There’s no reason not to have discrete item controls in Mario Kart. It’s stupid not to have them; it is even stupider to implement some sort of half-assed broad, set-based item controls like they have done. It shows that they can do it, but they’re not willing to put in the minimal time to do it properly.

The change about not being able to drag items whilst holding another item is, in fact, a good change. It was an unbalanced advantage before, which made items that could be dragged MASSIVELY more powerful and useful than items that could not (such as boost mushrooms). In effect, getting a boost mushroom was almost like getting nothing at all, because having a drag item means having an item in hand AND being able to have another useful item in the kitty; whereas a boost item is only useful in particular places and it means not having another item whilst you reach that location.

The change brings the usefulness of common items closer together. And, it seems clear this was on their minds given that every map has places where boosts can be used to take seconds-saving shortcuts. They want boosts to be more relevant, and now they are–to the point that they are at least competitive at some level.

A lot of these things also look like Nintendo is worried about shaming/hurting the feelings of newer players. If someone sees that they were a whole minute behind other players then that might kinda suck, and giving a long course would allow slower drivers to be lapped and/or fall minutes behind. Blah. I’m still having fun with MK8, but that’s basically because I enjoy Mario Kart in general, despite several faults.

These are not things that would have been allowed out the door at Nintendo of Old. I think the fear was that it would be calamitous to have a delay on system’s the only significant game until Christmas–and, they are perhaps right about that, but perhaps not. I don’t think it would have affected sales appreciably, to have a delay. But I also don’t know that it affected sales appreciably not to have it. Instead, it just erodes their brand a little farther–not something really visible in the short-term world of individual game sales.

With regard to the memory card, they could easily have done what the PS3 did, and allow you to buy a little memory card connector that plugs in with a USB cord if you want it. That’s right up Nintendo’s peripheral-fixated alley, that is.

There should be no reason whatsoever why Gamecube controllers can’t be remapped directly to old-style Wii Classic Controllers and, later, Wii U Pro Controllers, using a very simple low-latency software layer. That would solve the issue of ports.

The Wii U would have done much better without the touchscreen controller. IT would have been cheaper, would have sold more units, and wouldn’t have been as confusing for developers to leverage. And then we’d (presumably) still have a COURSE MAP on the screen in Mario Kart 8–a game which niggles me more with every passing day.

Super Mario Kart (SNES) is still the definitive entry in the series. And, with Nintendo’s doctrinal adherence to a ‘one step forward, two leaps back’ system of development, it looks like it will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Of course, they could have put a dual-drive in it. But they chose not to do that, because it would have eaten into the margins still further.

Maybe they should have left the display-controller out, since NO GAME SEEMS TO USE THAT. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

I still have two GCN controllers that I use on my Wii when playing GCN games. What I think is exceptionally dirty is that the Wii U has the hardware necessary to play GCN games, but that they have simply disabled the ability of popping a GCN disc into the system and going from there. Deliberately hobbled so that they can re-sell us games we already own. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

I will play Smash Wii U with the pro controller. It’s Nintendo’s most solid controller since the SNES era. Good (if not exceptional) build quality, responsive buttons, good placement, reasonable size, etc. Battery life is good, too. We have two of them and use them more than the gamepad. In fact, I usually turn the gamepad off and just use the Pro Controllers.

I like that they are making a Gamecube controller adapter, but I’m not like one of those silly people who refuse to play Smash Brothers if they don’t make it available. I was very willing to use the Pro Controller (and still might). What makes me happy is that I won’t have to memorize new controls as I had grown quite accustomed to using the Gamecube controller on Smash.

I am beginning to read the nintendo power magazines and the magazines we got in argentina were not like this at all. It has a ton of info about the games (the nintendo power magazines).

ok, I admit it. I never played mario kart for snes .
SHAME ON YOU.

The few times I go there, I use adblock anyways, don’t want to give them money .
Giving them attention is worse than giving them money. Don’t give them the hits. Don’t talk about them.

I am curious to know if any of you remember the first nintendo power issue you had .
Issue No. 1. It had a claymation Mario on the cover and was about Super Mario Bros. 2 (US).

Earthbound is fantastic.

It is true that kotaku is bad, but sometimes is so bad like a traffic accident and it’s hard not to stop and look, like watching a really bad movie with bad acting (street fighter) xD . The few times I go there, I use adblock anyways, don’t want to give them money .

I used to have a gamecube controller when I had the wii and never had problems, granted I used it to play only smash brothers so it’s not like I used the controller with a lot of games. I don’t know about the n64 controller, never had a nintendo 64 .

My gaming moment: playing earthbound for the first time and it’s awesome.

I am curious to know if any of you remember the first nintendo power issue you had .