Wii U Catch-All

shoptroll wrote:

How many stations were setup? Was it 3 hours to play the game of your choice for 3 minutes, or was it an a la carte thing where you get let into an area to play several 3 minute demos? Were there individual lines for each game?

The one I went to only had one station with one line for it, and you got to pick only one game to play when it was your turn.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

How many stations were setup? Was it 3 hours to play the game of your choice for 3 minutes, or was it an a la carte thing where you get let into an area to play several 3 minute demos? Were there individual lines for each game?

The one I went to only had one station with one line for it, and you got to pick only one game to play when it was your turn.

Yup, that's the same setup we saw this weekend.

You know what you didn't see in the E3 demo of Mario Kart 8? [color=blue]The blue shell.[/color] But it will be in the final game. They just haven't figured out the right implementation.

MTVMultiplayer: I didn't happen to see if it was in the demo for "Mario Kart 8," but one thing that has found its way into the series for a few years now has been an item that is loved and hated - the blue shell. Where did that idea originally come from, and does it appear in this latest game as well?

Mr. Konno: It's not in the demo out there, but it will be in the final version of the game. It's actually a question that I get a lot, talking about balance, or where that idea came from, we often get that in interviews. One of the things that we always think about when making a "Mario Kart" game is the replay value for the customer. When we made that game, we thought it added something to that value, for people to play over and over again. When you just want to play one more game, one more match.

So actually the original idea, that we had back in "Mario Kart 64" where we hit upon this idea for a Blue Shell weapon, was that it would enable even whoever was in the back of the pack to still want to continue the race, to still want to keep going. Something that would allow them to still have that feeling.

The first one we made would go straight up the middle of the course, so anyone that was in the way would get damaged as it flew. Then we changed it to the one that flies over and hits that person in first place, and you know, takes them out of their game a little bit. Every time we make a new game we want to challenge ourselves to adjust it a little bit, with something new.

We're always having this battle of whose side do we take? The person in the back obviously they want something that hits, because that's their chance to influence the game. The person in first, of course, wants to have some kind of chance to get out of the way. That's always something that the designers have to think about, and make small adjustments to figure out the best thing for that particular game.

That's part of the reason about why it's not out on the floor, because we're still thinking about that balance and what we're going to do with the blue shell. We'd like your opinion actually, what you're idea would be to have that thing go at you.

Drop the blue shell, make the lightning bolt better. Also, I pray they are getting rid of the stupid storm cloud from MK Wii. Which seems likely since it's not in MK 7.

The biggest issue with the blue shell is that by making it a flying object, it doesn't benefit the person who threw it. It helps the second place person but does very little to help the person at the back of the pack. If they kick it back to being a ground projectile that'll help the person who threw it but it's not a lot different from the lightning bolt at that point.

I say just revert it back to Mario Kart 64 if it's going to be in there at all, and reduce the odds of it. Lightning is much more helpful, as it not only effects everyone, but slows them all down as well.

shoptroll wrote:

Drop the blue shell, make the lightning bolt better. Also, I pray they are getting rid of the stupid storm cloud from MK Wii. Which seems likely since it's not in MK 7.

The biggest issue with the blue shell is that by making it a flying object, it doesn't benefit the person who threw it. It helps the second place person but does very little to help the person at the back of the pack. If they kick it back to being a ground projectile that'll help the person who threw it but it's not a lot different from the lightning bolt at that point.

+1. Death to all blue shells!

shoptroll wrote:

The biggest issue with the blue shell is that by making it a flying object, it doesn't benefit the person who threw it. It helps the second place person but does very little to help the person at the back of the pack. If they kick it back to being a ground projectile that'll help the person who threw it but it's not a lot different from the lightning bolt at that point.

This.

I think the flawed assumption is that the person in the back wants a blue shell, though. Items are fun, but blue shell tips too far into "I won because of pure luck" which isn't fun.

I've seen times where I was hit by two blue shells in a row, giving me NO time to attempt a recovery. I always thought that was unfair. At least two different times one hit me when I wasn't even in first place anymore.

Demyx wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

The biggest issue with the blue shell is that by making it a flying object, it doesn't benefit the person who threw it. It helps the second place person but does very little to help the person at the back of the pack. If they kick it back to being a ground projectile that'll help the person who threw it but it's not a lot different from the lightning bolt at that point.

This.

I think the flawed assumption is that the person in the back wants a blue shell, though. Items are fun, but blue shell tips too far into "I won because of pure luck" which isn't fun.

Yeah, I always feel weird when I win from 2nd place because of a (poorly?) timed blue shell hitting the 1st place racer. :/

Yeah, the blue shell always was an awkward item since it just never seemed to be all that helpful to the person who got it. I would love to see it turned into something entirely different, like maybe a powerful defensive and boosting item.

Lets face it, the blue shell is not going away, so we just have to embrace the item and suggest/hope for a good implementation.

Demyx wrote:

I think the flawed assumption is that the person in the back wants a blue shell, though. Items are fun, but blue shell tips too far into "I won because of pure luck" which isn't fun.

I think it's a net gain for a game's design if losing players can still feel like they have a chance at winning. I know that I mentally check out of racing games if I'm not near the front of the pack right at the start, because there's little chance of catching up unless something catastrophic happens. And I'll give up on a game entirely if I'm consistently in that middle-to-last position.

The goal of the blue shell is a noble one, and I think their heart is in the right place, but I'm glad that they're taking another look at the design of it. Blue shells as they are made Mario Kart 7 a lot less fun than it could have been.

And there are already three other items that I can think of off the top of my head that allow last-place drivers to move up tremendously: the star, the bullet bill, and the lightning bolt. Do we need a fourth that doesn't do a good job of it like the others?

I think the easiest compromise would be the ability to set house rules in multiplayer. Some people like the blue shell, some don't. If they allowed you to just toggle individual power ups on and off, I think it would satisfy everyone.

The star and bullet bill are much better because they reward the person who is behind instead of (directly) punishing the person who is ahead.

Minarchist wrote:

And there are already three other items that I can think of off the top of my head that allow last-place drivers to move up tremendously: the star, the bullet bill, and the lightning bolt. Do we need a fourth that doesn't do a good job of it like the others?

There was also the POW Block although that was like a weaker lightning bolt since you could avoid it if you knew what you were doing.

Blue shell used to be a lot better for this purpose when it could take out other drivers on the way to the lead.

Now that I think about it, the number of items in the game has ballooned out of control in recent iterations.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I think the easiest compromise would be the ability to set house rules in multiplayer. Some people like the blue shell, some don't. If they allowed you to just toggle individual power ups on and off, I think it would satisfy everyone.

I could get behind this as you can already do this in Smash Brothers. I think the Mario Kart 7 communities allowed some control over the powerups?

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I think the easiest compromise would be the ability to set house rules in multiplayer. Some people like the blue shell, some don't. If they allowed you to just toggle individual power ups on and off, I think it would satisfy everyone.

This. Works great in Smash Bros, no reason they can't add it to Mario Kart.

Farscry wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I think the easiest compromise would be the ability to set house rules in multiplayer. Some people like the blue shell, some don't. If they allowed you to just toggle individual power ups on and off, I think it would satisfy everyone.

This. Works great in Smash Bros, no reason they can't add it to Mario Kart. :)

You know what Smash also does nicely that Kart hasn't done in a while? Multiplayer where you can play for a single match/race if you want. I'm really hoping MK 8 doesn't tie me down to playing a set of races before I'm allowed to change characters or my kart configuration.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Lets face it, the blue shell is not going away, so we just have to embrace the item and suggest/hope for a good implementation.

I would love to see a Blue Shell that picks up the user, brings them up to first place, then goes away.

Minarchist wrote:

And there are already three other items that I can think of off the top of my head that allow last-place drivers to move up tremendously: the star, the bullet bill, and the lightning bolt. Do we need a fourth that doesn't do a good job of it like the others?

So the problem is solved and back to the drawing board. It sounds like they're at least putting some serious consideration into what to do with the blue shell in 8.

The blue shell is communism: great in theory, crap in practice.

garion333 wrote:

The blue shell is communism: great in theory, crap in practice.

Sigged.

For those of you that made it to Best Buy, how were people reacting to the games and could you tell if they were more Nintendo loyalists or casual fans?

There was a pretty large crowd, they seemed to be into it, and it seemed to be mainly Nintendo loyalists and families with kids. Quite a few people with 3DSs out.

A new Steel Diver is the first F2P game from Nintendo. Didn't play it on the 3DS, but I'm curious about it now that they're talking about a F2P version since $40 seemed high for the 3DS version. I'm also interested to see how the retail version is going to work.

If anything, they're definitely cribbing notes from Namco's Tank! Tank! Tank! and iOS titles like Jetpack Joyride and Plants vs. Zombies that have dropped to a F2P model after the initial interest has waned. Not a terrible idea and should mesh nicely with their long-tail strategy they were talking about with the Wii.

shoptroll wrote:

Didn't play it on the 3DS, but I'm curious about it now that they're talking about a F2P version since $40 seemed high for the 3DS version.

It stinks.

However, it had some fun ideas in it that could translate well to a free-to-play model. I'm curious to see what they'll do.

The strategy game aspect of Steel Diver was the most interesting, but there wasn't enough in it to keep me playing. If they put the focus on that, I might be really interested how it turns out.

The periscope game was also pretty fun.

Basically, everything but the actual main game itself was fun. The main game was sh*t.

I received that game free when I bought the 3DS XL. Still haven't played it yet.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100810130

"We are to blame," he said. "We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what's so good and unique about the Wii U. Because we're always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing."

Does anyone else really like the Nintendo executive team? When they had the loss in FY 2012 management took pay cuts and forgo bonuses and they are taking the blame and not bullsh*tting about why the Wii U isn't selling. It's really hard not to root for these guys.

I'm continually weirder out by F2P and Nintendo being in the same sentence.

Ulairi wrote:

Does anyone else really like the Nintendo executive team?

Does wanting to steal Iwata's three-piece suit count?