Mario Kart 8 Devs Feel the Game has Optimum Item Balance

By Jorge Ba-oh 01.06.2014 6

Mario Kart 8 Devs Feel the Game has Optimum Item Balance on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

The two leaders in the Mario Kart 8 development team feel that the game has the most balanced use of items.

The Mario Kart series is known for its heavy use of items to try and give every competitor a chance of achieving first place glory. From those pesky Blue Shells to the classic banana, each installment has tried to achieve a healthy balance to suit all racers.

"Of course we pay particular addition to balance", said Hideki Konno and Kosuke Yabuki in an interview with GamesMaster magazine this month. "Through literally thousands of races, we've made numerous adjustments to get it just right. In our opinion, the items in Mario Kart 8 are the most balanced in the history of the series."

How would you rate the item balance in Mario Kart 8? Be sure to vote in our poll below.

Box art for Mario Kart 8
Developer

Nintendo

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Driving

Players

4

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (5 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now    Also on Also on Nintendo eShop

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jb is offline. jb 01.06.2014#1

To me it feels like it's way more beneficial for those higher up in the pack - it feels harder to make any sort of recovery if placed 6th or later.

In MK8, it would be fairly easy given the use of golden mushrooms/bullet bills and stars in lower positions, but the number of single bananas in 8th and single green shells just doesn't feel quite right.

Don't get me started on the AI...!

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Marzeee is offline. Marzeee 02.06.2014#2

It is definitely the best, but I have issues in the middle of the pack with getting bombarded with weapons. However it is possible make your way back up to the leader sometimes. And other times it frustrates me when I'm like 11th getting crap and then someone in 3rd gets a blue shell.

 
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RudyC3 is offline. RudyC3 02.06.2014#3

jb said:
To me it feels like it's way more beneficial for those higher up in the pack - it feels harder to make any sort of recovery if placed 6th or later.

In MK8, it would be fairly easy given the use of golden mushrooms/bullet bills and stars in lower positions, but the number of single bananas in 8th and single green shells just doesn't feel quite right.

Don't get me started on the AI...!


You said it all for me jb! Once you manage to slot yourself in first, or maybe second place, you will get a lot of the items you need to defend yourself (even reddies, which would NEVER happen in another Mario Kart) but once all hell breaks loose or you make one single mistake in your driving and fall back below third,it's impossible to climb back up.

Although I gotta say blueys being a bit more rare is something I appreciate. They're still frequent, but not as much as they used to or so it seems to me, which is nice. However I can't count the times where I had my speaker ready to get rid of any incoming blue shell trying to take away my glory, only to be robbed of it by a lightning, followed TWO FRIGGIN SECONDS later by said bluey.

Oh yeah and there's something else to be said for the fact that items now rotate around you no matter what. Bananas have never been such a huge threat, especially triples, since you can now simply ram into someone close to you when you have those triples bananas to send that person flying off track, not requiring any careful laying down of said banana peels or skillful throw forward. The only occasion where it can benefit you is when an opponent has thriple mushrooms cause you can mooch off of theirs XD, which I think is brilliant, especially when the CPU seems to consistently get the useful items that you'd need to catch up but which you never seem to get.

( Edited 02.06.2014 10:42 by RudyC3 )

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WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 02.06.2014#4

Have red shells always been able to fly? So annoying thinking I've escaped a shell only to look behind me and see it whirling through the air behind me. Smilie

 
LKR000 is offline. LKR000 08.06.2014#5

Too many mushrooms in 5th, 6th and 7th for my liking. It does feel less annoying then mk7 though xD

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BLUJAYGAMER is offline. BLUJAYGAMER 09.09.2014#6

I love this game but i mean the item balance is some of the worst of all time in my opinion you get a mushroom in 12th while the guy in 6th gets a bullet still a fantastic game though

 

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