72. For that you get an overabundance of content compared to previous entries. Pray tell, who are these "staple characters" who didn't make the cut? No character who had appeared in three or more of the seven previous console entries has been left out of the fun. I hope you're not referring to King Boo or Birdo as "staples" just because they were in Double Dash and MK Wii, and to bemoan the absence of Bowser Jr while complaining that the roster "lacks variety" would be pretty silly, considering the Koopalings. The only regrettable cut here is Diddy. Anyway, as I said before, the characters themselves are fairly irrelevant. Unlike Smash Bros where even clones have slight differences to make them unique in some way, the characters in Mario Kart are just masks worn by a handful of weight classes. There's plenty of variety in MK8 for that. I think your statement that MK8 sans DLC has the "same number of tracks" as previous entries is funny. MK8 comes with 32 tracks. Super Mario Kart had only 20; MK64 had 16. Super Circuit had 40 tracks, but 20 of them were recycled from the SNES original with almost no changes at all, in stark contrast to the completely redone retro stages of MK8. These three games had only four battle tracks apiece and only one 'mode' to play on them, so they lacked the depth of that mode you wish for in MK8, and I find your assertion that MK8's battle mode is the worst in the history of the series to be a gross exaggeration. Back to business, Double Dash had only 16 tracks, same as MK64. Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 have the full 32 tracks that MK8 has on-disc, but both of these games were also criticized for their disappointing battle modes. The only Mario Kart game in the series that has what you're asking for -- the full 32 tracks plus a broad variety of battle mode (and other extra) content is Mario Kart DS. That's the game we should be comparing Mario Kart 8 to, then. Now look at what 8 loses from DS in battle modes, and what it gains in additional characters, items, the entire kart customization system, 200cc, and online functionality. Compare the work that went into the retro tracks on DS -- several of which were actually scaled down from 64 or Double Dash tracks -- to the effort bleeding out of the remasters in Mario Kart 8, many of which are completely unrecognizable next to their original appearances and which are for all intents and purposes entirely new tracks. Is it even close? Sure, if you heavily prioritize extra modes and single-player content over the traditional Grand Prix and VS modes. But from a different perspective one could just as easily see this other content in MKDS as an attempt to compensate for its badly gimped online features. |
No one rates a game based on DLC, and I doubt anyone buys a game specifically because of DLC. It's optional extra content that doesn't come with the package because said package is already a complete one, atleast it's supposed to be, and not everyone who get's the game is gonna get said content no matter how good it is. Plus a game needing a patch or DLC before it can become a complete experience is really not something that should be encouraged.
I of course ment the most recent and relevant entries, thought that'd be clear after I specifically named them, being MKWii and MK7. Feature/content-wise MK8 is not a significant step up from those games, that's just the simple truth.
