The last week of December is truly the no man’s land of modern civilization: just keep your head down, and hope for the best, as the apathetic insanity can’t last forever.

Clocking into a shift feeling like getting ready to throw hands with a Balrog

I was a bit ambitious yesterday, in both naming my post what I did, and then following that up with the emphatic notion I put forth at the beginning of the article about just what I had time to dive into. However, since I’m usually winging it here on ATE, and my time is limited, if I end up cranking out a thousand words no problemo while also keeping to a tight schedule; I’ll take it. Until the moment I cease my ridiculous conquest in continuing to write and post an article everyday, in the name of both practice, productivity, and endeavor, I will continue to let the words lay where they may.

The article I did end up posting, instead of my originally intended plan of contrasting some lighthearted humor with some angsty existential dread, was a dictation on Mario Kart: World (MKW), which came with my Switch 2, a system of which I gifted myself for ze Xmas festivities, and thusly wrapping up my year long endeavor to acquire all of the “next gen” consoles. I was somewhat dubious in acquiring MKW, on a small level, not a large one, in knowing it was by franchise pedigree alone not going to “miss” per se, but I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t necessarily going to totally “hit”, either. Obviously, one day of playing is a little too brief a time to vet the game fully and entirely in terms of qualitative judgement across the board, but I follow through confidently on the heels of my posits yesterday, that the games biggest stigma is in relation to what feels like the equivalent of having had its jaw muzzled; the wildness of the beast tamed with submissive enforcement, and the bite completely smothered by misguided intent.

Don’t get me wrong: there is plenty to enjoy about MKW, but in talking shop about what is going on under the hood, I won’t placate fanboy bias, nor feel compelled to gloat endlessly on behalf of the notion I have to talk up my sweet new console to justify my purchase. Fair criticism is not changed by these factors, and it is within the spirit of how these factors can be swayed in others in similar respects, certainly lends itself to the idea of why I got out of writing about gaming professionally in the first place. One man’s professionalism is another man’s corporate sponsorship, and all of the lackluster advertising frivolity that comes with it.

While I followed general banter about the launch of the Switch 2 back in June, I didn’t doggedly chase specific reviews on MKW, instead, leaning hard on anecdotal testimonials via social media and elsewhere in the online trenches. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but I feel like its worth mentioning for the sake of clarification: with games like MKW, in their “too big to fail” energy they exude, I think it’s important not to be automatically resigned to the game, or put another way, “too taken” with the nostalgia inherent within the series the title hails from, or just giving it an easy pass for the sake of ease of accessibility, at least where adopting any favoritism is concerned, lest one completely destroy any sense of worthwhile conversation to be had about the game in favor of a pointless circle jerk of complimentary self-gratification.

Referencing the idle chitchat that surrounded MKW, I saw almost no discussion to speak of, in what I thought would be an obvious comparison to Mario Kart: Tour (MKT), which was the MK that launched on smart devices back in 2020, and largely serviced both Android and IOS users, in the realm of offering others the authentic MK experience not playing on a native Nintendo platform. I can’t tell if this is due to the notion that the reception to MKT was way more lukewarm than I had initially considered, most people moved on from that release a lot longer ago than previously assumed, and or that the general gaming public did not consider MKT a “legitimate entry”, in the mainline series of MK overall, with MK8D to MKW being the proper pipeline of succession in their eyes. This is annoyingly dismissive, as MKT turned out to be a great adaptation of MK on smart phones, in both execution and rationality of what the game asks of you monetarily, in either enjoying yourself or winning, and that monetarily ask ends up being absolutely nothing. In fact, I’ve been playing MKT, with an excellent online win record to boot, everyday for years now, and haven’t spent a single dollar on the entire experience. A hell of a lot of Mario Kart goodness for nothing at all, quite frankly.

The entire thing perplexes me so, and I fear as if a bunch of bad faith arguments are in place, as to why MKT has seemingly made little impact in the cultural dimension of the MK community at large. The reason I keep yammering on about MKT, is very much due in part to my regular interaction with the game over these years, and in reference to what MKW has to offer. I say this more so to the point that, where many might discount the existence of said game, and or the untrue background that involved the game being held hostage by mobile games standards, which again, is not the case. I’m half tempted to go back and do some more digging, to see just how little regard Tour has, just to really solidify if I’m that far off the mark or not.

Whatever the crowds perspective may be, my ultimate point, and I realize it is quite early to broadcast these kinds of ideas, but that Tour seems like it possesses the greater sense of intensity of the two, which seems absurdist, yet here we are. Since I’m of the mind the most ideal of what MK has to offer, is batshit insane multiplayer chaos, the vibe of intensity is definitely the one a player who seeks that kind of life would likely prefer. And, it’s not as if I hadn’t considered that the two MK titles could be considered “different beasts” entirely, one for one kind of player, and the other for another kind of player, and comparing notes almost seems contrary or moot on some level. But when I consider that Tour had to sacrifice almost nothing, in order to maintain the same quality of standard to make MK a reality on smart phones, leads me to reemphasize that if they really are considered two different beasts for two different demographics, I don’t have any reasonable rationality appearing obvious to my mind of why that would thusly be the case, or how that perspective holds water at all, as they just simply both exist in the same capacity, in the same series, in the same ways, etc…

Truth be told, my brain is lagging behind a bit, and this article has not come together as I had quite hoped, so I think it best to end it here, ponder a bit more on the topic, and see if I can’t find better linguistic ground to stand on this time tomorrow.

-Pashford