Topic: PREVIEWS: Mario Kart Wii

[Jonnyboy117]

Get the first details on the next Mario Kart game, direct from Nintendo's E3 press conference!
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=13856

 Although a Mario Kart game for Wii has been widely expected for quite some time, Nintendo made it official today by showing a brief gameplay trailer from what is tentatively titled "Mario Kart Wii".  Due out in early 2008, the game features online racing and online battle mode (a first for the series) for an unknown number of players.    

Nintendo is promising that new Mario Kart players will be able to keep up with veteran gamers, thanks to multiple control schemes.  The game will also ship with a snap-on steering wheel for the Wii Remote, much like the one packed with two Ubisoft racing games at the Wii launch.  The new accessory gives full access to the face of the controller, as well as an opening for the B trigger on the back.  Like the Ubisoft wheel, this seems to be an inert piece of hardware -- its only purpose is to give you a different method of holding the controller.    

It's worth nothing that all of the vehicles shown in the trailer were for single characters, unlike the dual-character karts of Double Dash on GameCube.  During the press conference, Nintendo also mentioned that this game will have more racers than ever before.  It was not clear whether this meant a larger roster of playable characters, more than eight racers on the track (a la F-Zero), or possibly more than four people playing the game at a given time.  The latter has previously been implemented via LAN connection in Double Dash.    

Mario Kart Wii is not likely playable at the show, but we'll be on the lookout for more information!

[planetidiot]

Great news, but would it kill them to include some analog triggers on the stupid plastic wheel attachment?  I'm so sick of tap-tap-tap racing.

[Ceric]

I really hope they put a Double Dash mode in.  Thats one of the few games my Mom will play because she likes throwing the items.

[KDR_11k]

I don't like how he said newbies will be able to stay bumper to bumper to experts, makes me fear excessive rubberbanding. In racing games you tend to get creamed because you don't know the tracks and the ideal line, not because you don't know the controls. If he meant people who play the game for the first time will be even, whether they played games before or not that I can understand but if an expert had no advantage over a first timer the game would be idiotic as it would no longer be a contest of ability.

[Ian Sane]

"I don't like how he said newbies will be able to stay bumper to bumper to experts, makes me fear excessive rubberbanding."

Rubberbanding should be able to be turned off in all racing games.  The problem is that putting it in the options screen reveals a lazy game design trick that the general public is probably unaware of.  But hell if you suck and you're way behind that's how racing works in the real world so suck it up.  No one would play a sports game where the score increases for the losing team arbitrarily if the winning team had too big of a lead.

I also think the concept of allowing newbies to be balanced with experts is kind of flawed too.  Why not just have tiers instead so people can play with others of similar skill?  Again that's how it works in real life.  The minor league team would get killed by the big pro team so that's why there are different leagues with different skill levels.  I don't mind a handicap option by choice for when you're playing with someone you know but the game shouldn't have mandatory balancing or anything like that.

[Mashiro]

I re-watched the scene and he says the whole noobs being able to be on bumper to bumper with pros line or w/e but it is then followed by "that's because, of a variety of control choices...".

So I think he was just trying to make it seem more like an "everyone" friendly game. Like "Hey with this steering wheel you will be awesome too!" but we all know that won't necessarily be the case =)

[Nephilim]

rubberbanding is good with balance, totally ruined MKDS due to lack of it
you can be a lap behind and still get 10 banana's in a row

[Mashiro]

Correct me if I am wrong but I think rubber-banding is the further you are away from the person (falling behind a person), the faster you go.

[Bill Aurion]

"It was not clear whether this meant a larger roster of playable characters, more than eight racers on the track (a la F-Zero), or possibly more than four people playing the game at a given time."

In the footage, you can see that there are a whopping 12 racers on the starting line... =)

[Kairon]

LOL, yeah I was trying to count, because it really looked like there were MORE THAN 8.

[Shecky]

Quote
Originally posted by: planetidiot
Great news, but would it kill them to include some analog triggers on the stupid plastic wheel attachment?  I'm so sick of tap-tap-tap racing.

yeah triggers + paddle shifters and you have a real racing wheel.  Isn't that formula or Ferrari game coming out for Wii... that could make use of such a wheel nicely.

[Louieturkey]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion
"It was not clear whether this meant a larger roster of playable characters, more than eight racers on the track (a la F-Zero), or possibly more than four people playing the game at a given time."

In the footage, you can see that there are a whopping 12 racers on the starting line... =)

Okay, this excites me more than anything else as I always wanted more racers.  I'm guessing it means a lot more cool items to throw as well.  Hopefully there are more than 16 characters as well.

[tiamat1990]

I hope it means a bigger roster AND more players on the track!!  

[KDR_11k]

I think rubberbanding has its reasons because racing games tend to be decided way too quickly and take way too long to end unless the players are of pretty much equal ability (on lan parties whenever someone proposes a racing game it often ends with him winning immediately while everyone else is still bumping into the track walls). On the other hand it IS crappy to punish a player for being better and even make it a bad idea to take pole (blue shell FTL). The problem is that races are decided on a performance over a longer time but usually you have to be near flawless to keep up and one crash means GG but the game won't end with that, no, you have to race to the finish and it's no fun doing so when it's all futile anyway.

I'd propose a radical change: Give players more things to do. Secondary goals like "fastest lap" or "collect the most items" or something. Goals that you can still compete on even if you lost the race. Each goal, including the final placing, gives points and the winner is the one with the most points so if you go straight for the goal line and don't bother with secondary goals you may fall behind on the points. That way each player can still pick something to do when he fails at one goal and noone has to finish a race he has lost anyway. Of course the best players would still win but you'd give people more hopes and straws to grasp at.

[Nephilim]

aslong as there are items, there needs to be rubberbanding
item gives you a 10sec lead, its then unfair to expect the person to make up those 10secs in only 1-3 laps left

Its not a F1 game, were you can make back 10secs over 40laps

[IceCold]

Quote
Rubberbanding should be able to be turned off in all racing games.

Yeah, like how F-Zero GX allows you to turn Handicap off before each race. The problem with Mario Kart, though, is that it isn't a pure racer like F-Zero.. as DeadlyD said, items change everything.