Topic: Mario Kart 8 Review

[UncleBob]

Not to mention... Mario Kart 8's use of the Gamepad is disappointing.

I mean, seriously.

[Jonnyboy117]

Widespread criticism of the GamePad functionality took place several weeks before the game's release date. It was a smart marketing plan by Nintendo, because the topic seemed stale by the time reviews were being written.

[ResettisCousin]

The point was either of those headlines could be taken as clickbait, especially coming from a big Nintendo fansite. I don't have a problem with the articles (or the headlines).

[Soren]

Most people who commented here did not come to burn Neal in effigy. I have respect for Neal, but I have issues with the approach of this review. I couldn't care less if he gave the game a 2 or a 20. I wanted to discuss the optimal way that games should be evaluated. It's not too late to take this discussion in a more constructive direction.

This is fair. There were a lot of problems with Neal and Daan's reviews and they had nothing to do with the opinions of the reviewers themselves (which I respect). If the staff wants to focus on the Metacritic "click bate" trolls a double down on their defense of that then great. But it just bogs down any actual discussion of the review process.

[Evan_B]

As someone who has been a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog and seen his rapid fall from grace over the last eight or so years and also someone who has been hyped for games that have been reviewed poorly, I don't put much faith in reviews. They are opinions, it just sucks that they've become so recognized as that which sets the bar in the industry that people even get emotionally invested in a score before playing the game.

Then again, I think far too many criticisms of video games are unwarranted. Unless it's Super Mario 3D Land we're talking about, here. That game is trash.

[lolmonade]

I've watched a movie with my friends that I thought was terrible and when I started complaining about it, I found out they all liked it. They'd agree with some of my points but it worked for them they said. It boggles my mind how they could like it despite very clear reasons and examples of stupidity. Now, if we were to write reviews of the movie, my score would be much lower than theirs. However, according to you, I should recognize that other people will rate it higher and I need to adjust my score to be a bit higher otherwise I'm being disingenious and not following the crowd for the sake of trying to display "independent" thought. And heaven help me if I bring down the Metacritic score! Moreover, if I had seen the movie on my own and not with my friends, I'd have assumed that everyone felt like me and would be ranking the movie the same way. How am I supposed to figure out they liked it? Knowing they liked it, however, doesn't change how I felt about the movie or what I think are legitamate complaints against it and I feel like there are other people who would feel the same as me so I'm going to write a review and score it based on my own experience with it. If people disagree with it, so be it, but it's just my honest assessment of it.

What movie are you referring to?  I'm asking both because I'm genuinely curiuos AND it'll spawn more interesting discussion than the bickering over a review score.

Transformers. The first one. I've never watched any of the others after it.

I can see why someone wouldn't like the first one.  I saw Transformers 1 and enjoyed it for what it was, butI definitely wouldn't defend it against criticism.  Definitely don't see why anyone would bother watching the follow-ups, unless you didn't get enough explosions & robots fighting in the first one.

[UncleBob]

Stopped by GameStop - played the demo.  Second time I've got to play MK8 Demo...

...It's Mario Kart.  More of the same.  That's not bad, by any means... but still.  Just more Mario Kart.  I have 4 great Mario Kart games with me in my car right now (and one not-so-great one).  Mario Kart 8 is "hey, this system needs a Mario Kart title!", not "Well, I have this really great idea for a game..."

Granted this could change when I purchase the full release (which I will, of course) - but from what I played, more Mario Kart is just more Mario Kart.

[Crimm]

I have 4 great Mario Kart games with me in my car right now (and one not-so-great one).

Mario Kart is my co-pilot?

[Khushrenada]

What would Mario Kart do?

[deepsouth]

The only thing that bothers me about this review is the timing of it. Nintendo has thier backs against the wall, and desperatly needs  Mario Kart 8 to ship a ton of consoles. This review is telling people that not only is MK8 not that good of a game, but that it's not worth buying a console over too. Whether you said that or not is beside the point, your low score implies it. And people will take this review seriously Simply becouse it appears to be a Nintendo friendly site! So a website that uses Nintendo's name to help promote themselves, kicks Nintendo when thier on the ground. And as far as the click-bait theory, well I don't know this website good enough to make an assumption about that. But what I will say is that i've never visited this website before, and didn't even know it existed until I saw the ridiculous 7.5 rating it gave to MK8. So whether this review was intentionally made for click-bait or not, like i said, it wouldn't be right for me to comment on. But it did draw me in.

[Sarail]

blah blah something something...This review is telling people that not only is MK8 not that good of a game, but that it's not worth buying a console over too. ...blah blah something something blah blah

Seriously, you need to stop looking at game review scores as if they're being graded on an academic scale. A 7.5 is above average. 5? That's average. See? One to 10. Not, One to seven is crap, seven to 8.5 is ok, and 8.5 and above is exceptional. None of that nonsense. Get over yourself.

Game is good. Game will be bought. By myself and LOTS of others. It will even sell consoles. Ta da! Happy, fun times. Enjoy your game.

[broodwars]

The only thing that bothers me about this review is the timing of it. Nintendo has thier backs against the wall, and desperatly needs  Mario Kart 8 to ship a ton of consoles. This review is telling people that not only is MK8 not that good of a game, but that it's not worth buying a console over too. Whether you said that or not is beside the point, your low score implies it. And people will take this review seriously Simply becouse it appears to be a Nintendo friendly site! So a website that uses Nintendo's name to help promote themselves, kicks Nintendo when thier on the ground. And as far as the click-bait theory, well I don't know this website good enough to make an assumption about that. But what I will say is that i've never visited this website before, and didn't even know it existed until I saw the ridiculous 7.5 rating it gave to MK8. So whether this review was intentionally made for click-bait or not, like i said, it wouldn't be right for me to comment on. But it did draw me in.

You do realize that every site on the internet has been reviewing Mario Kart 8 because the review embargo lifted, right? There's no "timing" to these reviews. Nintendo lifted their restrictions on reviews, and the reviews went up. End of story. If you want to be concerned about "timing", be concerned that Nintendo chose to release an apparently incredibly formulaic and underwhelming Mario Kart game when they have "thier back against the wall" and "desperatly needs  Mario Kart 8 to ship a ton of consoles" (nice spelling, by the way. It seems to be a common trait in the people complaining about these reviews).

[deepsouth]

Racht, where do you get the idea that a five is an average score? Name me one game that was given a five out of ten and considered average. A 7.5 is a horrible score, and it WILL impact sales. Believe it or not. I hate when people think that these type of reviews dont have consequences or impacts on a games sales. These reviews are more than just an opinion. And get over myself? what does that even mean?

And broodwars, I meant timeing as in the position that nintendo is currently in with thier Wii U, and that a bad review of such an anticipated game is, well, bad timing! And underwhelming is your opinion, as I believe it to be the best Mario Kart yet.

[UncleBob]

If you want to be concerned about "timing", be concerned that Nintendo chose to release an apparently incredibly formulaic and underwhelming Mario Kart game when they have "thier back against the wall" and "desperatly needs  Mario Kart 8 to ship a ton of consoles".

Snark aside, this.  So much this.  Don't blame NWR because the game isn't the best thing ever.  They didn't make it.

You're right - Nintendo really needs to move some consoles.  And they're going to do that with fun and exciting games that everyone *has* to have.  Everyone had to have Mario Kart Wii because no one played Double Dash and for a lot of people, it sucked with the two-rider mechanic.  Mario Kart Wii was the first basic Mario Kart game on a console since Mario Kart 64.  Mario Kart 8 is a re-hash of Mario Kart Wii and it simply isn't going to move a buttload of systems.  It's like New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold a lot of systems because it was the first 2D Mario Platformer on a console in *years*.  Lots of people wanted a new Mario game... Mario Kart Wii U will go the same path as New Super Mario Bros. Wii U... a fun game that folks enjoy, but not something the vast majority of folks are going to rush out and buy a console for.

Nintendo really, really needs a new, fresh game that gets people excited.  And at this point, they could use one or two *more* of those.  Mario Kart Wii part 2 isn't that game.  It'll be a fun game, but it's not going to be a system seller.

I have more faith in the new Smash Bros., as so many people have been craving a new Smash Bros. game since Melee and so many people disliked Brawl.

[Khushrenada]

Racht, where do you get the idea that a five is an average score? Name me one game that was given a five out of ten and considered average.

Hometown Story, Weapon Shop de Omasse, and Mario Party:Island Tour are examples of that.

[broodwars]

And broodwars, I meant timeing as in the position that nintendo is currently in with thier Wii U, and that a bad review of such an anticipated game is, well, bad timing! And underwhelming is your opinion, as I believe it to be the best Mario Kart yet.

How can you possibly believe it to be "the best Mario Kart yet" when you haven't played it? Everyone's opinion is different. We all have our tastes and personal biases.

And I love the insinuation, by the way, that reviewers apparently owe Nintendo high reviews for their latest cash-grab because Nintendo royally fucked-up with the Wii U in every possible way.

[UncleBob]

Many of the folks who seem to be criticizing this review seem really off to me.

They're saying that the review should factor in the (potential) MetaCritic score.  The review should factor in that Nintendo needs to sell systems.  They should factor in all kinds of things - none of which reflect on the gameplay itself.

Dear any site that reviews games anywhere on the internet: Please don't do this.  Review the game for what it is*.  Be honest about it.  That's all I ask.

*One caveat is to factor in the price.  A $10 eShop platformer might be the same quality as a $40 3DS retail title - but the lower retail price gets it a bit of a bump for me - it's about value.

[Khushrenada]

as I believe it to be the best Mario Kart yet.

Which 3 tracks would you say are your favorite and why? How do you feel about the Battle Mode courses?

The only thing that bothers me about this review is the timing of it. Nintendo has thier backs against the wall, and desperatly needs  Mario Kart 8 to ship a ton of consoles.

Kind of been a problem for awhile. Pikmin 3 hasn't done it, Wonderful 101 hasn't done it, Super Mario 3D World hasn't done it, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze hasn't done it. Maybe Mario Kart 8 will do it but if Super Mario 3D World couldn't with all the positive reviews it got, I wouldn't expect Mario Kart 8 to do it no matter how many great reviews it got.

This review is telling people that not only is MK8 not that good of a game, but that it's not worth buying a console over too. Whether you said that or not is beside the point, your low score implies it. And people will take this review seriously

That's amazing considering how many people say they weren't even aware of this site before. If I saw a bunch of reviews that were positive from a lot of regular sites I visited and then saw one that was negative from a site I never heard of, I know I'd suddenly put a lot more weight to what this unknown site was saying than the ones I trusted before.

And I guess when this site gave Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze a 9.5 out of 10, Super Mario 3D World a 10 out of 10, Wonderful 101 a 9 out of 10 and Pikmin 3 a 9.5 out of 10, nobody took it seriously and that's why the games didn't sell more and save the Wii U. But this 7.5 score everyone will take seriously and immediately cancel pre-orders and sell off their Wii U's and buy PS4's instead. Right.

Guess what? The 3DS is selling quite well but nobody came here complaining when Yoshi's New Island got a 6 out of 10. Why is that? Because it didn't matter since the 3DS is selling well? How does that make any difference? A game is good or bad regardless of how well a system is selling. Just like a movie is good or bad regardless of how many tickets it sells. There can be bad movies that make a lot of money and good movies that don't. It's not the reviewers job to sell tickets. It's the movie studio's job. A reviewer just assesses the job that's been done.

Simply becouse it appears to be a Nintendo friendly site! So a website that uses Nintendo's name to help promote themselves, kicks Nintendo when thier on the ground.

Since it is a site that follows Nintendo products and only reviews games released on Nintendo systems, I guess a better name would be Xbox News Station. Yes, the name Nintendo is used because that's the site's focus. If they are using Nintendo to promote themselves, I would think you should have heard of this site long before they posted this review.

For your info, this site used to be called PlanetGameCube because it covered Gamecube games. With the Wii release, it was renamed Nintendo World Report to keep from changing its name for every Nintendo console release and that's the way it has stuck. So, yes, just as it "appears", it is a Nintendo Friendly site. However, that doesn't mean that it is automatically going to praise every Nintendo game that gets released. Or perhaps you think Game & Wario should have been automatically given a 10 out of 10 by the reviewers here since this site has Nintendo in the name and by not doing so is kicking Nintendo when they're down. Or is it possible that not every Nintendo game is perfect?

And as far as the click-bait theory, well I don't know this website good enough to make an assumption about that. But what I will say is that i've never visited this website before, and didn't even know it existed until I saw the ridiculous 7.5 rating it gave to MK8. So whether this review was intentionally made for click-bait or not, like i said, it wouldn't be right for me to comment on. But it did draw me in.

You won't comment about it being click-bait but you will still talk about it to the effect that you see it as being that way.

[deepsouth]

Broodwars, first off, I have played MK8, and your right, everbody has different opinions. Mine is that its the best one in the series. Second, I don't agree that Nintendo "royally fucked up the Wii U in every possible way". And third I wasn't insinuating anything. Look, you can defend this site all you want, that is your right. You may have been on this site for a long time and the reviewers may even be good friends of yours. I understand, no problem. I'm sure they're good people. But I just think it's a little strange that a website that appears to be Nintendo friendly, (Nintendoworldreport) would give the most anticipated game on the Wii U so far, the lowest score out of nearly fifty reviewers on metacritic.The irony is just a little to thick for me to ignore, thats all.

And Unclebob, to say that double dash sucked is your opinion. But to say that nobody played it is just inaccurate  since it sold seven million copies. I believe it actually was one of the best selling MK's considering the low sales of the gamecube.

[UncleBob]

Did I say Double Dash sucked?

Because I own six copies of it, along with Seven GameCubes and six Broadband Adapters.  How many copies do you own?

[NWR_Karl]

Bwahaha, I haven't seen so many cringeworthy review complaints since the equally stupid and embarrassing Pangya fiasco from back in my day:


http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/13300/super-swing-golf-wii


Neal's a good man, and I firmly believe he reviewed this game to share his honest thoughts and experiences. Not to watch a bunch of you lose your collective (and I do mean collective, you hivemind buffoons) shits.


That doesn't mean that *I* haven't been reading for that very reason, however. Bwahahaha.

No, please continue. Hahahaha.

[deepsouth]

NWR Karl, I don't believe anyone is losing thier collectives shits here, lol. I havent seen anyone blow up, just people posting thier opinion, thats all. And Im sure Neal is a good guy, he just had a bad review. It happens to Most good reviewers on the internet. Jose Otero is someone I have a lot of respect for, but man did he write a **** review of kirby triple deluxe, and I let him know it too. Hivemind buffoons huh? Why becouse people disagree with this painfully inaccurate review? So is anyone with a different view than that of the reviewer a "hivemind baffoon"? Surely you expect a little backlash when you give such a game a low score.

[deepsouth]

Unclebob, yes you did say it sucked. And I only own one copy of double dash. But I own four copies of hogans ally on the NES, but it doesn't mean I like it. We collectors collect, doesn't matter if we like the game.

[UncleBob]

Unclebob, yes you did say it sucked. And I only own one copy of double dash.

Quote pls.

Bwahaha, I haven't seen so many cringeworthy review complaints since the equally stupid and embarrassing Pangya fiasco from back in my day

The fallout from the 10/10 Mario golf (or was it Tennis?  Pretty sure it was Golf) was worse.  I think Seanbaby did a saterical write up on it and the staffer who wrote that piece abandoned the site shortly after.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I will defend the site and the review because people here appear to generally be more down to earth than other Nintendo fan site, which is what I like about it these people don't just sing Nintendo's endless praises like some sites. These fans, these idiots who come here to **** all over a perfectly fair review are the very reason I chose this site in the first place,  because some people think that Nintendo can do no wrong and that their games deserve good review scores period. Damn the guy writes his opinion and suddenly people have to make it sound like his one review will single-handedly destroy Nintendo.