Saturday, May 24, 2014

Mario Kart 8: hidden stats return

I hate when game companies do this, hiding critical information from us like that as a ploy to sell strategy guides. (Which doesn't even work because GameFAQs exists nowadays.) Actually, I jest a little, I'm aware displaying 12 stats instead of 5 would make for enormous clutter while hardly accomplishing much.

Anyway, on to the subject at hand. A few sample pages of the Japanese strategy guide have appeared, and they gave us valuable information. Stability and drift are no longer around compared to MK7 (presumably being absorbed into traction and handling), making room for anti-gravity speed and anti-gravity handling. So if anyone was wondering what the point of anti-gravity was other than cosmetics (aside from the speed-boost-on-contact nonsense), boom, here you go. Of course, water and air speed/handling make a return as well.

There are a few things worth noting, though. In Mario Kart 7, everyone had the same water speed, and lightweights were faster in the air. That is no longer the case: as far as characters go, they have the same speed everywhere, with the difference entirely defined by the vehicle. What this means is that heavyweights are now faster everywhere. Yes, even in the air. Yeah, I know, that makes no sense. Welcome to the era of everyone playing Wario/Bowser/Morton, everyone. Same applies to handling: in MK7 all the characters' land handling was better than their air handling, which in turn was better than sea handling. Now each character has the same handling stat everywhere, and again, the difference is solely defined by the vehicle.

As an added bonus, it seems that the characters in each weight class, as well as sets of vehicles and parts with identical visible stats, also have identical invisible stats. So, for example, the Circuit Special wouldn't be superior to the Sports Coupe because it has better anti-gravity speed, which is what many people feared when hidden stats were first confirmed to appear.

12 comments:

  1. It's been known for a while that the big mechanical difference of anti-gravity is that you gain speed when you run into bumpers and other racers, and Nintendo has even stressed that. I suppose it makes sense that speed and handling would change when you aren't even driving on wheels. I don't even mind that a lot of the stats are hidden.

    It is rather odd to me that there aren't any battle arenas anymore, with the battles instead happening on the long and skinny race tracks. A lot of critics don't like that change, but I am really curious to see how that all works out.

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    1. But what if a featherweight smacks straight into a super heavyweight's butt? What happens then?

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    2. I'm curious also. The videos show mostly collisions between similar weight classes, and the momentary boost in speed looks about the same for each vehicle.

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    3. I'm sort of hoping there'll be a penalty of some sort (even if it's just the speed boost being smaller), because it clearly seems from what I've seen that lighter characters get tossed around a lot less in regular segments compared to previous games, so the weight stat is already even less desirable.

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  2. Good news: They brought the old Battle Mode rules (pre-Wii) as an option. However...not many people like that we will battle on racetracks...

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  3. I'm not going to complain if THREE character all are tied for the highest top speed in the game.
    That's still better than MK7 and MKW.

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    1. I was planning to main Bowser anyway...

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    2. Didn't everyone use Metal Mario in MK7 because he had a smaller hitbox than the other heavyweights, but was totally identical otherwise? I've heard hitboxes are divided into three categories (feather + light, medium + cruiser + metal, heavy + super heavy), but after seeing a pic of Rosalina next to Morton I have to call BS. So if one of the three has a smaller hitbox (and if so, my money's on it NOT being Bowser), they get an advantage, as small and almost inconsequential as it is.

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    3. Wait...are you serious?
      THAT'S why so many people use Metal Mario?
      You have got to be fucking kidding me.
      That's an even slighter advantage than using Funky Kong for God's sake! Uuuugh...
      ...Aaaanyway...
      Well, my first guess would be that there are still only three hitbox sizes, just like in MK7. Are you sure you saw what you saw? I mean, Super Mario Wiki usually has their stuff together from my experience. (Except when it comes to Toad's nomenclature.)

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    4. https://d3esbfg30x759i.cloudfront.net/ss/zlCfzR5n19Yt07Ix1W

      Sure, Rosalina's a bit behind, but even there there's NO WAY her kart is as big as Morton's.

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    5. We could get some hitbox dissonance. Unlike Touhou, it wouldn't be in your favor. That or Rosalina has a really big dress...

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    6. I wouldn't count on that. Judging by the fact that 80% of MK7's high-end metagame was Metal Mario... I mean, if there WAS hitbox dissonance in that case, you'd think SOMEONE would've caught on with the sheer amount of players using him.

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