Squirrelinabox
11-21-2003, 11:30 AM
Ok, got the game last night, played it for about 3 or 4 hours. Let me first say that if you have gamecube and don't have the game yet, please go get it now, well, as long as you have people to play with at least.
Quick overview.
2 players in a kart instead of one. One drives, one attacks. One player can control both riders, or it can be one player controlling the driver, another player controlling the attacker. You can switch driver/attack at any time.
Lots of different drivers. Right now it has the normal crew, mario,luigi, princess peach, daisy, dk, bowser, etc. Also has some new guys, baby mario, baby luigi, boo, birdo... Good cast, supposedly a few more to unlock as well.
Depending on the weight fo your drivers, you can have a small, medium, or large kart. So bowser and dk can only use heavy large karts, while baby mario and diddy kong can only use the small karts. Pretty cool.
As of now there are 3 circuts (mushroom, flower, star) with 4 tracks each. Also supposedly a 4th circuit (guessing special, like all the other mario karts) can be unlocked.
Each character has a special attack only they can have... yoshi has a homing giant egg that breaks into small items when it hits, bowsers have a HUGE spikey shell that they shoot, etc.
The battle mode now has more than just the normal deathmatch (balloon battle)... FINALLY! They have shine steal (take the Shine and hold it for 60 seconds and you win. If you get hit, you lose it.). And they have Bobbomb Battle (all items are bobbombs, you hit somebody you get a star, you get hit, you lose a star. First to a certain amount of stars wins).
Ok. Enough overview. My initial impressions are good ones. My concern is for single player. I don't care for racing games much, and single player racing games are a bore. This one isn't much different. After playing through each circuit on 50cc (easy) and 100cc (medium) it only took about an hour and I already got golds on all of them. There isn't that much replay value after you beat it, besides using different characters and trying for best individual times, but that isn't much.
One thing that bothers me is how they don't have the battle mode for single player. It is something I think the series always lacked, and was hoping they would add it in here. I know adding cpu controlled opponents in battle mode would have been a lot of work, but they should have done it this time around. As is, if you don't have anybody to play this game with, you are probably best not to get the game.
As for multiplayer... oh yeah, it rocks. Whether it is the battle modes (bobbomb battle is my favorite so far) or racing against eachother, or even playing coop with a friend, there are some good multiplayer times to be had. I would have liked a few more battle modes though, and the ability to modify some options. I can't see how they NEVER put in battlemode "settings" that can be adjusted... like how many stars are needed to win on bobbomb blast, or how many balloons you start with, or how long you need to hold a shine. Hell, it would be awesome if you could choose the probability of each item for the battlemodes... make all the items bananas, or all red shells. They have that sort of feature in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it would have been great here.
It is an awesome game though. If you have friends to play it with, I can definately see it being a friggin awesome game for some time to come. After I play it longer and unlock everything I will add more.
Quick overview.
2 players in a kart instead of one. One drives, one attacks. One player can control both riders, or it can be one player controlling the driver, another player controlling the attacker. You can switch driver/attack at any time.
Lots of different drivers. Right now it has the normal crew, mario,luigi, princess peach, daisy, dk, bowser, etc. Also has some new guys, baby mario, baby luigi, boo, birdo... Good cast, supposedly a few more to unlock as well.
Depending on the weight fo your drivers, you can have a small, medium, or large kart. So bowser and dk can only use heavy large karts, while baby mario and diddy kong can only use the small karts. Pretty cool.
As of now there are 3 circuts (mushroom, flower, star) with 4 tracks each. Also supposedly a 4th circuit (guessing special, like all the other mario karts) can be unlocked.
Each character has a special attack only they can have... yoshi has a homing giant egg that breaks into small items when it hits, bowsers have a HUGE spikey shell that they shoot, etc.
The battle mode now has more than just the normal deathmatch (balloon battle)... FINALLY! They have shine steal (take the Shine and hold it for 60 seconds and you win. If you get hit, you lose it.). And they have Bobbomb Battle (all items are bobbombs, you hit somebody you get a star, you get hit, you lose a star. First to a certain amount of stars wins).
Ok. Enough overview. My initial impressions are good ones. My concern is for single player. I don't care for racing games much, and single player racing games are a bore. This one isn't much different. After playing through each circuit on 50cc (easy) and 100cc (medium) it only took about an hour and I already got golds on all of them. There isn't that much replay value after you beat it, besides using different characters and trying for best individual times, but that isn't much.
One thing that bothers me is how they don't have the battle mode for single player. It is something I think the series always lacked, and was hoping they would add it in here. I know adding cpu controlled opponents in battle mode would have been a lot of work, but they should have done it this time around. As is, if you don't have anybody to play this game with, you are probably best not to get the game.
As for multiplayer... oh yeah, it rocks. Whether it is the battle modes (bobbomb battle is my favorite so far) or racing against eachother, or even playing coop with a friend, there are some good multiplayer times to be had. I would have liked a few more battle modes though, and the ability to modify some options. I can't see how they NEVER put in battlemode "settings" that can be adjusted... like how many stars are needed to win on bobbomb blast, or how many balloons you start with, or how long you need to hold a shine. Hell, it would be awesome if you could choose the probability of each item for the battlemodes... make all the items bananas, or all red shells. They have that sort of feature in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it would have been great here.
It is an awesome game though. If you have friends to play it with, I can definately see it being a friggin awesome game for some time to come. After I play it longer and unlock everything I will add more.