brownbear

Article: The Parable of the Upside Down Question Mark: https://illiteracyhasdownsides.com/2017/06/08/the-parable-of-the-upside-down-question-mark/ …

Interesting article. I think you didn't address the major reason why people feel the fuzz factor is larger though: players behind get (1/2)

better items than players further ahead. Things like thunder bolts at the right time can substantially influence a race's result. (2/2)

Wario's Stadium comes to mind from n64. There's a jump if you miss you go back ~40% the track. An unavoidable thunder bolt stops you there.

Haven't played Mario Kart 8 though so can't say much on the comparison. Just that the item adv & rubber banding are cited as reason for RNG.

That makes sense. There are definitely some powerful item interactions in MK64, and they are driven by RNG. 1/

However, I don't think they're that important. Over the long-run, everyone is negatively affected. I think the reason they feel important 2/

is because they're the main differentiator between players, since the skill ceiling is low in MK64. In MK8, the skill spectrum is much 3/