Now featuring the Smogon time trial challenge! Read on for more details.
How it'll work is like this: Every week a new course will be picked at random. You all time trial this course for the best time possible, and PM me (yes PM I don't have access to IRC or AIM) or post itt your time, name, and, if you wish to, your vehicle and rider. I will post everyones records here and update whenever a new time is sent in, so always try and improve if someone tops yours! The course will be picked either later tonight or tommorrow (May 5th) sometime in the morning (note that I am in England, so GMT+0, so check this post asap so those of you in australia etc. don't have too much of a time disadvantage. Every week the three fastest times will be recorded and winners will get one, two, and three points respectively for third, second, and first place. At the end of the challenge, the person with the most is the smogon time trial champion! :) Also, no course will be repeated until/unless we do every one and want to do another round.
My current method for picking courses is basically to ask a random person with no prior knowledge of this to pick a number between 1 and 32 corresponding to various tracks as they appear in the cup/time trials/everything menus in Mario Kart Wii. So Luigi Circuit = 1 and N64 Bowsers Castle = 32.
This weeks course: SNES Ghost Valley 2
1. 0mastar 00:55:551
2. Extra 0:55.705
3. Stoo99 00:56:384
4. Shiny Crobat 00:56:669
Everyones times will be added here, the only reason the table currently has 5 spots is because I don't feel like counting participants. Actually, on that note I should mention that theres no need to "sign up" officially or anything, so you don't have to send a time in on a course you hate. Also, the time does not have to be trialled during the designated week, you can post previous records! Although obviously once the week is up, no updating the record here, but you can still post in the thread just to show off.
Points (one round completed)
Ctrainer 3
0mastar 2
Andeby 1
Original post
-------------
So mario kart for wii finally came out in Japan yesterday, and hit stores today in Europe! To be honest I was a little surprised to see nothing about it here so I created this thread for discussion purposes and to create a place to exchange friend codes and online rankings (mine is around 6000).
For Australia and North America, release dates are 24th and 27th of April respectively, so a few more weeks to wait; but in the meantime, here are some amazing screenshots from IGN:
In case you weren't aware each character (out of 25) has access to bikes, too, as seen in the screen above.
On the topic of characters, here's the games complete roster (thank god ROB is gone, it would be ridiculous to have a second-rate NES accessory become a playable character in Nintendo's two most renowned wii games in 08 eh):
However, characters don't have their own stats (actually, though Im not sure how many people will read this edit, it has been found that characters have minor hidden stats that modify kart stats, see this post for details: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1164069&postcount=282 ), rather the karts/bikes do and you choose the kart/bike they ride in. However, each character oly has access to light, middle, and heavyweight karts depending on their own class. The first two rows in the picture above are lightweight (so baby mario, baby luigi, baby peach, baby daisy, toad, toadette, dry bones, and koopa troopa), the next two rows are middleweight (mario, luigi, peach daisy, yoshi, birdo, diddy kong, and bowser jr.), and the last three rows are heavyweights (wario, waluigi, donkey kong, bowser, king boo, rosalina, funky kong, dry bones bowser, and the two different costumes for your mii. The costume being displayed in that picture is the second one (a huge pain to unlock I might add).
A list of how to unlock all karts/bikes and riders can be found here: http://wiinintendo.net/2008/04/10/mario-kart-wii-how-to-unlock-everything/ (the mii in the picture at the top of that page is wearing the first mii costume).
Wi-fi mode
In contrast to Brawl's horrible laggy wifi, Mario Kart Wii is sensational online. It is 100% lag free even with japanese and europeans in the race. There are so many options I can't elaborate on them all, suffice to say all the following are in and awesome:
Random matches, friend matches, ranking system, random ghosts, leaderboard ghosts, sending and receiving ghosts, battle mode complete with individual ranking system, Two player compatibility, official competitions (there have been two, I missed them apparently, see below), it's own god damn channel to manage/view all this stuff without inserting the game disc...I know I'm missing stuff, there's so much.
No more snaking
Yup, snaking is gone. Powersliding now activates your boost after you hold it for a certain amount of time, though it is short enough. Powersliding is still a hugely important thing.
Wheelieing on bikes
This is, at the moment, one of two things that separates winners from losers. When riding a bike, pressing up on the classic controllers or flicking the wheel up makes your rider do a wheelier and gain short-ish speed boost. This is great for straights, as most bikes (if not all) will outrun karts on straights just by wheelieing in the right places. However, if hit during a wheelie, you lose momentum than you would just driving, due to the precarious nature. So don't wheelie right at the start of races, although it's safe most other times.
Tricking
In both karts and bikes, you can do tricks when airborne. These tricks give a mushroom boost effect when hitting the ground, and just look prety badass if nobody in your wifi match is doing them save for you. There are multiple tricks for each character, although I'm not sure how to perform different tricks on the wheel as I use the classic controller. To perform them on the wheel, flick the wheel up; to perform them on the classic controller press a button on the d-pad, and to perform it on the gamecube cont. I guess you just use the d-pad, though I don't know for sure. Tricks can only be performed just as you're rising from a ramp/jump/whatever, and only one can be performed per jump, unfortunately. Used in the right places, tricking will win you matches alot. Also of note are areas where the track is wavy like in the new bowsers castle and rainbow road, or bumps in the track like in DK's snowboard cross. In these areas you can just spaz out with a wheel or mash the d-pad with the conts. to do tricks on every little bit of air you get (doesn't work with hopping, duh). This is because the trick will cancel before you hit the ground (though you still retain the boost). Finally, each of the four tricks has different version depending on how high you are. If you're bouncing really high in Mushroom Gorge or sailing over that ramp in Coconut mall, you'll do a different trick to getting tiny air from wavy track areas mentioned above. Both Karts and bikes can trick.
Stuff as the timer counts down
In a bike, you can wheelie as the timer is counting to zero signalling the start of the race. The rider does a short wheelie and then it falls as soon as it reaches it's peak, so the only way to get an extra boost at the start is to wheelie right at the word "GO!" or just beforehand.
Thought Karts sucked?
So far I'm making bikes sound pretty good, and in general they are better (or at least I think they are), but karts do have an advantage over the bikes good straights. When powersliding, if karts hold it for longer their blue boost (the standard boost) turns red and becomes stronger. So karts and bikes have their place depending on the track they are raced on. Tracks with big bends are more for karts (daisy circuit) and tracks with more straights are bike-orientated (luigi circuit).
How it'll work is like this: Every week a new course will be picked at random. You all time trial this course for the best time possible, and PM me (yes PM I don't have access to IRC or AIM) or post itt your time, name, and, if you wish to, your vehicle and rider. I will post everyones records here and update whenever a new time is sent in, so always try and improve if someone tops yours! The course will be picked either later tonight or tommorrow (May 5th) sometime in the morning (note that I am in England, so GMT+0, so check this post asap so those of you in australia etc. don't have too much of a time disadvantage. Every week the three fastest times will be recorded and winners will get one, two, and three points respectively for third, second, and first place. At the end of the challenge, the person with the most is the smogon time trial champion! :) Also, no course will be repeated until/unless we do every one and want to do another round.
My current method for picking courses is basically to ask a random person with no prior knowledge of this to pick a number between 1 and 32 corresponding to various tracks as they appear in the cup/time trials/everything menus in Mario Kart Wii. So Luigi Circuit = 1 and N64 Bowsers Castle = 32.
This weeks course: SNES Ghost Valley 2
1. 0mastar 00:55:551
2. Extra 0:55.705
3. Stoo99 00:56:384
4. Shiny Crobat 00:56:669
Everyones times will be added here, the only reason the table currently has 5 spots is because I don't feel like counting participants. Actually, on that note I should mention that theres no need to "sign up" officially or anything, so you don't have to send a time in on a course you hate. Also, the time does not have to be trialled during the designated week, you can post previous records! Although obviously once the week is up, no updating the record here, but you can still post in the thread just to show off.
Points (one round completed)
Ctrainer 3
0mastar 2
Andeby 1
Original post
-------------
So mario kart for wii finally came out in Japan yesterday, and hit stores today in Europe! To be honest I was a little surprised to see nothing about it here so I created this thread for discussion purposes and to create a place to exchange friend codes and online rankings (mine is around 6000).
For Australia and North America, release dates are 24th and 27th of April respectively, so a few more weeks to wait; but in the meantime, here are some amazing screenshots from IGN:
In case you weren't aware each character (out of 25) has access to bikes, too, as seen in the screen above.
On the topic of characters, here's the games complete roster (thank god ROB is gone, it would be ridiculous to have a second-rate NES accessory become a playable character in Nintendo's two most renowned wii games in 08 eh):
However, characters don't have their own stats (actually, though Im not sure how many people will read this edit, it has been found that characters have minor hidden stats that modify kart stats, see this post for details: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1164069&postcount=282 ), rather the karts/bikes do and you choose the kart/bike they ride in. However, each character oly has access to light, middle, and heavyweight karts depending on their own class. The first two rows in the picture above are lightweight (so baby mario, baby luigi, baby peach, baby daisy, toad, toadette, dry bones, and koopa troopa), the next two rows are middleweight (mario, luigi, peach daisy, yoshi, birdo, diddy kong, and bowser jr.), and the last three rows are heavyweights (wario, waluigi, donkey kong, bowser, king boo, rosalina, funky kong, dry bones bowser, and the two different costumes for your mii. The costume being displayed in that picture is the second one (a huge pain to unlock I might add).
A list of how to unlock all karts/bikes and riders can be found here: http://wiinintendo.net/2008/04/10/mario-kart-wii-how-to-unlock-everything/ (the mii in the picture at the top of that page is wearing the first mii costume).
Wi-fi mode
In contrast to Brawl's horrible laggy wifi, Mario Kart Wii is sensational online. It is 100% lag free even with japanese and europeans in the race. There are so many options I can't elaborate on them all, suffice to say all the following are in and awesome:
Random matches, friend matches, ranking system, random ghosts, leaderboard ghosts, sending and receiving ghosts, battle mode complete with individual ranking system, Two player compatibility, official competitions (there have been two, I missed them apparently, see below), it's own god damn channel to manage/view all this stuff without inserting the game disc...I know I'm missing stuff, there's so much.
edit: Now that I have the game I feel I should elaborate on some of the mechanics and interesting stuff nobody does on wifi :)IGN said:
No more snaking
Yup, snaking is gone. Powersliding now activates your boost after you hold it for a certain amount of time, though it is short enough. Powersliding is still a hugely important thing.
Wheelieing on bikes
This is, at the moment, one of two things that separates winners from losers. When riding a bike, pressing up on the classic controllers or flicking the wheel up makes your rider do a wheelier and gain short-ish speed boost. This is great for straights, as most bikes (if not all) will outrun karts on straights just by wheelieing in the right places. However, if hit during a wheelie, you lose momentum than you would just driving, due to the precarious nature. So don't wheelie right at the start of races, although it's safe most other times.
Tricking
In both karts and bikes, you can do tricks when airborne. These tricks give a mushroom boost effect when hitting the ground, and just look prety badass if nobody in your wifi match is doing them save for you. There are multiple tricks for each character, although I'm not sure how to perform different tricks on the wheel as I use the classic controller. To perform them on the wheel, flick the wheel up; to perform them on the classic controller press a button on the d-pad, and to perform it on the gamecube cont. I guess you just use the d-pad, though I don't know for sure. Tricks can only be performed just as you're rising from a ramp/jump/whatever, and only one can be performed per jump, unfortunately. Used in the right places, tricking will win you matches alot. Also of note are areas where the track is wavy like in the new bowsers castle and rainbow road, or bumps in the track like in DK's snowboard cross. In these areas you can just spaz out with a wheel or mash the d-pad with the conts. to do tricks on every little bit of air you get (doesn't work with hopping, duh). This is because the trick will cancel before you hit the ground (though you still retain the boost). Finally, each of the four tricks has different version depending on how high you are. If you're bouncing really high in Mushroom Gorge or sailing over that ramp in Coconut mall, you'll do a different trick to getting tiny air from wavy track areas mentioned above. Both Karts and bikes can trick.
Stuff as the timer counts down
In a bike, you can wheelie as the timer is counting to zero signalling the start of the race. The rider does a short wheelie and then it falls as soon as it reaches it's peak, so the only way to get an extra boost at the start is to wheelie right at the word "GO!" or just beforehand.
Thought Karts sucked?
So far I'm making bikes sound pretty good, and in general they are better (or at least I think they are), but karts do have an advantage over the bikes good straights. When powersliding, if karts hold it for longer their blue boost (the standard boost) turns red and becomes stronger. So karts and bikes have their place depending on the track they are raced on. Tracks with big bends are more for karts (daisy circuit) and tracks with more straights are bike-orientated (luigi circuit).
