Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge - General Discussion

[Brian G.]

Just a FWIW:

GSATs are allegedly positive but could be better.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

And my own FWIW: I don't think it's bad a ride. I actually think -- for what it's trying to accomplish -- it's a pretty dang good one. I just don't think it was the right idea for a headlining e-ticket.

I have fun on Mario Kart, but I've always wished one of two things: that it was closer to something like Radiator Springs Racers, or it was just a straight up dark ride.

 

[BriefCasey]

At least Mario Kart provides a unique experience that can only be found at a theme park. Rides like Mania and Web-Slingers just have you sitting in a stationary spot while staring at a screen for the majority of the ride time. There's not much that really justifies it being an attraction. If I really want to play Toy Story Mania, I can just boot up the version I have of it for the Wii, which is a very faithful recreation of what you experience on the ride.

I didn't know the Wii Game was that faithful, makes me wish I got it back then, but at least there's Homebrew and "knowing where in the seas to sail".

Toy Story literally has multiple secrets and many of which change the game bored for MK its always the same game and even when you do something like hit all the skull fish it doesn't add more enemies or something new to the next room.....same if you beat the Volcano bowser

I'd just like it where each room had some you could unlock at least....and the hidden blocks are fine but not really game changing

I just don't think much hidden stuff (other than AR differences when triggered like you mentioned) can be done in Mario Kart because of how they're designed differently. In Toy Story you're going from screen to screen, which I'd imagine makes it easy to implement that stuff, where in Mario Kart you're moving through physical sets.

The ammo is WAY too limited and there’s lots of dead parts on the ride like during the underwater and cloud sections where I know people don’t have ammo or are just saving shells.

The limited ammo, I can understand and I hope that can be fixed in the future. I actually don't mind the quieter parts though, they probably made it so it's a bit easier to take in the set design and a place to fire shells if you have any.

I have fun on Mario Kart, but I've always wished one of two things: that it was closer to something like Radiator Springs Racers, or it was just a straight up dark ride.

I'll admit that I was mildly bummed out when word slipped through the cracks that it wasn't fast long before the land opened in Hollywood, but I think it's much easier to appreciate the ride as its own thing when you're not trying to compare it to RSR, especially when you consider that if it was fast like RSR, then items would have most likely been sacrificed. I get that's where it raises the question if a traditional dark ride would have been better, but it's hard for me to say; I know people that like interactivity over everything being sitting and watching. Given how the series has been a video game, maybe that's why they chose interactivity.

 

[Jake S]

Yeah, I can absolutely see why they chose to go the direction they did and also readily acknowledge I don't enjoy the ride very much. The game is not fun (imo, of course) and the game, particularly the AR aspect of it, really detracts from its enjoyability as a dark ride. It also doesn't stand on its own as a dark ride if you take off the headset (obviously, it wasn't designed to!)

I'm happy for those that enjoy this, but I've done it a few times in Hollywood and that was enough for me to skip it (and its long queue) in Japan. That will probably be the case at Epic Universe, too. C'est la vie!