Mario Kart's Creator on the Blue Shell

[CarbonX13]

An interesting read I found on Kotaku today over here. They interview Mario Kart's director in regards to the ever-hated blue shell that's been in Mario Kart since the N64 release. Some interesting quotes:

You know, with Mario Kart Wii, at least you can avoid it. The timing is tough, but at least you can avoid it.

Fundamentally we're always playing while we're making adjustments to the games. We usually have some sort of theme to direct what we're looking at. With Mario Kart Wii, it was to create a race where, up until the finish line, you didn't know. We wanted to create a race where everyone was in it until the end.

With Mario Kart 64, we wanted to have the same thing where everyone was in it until the end, but some of the processing problems occurred that didn't allow us to do that. And what I mean by that is once you're in a middle of a race you'll get that natural separation. What we were trying to do was push them back together with 64, having eight racers on the screen all the time, didn't work all that well. So, because the processing power didn't exist, we weren't able to create the racing environment we wanted.

Going back to the blue shell, it sounds like maybe you have some issues with it. I'm not trying to project or anything. I think in our next Mario Kart, we'll be looking at the balance and I think we'll come up with some answers and some solutions to make the game fresh and exciting as we move forward. I'm often asked, "Hey, in Mario Kart, could you please make a mode where there are no items. Let us race." But personally I think Mario Kart without items is not Mario Kart. Our goal, of course, is to keep the items in but just balance it well.

Well, that sure explains a whole lot why Mario Kart Wii has such severe rubber-band AI. I'm hoping his last remark regarding the next Mario Kart will show itself in the final product.

 

[Nebz]

I'd still prefer a mode with no items. It may not be the Mario Kart we all like but I'm more than sure it'll be enjoyable and declared balanced for many.

 

[_Chaz_]

A mode without items? Are you mad?!

Items are what make Mario Kart the game it is. No body would buy a Mario Kart game without the promise of items.

 

[Nebz]

I'm not saying a full-fledged game of Mario Kart without items... That would be totally insane! lol
Just an extra mode or full option to turn off items in races. Some people such as myself may enjoy the challenge of just drifting, bumping into others, and using that extra boost from behind others in the game or its multiplayer.

I can do without the option... But it would be interesting to see, imo.

 

[KingVamp]

Or the choice just to turn off certain items would be nice.

 

[Hells Malice]

A mode without items is pointless.
However I agree with KingVamp and think a menu to turn on/off items would be the perfect solution.

Here's hoping for more balance, and AI that doesn't suck serious ass.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Blue Shells are only really dick weapons when you're doing races against the CPUs on hardest difficulty. It's not a free for all between 7 CPUS and you, it's you versus 7 CPUs. They literally chain weapons together to keep you in a good 5 second lock down. One throws a Blue Shell, the other throws a red shell, another throws a green shell, all perfectly timed. It's bullshit.

Mario Kart has been beaten though by Crash Team Racing. An absolute classic kart racing game and by far the best in the genre.

 

[sputnix]

why not do what brawl does and have a big amount of editing to have certain items left out, different conditions and such it would definitely add more replay value

 

[Ikki]

I hope MK 3D has the balanced items they're talking about.


The thing with the Blue Shell is that it's too frequent and barely benefitial for the one who actually uses it.

 

[Raika]

The blue shell is cheap. The last few racers get it freaking often, but even after using it most of the time they're still stuck at the last few positions, so it doesn't really help them. Nintendo should make the blue shell a rarer occurrence and only for the first few positions (excluding 1st place) or something, since it usually the first few places competing.

 

[Windaga]

Blue Shells are only really dick weapons when you're doing races against the CPUs on hardest difficulty. It's not a free for all between 7 CPUS and you, it's you versus 7 CPUs. They literally chain weapons together to keep you in a good 5 second lock down. One throws a Blue Shell, the other throws a red shell, another throws a green shell, all perfectly timed. It's bullshit.

Mario Kart has been beaten though by Crash Team Racing. An absolute classic kart racing game and by far the best in the genre.

Mario Kart Wii has 12 racers, not 8. Not sure if that's any better or worse, but he did specifically refer to MKW in the article. And for comparison, CTR is fun, but the driving is no where near as tight as Mario Kart, nor is it as frantic and fun, personally. The only game that I'd take CTR over Mario Kart would be Super Circuit, and that's a pretty close call.

I've raced both against the CPU on the hardest mode, and online, and the Blue Shell and other weapons is what makes the series so great. If you're racing against 11 other humans, it's all just one huge item fest, which is awesome. In MKW, you can change the items between "Balanced", "Aggressive/Offensive" and "Strategic" - Balanced being the normal mode, Aggressive being frequent triple shells, bombs, blue shells, etc, and Strategic being very little offensive items, with lots of mushrooms, banana's, and fake items. You can't turn blue shells off, but you can change how frequently they show.

I agree, I'd like the ability to turn off certain items (like in Brawl), but I don't believe there's an absolute need for it. I'd take another 50 Bowser's Castle courses over this choice. The items are what make Mario Kart Mario kart. It wouldn't be fun if one person could pull ahead of everyone else and just stay there.

 

[Hop2089]

I just want a mode in Mario Kart 3DS that I can ban and unban certain items which the blue shell will be instantly banned.

Crash Team Racing is pretty much on par with Mario Kart.

 

[TheTwoR's]

I don't know why, but I think MK DS was WAYYYY better than MK Wii.
I hope MK 3D is even better than the DS version.
I really don't know why, I actually find the Wii one to be garbage.

 

[Ikki]

I don't know why, but I think MK DS was WAYYYY better than MK Wii.
I hope MK 3D is even better than the DS version.
I really don't know why, I actually find the Wii one to be garbage.

I feel like I'm the only one who didn't like the DS version.

I found it slow paced.

 

[CarbonX13]

I don't know why, but I think MK DS was WAYYYY better than MK Wii.
I hope MK 3D is even better than the DS version.
I really don't know why, I actually find the Wii one to be garbage.

The only thing that bugged me about the Wii version was that power slides were too easy in comparison to the rest of the Mario Kart games. Yes, it allowed more people to get in to the game; but at the same time, it felt like it took away from the classic feel which actually required some skill to master drifting.

Also, people seem to forget that there is an option for no items in Mario Kart Wii (1P VS. Mode and Split-Screen VS.)... Mario Kart is just not Mario Kart without the items. It's the cheap AI they throw in that kills it. When playing Mario Kart Wii online, it's not annoying at all, and the items make the whole game a lot more fun and enjoyable.

 

[Hells Malice]

I don't know why, but I think MK DS was WAYYYY better than MK Wii.
I hope MK 3D is even better than the DS version.
I really don't know why, I actually find the Wii one to be garbage.

I feel like I'm the only one who didn't like the DS version.

I found it slow paced.

It's slow if you only race CPU I suppose.
If you play people who aren't terrible it never feels slow. It's quite frantic and you're always doing SOMETHING to shorten your time around the track, while dodging/blocking a bunch of items.