Mario Kart 8 devs talk balance, two Rainbow Roads included, representing all installments in the franchise
Coming from Nintendo's Hideki Konno...
"Game balance is also another really important element of Mario Kart that we look very closely at and place a lot of value on,. From the time we start working on development, thousands of times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance when we're playing. At the end we come up with what we hope and feel is a really good balance. It's our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them.
We do hear, and a lot of people out there say it, that Mario Kart is all about luck. That if you're at the front then you'll get hit with a blue shell, so it's all about luck. That feature is not random--it doesn't just happen. There is a lot of adjustment and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system, and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. I would hope people understand that as well."
The following comes from director Kosuke Yabuki...
"Rainbow Road of course is a classic course. This time we actually grabbed Rainbow Road N64 version in addition to the current iteration of Rainbow Road. So we hope you look forward to racing on both of those courses. One thing I do want to mention is Rainbow Road, that final course. We really want you to look forward to what we've done to it this time because it's something else. It's really spectacular."
Coming from Konno...
"We really wanted this game to be a representation of all the games that came before it. We wanted to summarize and bring together all the elements of the series into this title. The race courses themselves is one of the most important--if not the most important elements--in the series, so with Mario Kart 8 we really wanted to divide up the things we could do and make sure we're really using them effectively. So we have underwater sessions, we have flying sessions, we have anti-grav sessions, and we use all of these in a way to create really interesting and fun to drive on courses."
Link
"Game balance is also another really important element of Mario Kart that we look very closely at and place a lot of value on,. From the time we start working on development, thousands of times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance when we're playing. At the end we come up with what we hope and feel is a really good balance. It's our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them.
We do hear, and a lot of people out there say it, that Mario Kart is all about luck. That if you're at the front then you'll get hit with a blue shell, so it's all about luck. That feature is not random--it doesn't just happen. There is a lot of adjustment and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system, and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. I would hope people understand that as well."
The following comes from director Kosuke Yabuki...
"Rainbow Road of course is a classic course. This time we actually grabbed Rainbow Road N64 version in addition to the current iteration of Rainbow Road. So we hope you look forward to racing on both of those courses. One thing I do want to mention is Rainbow Road, that final course. We really want you to look forward to what we've done to it this time because it's something else. It's really spectacular."
Coming from Konno...
"We really wanted this game to be a representation of all the games that came before it. We wanted to summarize and bring together all the elements of the series into this title. The race courses themselves is one of the most important--if not the most important elements--in the series, so with Mario Kart 8 we really wanted to divide up the things we could do and make sure we're really using them effectively. So we have underwater sessions, we have flying sessions, we have anti-grav sessions, and we use all of these in a way to create really interesting and fun to drive on courses."
Link
