Games Inbox: Is Mario Kart World too hard?

Metro

a day ago

The Thursday letters page admits to preferring third person Resident Evil, as a reader asks which are Suda51's best games.
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AI takeover
Count me in the set of people that think Mario Kart World is mostly great. The open world is strange in the way it's used but I've enjoyed the actual racing a whole lot. However, one issue I've not really heard anyone talk about is that I feel the game is probably a bit too hard in single-player.
I consider myself a pretty decently skilled gamer – not amazing but at least a little above average for most games – but I've really struggled with everything above 50cc. It's not even the random elements, with blue shells at the finishing line and whatever, but I find that the higher you go the less mistakes you can afford to make, as catching up is surprisingly difficult.
Knockout Tour is the worst, as I even started to find that difficult in 50cc, let alone the higher speeds. It's got to the point where I feel I have a better chance of winning online, against human players, which doesn't seem right. Is it just me being terrible against the AI or is the game actually a lot harder than you'd think?
Tolly
See the fear
Being able to switch from first to third person in Resident Evil Requiem seems like the obvious choice, now that it's been revealed. I'll most play in third person, like I always do, but I imagine first person will be better for some action scenes and aiming and such like.
First person is always described as being more immersive but I'm not sure that it actually makes that much difference in a horror game. Resident Evil 7 was scary, but no more so than some of the earlier games, while Resident Evil Village wasn't frightening at all. It wasn't trying to be (except for that bit) but nothing about being first person made it automatically more tense, at least not for me.
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A lot of the appeal in Resident Evil is the characters and so I think it's important to see them as much as possible. I can't even remember what the main character is in 7 and Village, as I don't think you ever see his face. But I remember Rose, because she is in a lot of cut scenes. The first person-only games were a worthy experiment but I hope it's days as the only option are over.
Sully
The last reveal
So there we have it: the Nintendo Switch 2 is the fastest selling console of all time, despite coming out at a slow time of year for games (and not during a pandemic) and being expensive for a Nintendo console. Having a lot of stock obviously helped but I still think it's an impressive achievement.
What matters now is where Nintendo goes from here. I agree that their line-up of games so far is not very impressive, which is not a problem I imagined the console having, knowing how well Nintendo supported the Switch 1.
I hope there is a Nintendo Direct this month but I'm not sure it would have much on anything but the games that have already been announced. I feel Splatoon Raiders was probably the last reveal for the year, which is going to leave us hanging for a long time until there's any new news.
Onibee
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Bananas decision
It's nice to hear from Nick the Greek! I'd be up for continuing our Mario Kart rivalry at some point if we can catch each other online. I'm not sure I have enough free time to do a photo feature at the moment but maybe at some point. I'm glad he still remembers my Zelda ones.
As for the Switch 2, I have mixed feelings. Mario Kart World is superb, especially the Knockout Tour, but it's noticeable we're lacking a big new single-player at the moment. For the first Switch, we had Zelda: Breath Of The Wild which made the launch much more exciting.
It's a shame Donkey Kong Bananza wasn't out for launch. I really hope it's good. It'd help if Nintendo clarified if it was developed by the Mario team. I've seen a lot of complaints about the lack of Mario game announcement, but Bananza might very well be it. Guess we'll soon find out!
Ryan O'D
Deferred purchase
Let's forget about all this new console nonsense and concentrate on what's good. I did shelve my Switch 2 purchase for a Meta Quest 3. It was time. I'm loving the hardware and interface. This feels like the future, but I've still got feelings Nintendo-wise.
Quest offers brilliant product and form and I can be the Batman or anything until I'm convinced to dip a toe into the Nintendo hype. I did double down on my Switch and got a Hori split pad and a 128GB card. I'm a Ninty boy at heart. Sorry guys but a guy's got to geek out and feel the goodness. Maybe another day. I can't, for the love of me, justify Switch 2 right now. OLED model, it shall be.
D Dubya
Flawed genius
I thought the Romeo Is A Dead Man trailer was great, which has prompted me to look at more of Suda51's work. I know his games are always a bit rough around the edges, but which games are definitely worth playing and which are more curiosity only?
I thought the State of Play had a great variety of games shown but was tainted by the spectre of Sony's profligacy in how they've managed their internal development teams. I think the most obvious reason for their silence is that they've nothing first party to show right now, but hopefully that changes from 2026 and beyond.
Magnumstache
GC: Our favourite thing he's done is still killer7, but we don't think it's directly available on any modern format. The first two No More Heroes games are good and so too is Lollipop Chainsaw, which just got a remaster. A lot of his stuff is quite flawed, but almost all of it is interesting. He's got a collaboration with Deadly Premonition's Swery65 coming out this year, called Hotel Barcelona, so we'll be very interested to see that.
First timer
I'm one of those people that has never played the two most recent Zelda games before and I'm definitely impressed by the Switch 2 Edition of Breath Of The Wild. You can tell it's an older game, a Wii U game, as you say, but the smooth frame rate is very nice and the sheer scale of the world is incredible.
It seems endless at the moment and I can see from the map that I've visited maybe an eighth of it so far, which is amazing really because it already seems really big. I'm not even hating the breakable weapons that much either.
Art
Specialist subject
Limited Run games are taking pre-orders for Toaplan Arcade Collection Volumes 1 and 2 (I'm sure both will get digital releases) for PlayStation 5 and Switch and I wondered if you could help me with the quality of the games included, I've heard of very few of them (many Truxton, which is supposed to be good?) and wondered if you thought the collections sound worth it please?
Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol. 1 includes Tiger-Heli, Flying Shark, Twin Cobra, Fire Shark, Out Zone, FixEight, Dogyuun, and Batsugun.
Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol. 2 includes Slap Fight, Truxton, Hellfire, Twin Hawk, Zero Wing, Vimana, Truxton 2 and Grind Stormer.
Thanks for you help, keep up the great work.
Beastiebat (PSN ID)
Still playing: Devil May Cry 3 on Very Hard, Level 18 can do one; and just started Super Double Dragon, also surprisingly difficult
GC: This is the first we've heard of this, but while Toaplan were a great developer they shut down in 1994, so all their games are pretty old. Tiger-Heli and its sequel Twin Cobra are what made their name, but Slap Fight and Flying Shark are perhaps the most recognisable to UK gamers, as they were ported to 8-bit computers.
Almost all their stuff is good though, including Truxton (aka Tatsujin), the R-Type-esque Hellfire, Zero Wing (the source of the All Your Base meme), and Bubble Bobble style platformer Snow Bros. (which recently got a remake). Their final game, Batsugun, is regarded as the first true bullet hell shooter.
Inbox also-ransEverything about this MindsEye game is so weird. I hadn't heard about it until this week and it seems a complete mess. Why did they release it at such a stupid time? I thought the guy in charge was some kind of seasoned industry veteran?
Tacle
Now that we've had a new Marvel fighting game announced, and Invincible has one, it's high time that we got a new DC game. I don't particularly want Injustice 3, but I'd love a DC Vs. Capcom game. Would be a fun way to get back at Marvel, after their betrayal.
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