Mario Kart 8

[Paragon Fury]

So Mario Kart 8 just released the second DLC for the game, the Animal Crossing DLC. And I'm not seeing much about it online or around, despite the fact that Nintendo seems to be doing DLC right and how everyone WANTS DLC to be done. Well-priced ($8 or so) and comes with 8 new tracks, 3 new drivers and multiple new Cars/Tires/Airfoils. Thats a pretty good price for content, delivered at a good time to extend the life of the game and it actually works (and doesn't subtract from the game if you don't own it).

Other than the DLC though, lets talk about other things.

1: Vehicle choice. Is it just me, or is it really hard to win with some vehicles? Particularly the ATVs? I can only ever seem to do well on 150CC with the Tri-Speeder and basic Bike.

2: Tires. What tires are actually worth anything? I basically only use the Thin Tires or GLA DLC ones (because they look cool).

3: Characters; is it just me, or do something of the characters just perform ridiculously compared to how they should on higher difficulties? For instance, Iggy and Daisy speeding past Luigi, Donkey Kong and Boweser etc. even though the latter should be going faster than the former?

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

So to answer some of your questions:

Spoiler: 1. Vehicle choice

1. Typically, vehicles were more varied in Wii than it is in 8, specifically in that bikes were faster and allowed you to do wheelies, while carts gave you more control and overall better drifting. In 8, carts are just better handling and bikes a little faster, while ATVs are typically heavier for more control and maneuverability. I've yet to find a track in which speed was not a factor in winning.

Spoiler: 2. Tires

2. It depends on the vehicle type: smaller wheels are better on carts if you want a boost in speed and acceleration while regular wheels keep you balanced and give you good control. On bikes, I've found that it's better to stick with regular wheels as you're already getting the speed boost and you need to get a grip on drifting. ATVs are just heavy; feel free to play around with whatever you feel is most important.

Spoiler: 3. Characters

3. Historically, Nintendo has gone back and forth with character 'types.' Sometimes they determine your character's capabilities and others they are simply aesthetic changes. I've noticed that every character in 8 falls in line with 'types' and the DLC characters seem to support this. Mario is always balanced, having average speed, acceleration, weight (which attributes to air time), and 'endurance' (being able to take a hit and not easily pushed around by other characters) while smaller characters like Toad boast in speed and acceleration, and low weight and endurance. Classically larger characters like Bowser are low on speed and acceleration, naturally, but are high on weight and endurance, allowing them to be more sturdy on the track and taking a more offensive approach to racing rather than evasive.

Where DLC plays into this is with Cat Mario: Mario is balanced, but Metal Mario is heavier, and there is a noticeable change in speed and acceleration. My guess is that they wanted people to play with more popular characters without being hindered by their 'type,' which is also apparent with Dry Bowser, who is slightly faster than regular Bowser.

 

[NoeL]

As far as picking vehicle components go I just press + and look at the stats. I know that at least acceleration is locked to the bars (so a config with three bars of acceleration is just as fast as a config with 3.5 bars) so I assign things in different areas if my acceleration isn't going up another bar.

When playing against AI in single player I've found lightweight, acceleration-geared builds to perform the best. Top-speed gets compromised because the game "cheats" and lets the other racers keep the pace (makes for more dynamic races) so you may as well have a useful advantage like weight or acceleration (I use Baby Rosalina + Buggy Bud (Biddybuggy in US) + Azure Roller + Cloud Glider)

When playing online top speed becomes more of a priority. It's far easier to maintain a lead than take one because the other players don't get an artificial speed boost and you only have to defend from behind rather than having to defend AND attack (being in 2nd place is TOUGH). If you can catch a break early on and escape the fray you've got a great chance of winning (my build for online is Adult Rosalina + Mach 8 + Slick + Cloud Glider. Probably sub-optimal but I like Rosie).

3: Characters; is it just me, or do something of the characters just perform ridiculously compared to how they should on higher difficulties? For instance, Iggy and Daisy speeding past Luigi, Donkey Kong and Boweser etc. even though the latter should be going faster than the former?

Heavyweights have a higher top speed in MK8 so DK and Bowser should be faster than Iggy and Daisy, but differences in kart builds or AI rubber-banding could explain what you're seeing.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Yeah, I have no experience with Mario kart 8, but for no. 3, the past is a pretty good indication of what it's probably like...

Basically, don't try and judge performance of characters/carts and so on from the ai, because the AI in mario cart consists mostly of dirty tricks and lots of cheating.
The AI will get a massive speed boost if it's behind, so that the race is always a very close one. And this boost really doesn't seem to respect any of the character traits of the various racers.

This is of course far more obvious on harder difficulties because the degree of cheating involved is more extreme...

So... Anyway, don't expect the AI to tell you much about how various characters play...

 

[Guffe]

Haven't got any of the DLC (except the free 200cc upgrade), been thinking about it but just haven't got around to pay 12? for the double pack yet... The 200cc is a nice challenge and I'll be going for the 3 star achievement in the coming few days on all cups.

If someone is interested in adding me on their Nintendo friends list, head over to the WiiU Online Multiplayer usergroup and pick out my name from the MasterList there, also join the group if you like.If you do this, please put a message into the friend request that you're from the Escapist, won't add any super random people who just approach with a friend request out of nowhere