The Gamer's Quarter

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

So, random note-
my New England Classic Gamers group is organizing a trade/game meet, and I realized it was the release day for Mario Kart. I remember the local gamestop had a midnight release for Smash Bros Brawl (that I didn't go to) but not for Mario Kart.

Is Smash Bros now more popular than Mario Kart? When did that happen?

Conceptually, Smash Bros *is* cooler; a realization of that middle school "who would win in a fight, Mario or Link" kind of thinking.
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sediment · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:26 am Post subject:

my circle unites far more frequently for smashing than it ever did for karting.

i am, ostensibly, a fighting game sort of girl though.
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ApM · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Smash Bros fanbase contained more of the kind of people that line up at midnight at a GameStop than the Mario Kart fanbase, even if the Mario Kart fanbase happened to be larger.

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:26 am Post subject:

people will be playing my first smash bros. stage tonight.

that is exciting!
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Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 6:52 am Post subject:

After Double Dash and MKDS, it wouldn't surprise me if Mario Kart's cachet had burned through entirely (those two games being the pits on either side of the narrow track the Mario Kart franchise has to navigate to succeed).
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Mario Kart's cachet with whom? The people who line up for midnight releases?

I'm not sure which other Mario Karts but Double Dash have afforded me the opportunity to play with three other people on the couch and my driver screaming PUNCHPUNCHPUNCH! Or which other Mario Karts I've ever gotten my non-gamer fiancee to play. So I'll drive down that track with no complaints, thanks.

Games I've bought in the last month:
Mario Kart Wii (and an extra wheel)

Games I haven't bought in the last month (and never will):
Smash Bros. Wii
Gran Turismo 5
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SuperWes · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject:

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Wes, don't you buy something close to every game that comes out?

Yeah, the friend code thing is silly, but I guess that's how Nintendo do. I'll get you mine when my copy arrives.
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Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:20 pm Post subject:

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

That steering wheel works better than I would have imagined.

(though I haven't tried it without, or with the old GC controls)
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Lestrade · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:15 am Post subject:

The wheel works well, I think, but fuck—Mario Kart. God. Every blue shell is a painful reminder of everything I hate in video games.

I was excited to play online with friends but then I had to register them—people who already exist on my Wii as registered friends. No thank you, Nintendo, you can keep that shit. Then I tried to play some regional multiplayer (I love the map screen for this) but my connection was kicked.

EDIT: Oh, you can turn off items in multiplayer? Fuck, can you do this to specific items or just to them all? I'd much prefer the game without half of the race-breaking items included.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

I like the blue shell.

The items are all there so you can't just play Mario Kart as a racing game. Which is great for me! I find racing games a little boring usually. It means that if you want to win, you have to develop actual skill with the green shells and bananas, and the occasional red shell suddenly feels like a godsend. It means you have to keep focused through environmental hazards, explosions, lightning strikes etc, and run down the guy in front of you. It means you're looking for a way to fight dirty, all the time.

I think of it less like GT5 and more like Call of Duty's Stalingrad.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

kirkjerk, we all know about your elephant-genie fetish, so you can stop pretending.
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SuperWes · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:25 pm Post subject:

I too like the blue shell, not because it's balanced, but because it sort of resolves how unbalanced the entire rest of the game is. Seriously, once you're knocked out of first place, you've now got 11 other players to compete with that are all dropping shit left and right, making it really fucking hard to get back up to speed once you've been knocked back a bit. It's like they upped the number of players from 8 to 12 without thinking about how having 12 people all leaving shit on the track and throwing out instant attacks that hit everyone on the track at once would change the balance. The game is so gratingly frustrating now. If you mess up even a tiny bit you're sent back three or four spots, which means you're 12X as likely to get run into, hit by a turtle shell, and run into a banana peel as the guy in first. And when you do get hit you drop your item, which means losing any possible advantage you might have had. Oh, and they got rid of extra lives in single player, so if you unfairly get screwed out of victory you're now destined to For my first few 50cc rounds I thought this might have been better than the previous games. The bikes are fun, the stunts are a great addition, and the new tracks are the bomb, but having 12 people on the track at once really makes things feel a lot more unfair and random than they ever have in the past.

Thumbs down muthafucka! Smash Bros. and Gran Turismo are both waaaaaaay better!

-Wes
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Mostly with Diddy Kong I didn't like how success depends mostly on memorization of where all the boost pads are, which I figured was because the framerate was too slow to allow for any sort of nuanced driving skills to have an effect on the race.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Wes, I can't remember the last time you gave a negative review to a game. Publicly, anyway. This is great!
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Wes that all sounds fantastic to me. Like how one of my favorite Double Dash tracks was the Baby Park that was just seven laps of item and rollercoaster madness.

But I don't know. Amazon decided to not use their 2 day shipping this time? Hopefully I'll have it by Friday and then I can stop using conjecture for all my excitement. But every negative review I've seen highlights the things I most love about Mario Kart as somehow being bad.

Wait, was it you that didn't like Excite Truck either?
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SuperWes · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject:

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

The unique power-ups were a great part of double dash. I personally always went with a Wario/Paratrooper combination.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject:

Woah, hey, woah. It turns out I like this game A LOT better when it's on automatic instead of manual.

More as it develops.

-Wes
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

this game sounds pretty dumb. somehow, i knew it would!

also fuck nintendo for this regional bullshit, all my gaming friends live overseas.
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Lestrade · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject:

I might try automatic too. I'm just learning to drift now with the wheel and it's adding some fun to the experience. I played the game again today while dinner was cooking. I had an iPod loaded with podcasts playing through my sound system, so I didn't hear any audio from the game.

PROTIP: Play this game with the sound off.

Not only did I play better, but everything was 25% less annoying. I never realized how fucking grating the sound in Mario Kart is until I played it silently. Admittedly, I like some of the ridiculously cute music tracks (and Wario's creepy pedophile voice), but the rest of the sonic chaos just drives me nuts.

I am maybe 10% less likely to trade the game in now. But after I get through a bunch of cups, how likely am I to come back?

Oh, and I should have taken a screenshot; it would have perfectly illustrated the insanity of present-day Nintendo and would have made a good banner image to boot. It was a bonus screen after I finished a particular 50cc cup. It said something like, "You have unlocked medium kart SUPER BLOOPER."

And I just thought, God, what am I doing with my life here!?

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

That's the first time you asked yourself that? I ask myself that question every time I play a video game. I'm 25, I shouldn't be living vicariously through a baby with a moustache jumping through candy land or a hard-boiled gun-toting muscleman or a scientist with a magic gun who is Jesus.

Lestrade · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:38 am Post subject:

I'll be thirty next year; it's a question that comes up often.

SuperWes · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:18 am Post subject:

I'm the same age as lestrade and really the only time my age and hobby feels strange is when I'm meeting someone new. Last weekend I had a touring punk band staying at my house and I was like "rock band, anyone!" and they were like, "we're tired," and I realized that not everyone is as excited by plastic instruments as I am.

Anyway, I played this game on 4 player last night and it redeemed itself even further. First off, throw out the wheel. It makes recovering from any mistakes a whole lot harder. Second, turn on automatic. Manual is definately more engaging, but the game seems tuned toward auto. Third, find some other fools to play with. Getting knocked out of first and ending up in last is a lot more tolerable when it means someone else you care about is going to end up there instead. The game improves exponentially if you do these things.

-Wes
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dessgeega · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:42 am Post subject:

Mr Mustache · . Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 167 Location: Queens

Lestrade · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:41 pm Post subject:

Well, it does seem a little silly and naive.

SuperWes · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

Did I mention they also turned down beer?

-Wes
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

How come a touring punk band was staying at your house?

Mr Mustache · . Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 167 Location: Queens

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

What like?

- that it's an embarrassing pastiche of negro slave c!ulture

- that it trades upon and celebrates an arrested state of perpetual adolescence

Wow those are my favorite things about Rock and Roll too! high five!

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

those ought to be bullet points on rock band 2
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extrabastardformula · . Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 295

Were they nailed to the X, Wes? Had they fallen in with the ISKCON cultists?
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daphaknee · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

superwes did you offer them pbr

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:15 am Post subject:

The Bassist is a college friend of my wife's. And no, they're not straightedge because they drank at the bar we went to after the show. And the beer type? It was Fat Tire. My point wasn't them though, it was me! I felt kind of immature for wanting to play videogames and drink beer when my peers just wanted to go to sleep.

-Wes
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I remind myself of all the studies that show how helpful naps are. Studies! That makes it okay for me to want to crawl into bed at 2pm for a quick twenty or thirty minutes. Thanks, science!
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I actually rarely have restful naps. I tend to wake up starving and with a stomachache. But when they are just right, ahhhh, they are like magic. It also doesn't help that I keep weird hours for work and scatter my time early in the AM.
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Mr Mustache · . Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 167 Location: Queens

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Pink Teddy Bear · . Joined: 24 Aug 2007 Posts: 180

So we just gonna talk about Kart and Smash, or are we gonna online party Kart and Smash?

Lestrade · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:48 pm Post subject:

I am playing online! Finally I'm having problem-free online gaming; my internet connection has been all kinds of fucked up this week.

My wife watched me play about a dozen games and man, I think this game has finally redeemed itself for me. The online was smooth and perfect, and though track selection is a little slow, I experienced no hiccups.

I have to admit, I don't miss voice chat; Xbox Live kind of ruins humanity for you after a while. It's nice just to see people's names and Miis and to race them without having to listen to morons trading racial slurs. In Mario Kart land, everyone is just as nice as can be.

P.S. How the FUCK do you add/discover/whatever these brand-new MK-specific friend codes? I know where mine is, but how do I send a request to someone?