Anyone else not a fan of Mario Kart?

[gutsman004 | 83]

I’m sure I am in the vast minority on this. I see how people can really like the game. And it can be really fun. But here’s the deal breaker for me.....the “rubber band AI”.

The game penalizes you for being good at the game and rewards players who are bad. It absolutely destroys the fun of this game for me. The last thing I want to see is me get hit with some turtle shell or other bs at the last second and lose first place when I’ve been leading all race. I know this is not much of a problem on the easy courses,but the harder courses....geez.

And for this post,I’m referring to Mario Kart 8,although I’m sure a lot of the games in the series are similar.

[Richardhead | 2,874]

It’s fun when friends are over. Other than that though, it’s mostly just to look good on my shelf. Just got a really nice Boxed copy of Mario Kart 64.

[ifightdragons | 234]

I agree, the rubberbanding ruins the fun of Mario Kart for me as well

[Jeevan | 9,024]

Usually played it in multiplayer.  Therefore never really had to worry about it, but I do understand what you are saying

[fox | 1,694]

Quit acting like such a try hard and maybe you will have some fun

Sometimes I get shanked by my buddies, and we all have a good laugh and it just fires us up more for "one more race."

[Estil | 1,268]

Do the time trials; that's what I do every so often.  No need to worry about any "rubber band AI"...just you, the track, and your skill.  And maybe with enough practice on the time trials you'll do better on the GP.

And for the record I sometimes like to do the time trials in sequence; you know, SNES, then N64, then GBA, and so on?

Edited January 19, 2020 by Estil

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I'm not a huge fan but I do enjoy the series when I've got people around for local multiplayer. The rubberband AI is nice for when you're playing with less experienced gamers. Just like it's not fun for you to lose, it's even less fun for them to lose every single time. So I'm cool with it.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,642]

They 'aight

SMK and 64 were great back in the day.  Each follow-up has gotten progressively less interesting.  They need to shake it up, big time.

[Gex | 121]

It's the multiplayer that makes this series

[mbd39 | 2,036]

I was never a huge fan of Mario Kart but I did enjoy playing the original with friends back in the day. I never got into the sequels.

 

[MuNKeY | 241]

I don't dislike the series but I seem to enjoy it more playing multiplayer even if I suck at it. 

[Gloves | 11,893]

I just don't consider it a competitive game. They all have rubber banding, as in the person in last place will always have SOME chance of taking first, and I don't like that in a competitive setting.

It IS however, quite fun if you just have friends over of varying skill levels, and can treat it as simply a good time. 

If winning is all that matters to you I'd play something else.

[peg | 380]

The first one on SNES was good, the rest are trash.

[LastCat | 246]

You don't like the rubber band AI? You should play Mickey Speedway, it's way worse.

[ifightdragons | 234]

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

I just don't consider it a competitive game. They all have rubber banding, as in the person in last place will always have SOME chance of taking first, and I don't like that in a competitive setting.

It IS however, quite fun if you just have friends over of varying skill levels, and can treat it as simply a good time. 

If winning is all that matters to you I'd play something else.

They have actual rubberbanding as well.

[Gloves | 11,893]

23 minutes ago, LastCat said:

You don't like the rubber band AI? You should play Mickey Speedway, it's way worse.

I've played it. Teeeerrible.

[Sumez | 3,014]

16 hours ago, gutsman004 said:

The last thing I want to see is me get hit with some turtle shell or other bs at the last second and lose first place when I’ve been leading all race.

Get a banana ASAP, and hold down the item button, so that you carry it behind you, it will act as a shield for turtle shells.
There are a lot of ways to play defensive when you're in first. I'm not a fan of the rubber banding either, but it's a thing in a surprisingly large amount of racing games.  At the end of the day the best player still seems to win quite consistently.
At least it's not as bad as in Daytona.  On the first course of the game you want to be in last place going into the final lap in order to win the game.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Sumez

[TDIRunner | 2,794]

Funny thing is that if you don't like the rubber banding, than MK8 is the one to play.  It is without question, the most difficult to come back from lasts place to first.  In most MK games, the person in last place gets all sorts of good stuff.  In MK8, you can be hanging out in the back and still get stuck with single bananas and ink blots.  

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,021]

Mario kart 7 is the best game in the series. 

[Estil | 1,268]

BTW, me and a few of my dorm buddies at the time to celebrate my final night (05/09/2003) there before graduation (I was in the same dorm (Blanding 3) and room all four years) by playing Mario Kart 64 as well as watching Jackass on MTV at the time (I didn't much care for it personally though).

So yeah, a Mario Kart game was a big part of what is the proudest moment in all my pre-married life

[Tanooki | 4,958]

On 1/19/2020 at 1:02 AM, gutsman004 said:

I’m sure I am in the vast minority on this. I see how people can really like the game. And it can be really fun. But here’s the deal breaker for me.....the “rubber band AI”.

The game penalizes you for being good at the game and rewards players who are bad. It absolutely destroys the fun of this game for me. The last thing I want to see is me get hit with some turtle shell or other bs at the last second and lose first place when I’ve been leading all race. I know this is not much of a problem on the easy courses,but the harder courses....geez.

And for this post,I’m referring to Mario Kart 8,although I’m sure a lot of the games in the series are similar.

I'm not going to even read responses until I respond to yours first since you started it.  Vast minority, probably, alone, nope. Mario Kart is effectively DEAD to me.  I've been growing in dissatisfaction for years with it and really found the franchise borderline intolerable post-Gamecube and even that may be a bit pushing it as I prefer the SNES, N64, and GBA releases.  The game as you said had problems with how it is setup, especially with single player with rubber band AI, but also the mechanic in any mode where any AI is involved where if you're even pretty good at the game, it beats the crap out of you while giving a nearly free ride to the incompetent and/or overall bad drivers.  Coupling that with them making the game like most asinine FPS titles now where it's multiplayer first and single feels like an accompanying after thought, it has nothing left of value to me at all I'd blow full or much of any price on.  I've touched them all up through 8 on WiiU/Switch, even the mobile oddity.  What got me first was the rude addition of the no way to disable blue shell that punishes good driving and item use, but you can work with that so it's not a deal breaker.  The rubber banding though is.  The game that really was blatant about it and was ruined by online scum and their snake abusing even Nintendo said wasn't in the spirit of the game, was the DS title.  I found if you ran it at 150CCs, the game's mission in life was to keep you locked in at 2nd place, leaving 1st as the AI about 1-2 sec ahead, and the strange thing, car 1, and 3-last would only attack ME, repeatedly and rapidly without any mercy yet oddly never throw a blue shell or anything that could or would impact the lead car.  I figured it out, sold it, refuse to even touch it again.  Coincidentally, that whole multi first garbage, along with it just being played out, I can't stand Smash Bros games anymore either, and like Kart post-Gamecube, the earlier are enjoyable still.

And yes MK8 back down to MK DS/Wii are all dumpster fires of that kind of rotten abuse and punishment for not being terrible.

[phart010 | 1,710]

I love when I am losing hard and then I get a star followed by a bullet bill and it launches me into 1st place for the win

[Andy_Bogomil | 816]

I liked them up all but Wii and have yet to put any significant time into 8 deluxe. The rubber banding in 64 is incredibly annoying but the worst is when they AI gets ahead and essentially glitches out so they're impossible to catch. Blue shells were bad in Double Dash but you could actually get ahead simply by racing well and build a commanding lead. 

Super Mario Kart is still my favourite and I agree that multiplayer is where the series really gets good. 

I initially hated fire hopping in MK8 but grew to love it as it was an obvious skill gap. I think the series has worn thin though... They need to focus on other titles. Still waiting for a new Mario Golf game. 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Andy_Bogomil

[Estil | 1,268]

You guys remember how I tried to introduce my wife to Super Mario Kart and she said it was "too slow" and she has this obession about kart/racing games having to have a wheel (like Mario Kart Wii).  Then again maybe she does have a point...I mean look at how Super Mario Kart is just coughing and puttering along compared to the Sega Genesis' BLAST PROCESSING!!!!

 

 

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

@gutsman004 You should try Double Dash. As far as rubberbanding goes, it was the least "afflicted" so to speak. A great game and terribly underrated. My favorite of the Mario Kart series far and away.