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Grampy on 26 May 2008
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HappySqurriel said:
disolitude said:

I see all the comments and I see the logic you people have however I stay firm on my statement about mario kart...

All those racing games have to do with speed and cornering hence they are racing games...they don't need gear changes to be considered racing, but they have to have gameplay that is centers around driving the best and fastest. The goal is to get from point a to point b the fastest... Sure Wipeout, extreme G etc have powerups as well...but they don't take away form the racing goal.

Mario Kart Wii has an extremely unbalanced gameplay where powerups matter more than racing, cornering or driving skill. Old mario Karts did not have this issue...

So this game comes down to who gets what powerups and who shoots the other guy down. Not to mention the game modes which are all about shooting turtles and have nothing to do with racing...

In any case, collecting powerups...shooting turtles...that sounds a lot like another type of game to me...I see mariokart as platformer on rails.


The balance in Mario Kart is far from perfect, but most of the people I see complaining about the lack of balance are also those who have not yet mastered the game ...

In a lot of ways it reminds me of MMO games (like World of Warcraft) where on a daily basis you see someone post about how unballanced a class is after they get completely owned. My favourite example of this was when I was an enchanter in DAoC (I was the only enchanter past level 30 on my server because of how "gimped" they were) and I beat a Thane (the uber class of the time) because he tried to kill my pet before killing me; he made a posting on the forum and even one of mythic's representitives laughed at him.

Certainly, Nintendo could work on the balance and try to limit the likelyhood of 4 blue-shells appearing right after eachother, but Mario Kart is still a game where the most skilled player tends to win the most often based on their understanding of the racing rules in the game.

I don't think Nintendo will work on the balance and that is because it is actually quite intentional and functional.  Mario Kart is the kind of game that will often be played by people of widely different abilities. It's very popular with families.

Let's say Mom & Dad are playing their 12 year old son and his 6 year old sister. In a straight forward racing game the 12 year old boy would always win, Dad second while Mom probably would edge out the little girl. It's not much fun to NEVER EVER win so the first family Mario Kart game would also be the last. Now add in the unquestionably disproportionate attack on the leader and that adds just enough disruption to the game that even little sis will win once in a great while. The teen age boy will still win almost all of the time and will definitely win the levels and the trophies and unlocks but he won't so completely dominate the game as to ruin it for everyone else. Watch a family or a group with differing ages and gender play and I think you will see that it is brilliant not faulty game design.

And I don't care what anybody says, it is definitely a racing game, one of the best; it's just not a racing simulation.