this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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117
Mario Kart World Faces Massive Backlash After Update, Online Racing Experience Ruined (gamersplan.com)
submitted 2 days ago by ninelife@lemmy.ca to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 68 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I'll add some context, as I actually own a Switch 2 and Mario Kart World.

The game is full of "intermission tracks", where the next race starts at the previous track and you effectively drive to the next track for the first two laps, then complete a single lap of the destination track. For example, in the Mushroom Cup, rather than start the second race at Crown City, you'd instead start at Mario Bros Circuit (the 1st track in the cup), drive to Crown City for two "laps" then complete a single lap of Crown City.

Many people voted Random in online multiplayer instead of picking one of the three interconnecting tracks, because the intermission tracks frankly suck for the most part, and are just straight-line roads. By picking Random, the game would actually pick a completely different course and you'd do a standard 3-lap race, like you would by selecting the course in Time Trial mode.

At least that's what used to happen, before the latest patch.... Now, random actually picks one of the three interconnecting courses, and no longer picks a random course.

To be honest, I think intermission tracks only really work in Free Roam and Knockout Tour. It doesn't feel innovative to effectively drive to the next racetrack when you still have to wait between race results and loading screens.

[–] JakoJakoJako13@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago

This explanation helps a lot. I was watching Maxamillion_Dood play online and it seemed like every other track they selected was random. And when it wasn't he clearly didn't know what lap they started on. Like the race would be over the first time they crossed the finish line. Everytime that happened Max was confused. Even to me as a viewer that seemed weird. I couldn't tell what was going on either. First time I ever watched a Mario Kart game and had a hard time telling what was going on.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 15 points 2 days ago

I swear to God Nintendo don't play test their games anymore. It's always something like this.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

because the intermission tracks frankly suck for the most part, and are just straight-line roads.

It almost feels like Nintendo are punishing the old meta of high acceleration/very nimble but no speed, using drifting and boosts to keep up speed.

[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Yup.

Best kart/racer combination in the game is genuinely one of the Bowser ones, due to having the lowest acceleration and highest top speed in the game.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

That was the meta? I just naturally gravitated to it. Guess I'll stick with MK8 and stay winning.

[–] SlothMama@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Am I the only one who loves driving between tracks? It's the most unique and fresh thing about this Mario Kart and changing / removing it out of the game would make it feel like every other Mario Kart to me.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Judging by the descriptions given by another user these "between track" drives are A. Part of the race and removing actual time on the actual tracks, and B. Not optional. Those things together make for some seriously bad game design.

[–] sylveon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 23 hours ago

I think it’s a cool idea but the intermission tracks are just so boring to me.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

Guys, give small indie company Nintendo a break, they only just moved on from fax to dial up.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 74 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Is this article written by AI? Some long running, poorly phrased sentences here.

[–] bright_side_@lemmy.world 74 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Haha, that also came to mind, it's pretty poor. Paraphrasing: "Users on Metacritic saying it "ruined" the online mode - an indicator that they are very displeased. "

You don't say? 😄

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This was suggested in another repost of this article. It does really have that vibe, yes. It's giving off this uncanny valley feeling of journalism. Lots of words, that... kinda say something?, but there's a lot of like, overlap? I'm having a hard time explaining it.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago

Definitely pumping up the word count. The paragraph used to come around to the fact that Metacritic (not steam) is the site where SMKW is being review bombed gave me visceral feelings of anger.

[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now, the fans has taken over on Metacritic by starting a review bomb, the user score of Mario Kart World has dropped from 8.3 to 7.7 in just a few days and that is definitely big. We can see tons of negative reviews, and it truly looks like the players aren’t happy at all.

The message is clear, the new update has ruined the entire online gaming experience. We saw many reviews using the word “ruined” which clearly shows how upset these fans are.

Is it possible that this is ESL instead of LLM? Or maybe a mix of both? I'm getting way more ESL vibes from the first paragraph, but the generally meandering nature of the piece does point to an LLM too.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

I think ESL could be a factor. Definitely LLMs have better English prose than this. I'm so used to seeing long running AI slop articles answering basic questions in 1000 words (rather than 10) and this reads similar.

[–] Vertelleus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So you'll stop giving Nintendo $80...right?

[–] pory@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Anyone who knows how Mario Kart World works well enough to be bothered by this change already gave Nintendo $500 for the game. What are they gonna do? Refund it to Walmart?

[–] Vertelleus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Still have your receipt?

[–] pory@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I didn't buy and don't have the console. But either way, refunds wouldn't "hurt" Nintendo the way they would on a platform like Steam - you can't refund Nintendo digital products, and even if Walmart accepted a return on a Switch 2 with the digital account-based (non-transferable per TOS) Mario Kart redeemed, Nintendo already made their sale by getting the thing on a Wal-Mart shelf in the first place.

It's just silly to see a comment about "keeping" giving Nintendo $80 for mario kart when the people affected by stuff like this... Already gave Nintendo $80/$500 for Mario Kart. The "support" has already been delivered.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"I'll bitch on the Internet about it but I'll still buy it."

[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It’s not even clear what changed.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At least from my experience the 'random' choice now just chooses from one of the three available choices, rather than the full list.

[–] marighost@piefed.social 32 points 2 days ago

Not only that, the three available choices are "intermission tracks", that is the half tracks between courses. These are not full 3-lap courses, and are significantly more boring and shorter than the 3-lap courses. They're more likely to appear in the "random" selection now.