Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Mario Kart TV is so terrible.

Just as I started to wonder what the purpose of 50cc was, since I was roflstomping 100cc in similar fashion, a piranha plant attack right at the finish line of Dolphin Shoals caused me to only two-star the Star Cup. So I decided, hey, why not try again with an outward-drifting vehicle, see how it goes. The end result was... middling, to say the least. Well, for the first three races, at least. The finale on Mount Wario was a comedy of errors that probably pissed off whatever deity might exist enough to eradicate every second-born child in the world. And the fun thing is, I STILL WON. So if you needed proof 100cc was too easy, there you go.

So I tried to see if I could share my Biddybuggy misadventures with the world. Unfortunately, none of the options would show so much as one mistake on my part. Those were unquestionably the highlights of the race, and there was simply no way to have them pop up on a replay.

But that's not the worst thing about MKTV. You know how, when you watch a race, even a replay on the news, you at least have some idea what's going on? Not here. You can see a whole bunch of stuff without ever seeing how it actually mattered in the race. It's hard to put it in words, but it really, really sucks.

Anyway, I've sworn off outward-drifting vehicles forever after this debacle. I went back and did a third attempt to get three stars with the Yoshi Bike, and suceeded despite a blue shell near the last corner of Dolphin Shoals.

12 comments:

  1. That's very ironic because I basically swore off inward-drifting vehicles, I cannot use them for the life of me, I almost always drift too soon and get myself either in the rough or in a pit. I guess transitioning between the two isn't easy in the slightest.

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    1. Yeah, sometimes mishaps happen to me too with the Yoshi Bike, but I think it's more down to me not being familiar with the tracks enough yet. The easier tracks, and those I know from previous games, I have no problem with. I'll get better once I get the timings for some of the trickier turns down. As I've mentioned before, there's no easy way out in terms of handling like there was in MKW.

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    2. It's a matter of starting a drift much later than you would with outward-drifting vehicles. Once you master it, it's almost always a better option because it lets you hug turns as close as you'd like. Plus, in this game, unlike MKW, you can get the double boost from drifting, and the tracks are practically designed for red boosts with all the U-turns in this game.

      Slow, it's funny you mention that Dolphin Shoals screwed you up, because that's the exact course that screwed me in my first run of 100cc Star Cup. Dolphin Shoals, in my opinion, is the hardest new course in MK8, and I have no idea why. Bowser's Castle is pretty hard too, and Rainbow Road (MK8) is a bitch in 150cc because of the back-to-back tight turns.

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    3. Yeah, it's either that or Rainbow Road. And the worst part is, I'm expecting those two to be common picks online, Rainbow Road because it always gets a bunch of votes anyway, and Dolphin Shoals from Biddybuggy/Landship + Roller tire users who are so much faster in the water than on land it's scary.

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  2. Quetzal, what you're saying isn't very ironic, but I do have very ironic news. A new exploit has been found in the game. Fire Hopping. It apparently lets you keep your boosted top speed whenever you get a boost a little bit longer. Think of it like that one boost trick in Diddy Kong Racing, except this one doesn't look intentionnal. Downside ? Apparently can't be used with inward drifting vehicules. I haven't tested it myself yet, but several sites are reporting it and there's even video proof you can look up.

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    1. How long 'til this gets patched? Ah hell, it's Nintendo, you know they'll be taking their sweet time. At least they've patched games in recent history, so it'd be surprising if it was there to stay.

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    2. Thing is, the reason it might take a while is because the fans are very divided on this matter. Half wants it to stay, because it's supposedly hard to master, thus "rewarding" in their opinion, while the hard half are pretty much like you and wants it to go. I am personally neutral on the matter as of now, as I want to try it out before to judge myself if it truly breaks the game or not... Sure, it utterly breaks Time Trials, but from what I've seen, this doesn't look like something you can really pull it off in an actual race unless you are far enough in the lead... but I could be wrong.

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    3. I meant the *other half, not "hard half". Wow, massive brainfart here.

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    4. It never stopped Nintendo from taking out all those glitchy advanced tactics in Brawl, though. If they could patch games back in the GCN days, they would've done it. If it's not intended by the developer, it's a bug by definition.

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    5. Yeah, I guess you're right. I made the mistake of only looking at it from a player's perspective.

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    6. Not to mention, the dreaded snaking also was, in its own way, rewarding for advanced players, and Nintendo's done everything to stop it in recent years. Heck, I've seen people complain about the lack of gamebreaking shortcuts like the Grumble Volcano one, once again pulling the "reward" card.

      My point being, it would be very surprising to see Nintendo do nothing after they've gone out of their way to stamp out those "rewarding" exploits, because at the end of the day, they're exploits, regardless of the effect they have on the skill/luck ratio. The only reason I can think of that they wouldn't do anything is because ultimately, it's fairly minor compared to the rest.

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    7. The thing that do bother me is if they'll have to clean up the Time Trials leaderboards if they DO patch it out. I guess I might as well not even touch that mode until we know for sure.

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