Gaming Do you like the way Mario Kart 8 determines your kart's stats?

[Deleted User]

I've never really liked how the character and parts you choose determine your kart's cosmetic appearance and stats. Some of my favourite character and kart combinations just aren't all that great when playing competitively.

If I'm just playing for fun I'll generally pick something that looks cool and ignore it's stats but when I'm doing time trials or playing to win I choose something with optimal stats even if I think it looks like shit.

Personally I'd rather a character and parts be cosmetic only while also being able to customise an engine which is not shown while playing and determines your stats.

 

[Futurdreamz]

But then what's the fun in that. And it would be really weird to have a biddybuggy with the specs of the rocket car. Makes online not as fun as you don't know what's going to happen when you hit someone.

 

[MK73DS]

Imo, the karts should have different stats like they have, but the problem are the characters. Because they all have different stats, some are overtaken and other not at all :/

 

[jt_1258]

meh, the cart pieces that have highest speed are also ones that look nice to me

 

[Yoni Arousement]

At least the character balance isn't as bad as Mario Kart Wii, right? Because in that game, Daisy and Funky Kong had stat bonuses that were clearly superior to all the other characters in their weight classes. But yeah, that would be boring if you could just treat the characters as different avatars.

I heard that Morton (and probably heavyweights in general) was among the most used characters in vanilla MK8, because of his good stat bonuses and his model obscuring less of the screen than say, Bowser. In case anyone's wondering who my favorite character in MK8 is, it's female Villager. I can't tell if she has good stat bonuses or not.

 

[MK73DS]

Yes, that's right.
I would really prefer having only three categories : light, normal and heavy, regardless of the character.

Of course, you can't change Morton's size to match Bowser's one, but removing all the hidden stats from the characters is something I would really appreciate.

 

[Nyteshade714]

I always take stats in games like Mario Kart as a joke unless I can tell the difference between large gaps in points. As a game dev, I've heard many examples of games that have been released with stats that ended up being purely cosmetic because they ran out of time to actually program them in as anything else. Things like damage calculations almost always utilise the stats you're presented with though, but even that is no guarantee that every stat works the way you're told or the way you'd expect. You also need to remember that the person writing stat explanations and the person programming how they actually work are two different people who may not even speak to each other or work in the same building.

 

[MK73DS]

I always take stats in games like Mario Kart as a joke unless I can tell the difference between large gaps in points. As a game dev, I've heard many examples of games that have been released with stats that ended up being purely cosmetic because they ran out of time to actually program them in as anything else. Things like damage calculations almost always utilise the stats you're presented with though, but even that is no guarantee that every stat works the way you're told or the way you'd expect. You also need to remember that the person writing stat explanations and the person programming how they actually work are two different people who may not even speak to each other or work in the same building.

In Mario Kart, some stats are just purely hidden and player communities actually find them (especially speedrun ones). Therefore, they do make a difference