Hello gaf,
Well, I'm trying to stay away from Zelda threads now due to all the spoilers - I figured it might be worthwhile to talk about one of my most wanted games, Mario Kart 8DX, specifically the new battle mode. MK8 is probably my most-played gamer ever, and I always felt something missing with that half-assed, tacked-on, battle mode using regular race tracks.
I just finished listening to another Gamexplain podcast where they confirm the game has HD rumble, and apparently it's awesome. You can feel when you shoot items and such. They also confirmed the 1080p resolution bump is noticeable.
Now, I know a lot of people are disappointed that the game doesn't feature new race tracks, but what if the battle mode really makes up for it?
A couple discussion points:
1. Battle Arenas
MK8DX has shown four new battle arenas. Battle Stadium, Urchin Underpass, SNES Battle Course 1, and GCN Luigi's Mansion.
Two are new, and two are retro. How many battle arenas do you expect they will have in the final game? There has been a fairly inconsistent amount of battle arenas, with MK64 and SC having 4, Double Dash and MKDS having 6, MKWii having the highest with 10, and MK7 dropping to 6.
I would think a safe bet would be atleast 8, but 16 would be the real money (8 new, 8 retro). Personally hoping the for the following:
GCN Pipe Plaza
N64 Block Fort
N64 Big Donut
A arena on top of a Switch, carrying out the Gamecube/DS tradition. The joy cons could slowly shift off and on the Switch too.
2. New Weapons
Personally, I'm a little confused why the new weapons are coming back exclusively for battle mode. The feather is really cool, but seems kind of unnecessary. The ghost is a cool item, but seems far more fitting for racing? (Unless I'm wrong about this? do feather/ghost come back for racing too?)
3. Modes
This little image sort of leaked unofficially confirming 5 modes.
Looks like Balloon Battle, Shine Thief/Shine Runners, Coin Runners, and a new one with a Piranha Plant.
A real question is whether the shine represents Shine Thief or Shine Runners. I'd prefer Shine Thief (from Double Dash) because it was a very defensive game, and would make having the feather or ghost pretty interesting.
Another thought I had about modes, was the possibility of a Battle Mode Prix. A mode where you compete with CPU in four battles, and are awarded a cup at the end with maybe some unlockable. The cup could be broken up by battle mode, or maybe it's one battle from each mode in a five battle cup? Or perhaps each of the arenas is separated by their respective cup, but I somehow doubt that. We know there will be local battle multiplayer, LAN battle multiplayer, and online battle multiplayer, but a Battle Mode Prix would really add some longevity to the game for completionists.
I know they won't include this, but I always thought it would be cool as hell to create custom Grand Prix's in Mario Kart. For example, let me choose a set number of courses, a set of weapons, a customized number of CPU racers and the individual skillset of AI (easy/medium/hard for each racer), and let me name the custom Grand Prix and share with friends. Maybe you can mix and match races and battle? Hell, take it a step further and let me draw and emblem for the Grand Prix, share it online, and check how many players get gold/silver/bronze cups on it!
They should really hire me as a designer for Mario Kart, because I have lots of simple ideas that would add replay value and longevity! (I should learn to speak Japanese first)
With all of that said, the fact that there are 5 modes leads me to believe the Battle Mode is more fleshed out that we might think. It leads me to believe there are more than the four battle areas, for one, perhaps as many as my hoped for 12-16.
4. Customization of Battle Mode
Now, this actually worries me a bit. The customization in Mario Kart is, well, painfully bad. I'm surprised after all these years they havn't taken a page out of Super Smash Bros. and allowed for far more customization.
So far, we havn't seen much, but I hope certain things are included in the battle mode:
Turn CPU's off / customize CPUs
Unlimited time, and elimination style (ie; classic elimination style battle mode)
Customize weapons (imagine green shells only, bananas only, etc.)
Play online in custom matches
Now, we also know that Mario Kart 8DX is Nintendo's first 1st party online title for the Switch. It's also the Deluxe edition to their most popular franchise and best selling WiiU title. I would think this is an opportunity to really show off the depth of the online and the integration with their *gulp* smartphone app. With custom rooms and voice chat, perhaps some of these further customized rulesets becomes available?
5. New Characters
Now I know I'm cheating because I made this thread specifically about the battle mode, but aw hell...might as well discuss it.
MK8DX has five new characters.
King Boo
Dry Bones
Bowser Jr.
Inkling Boy
Inkling Girl
Inkling Girl and Boy are great, but the other three...well, they seem a little 'enemy/bowser castle' centric. I'm not going to pretend having my boy Dry Bones back isn't great, but it still doesn't seem like enough. AFAIK, Nintendo havn't officially come out and said that's ALL the new characters, but IIRC they basically spoiled every character reveal from the OG MK8, so they have no reason to hide other characters. Still, I'd say there is 50/50 chance of there being a couple more new characters.
Also leads me to question Diddy Kong and Birdo's omission. Why the hell are they still missing? I can only speculate that Diddy Kong Racing is in fact coming back (with Birdo), either as it's own game or some DKR-MK8DX DLC pack. But again, my fanboy dreams are digressing the thread.
Conclusion
Let's face it, Battle mode hasn't really been the same since MK64. Mario Kart DS and Double Dash had their moments, but for the most part it's been a crowded, unbalanced, side-mode that hasn't touched the addictive greatness of MK64. I attribute that largely to a lack of elimination mode and some lame arena design. It's like the mode fundamentally broke when expanding beyond four racers. Courses became so big as to accommodate a bunch of extra racers that elimination-style would be broken in such a big space (without some kind of radar), and countdown clocks were introduced. So far we've only seen 12 racers with timers and unlimited balloons.
I wonder if they can find a way to make things feel really tight and competitive again all while giving a fair shake of customization.
I think there is a lot of potential for MK8DX's Battle Mode. We certainly havn't seen everything, and the fact that they've added more modes than ever and included new weapons gets me very excited. Seems like they've really approached it from a 'let's do this right' perspective, so I remain optimistic and excited.
What are your thoughts and hopes for MK8DX's battle mode?
Well, I'm trying to stay away from Zelda threads now due to all the spoilers - I figured it might be worthwhile to talk about one of my most wanted games, Mario Kart 8DX, specifically the new battle mode. MK8 is probably my most-played gamer ever, and I always felt something missing with that half-assed, tacked-on, battle mode using regular race tracks.
I just finished listening to another Gamexplain podcast where they confirm the game has HD rumble, and apparently it's awesome. You can feel when you shoot items and such. They also confirmed the 1080p resolution bump is noticeable.
Now, I know a lot of people are disappointed that the game doesn't feature new race tracks, but what if the battle mode really makes up for it?
A couple discussion points:
1. Battle Arenas
MK8DX has shown four new battle arenas. Battle Stadium, Urchin Underpass, SNES Battle Course 1, and GCN Luigi's Mansion.
Two are new, and two are retro. How many battle arenas do you expect they will have in the final game? There has been a fairly inconsistent amount of battle arenas, with MK64 and SC having 4, Double Dash and MKDS having 6, MKWii having the highest with 10, and MK7 dropping to 6.
I would think a safe bet would be atleast 8, but 16 would be the real money (8 new, 8 retro). Personally hoping the for the following:
GCN Pipe Plaza
N64 Block Fort
N64 Big Donut
A arena on top of a Switch, carrying out the Gamecube/DS tradition. The joy cons could slowly shift off and on the Switch too.
2. New Weapons
Personally, I'm a little confused why the new weapons are coming back exclusively for battle mode. The feather is really cool, but seems kind of unnecessary. The ghost is a cool item, but seems far more fitting for racing? (Unless I'm wrong about this? do feather/ghost come back for racing too?)
3. Modes
This little image sort of leaked unofficially confirming 5 modes.
Looks like Balloon Battle, Shine Thief/Shine Runners, Coin Runners, and a new one with a Piranha Plant.
A real question is whether the shine represents Shine Thief or Shine Runners. I'd prefer Shine Thief (from Double Dash) because it was a very defensive game, and would make having the feather or ghost pretty interesting.
Another thought I had about modes, was the possibility of a Battle Mode Prix. A mode where you compete with CPU in four battles, and are awarded a cup at the end with maybe some unlockable. The cup could be broken up by battle mode, or maybe it's one battle from each mode in a five battle cup? Or perhaps each of the arenas is separated by their respective cup, but I somehow doubt that. We know there will be local battle multiplayer, LAN battle multiplayer, and online battle multiplayer, but a Battle Mode Prix would really add some longevity to the game for completionists.
I know they won't include this, but I always thought it would be cool as hell to create custom Grand Prix's in Mario Kart. For example, let me choose a set number of courses, a set of weapons, a customized number of CPU racers and the individual skillset of AI (easy/medium/hard for each racer), and let me name the custom Grand Prix and share with friends. Maybe you can mix and match races and battle? Hell, take it a step further and let me draw and emblem for the Grand Prix, share it online, and check how many players get gold/silver/bronze cups on it!
They should really hire me as a designer for Mario Kart, because I have lots of simple ideas that would add replay value and longevity! (I should learn to speak Japanese first)
With all of that said, the fact that there are 5 modes leads me to believe the Battle Mode is more fleshed out that we might think. It leads me to believe there are more than the four battle areas, for one, perhaps as many as my hoped for 12-16.
4. Customization of Battle Mode
Now, this actually worries me a bit. The customization in Mario Kart is, well, painfully bad. I'm surprised after all these years they havn't taken a page out of Super Smash Bros. and allowed for far more customization.
So far, we havn't seen much, but I hope certain things are included in the battle mode:
Turn CPU's off / customize CPUs
Unlimited time, and elimination style (ie; classic elimination style battle mode)
Customize weapons (imagine green shells only, bananas only, etc.)
Play online in custom matches
Now, we also know that Mario Kart 8DX is Nintendo's first 1st party online title for the Switch. It's also the Deluxe edition to their most popular franchise and best selling WiiU title. I would think this is an opportunity to really show off the depth of the online and the integration with their *gulp* smartphone app. With custom rooms and voice chat, perhaps some of these further customized rulesets becomes available?
5. New Characters
Now I know I'm cheating because I made this thread specifically about the battle mode, but aw hell...might as well discuss it.
MK8DX has five new characters.
King Boo
Dry Bones
Bowser Jr.
Inkling Boy
Inkling Girl
Inkling Girl and Boy are great, but the other three...well, they seem a little 'enemy/bowser castle' centric. I'm not going to pretend having my boy Dry Bones back isn't great, but it still doesn't seem like enough. AFAIK, Nintendo havn't officially come out and said that's ALL the new characters, but IIRC they basically spoiled every character reveal from the OG MK8, so they have no reason to hide other characters. Still, I'd say there is 50/50 chance of there being a couple more new characters.
Also leads me to question Diddy Kong and Birdo's omission. Why the hell are they still missing? I can only speculate that Diddy Kong Racing is in fact coming back (with Birdo), either as it's own game or some DKR-MK8DX DLC pack. But again, my fanboy dreams are digressing the thread.
Conclusion
Let's face it, Battle mode hasn't really been the same since MK64. Mario Kart DS and Double Dash had their moments, but for the most part it's been a crowded, unbalanced, side-mode that hasn't touched the addictive greatness of MK64. I attribute that largely to a lack of elimination mode and some lame arena design. It's like the mode fundamentally broke when expanding beyond four racers. Courses became so big as to accommodate a bunch of extra racers that elimination-style would be broken in such a big space (without some kind of radar), and countdown clocks were introduced. So far we've only seen 12 racers with timers and unlimited balloons.
I wonder if they can find a way to make things feel really tight and competitive again all while giving a fair shake of customization.
I think there is a lot of potential for MK8DX's Battle Mode. We certainly havn't seen everything, and the fact that they've added more modes than ever and included new weapons gets me very excited. Seems like they've really approached it from a 'let's do this right' perspective, so I remain optimistic and excited.
What are your thoughts and hopes for MK8DX's battle mode?
