Mario Kart designers had to rethink everything to make it open world

Post by const_cast » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 3:46 AM UTC

eochaid wrote: post #62

bee_rider wrote: post #6

I wonder if it will be fun. The open world Zelda game kinda made sense to me because those games have always been pretty open. You could always wander around. When I was a kid, I played Ocarina of Time as an open world game, I just wandered around and made up the NPC interactions in my head. And the 2D entries in the series had pretty big worlds. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if the trick can repeat outside tha…

It's really hard to say exactly how this will land with fans. The article mentions using kishōtenketsu in the game design of the Grand Prix mode, "now players have to drive to their next race, instead of being automatically transported", and the wiki page for kishōtenketsu mentions use of that concept in game design of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World, both well received with 97 and 93 Metacritic scores re…

Post by seba_dos1 » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 6:41 AM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #57

thmsths wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand this, but the economics of software in general is that you have high upfront costs and then the marginal costs are minimal. Better tooling has helped keep these upfront costs from growing too much (developing a game in 2025 is MUCH easier than in 2005), the distribution costs have shrunk too and the size of the market has exploded. Given these is it really unreasonable for consumers to expect the prices…

> developing a game in 2025 is MUCH easier than in 2005 Developing a game is also a lot more expensive in 2025.

Post by mcphage » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 12:48 PM UTC

DistractionRect wrote: post #56

bee_rider wrote: post #6

I wonder if it will be fun. The open world Zelda game kinda made sense to me because those games have always been pretty open. You could always wander around. When I was a kid, I played Ocarina of Time as an open world game, I just wandered around and made up the NPC interactions in my head. And the 2D entries in the series had pretty big worlds. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if the trick can repeat outside tha…

Yeah, it doesn't really elaborate on why openworld might be more fun than standard tracks/cups. Sure, I can drive around in it and look at it, but what makes than fun? This article basically tells us large scale level design takes a lot of effort, but no more. Zelda makes sense to a degree, but IMO they lost the plot on what made Zelda games interesting. Old Zelda games were kinda open, but had (mostly) fixed sequenc…

Post by mcphage » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 12:56 PM UTC

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #4

thr0waway001 wrote: post #2

Looks cool! Will wait for a new Zelda game before diving into getting a Switch 2.

I feel like this is the sentiment I hear from most friends. But then the preorders sell out every time. I’m confused who is buying all these switches, but perhaps my local network isn’t a representative sample.

Post by MajimasEyepatch » Wed, Jun 04, 2025, 10:40 PM UTC

os2warpman wrote: post #81

MajimasEyepatch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you feel that way in 2005 when the Xbox 360 was released and $60 was the new standard? Because $60 in 2005 has the same buying power as $97.41 today. This game, in real terms, is cheaper than Xbox 360 games were.

The 1993 version of Doom was $40 plus shipping and handling. Let's ignore the shipping and handling. That's $90 today. I don't play very many video games anymore though I did play the hell out of Doom 30 years ago. What I have noticed, as an outside observer looking in, about people who play video games today is that they seem to be among the most entitled people on the planet who love bitching about everything.