Character Vote for Super Mario Kart Highscore Challenge.

[Dat Matt]

Sup Nerds and Nerdettes!

Based on the majority vote from the poll I had up this week, It has been decided that we'll be playing Super Mario Kart for this rendition of Highscore Challenge.

To keep the overall balance of the challenge, I am looking for your suggestions via poll what character we should play for this Challenge. The character with the majority will be our selection for June's Challenge. This will level the playing field, as we'll all be playing the same character on the same track.

To stimulate discussion (So I don't need to bump the thread 100 times :P), what characters from the Mario Kart 8 Roster (http://mariokart8.nintendo.com/drivers/) are you excited to see, and what characters do you think they should have included?

[Bubba]

Has Goomba ever been a playable character in a Mario Kart game?

That poor little bastard at the start of 1-1 has probably been killed more times than any other enemy in the history of gaming. He deserves his time in the spotlight, God damn it!

[Dat Matt]

To my understanding Goombas have never been playable and are common obstacles like in Mario Circuit from Mario Kart Wii

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[Dat Matt]

Also for my own clarification, I was reading on the Mario Kart Wiki (http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Kart#Drivers) that There are 4 specific weight/speed classes in this game. So basically:

Mario and Luigi = The Bros
Toad and Koopa Troopa = The Small Guys
Bowser and Donkey Kong Jnr = The Showdown
Peach and Yoshi = The Dino and the Princess

Anyone know if there is right. Any differences between the drivers in the class. Should we stick to individual drivers or go for the weight class instead? What's your thoughts?

[Bubba]

Nah, I reckon we just stick to whatever character people go with. Like you say, it doesn't really matter between the groups of two.

Kong and Bowser are the fastest but have poor acceleration.
Yoshi and Princess have the best acceleration but crap handling.
Toad and Koopa have the best handling but worst top speed.
Mario and Luigi are just decent all rounders.

I am am equally awesome with all of them.

[Depression Moon]

I didn't think weight classes came until at least the Gamecube era, but I think I do recall DK being slow. Stick to a driver I think.

Also for me a lot of the slot was wasted in Mario Kart 8 with all those babies and two metal characters. How uncreative and unoriginal. I think the only babies that deserve to be in there is Mario & Luigi since they've had games centered around them. I know Peach was in the yoshi's Island sequel, but that game has been forgotten and wasn't received well.

The koopalings were a great choice, but I think Koopa Troopa is a bit redundant when you have Lakitu, the koopalings, and bowser. He's been there from the start so I can understand. I would've added a Boo, Kamek, Birdo, Diddy, and Egad for a few replacements.

[Bubba]

Nah man, DK and Bowser have the highest top speed. The only problem with them is if you hit an obstacle or something. They take forever to get going again!

Who is voting Yoshi?! His handling is awful. Trying to get him round Rainbow Road would be the equivalent of getting a roller-skating camel across a tightrope.

[Pumpkin]

I haven't voted since I won't be participating but I say Yoshi 4 lyfe.


Use Yoshi

[Dat Matt]

I'll just keep it to "whatever character has the most votes" despite being no apparent difference in the 4 weight classes other than special items.

I do think there is a baby overload, but with the exception of Baby Daisy all of the baby characters appear in Super Mario 3D world as the "1 hit from death" version of the characters. Makes sense to recycle the assets between games. As someone that prefers light characters I quite like the baby characters. I'll probably be playing baby Rosalina or Daisy anyways.

In the same vein, all of the 7 Koopa kids is overkill I think. They haven't made an appearance since Super Mario world (right?), but all 7 of them get a slot in the most recent Mario Kart game 24 years later? There has to be an angle there.

[Colonel Angus]

The weight classes were availbable from the first one, Moon.Mr. S., the Koopalings were in Super Mario Bros. Wii-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

[Dat Matt]

Was not aware they were bosses in the "New Super Mario Brothers" games. That makes there inclusion slightly more understandable.

[Depression Moon]

I haven't played those New Super Mario Bros. Games so it's just nostalgia for me.

Edit: And I voted Yoshi. He looks the coolest from behind.

[Dat Matt]

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/186/318/yoshi-deal-with-it.png

[LocoColt04]

Nah man, anyone not voting for Koopa Troopa is doing it wrong.

[Dat Matt]

Koopa troops always ends up being my rival in the races. Always.

[Mirage]

I really don't think this is a necessary poll. Can't we all just use whoever we are best with? I think that would make the contest a bit more dynamic and exciting.

[Ayen]

I'm the only one to vote Luigi?

[Pike]

Koopa has great handling

Yoshi has terrible handling

VOTE KOOPA FOR RAINBOW ROAD or you will probably regret it when you're giving this a shot.

[Dat Matt]

I really don't think this is a necessary poll. Can't we all just use whoever we are best with? I think that would make the contest a bit more dynamic and exciting.

Some characters are faster than others, so using donkey Kong on a stage will result in faster times so long as you don't crash. Every character has advantages and disadvantages so sticking to one character will keep the balance.

[Bubba]

Koopa has great handling.

VOTE KOOPA FOR RAINBOW ROAD or you will probably regret it when you're giving this a shot.

Koopa is definitely the best choice for Rainbow Road. This will give everyone the best chance of not falling off! Plus, because he's the slowest, it should keep all our scores reasonably close. Looking forward to this!

[maybee]

I'm the only one to vote Luigi?

Nope. Luigi is the best <3

[Bubba]

Been chatting to Sami Cetin on Twitter. He's the current UK Super Mario Kart champion. Asked him about his best times on Rainbow Road with Koopa/Toad & DK/Bowser. His times are significantly better then anything we're going to get! Just to give you an idea though...

[Bubba]

Double post alert!

Also, it looks like anyone with an American NTSC version of SMK will have around a 3 second advantage on anyone (like me!) using a European PAL version.

[Dat Matt]

Why is that?

[Bubba]

The American NTSC SNES runs at 60hz whilst the PAL SNES only runs at 50hz. Unfortunately, the clock time doesn't change so it's possible to achieve a quicker time using NTSC.

Its only a few seconds though so for the sake our little competition it shouldn't matter too much.

EDIT: Also, looking at Sami's times, it looks like only around a 2 second difference.

[Mirage]

I really don't think this is a necessary poll. Can't we all just use whoever we are best with? I think that would make the contest a bit more dynamic and exciting.

Some characters are faster than others, so using donkey Kong on a stage will result in faster times so long as you don't crash. Every character has advantages and disadvantages so sticking to one character will keep the balance.

Yeah, so don't pick donkey kong if you can't handle him. Everyone has access to the same characters, so it's no real problem. If you feel that someone is being better at you because they picked X character, you can just switch to X as well. Picking a certain character for everyone to play with puts players who dislike that character at a great disadvantage, while people who normally play as that character anyway get a significant advantage. If we get a poll result where 50% of the voters pick one character (most likely their favourite), then 50% of the participants will have to learn a character they hate/suck at just for the sake of this contest. That doesn't sound anything but frustrating and off-putting to me. I know I won't probably bother to participate if I have to play with the character I am the worst at.

I will probably experiment with a few characters and use the best time i get out of either of them.

-edit-
Looking at the poll results so far, Koopa is in the lead with 4 out of 12 votes. Coincidencially, this is a character I am likely to do well with, but my point still stands. 8 out of 12 participants might get a racer they are really bad at. That sounds like it would be discouraging to them. At least it would have been for me.

Soo, 8 players will be at a disadvantage of an unknown quantity, while 4 players will be at an advantage of an also unknown quantity. It's simply not fair. It's like having a street fighter tournament where everyone but Ryu is banned.

Also take note that I have no bias (as far as I can tell, lol) in this matter, as I am arguing for the inclusion of other characters that my opponents might be good at. In fact, I am making it potentially harder for me to win.

[Dat Matt]

What it really boils down to for me is that that, say for arguments sake someone is equally skilled with each character. Using the twitter posts bubba posted, the pro player (probably with a high skill in each character) has a time of 1"26 using donkey Kong. He also has a speed of 1" 35 using koopa troopa. Assuming he had flawless runs for both characters, dk has s 9 second advantage over koopa troops.

People will have different skills with different characters, but if we stick to a single racer all players will be based on their skill equally.

[Mirage]

Except that half of the players will have 0 skill with that character, and therefore not realistically be part of the contest, and the person who has high skill in everyone still is likely to win, because he is also good at koopa.

[Endless]

The PAL clock was adjusted so that 1 minute in game = 1 minute of real time. The result is that the NTSC version is notably faster.

I ran RR with KT PAL and the same in the NTSC, and did a nice 2 seconds faster time (and that was with noticeable mistakes).

[Bubba]

Except that half of the players will have 0 skill with that character, and therefore not realistically be part of the contest, and the person who has high skill in everyone still is likely to win, because he is also good at koopa.

That's why I think Koopa will be the best choice for everyone considering the course.

If anyone wants to submit their best time with any other character then feel free. We'll stick with Koopa for the challenge but people should post their best time with another character for fun.

[Shauna]

tbf with the last competition ran there was also no contest since Bubba stomped everyone into the ground. :shobon:

[Dat Matt]

Except that half of the players will have 0 skill with that character, and therefore not realistically be part of the contest, and the person who has high skill in everyone still is likely to win, because he is also good at koopa.

Lets imagine that all players have similar level of skill, say moderately high for this comparison. Pitting two players against one another with similar level of high skill with (I'll go the two main picks for time trials) Koopa Troopa and Donkey Kong Jnr. Assuming that both players can maintain maximum speed, miss every obstacle and drift round every corner to reach the best time for these two characters, DK will crush Koopa every time just based on the fact that he has a higher top speed.

Some players will be better with DK than Koopa Troopa, which is an issue with choosing one character to play as. But if all players are playing by the same rules it makes for a fair and equal competition.

[Bubba]

tbf with the last competition ran there was also no contest since Bubba stomped everyone into the ground. :shobon:

Well looking at the times mentioned by Endless then they'll be no stomping done this time round!

Hoping for a top 3 finish though.

[Dat Matt]

tbf with the last competition ran there was also no contest since Bubba stomped everyone into the ground. :shobon:

Well looking at the times mentioned by Endless then they'll be no stomping done this time round!

Hoping for a top 3 finish though.

Interestingly enough, despite playing on the PAL version I just beat Endless's Score. Both of them.

Get practising folks. I'm in Mario Kart Mode!

[Bubba]

Have we started then? Let's get the thread open and commence battle!

[Dat Matt]

Na, we're not getting started until the 1st.

WE ARE GETTING HYPED! MARIO KART HYPE!!!

http://wiiudaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Blir5.gif

Disclaimer - I am somewhat excited for the release of Mario Kart 8 in a week's time.

[Endless]

Interestingly enough, despite playing on the PAL version I just beat Endless's Score. Both of them.

Get practising folks. I'm in Mario Kart Mode!

Vids or...

I'm requesting videos for emulator/WiiU SMK, because in both cases, you can use savestates which would ruin the challenge.

If you need to record on the PC, use OBS since it can save to files, on the WiiU... use your phone/camera >.>

[Dat Matt]

I really doubt that people are going to abuse save states in a racing game. It's similar to the last run, where flying mullet presented a points exploit, but no player opted to use it. It comes down to a level of trust, and I trust people not to use exploits to swing the game in their favour. Or do you not trust the fact that there is room for improvement in every run?

[Bubba]

I'm pretty good at Mario Kart... but playing it on my SNES whilst simultaneously filming it on my phone will take a ridiculous amount of skill.

On a clean run though, there is a replay option at the end so I'm happy to film that. Will probably provide humorous and biased commentary along with it highlighting my favourite corners and such.

[Endless]

I'm pretty good at Mario Kart... but playing it on my SNES whilst simultaneously filming it on my phone will take a ridiculous amount of skill.

Wear it on your head, gopro style ;)

[Bubba]

Got a video of my fastest time just by filming the replay and commentating on it. That should be enough for proof. Like Matt says though, I trust everyone here to compete honestly.

I reckon I can shave a good second off it though.

[Dat Matt]

So I realise that there is already some stiff competition going on, and we don't even the course or character confirmed. So I've decided to change the submissions to the contest for this round. I'm going to accept the submissions only by PM. I think for Feedback I'll compare this score to the person that is 1 rank faster than them and say "You are 0"04"23" behind the next player. Care to try and beat that?" I think that this could encourage more entries.

Just as a request though, can we avoid posting any scores before the competition starts. It may discourage players from entering.

Reason for this change is submission is linked to the last challenge. Bubba posted his face melting score from the last challenge, submissions dropped by half, and Crop even said " I messed up majorly throughout and I think I can at least double my score, even if I can't quite beat out Bubba's." and did not submit a score because of it. I'd like to discourage that this time round which is why I am going for PMs this time round.

I would ideally like a discussion in the thread, but at the same time posting basically unbeatable scores could potentially prevent players from even trying which is not what I'm going for. Everything is still in a trial period here so I'm not sure of the best way to encourage discussion without providing public feedback though...

[Bubba]

I think that approach is absolutely fine. As long as there is a leaderboard showing who is first, second, third etc... the times can be revealed at the end. Whoever has the lead though should know how far behind the person in second is. If they only have a slight lead they may want to try and increase their advantage.

[Dat Matt]

just using as an example:

Shauna has a score of 2"48'29
Mirage submits a score of 2"50'41

When Mirage submits a score, I will inform him that he is 0"02"12 behind the next player and encourage him to try and beat that score. I will probably have a table like this



Name
Time


Shauna
?"??'??


Mirage
?"??'??


Benchmark time
3"30"00



Should encourage players to see a benchmark score and to submit scores to beat it.

[Skyblade]

As this seems to have some discussion in it for Mario Kart 8, I'll post in here instead of a new thread (which will wait for release day).

I've never played a Mario Kart game before, but I'll be getting MK8. Planning on playing Baby Rosalina. Awesome character.

If they do faithfully recreate the chosen track, could I do my run in MK8? Probably not fair due to changed mechanics and items, but as a total newbie, I'll lose anyway.

PS: Cruel Brawl or Cruel Melee KO count for next month.

[Dat Matt]

I will not accept entries from later versions. Mostly because future versions cut the number of laps down to 3, whereas Super Mario Kart uses 5. There are also a lot of changes and improvements from game to game, for example speed boosts from drifting around corners that are not present in Super Mario Kart.

I did wonder how long it would take someone to ask this though. I'm playing on the Wii U virtual console. There is a promotion going on just now that if you buy Super Mario kart on the eshop prior to buying Mario Kart 8 as a download, the price of the Mario Kart 8 is reduced by the value of Super Mario Kart. Eg. Mario Kart 8 = £49.99, Super Mario Kart = £5.99 so the price for Mario kart 8 would be £44. Something to research if you are getting the digital version.

[LocoColt04]

I guess I should either:
• plug in my old CRT television and get the SNES rolling, or
• turn on the WiiU and go into some retro Mario Kart from there.

I might test run identical tracks on the two platforms and see what gives me the better time. I am curious to find out whether the Wii VC version had ANY internal changes behind the scenes. Time Trial, gooooooo~

[Jowy]

Vanilla Lake 2 top time is 00:57:13.

Try and beat me.

[Skyblade]

I will not accept entries from later versions. Mostly because future versions cut the number of laps down to 3, whereas Super Mario Kart uses 5. There are also a lot of changes and improvements from game to game, for example speed boosts from drifting around corners that are not present in Super Mario Kart.

I did wonder how long it would take someone to ask this though. I'm playing on the Wii U virtual console. There is a promotion going on just now that if you buy Super Mario kart on the eshop prior to buying Mario Kart 8 as a download, the price of the Mario Kart 8 is reduced by the value of Super Mario Kart. Eg. Mario Kart 8 = £49.99, Super Mario Kart = £5.99 so the price for Mario kart 8 would be £44. Something to research if you are getting the digital version.

You can't manually adjust the number of laps? That's kind of disappointing.

Although I wouldn't even know how to drift, let alone boost from it.

I'll be getting the physical copy for the free game (New Mario Bros U or Pikmin 3, which would be better?). So I guess I could emulate it. But not having a controller for this game would probably be weird.

[Dat Matt]

I think you can, but not for time trials.

Of those two choices, it boils down to if you are interested in getting both. If you intend to get both games, pick up Mario as pikmin will probably be cheaper. If you don't, get pikmin as it is the more unique game.

[Skyblade]

I heard that New Mario Bros U was only an ok game, so I'm thinking that if I get a Mario game, Super Mario 3D World would be a better bet, which is making me lean towards Pikmin.

How big of a difference is there between bikes and karts in the games? Or are the bikes new?

[Dat Matt]

Bikes have only been around in Mario kart Wii. I believe they turn faster, are lighter so other players can bump you and slow you down. They were also able to wheelie, whicj gave a slight speed boost. I prefer the bikes personally

[Dat Matt]

And that's us, the poll is closed and it appears the favour has leant towards koopa troopa.

Lightweight's are the best anyway. GET HYPED! 3 days to the competition!

[Mirage]

Even if you had the same number of laps, Skyblade, the games are too different for the games to be put in the same highscore list. Not only would there be slightly different mechanics on the actual stage, but also the karts handle differently and have different acceleration and top speed than the SMK versions of the same karts have.

[Dat Matt]

Mario Kart Super Circuit remade the SNES Rainbow road stage. Here's the first time trial I found for it:

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Using Mario Kart Super Circuit as the point of reference here, there are two main differences in the SNES and GBA Version.

1. First is that you're given 3 mushroom speed boosts in the later games for time trials.
2. There are no thowmps, so no hazzards.

Each game plays different, but Yoshi who is a medium speed character on what appears to be a flawed run managed to beat the fastest time I can find for High Speed characters on the SNES Version.