One problem I have continually had through out many Mario Kart games is the different objectives for the human player and the AI players. For example, in Super Circuit, you are attempting to collect coins as you go through the tracks. But the AI does not have this… hindrance, if you will. The AI is only trying to take first place in each race. Not only that, in MKSC, MKDS, and MKWii, the human players are attempting to get star ratings which pretty much require 4 first place finishes, as a prerequisite. So, not only are we trying to take first place, but were trying to do something above and beyond that. The AI doesn’t care about rating because there is no rating. They can play as “dirty” and as imperfect as they want; all that matters is #1.

Consider, for example, you are trying to achieve a double star rating. You need to take first place in all 4 races and be in 1st for most of the time and not fall off, etc. You may run a really good race but only get one star. And you next closest opponent’s rating? By the standard you are set to, they would get a silver trophy and probably get a rating of D or E.

This might be a criticism of the rating system, which we have discussed before. This may just be me whining. As human players, are we held to a higher standard? Should the ultimate objective be the same for all, human or AI? I can’t account for Super Mario Kart, but MK64 and MK Double Dash don’t have the star ratings and the only thing for the player is to finish in first place in the cup. In Double Dash, your point total is recorded, but does not determine if you unlock anything. I feel that this is ideal. Those games were still considered to be good games and were challenging, but maintained the same standards for all racers.

What do you think?

I was recently introduced to the website, metacritic, and page that compiles all reviews of a game, movie, cd, etc. and gives it one aggregate score.

I was curious to see how the Mario Kart games stack up. Unsurprisingly, all of the games (excluding the original) scored 80 or greater (out of 100). But I was surprised to see how they were ranked among each other. The list is as follows:

1. Mario Kart Super Circuit (93)
2. Mario Kart DS (91)
3. Mario Kart Double Dash (87)
4. Mario Kart 64 (83)
5. Mario Kart Wii (82)

Remember, these scores come from multiple sources, and as anyone who is familiar with statistics knows, it only takes one score to screw up the whole average, but from my experience, I don’t see how these ranking can be right. Here are my thoughts:

Mario Kart DS blew compared to the others. It’s a good game and I am glad I played it, but the tracks weren’t particularly difficult, Rainbow Road specifically. I literally blew through this game in two weeks. Not challenging in the least. I would call it the worst of the series.

MK64 and MK Super Circuit has the same major flaw when racing in grand prix mode: they claimed you were racing 7 other players, but only 3 of them would score in the top 4 of each race. Both are good games, but have a limited scope of game play. As far as difficulty, each of these have one or two tracks that are particularly hard at 150cc or Mirror modes. According to metacritic, I agree with the Mario Kart 64 score, but could place Super Circuit lower, around an 85.

Now, my favorite games, Double Dash and Wii. Double Dash has an interesting gameplay element and strategy for selecting characters. Not only that, one of the best features of all of the games: All tracks mode. I wish there was an all games mode where you could race all tracks from all games. Over all, a smooth game that is challenging and fun.

And then Wii. Almost perfect. A new element with bikes, dozens of unlockable aspects, and some really fun new tracks. Literally, months of gameplay is provided by this game. I would rank this slightly below Double Dash because of overall enjoyment.

So, I must ask, how are my judgements so off here? Am I the only one with this opinion? Is it possible these scores are related to release date (newer games lose flavor after several sequals), game availability (handhelds cost less and games cost less, thus more are available to the public) or are these games REALLY that good?

Anyway, here is a link to the review that gave Mario Kart Wii the lowest score of 42 out of 100. Read it and tell me if it isn’t entirely convoluted.

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the Mario Kart series (duh).  As such, in one was or another, I own most of the games, but there is one that I do not own, and that is the original, Super Mario Kart.

Since I live in America, at this moment, the only way I would be able to own this game is to purchase a Super Nintendo (which would obviously be used) and a copy of Super Mario Kart for the system (also used).  If I were to purchase these via ebay, they would cost a minimum of $50.  $50 that Nintendo won’t see a dime for since they have gotten all they can out of that system.

Now, when I heard about the Virtual Console idea, I thought, “GENIUS!  I could own EVERY game Nintendo ever made (except Gameboy games, but I think they should do that anyway) and play them all on this ONE console.  But Nintendo is lacking several staples from their library from this list, namely Super Mario Kart.

I see no GOOD reason for Nintendo not to release this on Virtual Console.  Super Mario Kart was the #3 top selling SNES game.  It would seem to me that it would be quite successful in the new format.  Also, it has already been made for the Virtual Console in Japan.  The transfer to US consoles shouldn’t be extremely hard.

Bottom line is that somewhere down the line, I will own this game, and chances are, I will wait until it is EVENTUALLY put on Vitural Console.  But there is a chance I will spend $50+ to get the SNES and the old cartridge of Super Mario Kart.  $50, as mentioned before, that Nintendo won’t get, but could see at least $10 of it if this were released on VC.

I recently received a new copy of MKSC (for Mario Kart Day). I played through the 50cc and 100cc regular cups once and here are the results (just for fun):

40 races
39 1st place finishes (1 second)
10 gold cups
12 stars (some doubles), 1 A rating

Also, fun note, I had a blue shell chasing me in a 50cc cup, and I actually out ran it. I went for about 10 seconds without slowing down at all, so it gave up!

Nothing really important, but I felt I would share my achievement.

I don’t know who designed the menu system for Mario Kart Wii, but whoever it is should either be fired or required to talk to me for three hours on the concept of user interfaces.

On the main screen of Mario Kart Wii, you can see the cups you’ve won as they are displayed on your license. This was a very good idea, it makes it very easy to see which race you’ll want to play next before you even start the game. The problem with this system is that it only shows you the medal you got (that is, gold, silver or bronze.) Unfortunately, there is no way for you to see your rankings.

I am in the process of trying to get a star rating on every cup. I know I have some star ratings for each class, but I can never remember which class I need to be working on. Class, however, is the FIRST thing I have to decide after I click on Single Player Race. Choosing Class first is not *bad* per-se, but I then have to choose a character, vehicle and drift type before I can even see the rankings that I have in each cup. At which point, if I have picked the wrong class I have to back all the way out and start over again.

Now, this could be easily solved by having a “View Records” tab, which actually showed you your racing records for each track and not a bunch of mildly interesting but mostly unimportant statistics. (Some of the statistics are neat to see and I do wish they had more of them, but that is not the point I am trying to drive at right now.)

But a second solution and potentially more beneficial one would be to simply choose the Cup right after the Class. First off you would choose a Class, then choose a cup. This way, if you chose the wrong Class you would only jump back one page to make your change. After choosing the Cup you could then choose your Character, Vehicle and Drift and you would be set to go. You could even throw in a “Here are your settings, all set?” page at the end.

Is this important? Overall, this really isn’t going to bother most gamers who play Mario Kart Wii. It’s a little thing. That said, little stuff matters. It’s the small fine tuned perfections that make a good game into a great game.

Now, I can only attest to half of the experience for this particular topic since I have only played Mario Kart Super Circuit, and not Super Mario Kart, but I am still very opinionated.

One of the worst things I think was done in the Mario Kart Series is to put coins on the race track. I know it was part of the original, and people make mistakes and can amend those. In fact, it was amended! Mario Kart 64 had NO COINS in it. But then it game back in Super Circuit.

Here is my biggest problem with coins: they basically make you drive in a particular path (or at least attempt to get you to go in that path) for the whole race. In my opinion, it is hard enough to get a good rating while battling with you opponents, attempting to stay on the course, and dealing with whatever else, even before dealing with the coins.

I think the idea that you have to have so many coins to unlock certain things (like extra cups) is actually a creative way of doing it, but I don’t think the number of coins should determine your rating. This is why when I have gold on all cup in Mario Kart Super Circuit (only one away) I will consider the game conquered.

Apparently, Nintendo developers (and possibly other gamers) had the same thoughts, as I do, and coins have not made an appearance on the race track since.

The Rant:

If there is one thing that I loathe in video games, one thing that I cannot stand, one thing that sends me into controller wrenching rage, it’s arbitrary rating systems. Having a rating system is bad enough. HONESTLY, if I wanted a computer to tell me I suck at video games, I’d write program to insult me while I played.

The rating system in Mario Kart Wii (and DS) is absolutely worthless. All me to reiterate: the RATING SYSTEM is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS.

Let me explain.

First off, the rating system is a cross between a letter grading system and a star rating system. You can get an E, D, C, B, A, ☆, ☆☆ or ☆☆☆ rating. E is bad, it means you are a terrible person and probably don’t have any friends. It also means you need to play more Mario Kart or go back to collecting those pet rocks you find in your driveway. ☆☆☆ Is the best rating you can get. It means that you are either an arrogant hack, who doesn’t have any friends or a nerdy gamer who has playing nothing but Mario Kart for 5 years straight and as a result doesn’t have any friends. (Please send your complaints to complaints@blueshellmagnet.com)

Having one rating system is bad enough, having two is downright ridiculous. How am I suppose to know that a star is better than an A? How do I know when the star ratings stop? Most star ratings go to five stars! ( ☆☆☆☆☆ ) Why does this one go to three?

Secondly, a rating system is designed to judge and compare things. When I am awarded an A, I don’t have a clue as to what I am being compared to. I won all the races in first place, I finished a full lap in front of the computer players, (*cough* 50cc) I blocked a huge number of items, etc… Maybe I feel I did awesome on this set of races. I felt really good about it and everything went well. Yet, my rating is lower than last time I played, even though I thought I did awful back then.

Even more annoying than Nintendo’s mutated rating system is the lack of documentation that supports it. I could live with the brain-dead judgement system that some disgruntled underpaid misanthrope developed in the bowels of Nintendo headquarters, (complaints@blueshellmagnet.com) had they just provided instructions with it.

Example Instructions:

Finishing in each place gives you points. The three racers with the most points at the end of the cup will receive a trophy. Your driving will also be graded. Try to get the highest rating you can! (We want to encourage you to do a good job in this game, because we know you are an under achieving slob who always tries to lose at games and don’t understand the concept of being the best!) To get a three star rating (the best rating, because five stars was too much after we added in all those obnoxious letters), just do the following during the length of the cup:

__ Get first in all races
__ Hit 10 opponents with red shells
__ Be hit with 327 Blueshells
__ Spend 5 minutes doing drift turns around corners
__ Throw the blasted Wii-Mote through your television screen
__ Shove a screwdriver into your left eyeball
__ Draft behind one opponent
__ Pull of 3 tricks while going off jumps

But instead Nintendo sends us out with these instructions:

Actual Instructions from Page 12 of the game manual:

You earn points based on your placement in a race. After you complete all four courses, your points are added together to determine your overall ranking. Gold, silver, and bronze trophies are awarded for first, second, and third place overall. Your driving technique will also be ranked.

Screenshot of the manual, page 12.

Mario Kart is a game about control. Most of the game is out of the control of the player. I can’t control when a computer uses a lightning bolt, throws a blueshell, barrels into me from behind with a star and throws me off the course. The gall of Nintendo to offer to rate me on my performance, which is not entirely under my control, and then not even tell me the requirements for the rating is so amazingly stupid I can’t even come up with a decent anecdote for it! They might as well rank me on the performance of the person in second. Or the time of day I play. Or the weather outside. I don’t know, maybe they do.

No, I’m not bitter at all.

Okay, that’s enough ranting.

The Info You Are Looking For: How to get a 3 Star Rating in Mario Kart Wii

This is not easy. This is so not easy. I have yet to get a three star rating in Mario Kart Wii. I also have yet to find anyone who is capable of explaining the rules to me.

Tough to Find has a series of posts which offer a series of marginally helpful tips ‘Tips from Marv.’ You can find his articles here: http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/06/mario-kart-wii-how-do-you-get-3-stars.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/06/mario-kart-wii-how-do-you-get-3-stars_23.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/07/mario-kart-wii-how-do-you-get-3-stars.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/08/mario-kart-wii-how-do-you-get-3-stars.html

But I’ll post his main points here for your convenience. (His site offers a paragraph or two of description and explanation for each tip.)

1. practise [sic]
2. choose a character and vehicle and stick with it
3. bikes are better
4. turbo after spin out
5. what counts as a 3 star race? …no-one exactly knows!
6. give up on the wheel
7. learn from others
8. trailing items to defeat red shells
9. turbo at start and on corners
10. go manual
11. use tricks
12. turbo when you fall off
13. Avoiding POW blocks
14. you can sometimes avoid a blue shell
15. hang back slightly on the first course
16. use drafting
17. stay on the main part of the track
18. be lucky! Or patient…

Many of his points are just simple rules to play by, others a speculative suggestions. Overall I didn’t find it terribly helpful, as I did most of those things anyway.

Potentially more helpful was a video I found on YouTube called “ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4fgiIyfako How to get 3 stars: Mario Kart Wii” where PhyRemind posted information in the video discription:

All information is factual based and in no way speculated.

50cc: Stay on the course at all times and dont hit walls or edges.(so you cant use mushrooms to do a jump/shortcut by going off course.) Falls allowed: 2 Go ahead and get hit by all the items you want, it wont make a difference.

100c: Wheelies and Tricks. Going off course is okay. 2 Falls allowed

150c: Tricks, item block, take out others with items. 2 Falls allowed

Mirror: Just do all you can do (tricks, items**, dodging.)
2 Falls allowed. (Though its kinda over when you fall just one time)

General Info for all Engine Levels: Dodging a blue shell with a mushroom will give you bonus points in getting a 3 star ranking. Not getting hit a lot in 100cc 150cc Mirror will give you higher chance of 3 stars. You must get 60 points for a 3 star rank. (No, Really?)
**Drift Boosts are always fun to do**

I found this information also to be lacking. Following his advice I was unable to get three stars in 50cc, although, some commenters claimed that it helped them.

Yahoo Answers, interestingly enough, has been rather helpful on the whole issue.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080525071844AAxLX9G Tim asks this:

How do you earn 3 stars on Mario Kart Wii?
I’m playing through the tracks on Mario Kart Wii. Sometimes when I come first all the time and get 60 points I get one star. Sometimes, (although more rare) I get 2. I’ve read on the Internet you can get 3. How is this determined? We seem to have misplaced the manual so I can’t look it up!

I think the discussion that follows offers some good insights into how things seem to work. Matt A says:

You can get killed, not spend the whole time in first, and still get 3 stars. There seems to be an algorithm at work here. I think that it is based on some of the following criteria:

Time spent in first place
Opponents that you hit
Number of times you were hit (fewer is better)
Items dodged (probably includes running a clean race and trying not to fall off ledges or run off the road)
Total seconds that you win by
Tricks performed during the races

If you can max out these criteria, you are certainly in a good position to reach the 3 stars. Good luck!

And of course suggerdaddy wins the clueless answer of the week award:

go on and keep trying.because i am about to get it and when i get the manual i will tell u right away

I think the main criteria is track time. I’m guessing there are other criteria, but time has to be pretty strongly counted. If you can pull of an amazing time in grand prix mode, that means you are driving *really* well and are not getting hit by many items. Getting hit by items really slows you down.

I’m sure there are little things like wheelies, tricks and turn boosts that are taken into account as well, but those things really just boil down to a faster time.

If you came to me today and said “I *need* to get three stars on everything. How Can I do it?” I would have to say, unlock and beat the expert staff ghost on every track. Then go and play grand prix mode until your eyes bleed.

As for me, I’ll be content when I can get one star on every cup and unlock the blasted karts and karacters. (Characters. Sorry, Donkey Kong slip of the fingers.)

If you know something I don’t, please post it here. As I find out more, I’ll update things as well.

I can’t be the only person in history that this has happened to. You throw three Greenshells into a crowd, and they all come back and hit you. Several people fire Greenshells, and they all hit you. It’s painful, it’s humiliating, and it’s downright unfair. How could this be? Why is it me?

Simple, you’re this games Greenshell Magnet.

You’re the shmuck who drew the short straw. You get nailed by all the shells. This is Kartma. It lasts throughout the race, sometimes the entire 4 race series.

It gets better! The mirror image of this: The Greenshell replant (boy, that need’s a catchier name.) This lucky jerk just won’t get hit. This always seems to be a computer.

I can’t be the only one feeling this. Someone help me believe that it’s not just a curse on me!

I know there are a few tracks throughout the games that are I find most frustrating. I am curious what track(s) others feel are the MOST difficult. Here are a few I would like to offer up as difficult:

N64-Toad’s Turnpike (Mirror)-The definition of “fuster cluck”
SNES/GBA-Rainbow Road
Wii-Rainbow Road
SNES/GBA-Broken Pier
Wii-Wario’s Gold Mine

I have been playing through as much of the Mario Kart games as I can as of late, but it wasn’t long until I wanted more, at least on the Wii. I know the current Mario Kart game on the Wii is not even one and a half years old, so I don’t expect a new game for that platform as soon as I would for the DS (the current version was released in 2005). (And btw, if they make a Mario Kart game exclusively for DSi, I will be pissed that they’d make me drop $170 for the system). So, Nintendo could come up with some sequels for both systems, or offer additional content to be downloaded.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while… compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii is seriously lacking when it comes to additional content to games that you need to play with a disc or download. Now dont get me wrong, I want the game creators to put out the game they intended to make. It’s ridiculous when creators put out a game, and then make additional content available 3 weeks later. But I feel Mario Kart Wii was the game they intended and after almost a year and a half, it wouldn’t hurt to be able to download an expansion. This could even be more retro tracks, but people would eat them up!

I would totally pay 500 Wii points to get another set of 4 races to add to the current ones. Ideally, I would like to play all tracks from all games on one platform.

Am I asking too much here? Will a sequel be more likely than an expansion?

Experiment: Discover how long a star lasts in each of the Mario Kart games. Take five sample star times and find their average. What conclusions can you draw?

Procedure: Play Mario Kart with brother. I drive, brother times star lengths and records data. (We switch near the end as we both tired from data gathering.)

Here’s the data:

And a bar graph of the average star times:

For each game I started up 50cc Grand Prix, played as Mario in the default kart. I typically hung around 8th place, and sometimes very far behind. On some games it was hard to get a star on others it was ridiculously easy.>

It would appear that the average star length is about the same for all the games, but is longer for the N64. That doesn’t surprise me, because it feels longer. What does surprise me is that the Wii is so close to Double Dash.

Now, all of the data is taken from remaining in last or close to last place. I am under the assumption that a star in first place on Mario Kart Wii will not last as long as one in last. I was unable to test this theory, however. I got a few stars and was able to make my way towards first place to use it, but failed when I was hit by items that took the star away. I hope to carry out this test later, if I ever find time.

It is interesting that Super Mario Kart had the largest variation in star time. I really expected Mario Kart Wii to be more fickle with star time. I didn’t keep track of my placement when getting or using the stars, but we did note in Super Mario Kart the longest star was spent entirely in 8th place.

If I was going to make a star it would be far better than anything Nintendo could dream up. To start a star would have a set time limit of say, eight or ten seconds. But you could gain star time by running into other players. For example, for every player you hit (or for every time you hit a player) you would gain two seconds. This means that people who are in the middle of a large crowd would be able to gain some. People in first, however, usually don’t have a whole lot of people around them or in front of them, so the star wouldn’t last as long. Oh, did I mention that *anyone* could get a star?

What do you think?

* On games like Mario Kart 64, all you had to do was get an item box while in last place and more than a half lap behind everyone. On the Wii, the process is a bit more difficult. First you must fill out a ‘Star Application’ form and submit it to the local governing authority for approval. (This takes three to six weeks.) After you have submitted your application (along with no less than five character references) you must meet with a ‘Item Box Professional’ to go over star alternatives. In a one or two hour interview you will be guided through a series of alternative items that might be more appropriate to your situation, such as a bullet bill, a super mushroom or a giant mushroom. If after the interview a star is still your best option, you will be asked to take the ‘Star Evaluation Test’ to signify that you understand how to properly care for and use a star. Upon completion of the test you must wait two weeks for the results. If you pass, you receive a ‘Star Working Permit’ which allows you to handle and work with stars. Then you need to spend a month working and caring for stars under someone who already has their ‘Star Permit’. After that month you are then promoted to a ‘Star Permit’ provided everything went well for that month. After which time you may now have, own and use a star. You are not allowed to buy a star, though. You need to catch one in the wild and have it tagged by the star licensing bureau. It usually takes five to seven business days to get your tags in. Finally you now have a star that is your very own and you may use as you like. Permits must be renewed every six months.

50cc is basically a quick time event: “Hold A for first place.”

I’m not always big on the gamer lingo that goes on, so the term “snaking” is fairly new to me. I had always referred to it as “doing r-turns on the straightaway.”

I have been told that this concept is rather annoying to people who play on the internet with Mario Kart Wii. I’ve been “snaking” ever since Mario Kart Double Dash, when I learned to use drifting at every possible moment. With two people in the kart it was even easier.

Now, I understand the frustration that people have when you play against someone that seems to be untouchable. It’s more than annoying when you are so far behind that you don’t stand a chance to catch up.

I think what most people forget is ‘snaking’ is hard. The drifting technique was designed to help power-slide around corners. To use this maneuver on a straight path takes time and effort to practice. I mean, if it was easy everyone would do it, right?

I’ve heard people argue on whether ‘snaking’ should be allowed or not. Whether it’s ethical or not. I don’t think that’s the issue that needs to be discussed. The fact is, r-turns are built into the game to help characters boost. It’s specifically designed to help on corners, but it turns out to be more versatile than that.

I think the problem is that people who either don’t ‘snake’ or don’t know how to ‘snake’ are racing against people who do.

Don’t forget, Mario Kart is racing game. The goal of a racing game is to go as fast as you can at all times. If you can go faster by ‘snaking’, then by all means, do it!

I think if you argue against ‘snaking’, then you also have to argue against wheelies. The only difference is that wheelies are a piece of cake to pull off. Wheelies make you drive faster (though, I have no idea why…), but only bikes can get wheelies. So anyone on a bike automatically gets an advantage over someone in a kart right?

What do you think? Is my argument fair? How would you solve this ‘problem’?

I find that I am a blueshell magnet. Maybe you are too. Usually, I know when one is coming too, especially on multiplayer. My peripheral vision is really good at picking up blueshells on other peoples’ screens and more often then not, I am the recipient.

The original Mario Kart did not have blueshells. Blueshells were introduced in Mario Kart 64. The concept of a blue shell was that it would race ahead of you and attack the person in first. If there were other racers in the way, it would bowl them over in the process.

This was a great item for people who were in 7 or 8 place. It nailed the person in first but did a bunch of damage along the way. By hitting other racers it gave the last player a chance to catch up and get back in the game.

With Mario Kart Double Dash All that changed.

Now the blue shell had wings and flew along the track till it reached the person in first. Presumably this is because the tracks began to become more complex and had jumps and rockets and tunnels which didn’t allow for shells to follow the path easily.

This wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but what didn’t change were the requirements to get a blueshell. To get a blueshell you had to be fairly far behind, usually in 7 or 8th place. Consequently this weakened the usefulness of a blueshell.

No longer was a blueshell a helpful means of gaining ground, now it was an item of spite. Knocking out the person in first rarely helps the person in 8 or for that matter 12 place (I’m looking at you Mario Kart Wii). A blueshell tossed by someone who can’t possibly win is almost like making an obscene gesture. “I can’t win so screw you!”

A blueshell thrown by someone in last is more of a help to anyone in 2 or 3 place than anything else. A well timed/placed blueshell can determine who wins the race, but it gives the decision to the person in last.

It’s worth nothing that it is possible to receive a blueshell while not in last or second to last place, but it’s typically rather rare.

The blueshells themselves have different quirks, depending on which Mario Kart you are playing. It’s interesting to note their lock-on time. In some games it’s entirely possible to get hit with a blueshell while in second place if you are passed at just the right time.

Another quirk of note is the frequency of blueshells based on the mode played. I haven’t done as much ‘research’ as I would like, but with. Mario Kart Double Dash, in mirror mode, I can see 7 blueshells in one 4 race grand prix. On the other hand I can play through all 4 cups on 50cc and only see one blueshell.

Obviously, I would expect mirror mode to be harder, but a blueshell is the one item which only hurts one person. Every other item is capable of injuring anyone on the track. A blueshell is only guaranteed to take out one person. Frequent appearances of thus blue item is just punishment for the best racers.

So let’s think about this. If I’m a good racer, and good enough to get a half or a quarter of a lap ahead of my opponents, what good will a blueshell do? If I’m far enough ahead, I’ll stay ahead of everyone else, and if I’m good enough to get that far ahead, I’m good enough to get that far ahead again.

Now in Mario Kart Wii, it’s even less likely to get a blueshell if your in the top half of racers which I think is silly because there are 12 racers rather than 8. The proper place for a flying blue shell should be 2-5th place.

I can’t prove this, but it always feels like I get hit with more blueshells than anyone else. Granted, I tend to spend more time in first, especially against the computer players, but when other people are in first I don’t see as many blueshells as when I’m in first. Again, it’s hard to see blueshells if you are not in first or somewhere close, but I just can’t shake the suspicion that the computer hates me.

Only recently have I learned (about) a technique to dodge blueshells. It’s possible, but takes quite a bit of practice. Honestly, this just makes the blueshell even more useless, since it now neither helps any nor provides cathartic pleasure.

So what is the point of the blueshell? Items like the green shell or banana have had a constant mission throughout the years, but it seems to me that the blueshell doesn’t know what it wants to be. Some of this is Nintendo being stupid with their item choosing algorithms (but that’s a whole different blog post.)

What do you think about blueshells?

I am an avid screen peeker. More than once I have run into trouble because I was watching someone else’s screen instead of mine.

Some people are annoyed that other people are watching their screen, but often two experienced players will be able to counter act each other because they are both watching the other persons screen. (I do this with my friends all the time.)

Turns out screen peeking is (or at least *was*) endorsed by Nintendo as both a legitimate strategy and a key for winning.

Super Mario Kart Manual, page 17, gives tips for playing Battle Mode with a friend.

Look at the color of the barriers on your opponents screen to determine where they are.

and

Always keep an eye on your opponent’s screen.

The Mario Kart 64 manual has more to say on the matter.

Players have their own screen to watch, but to make the most strategic use of their items, players should check the other players’ screens and pay attention to their opponents’ movements. (p12)

Before using a Thunder Bolt, check to make sure what the other players are doing. (p13)

To be fair though Nintendo does begin to soften their approach to screen peeking two pages later. Rather than telling players to watch their opponents screens they are told to watch the radar.

Be aware of the other players’ positions. Check the course radar constantly, making not of your position in relation to your opponents. (p15)

Watching other people’s screens is not mentioned in any of the other manuals. However, the Mario Kart Super Circuit manual does indicate that it is important to keep an eye on the other racers.

Racers who have become invulnerable after using a Star aren’t affected by lightning, so watch what’s going on before unleashing your bolt from the blue. (p21)

I find it interesting that a GameBoy Advance game would mention this, as typically the player would only play against computers.

Perhaps what is even more confusing is the fact that the Mario Kart Double Dash manual has no mention of screen peeking. One would think that with two players to one kart, the player in back would have plenty of “down time” or “strategic planning time” since they don’t have to worry about where the car is headed. Once freed from driving a second player would be able to watch all the other screens easily, offering a competitive advantage to his team.

I am curious to know if other games offer similar advice in their manuals. I wonder if this type of advice would be limited to a brand name (ie Nintendo Manuals) or if they are found in a certain genre of games (ie racing games) or if I could find advice like that in, say, a first person shooter. If anyone knows something about this, let me know.

Do you screen peek? What do you think?

Kartma: Kartma is like Karma, except, no matter what you do, bad stuff happens.

I coined the term kartma a few months ago while playing Mario Kart with some friends. It’s actually very easy to see examples of kartma in practice. You nail the person in first with three red shells, fly past them and immediately get hit with a blue shell. After racing two and a half laps in first place you get hit with two red shells, a blue shell, a lightning bolt and a banana all within a ten second time span and you watch helplessly as three other karts fly past you and finish the race.

Kartma is the chaotic item usage that will inevitably pound you into dust at the most inconvenient moment. It may be payback for something you did to another player, it may be because of something you didn’t do to another player or it may be because of something you should have done to another player. At any rate you’ll know the moment has come when you look up at the ceiling and ask “what have I done to deserve this?” The answer, of course, is simple: you played Mario Kart.

Blueshell Magnet is blog about Mario Kart. More than that though, it’s a blog that teases the realms of user interface, usability, accessibility, philosophy, game theory, mathematics, marketing, business and video games.

The Mario Kart franchise is my favorite video game series of all time. I love playing all kinds of games in my free time, but the game I will always get impassioned about is Mario Kart. Some people yell at the television while watching sporting events. I yell at the TV when I play Mario Kart.

As Mario Kart continues to evolve I am not always content or accepting of the changes Nintendo has made. Some of the things they have done are drastic improvements over the past games. Other things feel more like a step back. You may notice that many of the topics I write on have a negative tone towards Mario Kart. This is not because I dislike Mario Kart, I love Mario Kart, it is because I feel the game has potential to be better than what it is.

I have an ideal Mario Kart Game in my head. It’s perfect, has all wrinkles ironed out and, well, it’s not done yet.

Another reason I am starting this site is because I am looking for feedback and opinions. I would love to hear your stories about Mario Kart. I would love to hear what you think of my ideas for Mario Kart. I want to hear your ideas, annoyances and opinions. I would love to hear insight into why Nintendo choose to do things they way they did.

I have a number of articles partially written and quite a few more in my head. My goal is to aim for a weekly article release. However, I don’t know how feasible this will be once I start running out of ideas and/or time.

For this reason I have set up the site to allow anyone who registers to be a contributer to the site. So if you would like to share your thoughts you are welcome to do so. As a contributer you can write posts and submit them for publishing. I will look over the submissions, edit them as necessary (spelling and grammar), and publish them on a regular basis.

I encourage everyone to leave comments as you feel necessary. I am always open to feedback and opinions.

And thus begins: Blueshell Magnet