Snake or lose, is this the only way?
Ok picture this
You’re playing Rainbow Road on Mario Kart DS. The race has been intense, shells have been flying, places interchanging loads of times, it’s the final lap and you’re facing the final bend in first. You heart starts pounding, you begin to panic. One red shell from 2nd place and you could see yourself 4th. One Blue Shell, One Lightning, One Star, One Bullet Bill, One set of Triple Mushrooms for your opponent and it could all be different.
The points are tied; whoever wins this race gets the overall victory. You briefly scan the bottom screen praying that their items won’t effect the current positions. Sweat it starting to form, you start to itch but ignore it. Final Bend and it could go either way as 2nd place has their red shell. They fire, you scream at the screen, “Come on! Faster!”
What’s the result? Who the hell cares? The tension, the passion, the fear. This is what makes Mario Kart great.
So it’s a shame to see a new mentality generally. The must win mentality. The mentality of a Snaker. Now I’m not going to say it doesn’t take a vast amount of skill to master Snaking but you have to admit it takes the fun out of the game. The above scenario rarely happens as the Snaker’s Mentality becomes, “Slide, left, right, left, right, Slide, right, left, right, left, I will win”. The power ups that make Mario Kart unique seem worthless now. There is no tension, no fear, only win or disconnect (another problem Mario Kart DS online suffers from).
I refuse to Snake. Not because I find it difficult but because it ruins the game. Sort of like how camping in an online Deathmatch FPS ruins that. Although waiting at respawn points to take out an opponent requires zero skill as apposed to snaking, you’re still denying yourself the thrill of the hunt for a few cheap frags.
It wouldn’t seem so bad if only a select few did it but now it seems Snaking is becoming the standard. With no way of knowing whether or not you will play a Snaker you either become scum and disconnect to avoid losing, or you play 4 matches with no tension.
In one hour and a half session I met with a Snaker in 7 out of 8 games. One even had two. Those that refused to snake tended to disconnect when they were losing. Is this what Mario Kart online is becoming? If so I don’t want to be a part of it.
My current record is 110 wins 42 losses and I have snaked very rarely (if I have it's only to keep up with other snakers). I have disconnected once from a game, it had just started and I saw the friend logo. There was a snaker and I decided I'd rather play the friend.
---------------------------------
art update:
A scrap of an idea I wanted to use for my christmas pic on DA is up there.
You’re playing Rainbow Road on Mario Kart DS. The race has been intense, shells have been flying, places interchanging loads of times, it’s the final lap and you’re facing the final bend in first. You heart starts pounding, you begin to panic. One red shell from 2nd place and you could see yourself 4th. One Blue Shell, One Lightning, One Star, One Bullet Bill, One set of Triple Mushrooms for your opponent and it could all be different.
The points are tied; whoever wins this race gets the overall victory. You briefly scan the bottom screen praying that their items won’t effect the current positions. Sweat it starting to form, you start to itch but ignore it. Final Bend and it could go either way as 2nd place has their red shell. They fire, you scream at the screen, “Come on! Faster!”
What’s the result? Who the hell cares? The tension, the passion, the fear. This is what makes Mario Kart great.
So it’s a shame to see a new mentality generally. The must win mentality. The mentality of a Snaker. Now I’m not going to say it doesn’t take a vast amount of skill to master Snaking but you have to admit it takes the fun out of the game. The above scenario rarely happens as the Snaker’s Mentality becomes, “Slide, left, right, left, right, Slide, right, left, right, left, I will win”. The power ups that make Mario Kart unique seem worthless now. There is no tension, no fear, only win or disconnect (another problem Mario Kart DS online suffers from).
I refuse to Snake. Not because I find it difficult but because it ruins the game. Sort of like how camping in an online Deathmatch FPS ruins that. Although waiting at respawn points to take out an opponent requires zero skill as apposed to snaking, you’re still denying yourself the thrill of the hunt for a few cheap frags.
It wouldn’t seem so bad if only a select few did it but now it seems Snaking is becoming the standard. With no way of knowing whether or not you will play a Snaker you either become scum and disconnect to avoid losing, or you play 4 matches with no tension.
In one hour and a half session I met with a Snaker in 7 out of 8 games. One even had two. Those that refused to snake tended to disconnect when they were losing. Is this what Mario Kart online is becoming? If so I don’t want to be a part of it.
My current record is 110 wins 42 losses and I have snaked very rarely (if I have it's only to keep up with other snakers). I have disconnected once from a game, it had just started and I saw the friend logo. There was a snaker and I decided I'd rather play the friend.
---------------------------------
art update:
A scrap of an idea I wanted to use for my christmas pic on DA is up there.
posted by Master hunter at 12:22 pm
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