Mario Kart World

Oof bad news. Apparently costumes have their own spot on the CSS for some reason. So those extra 30+ slots? Very, very likely majority alt costumes.

I don't want to say with 100% certiantly, there could be some more new characters buried among those, but I'm gonna go Occam's Razor and assume we've seen the full base roster already, and hope I get proven wrong.
 

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Welp, there's no saving this game's roster unless they release DLC later on and include some actual worthwhile additions.

Honestly, I may get flak for this but I think I liked Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's roster far better than whatever they crapped out with World. Only good thing are the costumes
 
MetaWeegee said:
Apparently costumes have their own spot on the CSS for some reason. So those extra 30+ slots? Very, very likely just alt costumes.
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I'm simply concerned with the visual format. I know they want to say costumes change the stats so they need to be in independent slots, but the presentation is just messy. They should re-arrange it in future updates.
 
From the crappy roster, to the empty, dull-looking stages, to the lack of any substantial singleplayer campaigns, I don't think I've been any less excited for a Mario Kart game. I would probably still have fun with it if it weren't 80€, which is impossible for me justify. I'll stick to 8 Deluxe and Tour.
 
Worldreturn.jpg


So this is the currently confirmed base cuts.

Koopa con Carne said:
I would probably still have fun with it if it weren't 80€, which is impossible for me justify. I'll stick to 8 Deluxe and Tour.
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Arguably depends on the quality of DLC newcomers. Sure I'd be unwillingly pay for it as long as KRool and Mona are here.

If the DLCs are mostly guest celebrities again, that would really overshadow the poor choices of Mario's onw newcomers. Like, why can't Mario nominate another Rosalina-tier fanfav after all these years.
 
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I don't want DLC, I want a full, reasonably-priced package for once.

It's not that I'm too poor for it. At the moment I can afford the console, the game, and any DLC that may come for it. I just refuse by principle to buy something so expensive for what seems like so little in return. I don't care about a million skins for Mario, Peach, and a playable fish, if they charge 80 bucks for this they'd better spend their resources towards a bit more than 30 dull levels, mechanically and visually, and put the entire Donkey Kong and Mario RPG cast up in this bitch for good measure. I've yet to see a reason *why* they've set this price other than some exec's usual cash-induced Dutch courage. This ain't GTA, sorry. If this were the usual 60 euros I'd be ok with the current offering.
 
That Direct did not do this game any favors, sorry.

*No new characters, items, or modes shown beyond what we've seen already
*No new tracks beyond what's on the map (I'll get to this in a moment)
*No DLC announced, what you see is what you get
*Rewind feature looks to be useless, considering everyone else can just zoom past you while you back up to redo a jump, it's more of a setback more than anything.
*Character costumes are their own slots on the character select screen, instead of being an option if you click a character
*The map, while it's big and expansive, feels totally empty. The challenges scattered around the map feel dropped in and an afterthought. It's not so much of a World, but more of a big island.
*Still no explanation on how to get the enemies and other NPCs as playable characters beyond the Crystal Ball item.

Overall, this does not justify the 80 bucks they're offering for it. If the Free Roam mode is all this game has to offer, it's a big letdown in how long we waited for a new Mario Kart title.

I really hope Donkey Kong Bananza is well worth the wait compared to this.
 
Based on the backlash that I've been seeing, it's clear that people are looking at Mario Kart World as an absolute waste of time, and not worth the hefty price tag. We basically went from a massive hype, to a commercial failure, in just half a month.
 
MnSG said:
Based on the backlash that I've been seeing, it's clear that people are looking at Mario Kart World as an absolute waste of time, and not worth the hefty price tag. We basically went from a massive hype, to a commercial failure, in just half a month.
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As much as I love Nintendo, there is a very clear misfire brewing here.
 
MetaWeegee said:
Oof bad news. Apparently costumes have their own spot on the CSS for some reason. So those extra 30+ slots? Very, very likely majority alt costumes.

I don't want to say with 100% certiantly, there could be some more new characters buried among those, but I'm gonna go Occam's Razor on that, and hope I get proven wrong.
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It could just be for the Direct and event though. (Probably not, but hopefully)
 
On a different topic, I did review the Direct again, and I noticed that Bowser actually has the same speed and handling as Donkey Kong, but he has higher weight, at the expense of having less acceleration.
 
MnSG said:
Based on the backlash that I've been seeing, it's clear that people are looking at Mario Kart World as an absolute waste of time, and not worth the hefty price tag. We basically went from a massive hype, to a commercial failure, in just half a month.
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Could just be the usual online outrage, to be honest. But the price hike is significant enough that I bet no one, not even Nintendo, can accurately predict how big of a success this game is gonna be just based on the series' past success. As I said above, I'm quite cost conscious and the game doesn't look to provide that much value to me; I would honestly not be surprised if many other people think the same way. Let's see how popular the game ends up being among parents who buy Mario for Little Bubby, who represents the game's market.

In the Netherlands I noticed that the console + 50 euro Mario Kart bundle is sold out everywhere, but the game itself remains available for pre-order at every online store front as of today. Gives me a glimmer of hope that the average person sees through the bullshit and that this will be Nintendo's signal that pumping up their game prices just because they can is not the way to go. Clown tirade, over.

Late edit: To be clear, I'm not expecting this game to be a commercial failure at all. It's Mario Kart, it's gonna sell well. Will it come close to the numbers Mario Kart 8 made, though?
 
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The only world where Mario Kart World does poorly is one where the Switch 2 does poorly lol.
 
With the success of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I was expecting subjects from the game (enemies, Poplins, Prince Florian, etc.) to make appearances as playable characters or NPCs. I want the enemies in particular to make a return someday, 'cause I'd love to see Anglefish and Skedaddler again!

I have to agree with you guys: my excitement isn't what it used to be for the game. I'm not in the hurry for a Switch 2.
 
So I took my time and watched the direct and....my current expectations for this game have not changed.

Here's a picture of Baby Luigi looking completely adorable! Look at him! He has a helmet that has the word BABY on the back of it! He looks so adorable! I love him!

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Anyway, now you saw this picture of how cute Baby Luigi is, be prepared, going to unload some of my (mostly negative) thoughts on this game.

  • Rewind was a feature I did suggest before (which tells me Nintendo developers DO pay attention to what goes on in other racing games) and while I'm glad Nintendo put that in, there is no need to penalize the player for using it, as it's an accessibility feature meant for newer, struggling players. It's usable only in free roam and solo modes anyway, so why have it penalize you? When Forza did it, it reset literally everything before your screw up; the penalty for enabling rewind in Forza btw was less rewards when you win races, and it's one out of many accessibility options the game has. And Forza is literally the type of game meant for more *core* video game players than this!
  • The Free Roam isn't the worst thing but it seems to fall into the pretty common trap of having repetitive busywork to justify the open world. You can complete P Switch challenges, drive to a designated checkpoint within a time limit, find hidden medallions and ? Panels (there may be more than that), but unless there's a huge variety of these, this will get repetitive very quickly. It's fun to tackle these with a friend, of course, it's why I like Dynasty Warriors 9. But, the problem with Free Roam is simply that Mario Kart isn't built to have these sprawling open worlds; the reason they can work well in games like Forza and Burnout is because there's a much higher sense of speed and bulkiness in the cars, while here, Mario Kart always has tighter, constrained tracks meant for slower speeds, with trickier turns. The in-between segments and open world very work against Mario Kart's slower speed.
  • The character select screen UI is hot garbage. I don't want to scroll through pages of characters just to pick Worker Baby Luigi. Why aren't the alt costumes grouped together under the character you picked....? Who designed this UI????
  • Battle Mode looks to be very fun (probably the strongest aspect of Mario Kart, it outdoes its competition in that department because again, the slower, more manuervable karts work in its favor), but only Balloon Battle and Coin Runners? Why did the other battles get cut? I do like having the option to set four teams but it's kinda pointless to do this if I can't customize who is in what team and what kind of costumes they'll wear.
  • The roster cuts are abysmal, period. Nintendo is selling this game for 80 dollars, there is absolutely no excuse for this. If Nintendo wants to charge 80 dollars for this pedigree for their games, very well, I'll compare it to other games in that price range, namely Forza Horizon 5 and its 890 cars.
  • Once again VS mode has terrible customization options. Are they going to return item switch or not? Because if they don't return custom item switch, that'll be a massive disappointment.
  • The sticker customization is some of the worst types of car customization ever. I'd rather have the ability to, I don't know, change the vehicle's color than slap some tiny decal on some designated part of the car.
  • The new characters scream "we are operating under a heavy time deficit and constrained budget, so we're just gonna throw a snowman on a kart" than an actual conscious decision to include them. They're barely posed and animated, and guess what? It's also convienient that characters like Rocky Wrench don't need voice actors, right?
  • I like the ability to do a super hop and wall driving, looks fun.
  • All new items look very underwhelming, especially the Ice Flower being just a reskinned Fire Flower.
  • 30 fps in four player splitscreen isn't that big of a deal, it's always been like this, I'm not expecting them to always run at 60, four player splitscreen is extremely taxing on the system, especially when there are 24 racers and a massive world.
This is not a next gen game. This is not what I expect the next entry from a series that sold 70 million copies to look like. It's still horrendous that they choose to make you pay 80 dollars for a rather standard entry in the Mario Kart series with some extra gimmicks and the novelty of a free roam mechanic that looks very half-baked. The free roam doesn't make this game ambitious at all. Nor do the characters they added.

The direct in of itself wasn't too bad. I don't have time to parse through multiple treehouse footage so it nicely summarizes it. But Nintendo hyping the game up that they exclaim you can play as Mario and Luigi and the other fuckwad regulars is pretty much indicative of how Nintendo treats their audience: like you're an idiot, you'll buy this game regardless, fuck you, pay 80 dollars, and fuck you for expecting this game will ever drop in price.

So much of my criticism wouldn't be that applicable had they charged 60 dollars for this. But here we are, and this is me comparing this to other games much more content rich and have a better bang for your buck.
 
I think one of the biggest concerns about Mario Kart World right now is one of its biggest selling points (Knockout Tour) not giving you the option to create your own custom rally. The 8 rallies that we've seen can end up turning very stale once you get down all the routes and hazards.
 
Yoshis can finally have clothes again! After Tennis Aces and Golf Open Tour said "No cute outfits for you!" I was worried.
 
Fizzle said:
@MnSG While VS Races let you map paths to another course unlike Grand Prix, they should make an option to make a Knockout Tour Rally in VS, where Checkpoints are set places between and on tracks. (I was going to say you could do this already, but I was confusing GP in VS and KOT)
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Yeah, it just feels like a missed opportunity if it's not unlockable, or if it doesn't get added with software updates.
 
All right. *clicks pen* Time to get to business.
  • $80 game... honestly a weird thing to jump to after having only one game(?) prior that was $70. I sure hope this isn't the trend, but time will tell I guess. For what its worth, everyone's gonna get the bundle with the Switch 2 anyway... if the scalpers don't get it first.
  • Despite everyone's best efforts to assuage me, I have not seen any confirmation that traditional 3-lap courses are a thing (EDIT: in Versus Mode, forgot to clarify that). Traditional 3-lappers for Grand Prix? Yeah. Traditional however-many-lappers for Knockout Tour? Yep. But for plain old VS mode, only vague hints. Unless I missed something.
  • People complaining about rewind are super petty lol
  • The costume situation is... weird. To put it lightly. I kinda knew from the start that not everyone would have 10 costumes (despite everyone's optimism), but I couldn't expect even this. Some characters only having one alt? The Baby Princesses having more costumes than the other Baby characters? The rather obvious Tour alts getting left behind? This whole thing reeks of incomplete.
  • Everyone else has said about as much as I would like to say about the character select screen. Though I will say, why is it seemingly in a vertical sort? That's super weird.
  • "NEW ITEMS!" *4 of them are returning*
  • Still thinking of the Treehouse gameplay where the shell collision got screwed up
  • I will defend Cow to the end.
Anyway, I'm running out of things I want to say. I'm probably not getting this Day 1 (then again, I never do except for Pokémon Moon and Super Mario Bros. Wonder) but I will have to wait and see if opinions get better or worse. We shall see, indeed.
 
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