Last night, it was teased that there was some big Mario Kart 8 related news on the way. Today it has been revealed that– along with a trailer — a roundtable discussion has taken place with the Hideki Konno and Kosuke Yabuki, the producer and director of the game. Some of the things discussed included balance, Rainbow Road, and the absence of a level editor.
Konno had this to say about balancing the game:
Game balance is also another really important element of Mario Kart that we look very closely at and place a lot of value on. From the time we start working on development, thousands of times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance when we’re playing. At the end we come up with what we hope and feel is a really good balance. It’s our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them.We do hear, and a lot of people out there say it, that Mario Kart is all about luck. That if you’re at the front then you’ll get hit with a blue shell, so it’s all about luck. That feature is not random–it doesn’t just happen. There is a lot of adjustment and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system, and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. I would hope people understand that as well.
It sounds like they’re trying to keep a stray blue shell from winning a match, which is fine by me. I’m sure everyone reading has been blue shelled at least once in their life.
After discussing balance, Yabuki went on to talk about some new tracks. He revealed that the Nintendo 64 version of Rainbow Road — as well as a new Rainbow Road — would make an appearance in the game.
Rainbow Road of course is a classic course. This time we actually grabbed Rainbow Road N64 version in addition to the current iteration of Rainbow Road. So we hope you look forward to racing on both of those courses. One thing I do want to mention is Rainbow Road, that final course. We really want you to look forward to what we’ve done to it this time because it’s something else. It’s really spectacular.
The last thing mentioned was the idea of a track editor. While Konno says it’s something he’d like to see, it’s not the best option for right now.
With regards to course editing, and letting users create and edit their own courses, it’s something that I’m interested in, and I’ve been interested in for a long time. It’s a fun feature. However, with Mario Kart, courses are key to the series, and it’s really tough. This is the eighth game in the series, and when we work on a Mario Kart title, we work on courses, and we create them, and then we work on them again, and again, and we revise until we come up with something that we think will be fun for everyone to play.
So there you have it. What are you most excited for? I personally can’t wait to see what they’ve done with the new Rainbow Road, as it’s always a joy to play on.