I've really had a love/hate relationship with the game. In the beginning I hated it. The game is FAR AWAY from the rest of the series in terms of how it's played. Being a Mario Kart veteran, when I started, I of course picked manual. Manual gives you the option to hop and get power slide boosts; Y'know, how it USED TO WORK. However, the only kart with decent handling/drifting has by far the WORST acceleration ever.
While on most karts, after getting hit by something and starting to move again, it'll take you about 1-2 seconds to get to full speed. With this other kart it takes a good 5+ seconds to get to full speed. According to the stats, it has a higher top speed when compared to the rest of the karts, but it's not a noticeable difference that would make up for the TERRIBLE acceleration.
You might think that the better handling would also make up for the poor acceleration. Well, this game has 50% more karts in the race at once, 12 total. That's A LOT of different people going around the track all with access to ITEMS. And you'll get hit with these items. A SHIT LOAD! And a lot of these items will make you lose your own item, ruining whatever plans you might've thought up in your head to defend yourself. And every time you get hit... you have to deal with the slow acceleration to get you back up to full speed.
Okay, so by this point you might be wondering... why not just use the other karts? Well, I tried that too. But to make a lot of the corners in the game you HAVE TO POWERSLIDE around the turn. And the powersliding on these other karts is just terrible. You jump to go into the powerslide and it pulls you in the opposite direction which could be grass a wall, or a cliff. And assuming you even get into the powerslide the items come at you just like before breaking your powerslide, and now you don't have enough speed to go back into it.
Now let me take a moment to talk about this powersliding system. In previous Mario Kart games, you'd enter a power slide and move your control stick/D-Pad back and forth until you got the the orange/red spark and you'd get a boost. In THIS game, however, it gives you a boost depending on how long you hold the slide. This is supposed to be an anti-snaking precaution but they really took it too far. There are plenty of turns where you SHOULD be able to get a boost but can't due to the new setup. It almost seems to be that 90 degree turn gives you the blue, and 180 goes to red/orange.
So to make things even better, let's just say that while playing against the CPUs, they are nothing less than cheap. You will get impaled with items just before crossing the finish line after holding a large lead only to come in 5th or lower. You will get hit with items at the WORST possible moment as well in other ways. For example, you'll get hit with something the moment you are over a gap, which not only stops you, but now you have to wait to be put back on the track. You'll also usually get hit with something to make you lose your item the MOMENT you get something useful that could help you. A real bummer...
Now here's where things get a little strange...
But switching from manual to automatic, most of my beef with the game is removed completely! But what this means is that they essentially took out most of the skill and strategies Mario Kart veterans are used to.
Those karts with the terrible handling? Well on automatic these become your weapons of choice. You get that good acceleration to help you after the hits, and the automatic powerslide initiates in a way so that it doesn't make you go wide at all. Sure, you lose the boost gained from the old powersliding method, but the time you'll be able to make up after getting hit with items will make up for it, and then A LOT more.
The amount of time gained from this switch is enough to make playing against the CPUs in the cups a BREEZE. While their cheap tactics still exist and will cost you a race or two, most of the time you'll be so far ahead that you'll retain the lead.
So at this point, while I feel this isn't the same Mario Kart I've grown up to love, it's a somewhat decent racer with cheap AI. So what do you get when you replace the CPUs with real players?
A fun game.
Actually, that's an understatement. Playing online is a freaking blast. You get up to 12 players and there's not even a bit of lag. The most you'll get is people being disconnected for unknown reasons. But when the disconnections don't kick in you are having a great time. You can create rooms for friends to join or battle against the World. You don't gain or lose ranking points in a friend opened room race, but if you play against the world you do.
And what's more? You can join a world match that a friend is currently playing and join them! I found this to be the best route for fun because you have a decent amount of players AND you are playing with friends. I can see this being fun for a VERY long time in the future. And afterall, as much as the gameplay doesn't really feel like previous Mario Kart games, it's still about the multiplayer experience the most.
So in conclusion, don't go into this game expecting this to play like previous Mario Kart games. If you do you will be SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED. If you go into this expecting a pretty decent multiplayer racing game, you will be pleasantly surprised because it it much more than that. So fun game, but NOT Mario Kart. Recommended 100%.
While on most karts, after getting hit by something and starting to move again, it'll take you about 1-2 seconds to get to full speed. With this other kart it takes a good 5+ seconds to get to full speed. According to the stats, it has a higher top speed when compared to the rest of the karts, but it's not a noticeable difference that would make up for the TERRIBLE acceleration.
You might think that the better handling would also make up for the poor acceleration. Well, this game has 50% more karts in the race at once, 12 total. That's A LOT of different people going around the track all with access to ITEMS. And you'll get hit with these items. A SHIT LOAD! And a lot of these items will make you lose your own item, ruining whatever plans you might've thought up in your head to defend yourself. And every time you get hit... you have to deal with the slow acceleration to get you back up to full speed.
Okay, so by this point you might be wondering... why not just use the other karts? Well, I tried that too. But to make a lot of the corners in the game you HAVE TO POWERSLIDE around the turn. And the powersliding on these other karts is just terrible. You jump to go into the powerslide and it pulls you in the opposite direction which could be grass a wall, or a cliff. And assuming you even get into the powerslide the items come at you just like before breaking your powerslide, and now you don't have enough speed to go back into it.
Now let me take a moment to talk about this powersliding system. In previous Mario Kart games, you'd enter a power slide and move your control stick/D-Pad back and forth until you got the the orange/red spark and you'd get a boost. In THIS game, however, it gives you a boost depending on how long you hold the slide. This is supposed to be an anti-snaking precaution but they really took it too far. There are plenty of turns where you SHOULD be able to get a boost but can't due to the new setup. It almost seems to be that 90 degree turn gives you the blue, and 180 goes to red/orange.
So to make things even better, let's just say that while playing against the CPUs, they are nothing less than cheap. You will get impaled with items just before crossing the finish line after holding a large lead only to come in 5th or lower. You will get hit with items at the WORST possible moment as well in other ways. For example, you'll get hit with something the moment you are over a gap, which not only stops you, but now you have to wait to be put back on the track. You'll also usually get hit with something to make you lose your item the MOMENT you get something useful that could help you. A real bummer...
Now here's where things get a little strange...
But switching from manual to automatic, most of my beef with the game is removed completely! But what this means is that they essentially took out most of the skill and strategies Mario Kart veterans are used to.
Those karts with the terrible handling? Well on automatic these become your weapons of choice. You get that good acceleration to help you after the hits, and the automatic powerslide initiates in a way so that it doesn't make you go wide at all. Sure, you lose the boost gained from the old powersliding method, but the time you'll be able to make up after getting hit with items will make up for it, and then A LOT more.
The amount of time gained from this switch is enough to make playing against the CPUs in the cups a BREEZE. While their cheap tactics still exist and will cost you a race or two, most of the time you'll be so far ahead that you'll retain the lead.
So at this point, while I feel this isn't the same Mario Kart I've grown up to love, it's a somewhat decent racer with cheap AI. So what do you get when you replace the CPUs with real players?
A fun game.
Actually, that's an understatement. Playing online is a freaking blast. You get up to 12 players and there's not even a bit of lag. The most you'll get is people being disconnected for unknown reasons. But when the disconnections don't kick in you are having a great time. You can create rooms for friends to join or battle against the World. You don't gain or lose ranking points in a friend opened room race, but if you play against the world you do.
And what's more? You can join a world match that a friend is currently playing and join them! I found this to be the best route for fun because you have a decent amount of players AND you are playing with friends. I can see this being fun for a VERY long time in the future. And afterall, as much as the gameplay doesn't really feel like previous Mario Kart games, it's still about the multiplayer experience the most.
So in conclusion, don't go into this game expecting this to play like previous Mario Kart games. If you do you will be SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED. If you go into this expecting a pretty decent multiplayer racing game, you will be pleasantly surprised because it it much more than that. So fun game, but NOT Mario Kart. Recommended 100%.
