I originally posted this in rrllmuk forum, but the thread died:
Firstly, I must say that I love this game. Graphics are solid, constant framerate and no hop actually means you have more control over the kart than the last 3D Mariokart, although the absence of a hop took some getting used to.
The courses are great, no really poor ones; Yoshi's circuit, Baby Park and Bowser's being my favourites. And like all Mariokarts the handling is simple to get to grips with, but deceptively deep beneath the cartoon graphics. Deceptive if you're a stupid bastard who judges games like that and hasn't heard about the greatness of Mariokart. The rest of us already knew better
Soon after the cups were done and dusted, I tried a versus head to head without weapon boxes for the first time, and honestly was loving it. "This is the way forward!", I thought. I imagined how much fun it'd be to get 4, 6, 8 players on LAN playing courses that they'd mastered. The race would be so tight, everyone competing for the racing line, boosting at every opportunity. Everyone could be the golden car, as it's big and it kicks ass, and it wouldn't matter if someone else stole your character combo, cos weapons would play no part.
You could have 4 teams of 2, grand prix style, with TV for each team, and set up a GP consisting of your favourite tracks with a points system. Imagine letting your teamate slip past you into first to secure the team championship on the last race of GP, Barrichello stylee.
It'd be like a big dirty Mariokart set up for serious(ly sad?) gamers. Honestly what I've wanted for over a decade now. I love it.
So I ordered a couple of BB adaptors on t'internet and my mate bought one as well. And I am very dissappointed at the LAN mode.
No character selection: I suppose this works well in a party environment and evens things up if two people want the same characters by making it random, but ther's just no excuse for not giving us the choice. After winning the golden parade car which any character can use, there's also even less of an excuse.
No option to set up a GP consisting of your favourite tracks.
It's difficult to know who's who with the characters changing and confusing "1 wins" etc. This wouldn't be so bad if you could stick with a character. I ALWAYS knew who I was firing at in the N64 version, because people stuck with their favourite characters.
No option to turn off the weapons items in LAN mode. What! I couldn't believe it when I realised this. Unless I'm missing something and you can? How hard would it've been for nintendo to include this option? It means that we'd have to 'agree' not to use weapons if I wanted my karting dream to come true. Not ideal.
Framrate issues: Although within half of the first race of noticing them I'd all but forgotton them, it is still a niggle. I noticed it when we split the screen and did eight players on two tvs, but not with 4 on two tvs. Consistent, high framerates on split screen mulitplayer was the major reason for comparatively basic graphics in this game wasn't it? (a decision I fully support - the best use of the extra processing power). So why does this have to happen on link up?
Does anyone know if there's framrate issues when you link up 4 cubes with two on each screen? Has anyone tried it?
Because you see I was standing in woolies the other day ready to buy my second Pal gamecube and MK so I could get this linked up in my flat (I now have 2 BB adaptors), but after realising all this I'm glad I didn't.
Maybe Nintendo thought (rightly?) that only a few people would use the link up option, but how long would it take to put in code which allows you to tweak your mutiplayer setup. The framerate issues are perhapd more complicated, and I accept that you can't do link-up grand prixs against CPU karts, but I expect better, and besides I'd go and buy another cube if they'd sorted this out.
But of course the LAN mode is still awsome fun. I mean it's Mariokart, but with 8 players. Look! Still well worth it, and the game's release has caused many of my mates to rush out and get the pack, driven by fond memories of the last two games. Their first console purchase of this generation! Good stuff. Great game.
Firstly, I must say that I love this game. Graphics are solid, constant framerate and no hop actually means you have more control over the kart than the last 3D Mariokart, although the absence of a hop took some getting used to.
The courses are great, no really poor ones; Yoshi's circuit, Baby Park and Bowser's being my favourites. And like all Mariokarts the handling is simple to get to grips with, but deceptively deep beneath the cartoon graphics. Deceptive if you're a stupid bastard who judges games like that and hasn't heard about the greatness of Mariokart. The rest of us already knew better
Soon after the cups were done and dusted, I tried a versus head to head without weapon boxes for the first time, and honestly was loving it. "This is the way forward!", I thought. I imagined how much fun it'd be to get 4, 6, 8 players on LAN playing courses that they'd mastered. The race would be so tight, everyone competing for the racing line, boosting at every opportunity. Everyone could be the golden car, as it's big and it kicks ass, and it wouldn't matter if someone else stole your character combo, cos weapons would play no part.
You could have 4 teams of 2, grand prix style, with TV for each team, and set up a GP consisting of your favourite tracks with a points system. Imagine letting your teamate slip past you into first to secure the team championship on the last race of GP, Barrichello stylee.
It'd be like a big dirty Mariokart set up for serious(ly sad?) gamers. Honestly what I've wanted for over a decade now. I love it.
So I ordered a couple of BB adaptors on t'internet and my mate bought one as well. And I am very dissappointed at the LAN mode.
No character selection: I suppose this works well in a party environment and evens things up if two people want the same characters by making it random, but ther's just no excuse for not giving us the choice. After winning the golden parade car which any character can use, there's also even less of an excuse.
No option to set up a GP consisting of your favourite tracks.
It's difficult to know who's who with the characters changing and confusing "1 wins" etc. This wouldn't be so bad if you could stick with a character. I ALWAYS knew who I was firing at in the N64 version, because people stuck with their favourite characters.
No option to turn off the weapons items in LAN mode. What! I couldn't believe it when I realised this. Unless I'm missing something and you can? How hard would it've been for nintendo to include this option? It means that we'd have to 'agree' not to use weapons if I wanted my karting dream to come true. Not ideal.
Framrate issues: Although within half of the first race of noticing them I'd all but forgotton them, it is still a niggle. I noticed it when we split the screen and did eight players on two tvs, but not with 4 on two tvs. Consistent, high framerates on split screen mulitplayer was the major reason for comparatively basic graphics in this game wasn't it? (a decision I fully support - the best use of the extra processing power). So why does this have to happen on link up?
Does anyone know if there's framrate issues when you link up 4 cubes with two on each screen? Has anyone tried it?
Because you see I was standing in woolies the other day ready to buy my second Pal gamecube and MK so I could get this linked up in my flat (I now have 2 BB adaptors), but after realising all this I'm glad I didn't.
Maybe Nintendo thought (rightly?) that only a few people would use the link up option, but how long would it take to put in code which allows you to tweak your mutiplayer setup. The framerate issues are perhapd more complicated, and I accept that you can't do link-up grand prixs against CPU karts, but I expect better, and besides I'd go and buy another cube if they'd sorted this out.
But of course the LAN mode is still awsome fun. I mean it's Mariokart, but with 8 players. Look! Still well worth it, and the game's release has caused many of my mates to rush out and get the pack, driven by fond memories of the last two games. Their first console purchase of this generation! Good stuff. Great game.
) - I dunno. I expected better.
Wish I was your friend nips, I got DD when it came out, took a few days to get everything, but once I achieved that I had no incentive to play again. Haven't touched the game since. I don't know anybody who I can play it with. Wife hates DD, sniff 
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