Let it not be said how existentially relevant the doctrine involving the military strategy MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) has been to humanity at large.

In a MAD world, some pterodactyls just
want to watch the world burn

My continued exploration into the depths of Mario Kart World’s (MKW) metagame has been an engaging effort, to say the least. As mentioned in previous articles detailing my deconstructionism of MKW, I’ve been playing it alongside Mario Kart Tour (MKT), in a surprising twist of fate involving an interesting dichotomy, that upon further inspection, ends up revealing both games represent two distinct entities within the confines of Nintendo’s Kart racing proclivities, which is somewhat of an uncommon happening in any series of games, and definitely a first for Mario Kart as a series. This ends up being a double edged sword in some sense, as each game can’t be everything to everyone, and I suppose that is why Nintendo saw it fit to split the series up, as truth be told, you can see argumentative worth in both approaches for different reasons, but what one cannot say, is that you could have both games combine into one, and still offer the same qualitative standards that would service both titles with both distinct demographics in mind, in fact, creating a confusing mess of an experience if they had not been split into two, but it kind of comes out as a win/win…mostly.

I don’t feel compelled (at the moment) to do a straight comparison article, where I go tit for tat, in talking about where World does X, and Tour does Y, more so in favor of continuing to further extrapolate on where World has gone so wildly off script into improvisational territory, but I suppose for the sake of clarity, I will at least throw out the tl;dr version, in surmising my last articles posit: in a move quite similar to how Forza split off into a more casual, arcade infused, open world title that gave way to the Horizon series, so too has Mario Kart followed the same route with World, with Tour acting more effectively like Forza: Mororsport does, in being a way more tightly focused, technically driven, tension filled driving experience. Obviously, since this is Mario Kart we are talking about, Tour isn’t some kind of hard lined hyper-realistic simulation racer of course, but in the world of gaming, one can easily make distinct when a game has a more over the top design attached to its metaphysics, and when a game is attempting to feel more grounded, and you definitely see that top to bottom, and side to side, in taking apart World and Tour, and really examining their bare essentials under a microscope.

I also touched on a metaphor involving extreme breeding with dogs, and undesirable traits coming about as a result, and in the metaphor where Nintendo was “crossbreeding ideas as traits” from other genres and series into the DNA of MKW, you start to see pug like breathing problems plague World’s design machinations. We’ve covered the Forza: Horizon trait splicing, which doesn’t necessarily carry the weight of a straight up defect (depending on perspective) to the Mario Kart gene pool per se, but the introduction of said trait into the metaphysical gene pool does have the knock on effect of making the game feel just a bit more expansive in most ways, and in the confines of wanting a tighter racing experience, making the roads feel like you’re driving on the equivalent of football fields, is quite obviously, antithetical to the idea of anything resembling a tighter track design as a result.

So to reiterate; not technically a straight up defect…if one is desiring a more spacious, and in most moments, a more raucous affair. We’ll get to where the raucousness comes in quite soon, but I want to address the other obvious notion first, in that if the courses aren’t necessarily that tightly designed, it doesn’t push any of the players racing upon said courses to have to utilize more advanced maneuvering tactics, like the almighty drift/mini turbo combo the series is so known for. I am aware there are other maneuvering options available, like rail grinding and wall riding, for example, and while those add some spectacle to the races, I have some extreme suspicions as to how much advantage either add overall to any optimized route when racing in the upper echelon of time trials, but my judgement remains suspended (though dubious), as it is still early days, and I haven’t reached that level of reinfement yet, but my intuition say it won’t be the case.

If anything, and just addressing what I most certainly have confidence in firsthand, the wider tracks mostly dilute/water down the need to better impliment/utilize the drift/mini turbo combo, which has always been a cornerstone acting as the doormat to the entrance of higher skilled play in its mastery; the wider tracks just provide less incentive as a result of their more open design, making them far sloppier in approach. So, as I said, for anyone more of a fan of classically minded, twisting turn routes and standards that the Tour design paradigm propagates, you’ll likely feel left out in the cold racing on what World has to offer, but for those who want a more raucous affair, due to the higher player count and item usage, those people will be set.

Which I think does bring me to one of the biggest issues that MKW brings to the fore, and something that took me a second to really grasp, but now that I have, everything about the game makes a lot more sense. Due to the expanded nature of MKW’s machinations, the courses being bigger to accommodate (or at least in part) the much higher racer count, coming in at 25 in total. This is kind of where the metagame starts to break down, and it will be so obvious as to why, after I present the ideas, you too will probably feel silly you hadn’t had the realization in the first place. The large issue at hand with the massive player count, ends up being what I’m referring to as the “rampant rubber banding bureaucracy” (RRBB), in reference to the effect that the 25 player count, mixed in with the random item box shuffling has on the overall atmosphere of any given race.

As is known by many, the way any Mario Kart game attempts equalizing the meritocracy of the metagame, so that less skill players have a fighting chance to compete, and also so the far more practiced of the players don’t just stomp the comp left and right, the randomized items one gets is regularly predicated on player position. So, the player in first doesn’t get much at all in the way of anything useful, higher placed player maybe lucky if they score a defense item in the realm of a shell or a banana with which to play some TENACIOUS D! with, while people in the middle of the pack get better offerings, like triple shells or a golden mushroom, where as people in the back get heavy hitters like the infamous blue shell, super stars, and the dastardly lightning bolt, all of which can severely level the playing field. The reason the logic of this system starts to break down, is due to another happening I outlined a few articles ago, involving a phrase I put forth in the guise of “Problems of Scale”, in that what works for an individual or in a microcosm, does not work with a much larger gathering or in the macroscale. It’s a method of analysis that is used in philosophy, politics…studies of the humanities at large.

As I’m sure some of you have already pieced together in your head as I lay down the multiple exhibits in mounting this case, the problem of scale with Worlds player count in combination of Mario Karts randomized item advantage system, ends up creating this chaotic crescendo that wills into existence the RRBB I spoke of early. This happens thusly: whereas once you only had a player or two getting some nuclear grade fuck you material every so often with which to smite your fellow racers with, you now have a full third of the racers firing off nukes left and right, this gang of criminals equating to essentially 8 people, or in classical Mario Kart contrast, an entire races worth of competitors, all launching metagame equalizing disruptions one after another, after another, after another….So that’s a lot to deal with already, one may think to themselves. Well, think about what comes after that exchange, right?

Shenanigans, that’s what.

Now, while I am about to use some anecdotal shorthand here to make my point, as the scene I am about the describe does not play out this exact same way every single time, I saw it happen with an extraordinary consistency over a series of many online races, so I am not talking belligerent bullshit when I put forth this next scenario. Once you have the bottom third of the racers then gain ground, and either become the middle portion, and or in possible conjunction with the top third falling into the middle grouping as well, you then see a a slight tug of war happen, and some racers gain ground, some racers lose ground etc, you’ve now largely remixed where everyone is. The problem, however, is that there will always be a bottom third launching nukes, no matter what, and that bottom third is, by and large, a rotating door of faces, whether faces are somewhat new, old new, or new new, the meta is basically completely destabilized at all times, due to the constant volley of nukes occurring, which feeds into the RRBB I spoke of, so players are rubber banding back and forth, back and forth, everyone is mostly on their back foot constantly, gaining ground, losing ground, the crazed chaotic bureaucracy of randomized luck honestly just ends up feeling like a war of attrition happening inside of a casino, cause the only real way to make a difference in positioning on the field, is by launching nukes, attempting to contend with nukes, and then having to just suffer a nuking, as when you are out in front, defending against even one nuke is difficult, but multiples? You are dropping back down in no time. In some ways, it is such a chaotic, hectic experience, it almost feels more akin to a competitive slot machine tournament, as everyone on the track is essentially just pulling a lever to see if they can hit the jackpot over and over again, and this randomized format of nonsense self-perpetuates eternally, as the nukes continue to fly, and the catastrophic after effects of the RRBB endlessly rears it’s ugly head.

So, as I previously outlined, and reiterate, the equalization of the meritocracy of the metagame helps to bottleneck the entire competitive standard, cause if everyone is rubber banding so rampantly back and forth, the bureaucracy which rules the day will be at the lucky drop of a slot machine produced nuke, and the destructive fallout of what follows.

Problems of Scale, indeed.

-Pashford