Mario Kart needs more realistic driving

Yeah, I said it.

Need to change the way drifting works. Just boring. Need to add more realistic kart physics. I'm serious. Something so dull about instantly going full speed and degree of turning not being reasonably influenced by speed. Braking too.

MK8 tracks are way too short. Just these little circuits that are over in no time at all.

Roads mostly too wide with no hard parts, and auto-steers you when you go towards edge as well.

Its fine as is. What it needs is a new f'ing game. The hell is this about releasing one MK title per 15 years, that's dumb af.

An arcade game needs to be more realistic.🤔

Sounds like you need to turn off the smart steering.

Im too much of a child to deal with computer assist.... I cuss at the screen and accuse the "computer" of awful things...

Yeah it also needs completely new items. I got pretty bored after playing Mario kart 8 for ten years straight.

Why is there not a menu where you can check off what items you want on the map?

Can't believe i'm saying this ... but yeah, i'm completely agree.

Personally, I would like the game more if they implemented slightly more realistic physics, but I don't think they should. MK is Nintendo's most popular series, and it got that way by being so simple your mom can play it.

Crash and Sonic have kart racers with more involved physics. We can play those instead.

No, Mario Kart is what it is, it's supposed to be weird anarchy. There was never really a racing game in there except early on with the SNES, GBA, and DS versions. Now it's just a party game.

But Namco should make a new Ridge Racer.

The rubber band AI and blue shell can be annoying, but 99/100 the better racer wins online. And what does a new Mario Kart look like? What’s left to do other than copy the Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed vehicle switching mechanics. Which would be pretty cool in the Mario Universe.

Or do Triple Dash and have 3 characters in the kart. 🤔

You are correct. It is also the most successful in the kart racing by a huge margin. To change the formula just cause, doesn't align well.

Just make it Nintendo Kart already. I'm down for the Smash Bros. Of Kart games.

They already kinda play with that idea in the most recent game by including Zelda, F-Zero, Animal Crossing and Splatoon in the game.

They should just go all-out and rebrand it as Nintendo Kart.

It's an arcade racing game, it's fine the way it is.

No thanks. I do very much want a new game though. I'm 99.9% certain that the Switch 2 will launch with a new Mario Kart game.

Don't matter, you can tear ass all over the track leading the whole time only to be thwarted at the end by the person dragging ass the whole map given a blue shell just to mess up everyone's day. Mario Kart do what it do.

You ain't beating my "I hate fun" allegations, man.

Nah it's fine as it is, although it would be interesting to see Nintendo make a realistic racing game, but above all it would be way better if they make a new F-Zero.

Nah, but I think it's a bit too basic. Double Dash was more fun. Two characters per kart and character specific items was fun as hell.

What??!!!

Mario Kart is not perfect but its driving mechanics isn’t one of its weaknesses. I hate that it seems that the development team tend to swing towards small karts with the mechanics, and the item selection can use a shake up (to me) but everything else is great!

Leave it as is. It's just a fun party game that's a racer. If you want a more realistic racing game, there are other options.

If you want realistic driving, go play Forza or Gran Turismo.

I'm all in for Nintendo Kart to go all Twister Metal style of a game. It's time for something new indeed.

I disagree.. Mario Kart 8 easily has the best drifting mechanics of any racing game on the market. What it needs is to be balanced. It needs a beginners mode that is very similar to the way it is now, and it needs a less predictable mode where you aren't rewarded or punished as strongly depending upon your current standing in the race. Blue shells and coins should be a little less frequent, fire flowers should have a max 3 hit like the boomerang, and the boomerang should lose 1 of 3 hit points for breaking a training item.

Too involved. No fighting.

@warm_gun: Why would a vehicular combat game need realistic driving?

Nah, the best Ridge Racer game wasn't made by Namco it was made by Bugbear.

Yeah. Full on racing sim really. Also take out all the nintendo characters and put in the current line up of Karting drivers with potential to go onto F1. Also just realistic kart tracks: none of this loop de loop madness...completely unrealistic. And take out the stupid weapons. Clearly not regulation. /s.

Seriously though: No. Just no. By all means Nintendo should play around with the driving model: But with a view of being entertaining: not targeting realism. Mario Kart in not a racing sim. It's not trying to be a racing sim. It's an arcade, party, crazy racer. Success is not based on racing skill alone....luck is a factor. It's designed so that even poor drivers can cause havoc and, just to be absolutely clear, that's a good thing. It means everyone gets to have fun.

In saying that: there is a gap in Nintendos arsenal for a more competitive, purely skill based racer. Now I don't think Nintendo should try to just emulate GT and Forza. They would lose. It would just get lost in the noise. But IF nitnendo were ever to look at Fzero again: treating it as a "what if" racing sim could be interesting. I.e. in a world where there are hover cars that can go a bagillion kph....how would the racing play out? How would these cars actually handle?

So it could still have pretty crazy tracks and knocking into your opponent would be a legit (but risky) strategy: But picking your racing lines and break points and so on would also be very important. The Switch 2 will have a shed load more CPU horsepower compared to the GC so the simulation could be more complex. So it could be something Nintendo look at as a way to separate themselves from GT and the like while still scratching the more competitive, skill based racing itch.

....I mean they won't. But they could.

But yeah: Anyone complaining "reeee i lost even so I'm the best racer".....Mario Kart is maybe not the game for them.

What it needs is a revamped AI system. Rubberband AI is stupid. Partly because the weapons and AI take a lot of the skill out, so it's not really much of a skill based game. That's why it's not a great single player experience.

I don't think it needs "realistic" driving physics, but it could certainly use the better physics capabilities to improve the driving and make it a bit more fun.

It's an arcadey racer, not a sim racer. It doesn't need realism. The record-breaking sales speak for itself.

All it needs is a new Mario Kart game. They haven't released a new MK in a decade.

For the same reason that Max Payne's action became better when weight was added to the movement and physics and Vanquish looks stupid and is boring. But it's a balancing act. GTA and RDR character movement go too hard for realism and are bad.

Are you serious? Why would a driving game not need any weight or good physics just because the drivers can fight?

@warm_gun: ….or you could just play an actual realistic racing game and leave Mario kart to the millions who just want to have fun.

Too involved. No fighting.

Guy would look at that first Motorstorm game and say, "The physics need to be removed because the drivers are allowed to hit each other."

Vanquish blows Max Payne out of the water.

So basically, Twisted Metal but racing? It's kind of a good idea I suppose.

Haha ha, no. Feels like playing with action figures. No nuance. Instantly changing directions at full speed as you chain those power-slides looks idiotic. Protagonist finished the story with whiplash to the brain that made him incontinent.

It's not needed there's plenty of SIM racers on the market for those who want them. Mario kart will always be fun.

One thing that kinda bugs me about the newest Mario Kart is how it's become too flashy and disorienting for its own good.

I'm not really a fan of all these loopy-loops, magnetic wheels to climb walls, hanglider paths, underwater shit, etc.

I miss the simpler times when it was more grounded with a well-designed track and a recognizable layout. Nowadays I don't find a lot of their newer tracks all that interesting or stand-out because they just cram in these gimmicky expositions into every track. If they used these gimmicks more sparingly instead of cramming them into every track, maybe it would not have gotten old so fast for me.

I'm probably in the minority opinion here though, because the game is a smash hit. But I'm just not sure why it's so popular. The most common reason I hear: "MK8 is jam packed with content" which is fair - we all hope we get our money's-worth buying a game loaded with content - but that's not enough for me if my overall experience with the game was "meh."

More realism would make it boring. Not every game has to simulate real life.

Agree. Just let us make our own tracks.

@girlusocrazy: Have you played Bugbears Ridge Racer game?

Way better than the regular horrendous Ridge Racer ganes, they are yuck 🤮

@warm_gun: I'm also not a fan of these newer A to B tracks that are just longer paths but don't revolve around a circuit.

Part of the fun of more traditional circuit tracks to me was being able to familiarize with the track layout as I am racing. For example: take lap 1 and you screw up on a turn or fall into an unexpected trap, and by lap 3 you become familiar enough to execute obstacles better or even catch cool shortcuts.

I don't like these linear A to B tracks because it takes away that learning curve when everything you pass is blink and you miss it, and you won't come back to that section for the duration of the race.

I don't have as much of an issue with these tracks as I do with the excessive flash vomit they cram into every track now - since they are more sparing with these ones - but every time I get one of those tracks I generally have the least fun on them.

A lot of these new tracks just don't give me the "I wanna play this track again" right away after playing it for the first time, like a lot of classic levels do.

@last_lap: Yeah, and it was an OK game but didn't feel like Ridge Racer and didn't give me what I wanted out of Ridge Racer. There wasn't great track variety either and the track design didn't live up to past games. The atmosphere/style felt more generic than past games too.

I would love a new Ridge Racer game. Really enjoyed the games and miss the franchise. Would want it like the standard RR games though as I did not care for Unbounded.

I'm the opposite, it was a breath of fresh air, not the same drift to gain boost, hit boost, drift again, same cycle over and over again.

Ridge Racer 1 through to 7 or whatever the series is up to now has the exact same gameplay, the only difference is the tracks. As a series it's as stale as a franchise can be for me.

@last_lap: Ah, interesting perspective.