I've found it very hard to go back to the older MK games after playing 8. Everything just feels right.
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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I completely agree, the Kart Physics are great. I think I just wasn’t challenged in 150cc. But 200 is the right amount of challenge for me.
I’m not just riding 1st or 2nd the whole time dragging a banana behind me.
The jump slide feels weird to me in 8. Like it sends you the wrong way first, then the turn happens. Bikes seem different though so maybe I'm just not used to the physics.
There's two types of bikes in 8: standard and crotch rocket (for lack of a better term). They even have different icons when picking your kart. The drift mechanics are reversed on the crotch rockets. As far as I know this is intentional. Those feel backwards to me — if the standard karts feel backwards to you, I totally get it. It's like being forced to use non/inverted camera controls, whichever is opposite to your preference.
From my perspective that’s when Mario Kart caught up with Crash Team Racing’s drivability from the PS1. Not even the successors to CTR got it right. Even the remake/remaster feels off (sewer speedway physics are horrible and the shortcut felt impossible on the newer versions). Mario Kart 8 feels similarly like an extension of what you want to happen and it just does. I do have more fate on Nintendo keeping it going in future iterations.
I like DS for what it is: the first fully 3D Mario Kart on a handheld console. Played quite a lot of it back in the days. It was also the first one with online play.
I think the missions was a fun addition as well. It’s the only Mario Kart game that features boss battles (to my knowledge).
I know some disagree, but I hated the way you're supposed to trigger drifting on DS. That left-right spam served no purpose and was terrible on a D-pad.
So glad they got rid of that bullshit after DS.
I actually like that left-right motion. It means that its harder to drift and get a speed boost. Not just holding a button like in most other MK games. I imagine its better on a dpad than an analog stick though, so I guess its still good that they moved away from it.
I mean, if they'd found a way to force people to do a handstand and push a button with their nose, it'd be even harder.
Drifting is not some secret combo technique, it's basically half of what you need to do to play Mario Kart. To me it feels as stupid as if I had to do hadokens to jump in Super Mario Bros.
If you are not snaking/drifting or playing the pretty good single player modes of MKDS I think you would not have much fun with it... Unless you explore Wimmfi.
MK8 is amazing. I was actually playing it again this weekend with my kid, the Wii U version. It’s fantastic.
I loved the 200cc speed. It makes it challenging enough and fast paced enough to stay interesting. I really loved it.
~~Just two or three, really. One or two actively with the kids and usually just one active on my own.~~
Weird, this comment ended up on the wrong thread.