I hate Mario Kart DS (online)

[randombs]

I tried.

Really I did.

I borrowed a mate's DS for a few weeks and I've been playing this game online.

I've always believed SNES Mario Kart to be the best anyway, but that's neither here nor there.

My rant is with regards to how playing online is ruining this gem of a game for me.

Offline it's great - the graphics are sweet, the stereo sound is immersive, the dual-screen race intros remind me of the 8-machine daytona intro, and generally it just brings back some of the SNES magic, somewhat. I like it at least as much as the GBA one, that's for sure.

Oh, and then there's the power-sliding. It's the nearest thing to Outrun 2 on the DS, and I think it beats Ridge Racer's lame powersliding hands-down.

But online - good God.

There are so many things that just don't seem to fit. OK I've only been playing it for two weeks, but I'm pretty nifty on most of the tracks (rainbow road is still the bane of my mariokarting), and I've pretty much sussed the powerslide-boosting thing (snaking?), yet *still* i have yet to have even a marginally enjoyable online race, bar the few I've had with a mate where it was just us two and the races were really close and at times had me laughing out loud when I'd get turtle-shelled at the last minute.

If ever there was a game that actually needed a 'game experience may change online' message, this is it.

First of all, it takes YONKS to find a game. With all this Nintendo talk of a milllion DS online-ers, you'd think that it'd take less than 2-3 minutes to play a game. Maybe it's to do with the fact that quite a few routers/AP's have trouble with the DS (mine doesn't which is nice).
Why on earth do you HAVE to wait for all four slots to be filled? Sometimes I just want to play a mate yet have to sit around waiting for the other three slots to fill (or not, of course), even though I only have one friend registered!
But afer 2-3 minutes, I'm in a game. And that's where more of the trouble starts...

No matter what happens, I always end up last. Always. In two weeks I've had 6 wins and 37 losses. Of those 6, about 5 were against my mate. That leaves 1 win against random people. I'll even play against people who don't know how to powerslide, much less boost, and EVERY car I choose ALWAYS seems to be slower than all the other cars.

Compare this with any other online game I've played - if I play streetfighter online, I'll lose a lot of matches but I've still managed to beat some of the best players on there once or twice, and it's amazing when that happens. Also, the character balance is such that every character can beat every other character, both offline AND online.

Same goes for headshotting some super duper clan member in Counter Strike. Yet when I finally got my 1 win, I wasn't amazed or even happy. It was more a feeling of 'about bloody time'.

Another thing, why on earth is it possible for people to choose someone like R.O.B. when I myself can't choose him? He's obviously better than the regular guys as you have to finish all sorts of things to get him. I never feel that the racers are balanced in online play. Offline it's fine, even offline multiplayer is fine. In these modes the differences are noticeable but it never feels unfair - Donky Kong is slow to pick up but has a higher top speed than Toad, whose acceleration is faster but top speed is much less.


OK most of what I've moaned about is stuff I've experienced in other games like Counter Strike, and xbox live stuff, but the reason this aches so much more is because I feel it doesn't reflect Nintendo's all-encompassing, we'll-get-your-granny-playing philosophy. I always had a thing against Nintendo games when I was younger, but I realised it wasn't the games that were the problem, but the loyalists - everyone I know who primarily owns Nintendo consoles has that freaky obsessiveness about them, where they'll play a game non-stop until they've finished it 100%

That's why I never liked, say, Mario Kart 64, as there were all these shortcuts and other 'secrets' that, as I didn't know of them, really ruined multiplayer matches with my fanboy mates.

What is it with that game? Why mariokart? Why? WHY???

Am I the only one? Right that's my rant over. I'm gonna go stare at Miho Yoshioka for a while to calm down...

[Extra Terrestrial]

Oh, and then there's the power-sliding. It's the nearest thing to Outrun 2 on the DS, and I think it beats Ridge Racer's lame powersliding hands-down.

Excuse me for going off-topic, but what on Earth are you talking about man?! The powersliding in Ridge is the most natural phenomenon I have experienced since the SNES days and to compare Mario Kart to it is a bit strange too.

Anyway, I completed the single player mode in Mario Kart (DS) but the online 'experience' is a bit of a mess unless you can find some friends or various people on this (or other) forums that play the game every now and again. I think the whole set-up is frustrating and ironic due to Nintendo saying there is 1mIlLiOn!1oNe1! players online or something when I cannot find a game very often hence the reason why the game hasn't been played since early January.

If ever there was a game that actually needed a 'game experience may change online' message, this is it.

Not of all time but certainly needs the message on the start-up somewhere as the game is reasonably different online - do we find the AI on the single player races sliding all over the place?

[gizmo1990]

I'll just launch in here with my 2 pence.

Frankly it seems to me that you're blaming the game for your OWN playing skills?

In my experience the karts are balanced fine. In the hands of an experienced player each is capable of beating another.

The only thing I think Nintendo got wrong IS the power sliding technique which has lead to snaking. See my posts in the MKDS thread. This makes the game exclusive rather then INCLUSIVE.

Apart from that I think Nintendo have done a good job with their first online game.

[yesteryeargames]

the cheats online spoil the game for me, i know some of them use action replay type devices,

1 guy i played for example let me have a 1 lap lead then he comes out of nowhere with 4 blue shells and infinate invinclble going over the grass ect at full speed, i had been doing a near perfect lap prier to this

[gizmo1990]

the cheats online spoil the game for me, i know some of them use action replay type devices,

1 guy i played for example let me have a 1 lap lead then he comes out of nowhere with 4 blue shells and infinate invinclble going over the grass ect at full speed, i had been doing a near perfect lap prier to this

Now that sounds ****. In fact I think thats happened to me a few times recently too.

I never knew that level of hacking was possible?

[Dogg Thang]

And that's why you should organise matches with friends in advance. Yes, it's a shame there is no lobby system but I think the game works very well if you know people online to play with.

[Hosain H]

It's your bad skill that makes you not like this game and you can't pick the other racers since you havn't even finished the grand prix yet.

Of course, if you haven't finished the grand prix yet, you can't match up to a snaker and you WILL lose every time. This game is too good for you.

Also, if you play at the right time than you will find dour people, even if its not in the right time you will find people, i just had a race with a couple of peeps and never took more than 1 min to start up.

[Hosain H]

the cheats online spoil the game for me, i know some of them use action replay type devices,

1 guy i played for example let me have a 1 lap lead then he comes out of nowhere with 4 blue shells and infinate invinclble going over the grass ect at full speed, i had been doing a near perfect lap prier to this

He can speed over the grass since he has boosts and he gets good items because he's far behind you, try it and you'll see. Hackers can't hack items, they can only change their kart to 150cc (making their speed 1.5 times faster than yours), or they can choose offline levels. Nothing else.
Maybe they can change their rating though.