After you take away the HD, what does this game actually have left?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/37209/three-reasons-why-im-not-excited-for-mario-kart-8
Mario Kart 8 is on its way to Wii U, and there is a lot of hope on this game turning the console around. While I absolutely disagree with that line of thinking, my focus today is much smaller in scale, discussing why I am personally less excited for this game than some of you might be. Please understand that I’m writing this based on having just about the same access to the game as you; I haven’t played it since E3, so I absolutely leave open the possibility that the game proves me wrong when it hits shelves on May 30. Feel free to respond in the comments below as to why you agree or disagree with me.
3) They still haven’t fixed single-player.
“It follows the same structure of eight cups, with four featuring new tracks and four featuring retro tracks, making for 32 tracks in total,” said Neal in his latest Hands-on Preview for the game. There could be room to pull a last minute reveal that the game has a story mode as good as the recent Mortal Kombat or Injustice games, but let’s be real. Considering the game has only been in development for a little more than two years, which is Mario Kart standard at best, and considering it follows the same eight-cup format, the single-player is pretty much guaranteed to be exactly as awful, exactly as bland, and exactly as not fun as it has always been. You can go ahead and tell me that the multiplayer is the only mode that matters and that good online conquers all, but that doesn’t excuse the game from having a single-player mode that consists of “race on all of the tracks three times and then maybe make the courses mirrored.”
2) That character selection list is very troubling.
Of the 27 revealed characters, four are babies and seven are Koopalings. That accounts for eleven total, or 40% of the revealed list. There are at least three more characters to be revealed thanks to that demo image that got out, but even if there are more, there realistically will not be twenty or even ten more. You should also recognize that certain characters with good chances have not been revealed yet, like Dry Bones, Birdo, Mii, Bowser Jr., Diddy Kong, Dry Bowser, and King Boo. If there really are three slots left, there isn’t very much room for ingenuity, is there?
New characters with personality excite me, not seven Koopalings whose only personality traits really go as far as their attack patterns. I know this could lead into a discussion about a game called Nintendo Kart, but what if they included a couple of outside Nintendo characters to join the party? What if they dipped into RPG characters like Fawful? What if Wart made some kind of appearance? It sure would be better than re-using the same characters repeatedly while scraping the bottom of the platformer barrel.
1) It looks like one of the laziest sequels Nintendo has ever made.
It’s HD? It better be, it’s on an HD console. It has SOME orchestrated tracks? Congratulations on that massive gameplay achievement. You can use anti-gravity to make the game look slightly different? That totally isn’t an aesthetic change. The fully-utilized GamePad controller can display a horn, split-screen, AND a map? Glad to see this technology isn’t going to waste. I don’t mean to be so mean about this, but it looks like they’re taking Mario Kart 7/Wii and adding just enough content to get away with making Mario Kart 7/Wii again in HD. It’s not like Smash Bros. where it will be the first entry with acceptable online either – 7, Wii, and even DS had pretty good online modes. When the biggest thing people can talk about relating to this game is how you can only hold one item at a time, it tells me something. It tells me that Mario Kart 8 is likely going to be this generation’s Animal Crossing: City Folk, a game that added so little to the formula that one could justifiably consider it an expanded remake of Wild World.
These three reasons illustrate why I’m not excited for this game, why I don’t think it will be nearly as big as Mario Kart Wii, and why I might not even buy it if these three concerns are realized. Outside of being Mario Kart, and I still could be underestimating the value of that, there is nothing here to grab onto other than how it looks. For me, that just isn’t enough.
At least there’s Mario Kart TV.
I really can't believe that opinion piece.... -_- Mario Kart has always been a party game. The single player has never been broken. People who think otherwise are looking for a racing game in a racing-themed party game. Of course you are bound to be disapointed. The Koopalings do not have personality... that's true, but neither does Birdo, Drybones, Daisy or Lakitu. If anything, Mario Kart fleshes-out those characters. Mario Kart has always been iterative in nature, with one title per generation. There is never any real revolution in the genre... that's the harsh truth. I'm still hyped for it, but I know what Mario Kart is... I believe you are disappointed because your are being delusional about the game's fundamental nature.
Being fundamental or traditional doesn't excuse a video game from criticism. If anything, it puts the game in more dire need of criticism and evolution. It's not that I don't know what Mario Kart is -- it's that I want more for it. The genre you describe it as (which disagrees with Nintendo's own labeling (http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/RCjxReZwSFsFfyaXGGxYdozPmEqZOkwq), I might add) is irrelevant. If something is poorly done, its (fan-provided) genre doesn't excuse it of being poor.
...and this go around I'm not wasting $60 when I can get a great version earlier for $40 on 3DS I'd use more.Hate to burst your bubble but mario kart 7 is the second worst game in the series (super circut is at rovk bottom.
Listen, I'm not the shining beacon of positivity when it comes to Nintendo's recent business decisions, myself. But I think Anti-grav and the continuation of the sub and glider gameplay is a pretty good reason to warrant an HD Mario. Also, Nintendo has obviously been trying to hit all of the Wii best sellers.
But I'm not sure what you mean by the single player being bad. If you want optional modes, the only thing I can think of is a challenge feature. There's little you can do in a kart-racer aside from special cups or challenges, so I don't really think Nintendo is dropping the ball in that regard. I mean, Sonic Racing Transformed's challenges were ball-busting-ly annoying, and it didn't make me want to play the single player more- it was just aggravating and over-precise for a game with awful water physics.
And as for characters, there's not really much you can put in Mario Kart that offers "more personality" than the current cast. Considering it is MARIO Kart, a game franchise known for having a lot of recurring elements, I don't really know what you're looking for here.
And whoever says Mario Kart 7 is one of the worst in the series is downright silly.
Listen, I'm not the shining beacon of positivity when it comes to Nintendo's recent business decisions, myself. But I think Anti-grav and the continuation of the sub and glider gameplay is a pretty good reason to warrant an HD Mario. Also, Nintendo has obviously been trying to hit all of the Wii best sellers.
But I'm not sure what you mean by the single player being bad. If you want optional modes, the only thing I can think of is a challenge feature. There's little you can do in a kart-racer aside from special cups or challenges, so I don't really think Nintendo is dropping the ball in that regard. I mean, Sonic Racing Transformed's challenges were ball-busting-ly annoying, and it didn't make me want to play the single player more- it was just aggravating and over-precise for a game with awful water physics.
And as for characters, there's not really much you can put in Mario Kart that offers "more personality" than the current cast. Considering it is MARIO Kart, a game franchise known for having a lot of recurring elements, I don't really know what you're looking for here.
And whoever says Mario Kart 7 is one of the worst in the series is downright silly.
Just for the record guys, the entire point of this article is how I personally feel, with a huge emphasis on the fact that I'm basing this on personal hype and the possibility that I end up being wrong by the end of this when it finally comes out. There's a HUGE difference between an article called "Why I'm not excited" and an article called "Why this sucks."
Hey! did that direct for MK8 last week get you hyped?
That "laziest sequel ever" diatribe looks even more egregious now than when I first read it.The only difference between now and when I wrote it is that I now know for a fact that my fears were met.
I am not sure many of these reasons are actually valid.1) When it's the same fun game we've had since 2008 (we could dig a little deeper to MKDS if you want), sure it is.
1) What do you get with any game when you take HD away? a fun game? is that bad?
2) The roster is not only larger than any other, and despite the babies, the roster is actually the most impressive.