Official Edge Thread - Christmas 2003 Issue

[Shin Gouki]

OK guy's, it's three against one, i give up.

[Brats]

The more "controversial" Edge reviews have some valid points (or subjective ones, such as the dislike of MarioKarts vehicles, which I rather like), but they do seem to fall into the trap that most gamers level Edge in that they concentrate on the negative.

So whilst I can see their point that the single player game for MarioKart is unfair and some of the track design is a bit iffy, they spend the entire review saying nothing but this. The Multiplayer modes are left for a small box out in which the review concedes “It’s fun” in an almost shoulder shrugging way.

Likewise the RS3 review, which agrees that the standoffs are “exhilarating”, but then spends half the review heavily criticising it for being too linear. Okay, that’s a fair point, but it doesn’t spoil the game that much?

PGR2. Yes 60 fps would have been preferable and yes the game can be a little sterile (like it’s predecessors), but it still offers a superb racing experience. It still seems to be marked down too harshly. The main reason seems to be that there is no freedom to showboat, but doesn’t explain why. Surely the ability to log all times, points and even Ghosts online makes this one of the biggest showboating games ever, but the review seems to miss this point entirely.

So overall, a strange issue with many of the reviews coming across as unfinished. The part before the reviews arrogantly suggests that other magazines have scored POP and BS3 lower because their reviewers wouldn’t have been able to precisely pigeonhole the titles, nor would the readers have anticipated high scores. What an absolute crock. Maybe, just maybe, they didn’t take to the game quite as much as Edge did .

[Ratso]

Of the EDGE Christmas 2003 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! review:
"Marked down for: Obviously Cheating AI, poor circuit design, poor sense of speed"

* * * * *

"In the one player Grand Prix mode....the CPU competition cheats in order to keep up with your Kart. No matter how clean a race you drive and no matter how many power ups you use to your advantage, the other racers are always right on your tail."

"It is rather a shame that Nintendo should elect to use such 'cheap' opposition AI.....(however)....Super Mario Kart veterans will be all too familiar with CPU-controlled drivers that cheat."

"Ultimately Mario Kart isn't quite the game that was hoped for. Its main fault is that it has only a handful of genuinely interesting tracks. It would seem that the designers spent longer working on some courses than they did others."

"Though the game is something of a missed opportunity at heart, its multiplayer modes, addictive battle game, wonderful sound effects and charming visuals will ensure hit status."

Edge Rating:
Eight out of ten.
Mario Kart 64, EDGE 42, February 1997


This is why I believe that EDGE should dispense with review scores (while remaining hopeful that the standard of writing is maintained following the recent upheavals).

It's true that these criticisms could all be levelled at MKDD!!, but then EDGE could very easily argue that they overrated MK64 by at least one point at the time, and that all these perceived weaknesses remain in MKDD!! dictates that - consistent with the EDGE criteria - another point or two are knocked off MKDD!! for being almost the same (flawed) game six and a half years later. Or perhaps it's simply that now EDGE have a different (set of) reviewer(s) who is (are) less tolerant of such 'features'.

I believe Double Dash!! to be - just about - a worthy Mario Kart successor. The circuit design is not always exemplary but on average slightly stronger than MK64's. The one player game offers slightly more of a challenge than MK64's did (but not that much more). That cheating AI, though occasionally frustrating, is considerably less unfair than the ridiculously evil Super Mario Kart's.
It could certainly be considered fair to mark down a ?40 game for not offering more than a few hours' gameplay before everything is seen (TT excepted), especially when there are games out there (Winning Eleven 7, Tiger Woods, Soul Calibur II off the top of my head) which offer the single player month on end of quality entertainment as well as a top-notch multi-player game.

I prefer the straight-line kart handling in MKDD!! to the more slippery, woolly model in MK64, but I don't believe that making the corner boosting less skillful to achieve has improved the game at all. However, I still prefer this technique to the classic shoulder button drift of SMK and MKSS (though I know of many who would disagree).

In terms of the oft-mentioned speed of the game, MKDD!! is indeed underwhelming on 50cc and 100cc settings, but then no Mario Kart is ever played at less than 150cc on multi-player, and which I don't feel offers any less a sense of pace than any of it's three MK predecessors.

As regards to the power-ups, while I approve of the extra skill required in blocking incoming attacks by actually having to launch a defence (rather than just holding the Z trigger), I do believe that it should still be possible to avoid spinning out using a dab of the brake. Of course this would not apply a giant DK special banana for the sake of character balance.
The recovery time after being hit being so much faster in MKDD!! is neither here nor there as it is the same for everyone, and if anything adds to the frantic nature of the game.

Overall, my personal feeling is that it's nice to have a prettier, 60Hz Mario Kart to play in multi-player mode, but that if a third party game came out boasting identical gameplay, quality of sound and visuals but wasn't Mario, we would likely have given it at least short shrift, if not both the cold shoulder and a wide berth.
And if we had played it, we might well have criticised it for unsuccessfully apeing Nintendo's classic gameplay by overlooking or missing the point of a lot of the subtle but important elements.
Bottom line, MKDD!! is a fun game. It's a laugh and certainly isn't boring. Only time will tell if the multi-player and TT modes prove to be as enduring as MK64's though.

[Concept]

It shows quite a bit to be honest, though I only got a few levels in yesterday on coop (which doesn't let you play the Hobbit levels as far as I could tell). I enjoyed the game, though it the amount of control you get is perhaps too limited.

they reviewed the xbox version.

Thanks to PeteJ and tankplanker for the info.

[innovator]

Hello?? This is 2003, that was 1997. Times change and so do standards.

[Cacophanus]

Hello?? This is 2003, that was 1997. Times change and so do standards.

Mario 64 totally sucks now eh?

[Ratso]

Hello?? This is 2003, that was 1997. Times change and so do standards.

That's right:

"...EDGE could very easily argue that they overrated MK64 by at least one point at the time, and that all these perceived weaknesses remain in MKDD!! dictates that - consistent with the EDGE criteria - another point or two are knocked off MKDD!! for being almost the same (flawed) game six and a half years later."

[Concept]

Mario 64 totally sucks now eh?

I think innovator was replying to the contrasting reviews of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Double Dash, used as an example by Ratso.

[rjpageuk]

I had to make this clarification on rllmuk, and I will again make it here.

Can anyone who owns DD please explain to me how the computer cheats.

From my testing I have found that they do not cheat at all, not in their speed, or in their items.

[Crispin]

Stop it, stop it, stop it! Think of the children!

You're killing my baby. My beautiful Mario Kart 64, as you dissect it and criticise it. My baby, my poor baby that I loved and cherished and played because I was in blissful ignorance about the original. You're breaking my heart as you dismiss Rainbow Road, shirk off Moo Moo Farm and moan about D.K.'s Jungle Parkway.

My Baby where games between me and my brother were fun and evenly matched. My Baby where you could guarantee the one of us could always just see the other. My Baby where you didn't have to stop your bike, wait 30 seconds before your brother even comes close to your position (hint hint Climax).

What have you done! You broke my Baby. And it's unborn little sister, yet to be played by many and already dismissed. Poor little girl, Daddy loves you.

And Daddy can play with both you and F-Zero.

[Sasuke]

I had to make this clarification on rllmuk, and I will again make it here.

Can anyone who owns DD please explain to me how the computer cheats.

From my testing I have found that they do not cheat at all, not in their speed, or in their items.

I'm wondering that as well I can get half a lap in front sometimes

[Ginger Tosser]

I had to make this clarification on rllmuk, and I will again make it here.

Can anyone who owns DD please explain to me how the computer cheats.

From my testing I have found that they do not cheat at all, not in their speed, or in their items.

Like yourself i'm not convinced the game cheats, if the CPU didn't get you from time to time then wouldn't it a boring game once in the lead you win ?

[rjpageuk]

Like yourself i'm not convinced the game cheats, if the CPU didn't get you from time to time then wouldn't it a boring game once in the lead you win ?

If you follow the computer around you will see that not only do they get items from ? just like you do, you can actually see what item they have just got (since they are holding it).

I am certain they dont cheat in this way. If you go in 2nd you will notice you get a lot of red shells too (this seems to be why people think they are cheating).

As for speeding up and slowing down of the computer dependant on how you do - I havent tested their overall times, but I have won by 10 seconds and lost by 10 seconds before so it seems they dont do this either.

[Ginger Tosser]

I guess there's some people out there willing to blame AI because of their poor standard of gameplay.

I agree about the better items once your behind, but isn't it worth then keeping a item to block a red shell. Still doesn't appear to be our problem

[Ratso]

Crispin, I love Mario Kart 64, as should be obvious from my words.
I love my girlfriend but she's not beyond criticism, you know?

Maybe you guys are right, maybe the AI doesn't actually cheat in DD!!, but the fact that almost every time I got hit by a blue shell I was over a jump, causing a Lakitu restart I started to get more than a tad suspicious.

The karts in front can't really cheat, but you can't see what the ones behind you are up to.

Another way in which I feel that MK64 is more interesting is the way that you can fall back onto an earlier part of the track (or leap over to a later part of the track), although it was infuriating to be lightning-ed on that jump on Wario Stadium, or frustrating lose to someone who could do the Mario Circuit shortcut every single time.