Mario Kart: Four wheels good, two wheels better
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Apr 17th 2008 at 12:00PM }
So dominant are these "two-wheeled spawns of the devil" that the CVG staffers are now contemplating banning the things. It disappoints us to think that such a finely balanced formula has been upset by the inclusion of bikes; any European owners/importers wish to comment?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian @ Apr 17th 2008 12:07PM
bikes are a great edition to the Mario Kart series IMO.
B-ZaR @ Apr 17th 2008 12:14PM
I've been playing the game since European launch day minus one, and I'm loving the bikes. The wheelie is a double-edged sword, as bumping into another player while wheeling (wheelieing?) drops your speed to nigh zero. I usually use it only if there are none or few others around. Time trial is a whole other world. Bikes kick ass.
chad @ Apr 17th 2008 12:14PM
"nippiness" is a funny word. it made me laugh inside.
i haven't followed this game's development very closely, but i'm surprised it even allows karts to race bikes. it seems obvious that bikes will be faster, so why wouldn't they just be in a separate class altogether?
Solar @ Apr 17th 2008 5:05PM
I'm surprised they made the bikes handle better than the karts, because in real life that wouldn't be the case. Certainly they could accelerate faster than the heavier karts but that's about it.
Sounds like a bad addition to me. It's not Mario Race, it's Mario Kart.
vidGuy @ Apr 17th 2008 12:22PM
I thought they added some balance to the bikes; maybe they have to be slower to corner or are easier to lose control of. Guess not, which is sort of disappointing. Will it become Mario Crotchrocket Wii now?
B-ZaR @ Apr 17th 2008 12:25PM
Well, the bikes can't also get orange sparks.
meist3r @ Apr 17th 2008 12:40PM
Unfortunately I like the bikes better than the karts. Most of the four-wheelers behave REALLY awkwardly (especially the big ones). Skilled drivers can get fantastic lap times with those but for more casual players like me it's just weird how they drive. And for Time Trial a big motorbike usually gives you the little maneuverablity advantage over the karts to shave off a few more hundreds.
I like that they added bikes but I would hope that the next MK will have some better kart moments again. Maybe completely separated competitions would do the trick.
Smicks @ Apr 17th 2008 12:45PM
As a european its pretty weird to tell people from the US about a Nintendo game...
@topic: I like the bikes and their mini boost for wheelies, but driving karts still feels a bit more natural. I'm playing the game since launch minus 2 (my local GameStop is pretty cool) and I just can't stop. I also like the wheel and the online mode, it is so addictive and works perfect without any lags. or connection issues..unbelievable. Negative: Only before the first race you can see where your opponents are from. When new people get in they won't be introduced. Which sucks. Apart from that: Best MK ever, really.
dannybuoy @ Apr 17th 2008 2:11PM
not used a bike yet. Not had enough time to work through the 1player game yet. A bit off subject but I'd just like to say the wheel is evil. Really bad. Horrible. It detracts from the experience and is completely awful for turning. Ok for stunts. But its not for me! Loving online races though. Played drunk as a skunk last night and it gave me a headache! Fun though!
Graham Stevens @ Apr 17th 2008 2:20PM
Great game and.... the bikes are fantastic!
Actually I prefer them to karts at this stage (I know, I know 'it's just not Mario Kart'). But when it comes down to it, I believe it is just more fun!
The wheel is good and my wife uses it but I have moved on the using the classic controller. It is just more responsive and more controllable.
By the way. I am left handed and so the whole nunchuck and wiimote combination does not feel right; just it was also wrong in Zelda TP. After 20+ years of gaming the analogue stick in my right hand is not good and not good at all.
Graham
evan @ Apr 17th 2008 11:08PM
wait.. i don't understand. are you holding the nunchuck in your right hand?
i'm left handed and i have nunchuk in the left and wiimote in the right, and it feels fine. thus i have my super-left-handed thumb of godliness manipulating the analog stick with all the left-handed precision i can muster.
Demotruk @ Apr 17th 2008 3:08PM
I've been playing since it came out here too.
My housemate just suggested that, though bikes may be better in multiplayer, an evolutionary stable system of bikes and karts may emerge, due to the fact that the more bikes there are, the more of an advantage the few people who take karts will have. Bikes are easier to knock off the track, and karts can more comfortably hit a bike doing a wheelie, slowing them down.
SoshiKitai @ Apr 17th 2008 3:16PM
Hmmm... ramming bikes?
*jots down*
Noted! :)
chadyasutora @ Apr 17th 2008 5:20PM
I only got the game today and have only played for a few hours, but I LOATHE the bikes! Well the Mach Bike anyways. The turning is reallly tight so it's not easy to drift round corners. Yeah sure the wheelie is good for time trials where there's no one else around, but using it in races is is almost impossible to do.
And just for thr record, you can't wheelie around the whole track cos it really does detract your steerin ability.
Mr Khan @ Apr 17th 2008 5:39PM
Seems more like a Halo 2 "Noob Combo" than a Mario Kart DS "Snaking"
From what i gather, Bikes are annoying, but skilled players can beat it readily enough, like the Noob Combo in Halo 2, unlike the game-breaking "Snaking" trick, where, no matter how otherwise skilled, if you didn't snake, you didn't win
At least, that is my hope
WillTheSecond @ Apr 17th 2008 5:44PM
Three disadvantages to bikes:
1. They don't get orange sparks, which means inferior boost.
2. They are lighter and so pretty much kart can successfully ram any bike.
3. You can't turn (much) while using the wheelie boost and when karts hit you during a wheelie it seriously slows you down.
In a karts versus bikes races wheelies are only to be used wisely, though I'm sure for time trials bikes are indeed better, otherwise I think CVG are just being a tad puritanical.
raycosm @ Apr 17th 2008 8:01PM
Oohhh my god, an Animal Farm reference!
CoolMaster @ Apr 18th 2008 10:09AM
Well, i'm playing this game since European day lunch and i can say that bikes are better than karts. I didn't want to believe in the first place so i started online with karts and did my time trials and whatever but when i tried bikes i saw a big improvement in my lap times and i became more competitive in online races.
I like to use bigger bikes with bigger characters (currently i'm using Bowser Bike with.. Bowser :P). Thrust me on this: even heavy bikes can turn better than many the light karts...
It's a bit of a disappointment to see bikes always in front places, the game is not balanced enough to let karts and bikes compete at the same time, Nintendo should know better before design the game this way. The only advantage when using karts is the full powerslide boost but you can't get it in all turns so the half-powerslide boost is the same as bikes.
I don't have a choice since i want to be competitive when playing it online, so i need to use bikes.
Elven Spellmaker @ Apr 29th 2008 8:14PM
U.K.
Bikes are better, although I too didn't want to admit it at first.
I persevered with Bowser in the Offroader, until me and my brother found the bikes with the best turning.
The weight differences in this game make heavyweights the best =), and unfortunately Funky Kong is the best charcter, although I am always Bowser because he is my favourite. =Þ
The bikes with the sharp turning are best, because they can easily get round corners and take the advantage of the inside of each bend. I now like the Bikes better and would never go back to the karts, as they all feel like the Aero-Glider...
These sharp turning bikes, I guess, were not meant to have such a big advantage as they do, but I guess that Funky Kong wasn't meant to be the best character either...
Nintendo took snaking out, which was a real shame, but they have added a whole new thing, which is now knowing when to wheelie and get boosts. I congratulate Nintendo on this game, although I still cannot believe the A.I. on this game, its rather relentless. I have Triple Stars in nearly all cups, the others are **, *, A or B... (Grr, Mirror Mode!)
Look out for ELVEN on-line (I only go Continental ;-)), I have won most times and generally its the item system that lets me down.
A blue shell on the N64 version was great if you were in 8th, because it had a chance of hitting all characters in the race. Now it just hits with a blast radius which means that if you are in 12th (not that I am that often), it is useless to you...
The bikes (with sharp turning) for each weight class are as follows:
Light
Bullet
Magikoopa
Medium
Mach Bike
Dolphin
Heavy
Bowser Bike
Torpedo
(This might not be the whole list)
Go Bowser and the Bowser Bike =)
And yes, I didn't even use the Wii Wheel to start with, straight to the best ever designed pad, the GCN controller! =)
I have used the Wii Wheel once, on another console, and I will sum it up in one word... "No!"
The D-pad is too small and so trailing items is an impossibility, as is proper wheelying(?).