Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge - General Discussion

[Freak]

Would it kill them to make the spinning just a little faster and the drifting just a hair snappier?

 

[SpatulaShack]

Would it kill them to make the spinning just a little faster and the drifting just a hair snappier?

Considering the restraints there is no reason they couldn't do this other than the AR integration getting progressively more difficult to pull-off the more rapid the movement is. Something tells me the intention was to have a more aggressive ride profile but they ran into AR tracking issues and had to tone it all down. This thing spins slower than Cat in the Hat after they neutered that ride profile into oblivion years ago. And not to go on a tangent but Cat in the Hat went from a pretty fun chaotic dark ride to a sad couch ride through a warehouse after those changes were made.

 

[Freak]

Considering the restraints there is no reason they couldn't do this other than the AR integration getting progressively more difficult to pull-off the more rapid the movement is. Something tells me the intention was to have a more aggressive ride profile but they ran into AR tracking issues and had to tone it all down. This thing spins slower than Cat in the Hat after they neutered that ride profile into oblivion years ago. And not to go on a tangent but Cat in the Hat went from a pretty fun chaotic dark ride to a sad couch ride through a warehouse after those changes were made.

I can't imagine it would hinder the AR integration. If it was, then I would imagine that would have been an issue if you were turning your head. They really should jazz up the rotation a little bit, especially considering Cat in the Hat is more intense.

 

[shiekra38]

I mean, even the Mickey & Minnie ride has a more dynamic movement profile than this…correct me if I’m wrong but that doesn’t have a height requirement either.

M&M doesn't have magnetic AR goggles, so maybe that has something to do with it :shrug:

Something else to factor in is Nintendo is highly specific with what they do, so perhaps this is more a representation of what they want Mario Kart to be in physical form

I do know they filed patents for a much different projection mapped attraction

Something else I thought about would be perhaps with the amount of cars running and the caliber of interactivity, perhaps we are not "there" with the computational speed needed to keep up with something like a Test Track or whatever

Not to mention showbuilding parameters and satisfying ride length

 

[OrlandoGuy]

M&M doesn't have magnetic AR goggles, so maybe that has something to do with it :shrug:

Wouldn’t magnetic goggles be more secure than regular 3-D glasses? You know, those things that people wear on Spider-Man, Transformers, Gringotts, Fallon, etc. everyday with no issues?

As far as tracking issues, I’d imagine you could still have a pretty solid ride experience by just adjusting the AR visuals during the more dynamic parts of the ride. The outside is detailed enough that it’s not like the AR is absolutely necessary to sell the illusion.

In any case, the idea that the choices were either a high speed roller coaster OR what we got is a fallacy. There were plenty of in-between options and just because Nintendo may have signed off on it doesn’t make it a better ride from a guest perspective.

 

[shiekra38]

Wouldn’t magnetic goggles be more secure than regular 3-D glasses? You know, those things that people wear on Spider-Man, Transformers, Gringotts, Fallon, etc. everyday with no issues?

As far as tracking issues, I’d imagine you could still have a pretty solid ride experience by just adjusting the AR visuals during the more dynamic parts of the ride. The outside is detailed enough that it’s not like the AR is absolutely necessary to sell the illusion.

In any case, the idea that the choices were either a high speed roller coaster OR what we got is a fallacy. There were plenty of in-between options and just because Nintendo may have signed off on it doesn’t make it a better ride from a guest perspective.

There is a Dinosaur or Indiana Jones type of attraction that creates some illusion of speed,

But a lot of those utilize darkness to create the illusion so that could have been an option

Right or wrong they chose to pull back on many things they've been called out for ad-nauseum at this point like screens and motion

To me this is a ride I'd want to take my grandparents on as a kid, maybe that's ultimately what the point was with the way turned out

 

[SpatulaShack]

I can't imagine it would hinder the AR integration. If it was, then I would imagine that would have been an issue if you were turning your head. They really should jazz up the rotation a little bit, especially considering Cat in the Hat is more intense.

That's a great point actually! In that case I'm at a loss. I even would understand if they wanted to limit full-rotation spins in their a quest to avoid nausea (which itself is a fools errand in my opinion) but there is no reason the drifts couldn't at least have more "oomph." The ride system seems like a complete waste at this point. They may as well be using the SLOP ride system.

 

[Nick]

I can't imagine it would hinder the AR integration. If it was, then I would imagine that would have been an issue if you were turning your head. They really should jazz up the rotation a little bit, especially considering Cat in the Hat is more intense.

I think fast/more motion may blur the AR image quality more and it would also cause A LOT more motion sickness.

I haven't been on this ride yet and i'm also not too much into AR as as much as I am VR, but I don't get motion sick on any of Universal's rides yet in VR, it does happen to me from time to time in certain games (some VR games can really throw you out of wack because it's sort of an out of body experience), so I imagine with something like this in AR if they pushed it more, the motion sickness would be more intense.

I do agree that it's odd that i'm hearing there's no simulated speed. Example: wind effects blowing against you to make you feel as though you're going fast during an in-ride portion where you "go fast". Maybe that is in the ride but I thought I saw someone post the opposite.

 

[salismetho]

They do simulated speed in the Rainbow Road portion with wind blowing on you, I kinda wish they did that in more sections

 

[ParkExplorer9513]

There actually is a wind effect after

Spoiler

Lakitu gives the "GO!", and it lasts up until the gates close and you turn to the Bowser statues.

Though I don't think I felt it in the

Spoiler

cloud area where those cloud enemies were blowing.

 

[Jerroddragon]

SO i went on the ride 4 times today

Might not be for everyone....but I love it

Getting a high score is fun when you get how the game works and the ride is just so much fun even without the glasses.

My two cents is this is a great ride, its not my favorite ride but man do i adore the Q and ride

 

[quinnmac000]

Another thing I want to point out is this....we keep saying oh why less spin and speed and its was toned down for children. But this ride is ported from Japan where 30% of the country is over 60 years old. Older guests are still customers at that park with the CEO of Nintendo being in that range. Riding rides when you are young are a lot different than riding the same rides in your 60, 70, and 80s. Just a thought that hit me today reading the comments.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

A friend is going soon (if it’s open) when they’re in LA. What is your best tip for high scores? Idk if this is too spoilery if not. They’re a super gamer who do tournaments and such and they want to WIN the land lol

 

[Jerroddragon]

A friend is going soon (if it’s open) when they’re in LA. What is your best tip for high scores? Idk if this is too spoilery if not. They’re a super gamer who do tournaments and such and they want to WIN the land lol

Don’t spam your shells, only use them when you have a clear shot
There is a hidden block in each room/level
Aim at the skeleton fish (in the water area) if you destroy the first wave more come out
In the Luigi mansion part aim at pictures/painting on the wall before the next area to unlock hidden enemies to defeat
When you get to bowser volcano spam it until he is defeated
When you get to rainbow road spam the bowsers kids without fear because Mario and friends don’t appear until bowser appears later in the area
You get 3 coins for every correct turn you make odd easy money, you get around 50ish coins just from sterring
Lastly you get zero points for hitting Mario and friends and there is a stamp worth 100 coins for not hitting any team Mario characters

Hope you guys have fun and the first time can be overwhelming, I didn’t even get 100 coins my first ride.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Don’t spam your shells, only use them when you have a clear shot
There is a hidden block in each room/level
Aim at the skeleton fish (in the water area) if you destroy the first wave more come out
In the Luigi mansion part aim at pictures/painting on the wall before the next area to unlock hidden enemies to defeat
When you get to bowser volcano spam it until he is defeated
When you get to rainbow road spam the bowsers kids without fear because Mario and friends don’t appear until bowser appears later in the area
You get 3 coins for every correct turn you make odd easy money, you get around 50ish coins just from sterring
Lastly you get zero points for hitting Mario and friends and there is a stamp worth 100 coins for not hitting any team Mario characters

Hope you guys have fun and the first time can be overwhelming, I didn’t even get 100 coins my first ride.

Thank you! I’m barely reading since I haven’t ridden but I copied and paste and sent to him.

I am unfortunately not going but we discussed the other day they have a trip next week and will be in town for work the following month too, so they plan to check it out. I warned crowds will be insane. They go to Disney around Christmas so… they’ll be fine lol

 

[Ron101]

Something I noticed while riding later in day is the amount of fingerprints and smudges that accumulate on the AR visors, sort of hindering your view of the ride and quality of the AR. Not sure of a good fix for this other than wiping them down 2 or 3 times a day.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

Something I noticed while riding later in day is the amount of fingerprints and smudges that accumulate on the AR visors, sort of hindering your view of the ride and quality of the AR. Not sure of a good fix for this other than wiping them down 2 or 3 times a day.

I decided I'm not going to even bother wearing them in the future. Personally speaking, I find the AR disorienting and the gamification tedious. There's a really excellent dark ride hidden beneath all that stuff and I prefer experiencing it that way (even if aspects of it are incomplete when you're going without the AR). Plus, I don't have to think about where those goggles have been.

 

[Stryker]

If you had Jan 29 previews and weren't able to make it out today, you definitely missed out. Never seen the land so empty before. MK never really had a line. I got 19 rides in (Yes, I kept count). This includes 10 consecutive rides without ever getting out of the RV (basically sat in the RV for an hour) and another 5 consecutive rides without getting off. That's how dead it was. Eventually, they just skipped the pre-shows for standby queue and stopped checking wristband colors. I rode til after 5 pm even though I had the 12-2pm slot. They weren't checking the colored wristbands since it was so dead.

 

[baconwhiskers]

A friend is going soon (if it’s open) when they’re in LA. What is your best tip for high scores? Idk if this is too spoilery if not. They’re a super gamer who do tournaments and such and they want to WIN the land lol

Getting all the secret blocks in one ride does not give you any bonus for doing so. Only go for the low effort ones.

 

[BriefCasey]

If you had Jan 29 previews and weren't able to make it out today, you definitely missed out. Never seen the land so empty before. MK never really had a line. I got 19 rides in (Yes, I kept count). This includes 10 consecutive rides without ever getting out of the RV (basically sat in the RV for an hour) and another 5 consecutive rides without getting off. That's how dead it was. Eventually, they just skipped the pre-shows for standby queue and stopped checking wristband colors. I rode til after 5 pm even though I had the 12-2pm slot. They weren't checking the colored wristbands since it was so dead.

It pretty much had a 20 minute wait posted but was a walk-on all day. I think they stopped checking colors as early as noon, as they still let me on even after it was past noon. And yeah, they were indeed letting you go again with how much of a walk-on it was. Spent all those re-rides achievement hunting and I now have all the Mario Kart stamps, which is nuts.

It's probably going to be a long as hell time before we can probably get something like that again so I'm really glad I took advantage of that.

I also managed to get a score of 226 and made the top ten of the leaderboard, which was really nice. In the process and also hearing from another guest who also got a high score, I learned some additional tips if you're also shooting for high scores as well in the future.

Spoiler: Three Scoring Tips and an Achievement Tip

• When you get a drift, hold the drift until the next one or you hear a longer coin sound. This should be easy to pick up on if you've played Mario Kart 8 before. I think you get like 5 coins each on the first ones for example.
• Try and land three hits on one of the Koopalings whenever they appear, this will cause them to spin out and you get a coin bonus for doing it.
• As mentioned above, Rainbow Road's your best shot to fire away at the Koopalings, but if you're going for the zero hits on Team Mario achievement, I'd also be careful once it reaches the part where Team Mario comes in. That being said, be really careful with your shots if you're going for that achievement in general, as if you miss, a shell could ricochet and hit a Team Mario character and I think I missed the achievement because of it a few times. It'd also be good to know when Team Mario characters show up, as I kept accidentally hitting Yoshi on the right Kart path (right before the Dolphin Shoals/Water section) a couple of times because he moves in front of you after two Koopalings come into view. That said, I think I had an easier time with the left path.

As a couple of side notes, one time Team Bowser won despite how I had 160-ish coins and was the only one in the RV. Wonder if it's a bug or I didn't shoot him enough in the final section. I think it's the former. Also, I think I've picked up on if you get 150 coins or more (at least that's how it was when I was on my own, so maybe the average needs to be that with multiple people), there's a slight change to the Team Mario ending: Rather than Mario being on the podium, a giant version of the Universal Cup trophy is there instead, which is interesting.