Mario Kart 8!

[Dat Matt]

You get a speed boost the more coins you have. Definitely try and get 10.

Jumping off Ramps offers a boost when you hit the ground or fly into the sky. Do tricks often.

[Skyblade]

Is it faster to glide through the air or get back to the ground ASAP when taking the glider jumps?

[Dat Matt]

I'm not concrete on that one actually. Personally I like to hit the ground as soon as because I think it's faster, but Gliding offers the potential to get to shortcuts and cut sections of road. Try both and see what works

[Skyblade]

I feel I should point out: Before I learned how to hold items behind me, I was doing 100cc races. It had taken me about a dozen tries to three star the Flower Cup.

Since learning that trick, I managed to three star both the next two Cups on my first attempt.

I did switch to a kart instead of a bike, but definitely I know the item shield helps a ton from the hits it blocked (also got my first successful block of a blue shell thanks to the horn). Thanks for the help, guys!


EDIT: I haven't been able to unlock any of the new challengers yet. I keep hoping I'll come across Greninja or Megaman, but no luck so far.

[Endless]

EDIT: I haven't been able to unlock any of the new challengers yet. I keep hoping I'll come across Greninja or Megaman, but no luck so far.

That's going to take you a looooooong time.

[Dat Matt]

Those guys are in smash brothers. I think the 3ds version will be out soon.

[Skyblade]

Those guys are in smash brothers. I think the 3ds version will be out soon.

I know. I was just being hopeful. I think it would be awesome. We've got Donkey Kong Country levels, and DK himself (who hasn't appeared in a straight Mario game in quite a while). Why couldn't we have more?

Ooh, and Fire Emblem characters. We could easily get both Lucina and Baby Lucina in. Baby Lucina was in the game! She'd totally fit!




In more serious news, I did finally unlock all the characters (yay!), and I've reached 1000 Coins. Only 9k more to go to get the Golden Glider.

My current preferred racer is Baby Rosalina, with the Circuit Special, Cyber Slick Wheels, and the MKTV Parafoil. I honestly prefer bikes, I think they're more awesome, but they turn too well, and attempts to drift turns usually make me oversteer, and I have to cut back to straight before I can get the drift boost.

[Dat Matt]

Sounds like you're moping the floor with us Skyblade, I've unlocked everyone but only gotten 800 coins. Unlocked all the characters though and I am heading into 150CC now.

[Skyblade]

I'm making sure to three star every cup. Two more to go in 100cc before I can move on, so I think you're ahead.

The Flower Cup did take me forever without item shields.

[Skyblade]

Several things I want to post about, but I'll start with a progress update.

My 3 star victory in the Star Cup was mostly frustrated by the way Electrodome played out, but my victory on Mount Wario was awesome enough I felt like recording it.



I had this kind of rivalry going with Gold Peach until shortly before the third checkpoint. Then my superior driving really pulled ahead. I had been holding on to the three Green Shells for a while. Then someone hit me with a Lightning bolt at the second to last turn (I think it was the Shy Guy, due to how fast he moved up after it hit). But poor Shy Guy ran smack into the shells I dropped, which was kind of hilarious. Victory was mine!



But I just finished getting 3 stars for the Special Cup at 150cc, leaving me with only four cups to go (until I unlock Mirror Cups). It was the most clutch ending ever, because Rainbow Road is bulltrout with how the AI works at 150cc.



Serious photo finish there. I just don't even... I probably only won that by like a tenth of a second.




So, I'm taking a little break. I've gotten 1900 coins, BTW, so I'm closing in on 2.5k (from what I've heard, at 2.5k I'll have unlocked all of the vehicle parts except the gold ones).

You guys may have noticed that I'm back to bikes. Karts were super helpful for a while, but I really need the acceleration, especially at 150cc with how bad the items get.





Now, on to more general thoughts.

I find myself wishing that there was a bit more to this game. The features they have are absolutely brilliant, but I do feel that they could easily have improved it. I'd add in things like challenge modes, completing certain races or portions of races with particular conditions, items, kart setups, etcetera. Similar to challenge matches in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but with racing sections. While we're at it, we could add in some collectables. For this, I was taking inspiration from the Tony Hawk series to add in little things over the maps, designed to require particular execution to acquire. This would help familiarize people with techniques, shortcuts, boost points, and so on. They've done this with their platformers, why not with racers as well?

I also think they need to make the catch-up items more common. There are too many attack items. This sucks, because it means that being in the middle of the pack is a death sentence. All of the powerful or AOE attacks are restricted to lower places, so the main pack is getting hit over and over, losing all their coins, having their progress halted, etcetera. While the leader only has to worry about items from second and third, tops. Sure, the Blue Shell may be feared, but it doesn't actually do the guy in eighth place a lot of good. If you can pull to the front, staying there is just generally about not screwing up your racing (to the point that you can get hit by a Blue Shell and still achieve victory by a substantial margin in most races). More items to boost progress (or make them more common) would mean those in the rear would actually have a chance to catch up. Instead, if you're in the rear, you're going to stay there, because there's this giant wall of fireballs, shells, bananas, and piranha plants in between you and first.

[Dat Matt]

The items such as the mushrooms, stars, 8, phirana plant, bullet bill are all great catch up items, but you only tend to get them when you are really far behind. During online play I found that most of these were ineffective as a single red shell at the first item blocks puts you back into last place and it is very hard to catch up.

First place normally chills out if they can keep the lead. Block and occasional shell and keep the lead and your good. Thars why I like the coin item being common in first, should prevent an unbreakable lead from forming

[Ayen]

Haven't touched it. The only Mario Kart game I played was the N64 one.

[Dat Matt]

N64 rainbow road is in this game. That should be reason enough to get it!

[Ayen]

If only I had a Wii-U and room to put it in.

Now accepting donations to move into a bigger house.

[NeoCracker]

GOD DAMMIT I smurfED UP RIGHT AT THE END AND FAILED TO THREE STAR BANNANA CUP ON 100CC!