How to Mario kart like a BOSS...

smileyhead · Dec 29, 2020

Yeah, this sounds familiar.
If you have young'uns over, I find it's better to play some games with less action, like Snipperclips or Mario Party. Mario Kart sort of forces you to keep going at a steady pace if you don't want to be last and leaves little to no room for thinking or getting the grasp on controls.
If all else fails, just play board games.

KleinesSinchen · Dec 29, 2020

Learning how to play video games is not easy and requires constant repetition and patience (from the kid). Four years is pretty young for attempting Mario Kart. That said, it is very hard to develop such skills nowadays. With the abundance of entertainment electronics, the mass of possible activities that exist thanks to small and large screens everywhere, it is hard to focus on one.

Going back to my own childhood it was different: Classic TV → That was it… Until I got the Game Boy at the age of six (and two years later the SNES). But I did not have many games back then. Not only were there fewer games, the carts were so expensive we could not afford to buy one on regular basis. I got Tetris and I could learn how to play Tetris… or put the Game Boy away because of failing to master it after three attempts.

(Kara is not my real name either, but the second nickname I use other than Sina/Sinchen)
Picture from my backlit DMG-001

Surely not a record, but not easy on the classic Game Boy Tetris with its somewhat unresponsive controls. (Got over 1,000,000 points on Tetris Deluxe which stops getting faster at level 30 – then I had enough and lost on purpose).

Many kids today: "Game sucks." (after losing two or three times) "Want another one." The mass of (mostly bad) games funded by advertising and/or in-app-purchases on Android or iOS devices is overwhelming and can spoil a child in a really bad way and can make them permanently unable to focus on something.

To get familiar with the controls: Solo race / time trial. At least don't have AI opponents at the beginning.
A six year old girl should be able to learn Mario Kart 8 on easy difficulty pretty quickly (it's waaay easier than Super Mario Kart SNES). I guess even the easiest difficulty is too much for a four-year-old (if not a natural talent). Pretty early to start gaming.
================

Anyway:
Congratulations for your patience. I got mad from just reading this: "Just choose a d*mn character and a f…ing vehicle! It's not that important."

DinohScene · Dec 29, 2020

"Just choose a d*mn character and a f…ing vehicle! It's not that important."
This^

I never really let small kids play on me consoles/handhelds.
Something will break when they handle it.

JuanMena · Dec 29, 2020

At that age I was already playing Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, DKC and StarFox... mind you, got to Vulture Culture all by myself and occasionally beaten my father with Dhalsim

I can still remember that for a fact because momma would let me play the SNES while she took my older sisters to Primary and Secondary school... I also played the SNES Pinocchio game and always got to the whale part all by myself.

I too have nephews (but not nieces) and always handed them unconnected controllers while I played. That's something that was done to me when I was 2 (and father said I had lots of fun thinking I was playing)

Makes me wonder what's wrong with new generations

Taleweaver · Dec 29, 2020

@smileyhead: it's what they were familiar with (well...not the same mario kart, but a similar one). I should perhaps try out mario party and/or wii party. But remember: they can't read yet nor (properly) understand English.
Board games is what we've attempted to do thus far. The thing is: they consider the components to be toys rather than a means to play a game (let alone the concept of a 'winner'). Playing 4-in-a-row with said nephew is almost creepy: he is oblivious to the concept of the game. It's just the practice of, in turn, shoving coins in the device.
(note: I was anticipating the game L.A.M.A. for Christmas to play with them. But due to covid, the big family gathering is canceled and opening the presents is on a spread basis. Perhaps that'll work out better for them)

@KleinesSinchen yeah...that's certainly going to be a problem for them. Just today, I heard from my mother that at least niece spends too much time on her tablet (not sure if that's "hers" or that her parents allow her to play it for some time). My brother asked me to hack their wii, and I warned him against allowing too many games at once (which would diminish the time spent per game). I'll see how I can fix that. And that is assuming I even manage to get their wii over here somewhere in the near future (it'll take me a while, and that'll be some days they're going to have to miss it...).

Also...with them eager to start racing, I had forgotten to check in advance how to set things up so it was "just" us racing instead of a roster of 12. But I don't think they were bothered by the other racers.

@DinohScene : I can understand that feeling, but wiimotes are what...25 bucks nowadays? I won't let them touch the wiiu tablet thingy, but I don't see how they can break the console when waving the wiimote in...unexpected ways.

@JuanMena my brother and me got into a discussion on when we got our gameboy (which must've been our first real gaming device). I was 8 around launch day, and we didn't got it much later. But I always felt like we had it like forever...

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How to Mario kart like a BOSS...

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