Mario Kart DLC download PARTY!

[Arthur]

https://vine.co/v/OiLBVuTvhUI

[BigJKO]

Yes, you can just play on 150cc and every cup result will take effect on 50 and 100cc, and things will unlock accordingly.

[undermind9]

characters unlock for gold championship wins, if you play only on 150 will have to do the cups a couple times to get all the characters.  if your aiming for gold stars probably going to have to do it a few times anyways (stupid blue shells)

 

the karts/tires/parachutes open with coin collections

[dartmonkey]

Okay, late to the party but I got MK on Friday. This first pack is off the hook! I was grinning like an idiot on Hyrule Circuit.

 

On top of all the myriad touches and considerations, I really like the approach they've taken with this DLC specifically. The core game is Mario Kart as it's always been with a few new options (the multiplayer match editing options are very welcome), but they're opening it up with the DLC for people who want it, mixing obvious fan service with marketing strategy in an interesting way. For example, with no F-Zero on the horizon, Mute City is a cool nugget for fans, whereas Link and the Hyrule track (and the upcoming AC pack) also theoretically introduce people to other available games. I stumbled on this while registering stars the other day. Obviously they want to expand the audience for their existing games, and I like how this DLC seems to work for everybody. Plus, the tracks are fantastic.

 

Pikmin would fit in nicely, I think. Olimar and three pikmin could be a good roster addition. A garden circuit and a bulborb cart. Ties in to another available game. Makes sense. Kirby. Yarn Yoshi. Star Fox and Metroid could also fit, depending on if/when those games come.

 

I was also wondering if a Greatest Hits track pack would work. Imagine if they spent the next 3-4 years releasing all the tracks from previous games, all rejigged and sparkly. Admittedly, that's a stretch, but a retro pack with past favourites could work. Or imagine a Virtual Console pack, with 8/16-bit versions characters and a blocky 8-bit circuit.

[Vorlonesque]

I would love to see a Battle Mode DLC pack, as that's the one area of the game I think is lacking (and I have fond memories of that mode in the SNES, N64, and DS MK games)...but other than that they're really doing an amazing job with this stuff and I hope they keep adding to the game.

 

Edit: Holy shit, just downloaded the DLC and played it...the FZero, Zelda, and Excite Bike tracks are amazing...the Excite Bike track brings back a lot of memories of playing that game on a Nintendo "red tent" arcade machine at Pizza Hut!

 

http://nintendoredtent.weebly.com/about.html

http://www.johnsarcade.com/nintendo_vs_dualsystem_tent.php

https://www.google.com/search?q=nintendo+red+tent&client=firefox-a&hs=L9u&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=hqh7VNGlBIfIsQTWqYH4BQ&ved=0CDoQ7Ak&biw=1536&bih=1007

[melmer]

Oh man the new tracks look so good. More F zero \o/

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2015/04/mario-kart-8-dlc-pack-2-trailers.html?m=1

[melmer]

Someone's gone to town over on gaf http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1029355

[undermind9]

Baby Park is that matters

 

The only other improvement is if you could hold a second item like the original Double-Dash map did for maximum chaos

[RubixsQube]

The updated Baby Park doesn't have the ability to shoot items that cross over the divider, thus removing some of the wonderful chaos. However, it's all hover-mode, so you get that weird boost when you crash into another racer. Pluses and minuses, I guess.

[tegan]

This is live! Isabelle confirmed for best character.

 

Dry Bowser confirmed for worst.

[Tanukitsune]

Would it be bad if only played as Isabelle and ignored the other DLC characters? 

[tegan]

For what it's worth, I intend to never play as anyone but Isabelle ever again.

 

Also, the Animal Crossing track has you picking up bells instead of coins! Eeeeeeeeee!

[eRonin]

Nah Isabelle is the best, no arguments there.

 

 

But playing with Captain Falcon outfit using Blue Falcon on Mute City and Big Blue just feels right

[miffy495]

Yeah, I realized that I hadn't played this since before getting Amiibos. Captain Falcon is my new Mario Kart main. Haven't even looked at the other new racers.

[Griddlelol]

200cc is fucking nuts.

 

I love it. 

[RubixsQube]

Gah the new courses are so fantastic. I'm a real fan of Ribbon Road, it looks so great. 

 

I've been thinking about Mario Kart and item balance recently, especially with multiplayer. As we all know, in the single player, the way that the game's AI works is that when you get too far ahead, the other racers will have a higher top speed to keep things competitive ("rubber banding"). This, combined with the fact that a top finish can be snatched away at the last minute by getting sniped by an item near the finish line, means the game creates unsavory frustration at the 150cc and, I presume, 200cc, levels. This is the game artificially keeping things exciting, and I think that the crank has been tightened a little too tight - it's really annoying to get blasted by a series of red shells right near the end of a race and find yourself dropped down the rankings by an unrealistically fast Toad, or whatever (as a side note, it's interesting to see how the game picks a series of characters in each cup that are going to be The Fast Ones, at random). It feels "unfair," which I know is a loaded term, but stay with me.

 

This rubber banding doesn't happen in competitive multiplayer, however. In order to keep things exciting, the game has to just mess around with the item balance. What types of items will someone in first place get? How about second? Last? I don't know if I like the current balance, although it's fine. What I've found from playing with my friends is that the item balance all too often means that one player zooms out to an unreachable first place, while the others kind of jockey for second place. And I don't know if that's a "fun" experience, for either the person who consistently gets first place (it just becomes a boring time trial, essentially), or for the people who find first place out of their reach. Granted, there are items that punish first place (like the blue shell, which punishes them exclusively, or the lightning bolt, which punishes them for longer than the racers behind them), but Mario Kart 8 introduced a way to outright destroy the blue shell (the horn box), and my buddies have realized that generally, falling off the track incurs less of a punishment than just eating a blue shell. As for the lightning bolt, I think it's mostly good at tightening up the back half of a race. 

 

So, what is my point? Well, I wonder how the item balance can be shifted to better keep matches close? I think that the ideal is that, given a set of equally apt racers, each would be equally likely to get first place on a given race, and it always came down to an exciting finish to the race. Perhaps this means more red shells for second place? More blue shells when a racer is out to a sizable lead? I used to be rabidly anti-blue shell, but I'm of the opinion now that they're actually a really wonderful design choice towards engineering an exciting race experience in the Nintendo fashion, and I actually think that Mario Kart 8 doesn't have them with enough frequency. Nintendo's often dances along the line between skill and random outcomes deciding their competitive matches (the Mario Party series is what happens when random chance wins, and it's frustrating as hell, I really love how much control you have over item frequency in the Smash Bros. series so that you can find a good balance for your friend group), and I'm someone who realizes that a good night of Mario Kart play isn't like a night of Counter-Strike K/D ratio comparison bs. I'd much rather just have a night where I can remember times when victory was snatched from me in the same session as I managed to barely get a win myself.

 

As it stands, I think that the game is close, but not quite there. I'd love to be able to look at the data for online matches to see what the time difference is between first and second place finishes, vs. second and third, or third and fourth. I'd love it if the item frequency could be messed with, but Mario Kart has never been about Smash Bros. levels of fiddling. I wonder if there's some sort of clever algorithm that could look at the results from an evenings worth of matches and subtly adapt the item frequencies in order to better engineer close finishes? 

 

Am I just a whiner? I mean, whatever, maybe you're so good at Mario Kart that this is beneath you, but I'm hoping to talk about this from a design perspective. 

[Griddlelol]

I don't have much to say on this topic buuuut....

 

1) The Bullet Bill power-up. It's incredibly powerful when used at the right time, and incredibly powerful when just used immediately. It also has an increased occurrence the further your are from 1st place, in terms of distance and placement. At least that's my anecdotal understanding. So essentially a player who is 12th, will always be more likely to get it than someone who is 3rd. However it doesn't work quite right when the player in 1st place is much much further ahead than everyone else, which brings about this "unfair" feeling. I'm 10th, why did I get a single mushroom, while the person at 6th get a Bullet Bill which has now pushed them to 2nd or 3rd? 

 

2) Mushroom power creep. When you can get golden mushrooms and triple mushrooms, a single mushroom feels like a punishment. It's significantly weaker than practically every other power-up, within it's own category, and within the power-ups as a whole category. A green shell is so much more powerful than the mushroom, and despite having 3 "upgrades" to the mushroom's 2, (red shell, triple green shell, triple red shell) I'm always happy when I get a green.

 

3) Some tracks are overly punishing to new/less adept players. Simply because falling off is far more of a punishment than any of the weapons available. Also, while I love the short cuts, they've become so over-utilised in online play, that if you don't use them, you're completely hamstrung. They're not a fun bonus that only the best/most knowledgeable players use, they're just a punishment for the weakest. 

 

4) Red shells. Seriously, fuck red shells. They seem to have an uncanny ability to divert into bananas on the road when you throw them. 

 

5) Invulnerability when you're attacked. This needs to last longer. A player who is hit seems to be a magnet for reds, greens and bumps. One hit at the start of a race can multiply into 3 or 4 hits keeping you stuck in the same place for a long time, and is generally accompanied by getting bumped off the course. Not being able to do anything, while multiple players attack you before you can even get moving again isn't fun and feels unfair. I'd also really like to be able to use an item while I've been hit. I know why you can't - mushrooms would become the most powerful item in the game - but it'd be cool to get hit, then immediately hit the perpetrator with a green or horn as they pass you.

[tegan]

[Griddlelol]

That is exactly what I'm talking about!!!!

[RubixsQube]

(interesting things)

 

1) I think that the bullet bill should be a "you are really lagging behind, let's put you back into the scrum" item. I'd change the balance so it's only really seen in 8 - 12th place, and only after a certain amount of time has elapsed. I don't know how it currently works, but it doesn't seem that really powerful items are given to players within the first half of a lap. I agree with you, it's got a kind of weird frequency as it stands.

 

2) This is a really interesting thing. Mushrooms, to me, are pretty importance since traditionally they allow you to access the shortcuts, or cut across corners where you'd otherwise slow down. I think that's a really great aspect to Mario Kart track design, actually, you can get back into the race if you get a specific item and you're a skilled driver. On its own, however, a mushroom is certainly not as powerful as a green or red shell, to be sure. Golden mushrooms are really, really dangerous, since in most people's hands they're used to catapult themselves off the side of a track. 

 

3) I'm ok with tracks being punishing for new players, since there are so many tracks as it stands that you can play across a wide range to suit all players. But I guess I haven't played close enough attention to shortcuts (I don't play online) to realize their importance. I was still operating under the assumption that shortcuts were only accessible to those with mushrooms, is this not the case? I'll go investigate.

 

4) You're saying "fuck red shells" because they're not good enough at homing in on opponents? 

 

5) This is a real annoyance, exactly for what tegan posted. When it rains, it pours, sometimes, in Mario Kart. And man, oh man, is that not the most frustrating thing. 

[Griddlelol]

Red shells are fine, I'm just complaining!

The bullet bill power up should really be reserved for those lagging behind. I actually got one today while I was 3rd! Seriously? Why did I get that? I believe the only placement that limits items to 0% is first place. I believe first place is limited to red, green single shells, single mushrooms, single bananas and the speaker. While all other places have access to anything, just with different % chances.

Mushrooms aren't needed for every short cut, but they are for some, and are for some simple go over the grass short cuts. The single mushroom is ok for that, but it feels so weak in every single other way.

I really like the addition of coins. It's irritating as hell when you get a coin and you're 6th, but it's so much worse when you're 2nd, and the 1st place player keeps getting bananas or shells to defend their back from your attacks.

Yeah, I suppose being punishing for new players is ok, because it can balance out pretty well with the other weapons.