Something strange happened the first time I played Mario Kart 8 online. I had finally convinced my friend Francis to get a Wii U. Once his console arrived, we decided to take Mario Kartâs online multiplayer out for a spin.
Things were going swimmingly, at first. He created a room for me to join, and the two of us debated which racers, vehicles, and tracks to go with. I was able to talk to each other simply by using the Wii Uâs GamePad. Iâd say something with the large tablet-sized controller on my lap, and hear his voice trail out from the speakers on my TV. It felt natural and futuristic at the same time. As we were going through the motions, we both flexed our respective Mario Kart muscles with taunts about how weâd crush one another once the race got started. Verses from rap songs were quoted. It was silly. It was fun.
Then, the race started. And suddenly both our voices cut out. There wasnât silence, exactlyâthe rest of the voices in Mario Kart 8âs chorus still rang strong. But it felt like silence, coming after several minutes of playful posturing.
What the hell was that? Francis asked once we returned to the virtual waiting room our Miis sat patiently in between races. But first, I had some far less polite things to say about the way that he had smacked me with a red shell right when I was about to pass the finish line. We tried another race, but had to stop playing because of some problem with the connection.
âLetâs try later, possibly with Skype,â Francis texted me. Then, a minute later: âNot being able to talk trash is NOT next-gen.â
I chuckled and didnât think much of it. Nintendo made it clear before the game came out that youâd only be able to chat online with friends in Mario Kart 8âs lobby area, so I didnât expect much. But as Iâve sunk more time into the gameâs online multiplayer, this dynamic has started to feel weirder in turn.
Like many other stellar Nintendo games, I started playing Mario Kart 8 with friends sitting right beside me. Thereâs always a lot of screaming in joy and indignation throughout a race when I play the game this way. We grit our teeth and curse at one another, but we also recognize that weâre getting into heated arguments over a bunch of cartoonish characters chucking brightly-colored turtle shells at one another. Itâs a big part of what makes Mario Kart so much fun.
Nothing about the core gameplay changes when you go online with Mario Kart 8. But this human element is strangely muted. If you step into the general Nintendo Network (either regionally or globally), the only interactions you can really have with other players outside of the actual racing, shell-throwing, and horn-honking is a series of dialogue prompts that are available in the lobby between levels. The Miis can say things like âIâll give it my best shot!â and âIâm using tilt controls!â to one another. If youâre feeling feisty, the most aggressive response available is to ask to race againâwhich youâre presumably planning to do already if youâre waiting in a lobby anyway.
Iâm usually terrified of facing seasoned gamers online, let alone ones whoâve developed a swagger to match their experience level. So I understand why it works this way if youâre going against any other Mario Kart player online. But does it have to be the same when Iâm playing with friends? Arenât features like in-game chat meant to serve as stand-ins for those times when you canât gather everyone together under one roof to play?
For a while after Mario Kart came out in late May, I thought Francis and I might be the only ones who were frustrated about this. Plus, itâs not like we had many chances to sow any seeds of dissent across the Miiverse. Then yesterday, I came across a thread on Reddit full of Mario Kart 8 players who sounded similarly confused.
Much like me, the player who started the thread came to the Wii U from a background in PC gaming and was feeling confused by the sudden lack of options as a result.
âMore than half the reason to use voice chat is when you are in mid game,â Reddit user Scurro wrote. âAnyways we had to resort to downloading skype on our phones and just using that for voice chat. Is there a better way?â
Many of the gamers in the thread jumped in with their own jerry-rigged solutions. Others used it as an opportunity to blast Nintendo for a number of things. Some saw the lack of mid-race chat as an âoversightâ or an arbitrary, unsuccessful attempt to keep the game kid-friendly.
âDefinitely not an oversight,â one person argued. âI think theyâre aware that people (like me) are screaming âFUCK YOUR RED SHELLS, THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!â every lap. Good awareness, Nintendo.â
Others suggested it was a symptom of the companyâs overall deficiencies when it comes to online multiplayer.
âOnline is where Nintendo really lacks, you canât even join worldwide with your friends in a lobby,â one person wrote.
âThereâs a workaround for that: Have one friend join a worldwide, regional, or tournament game. Then everyone join that friend from the friends page,â another player responded. âNot exactly convenient, but it works. No chat option though. We just use Google hangouts on our phones.â
I donât want to assume that all these players are concocting clever mechanisms just to be able to trash-talk one another when playing Mario Kart 8 the same way Francis and I do. But regardless of what they want to say, the fact that theyâre resorting to Skype and Google Hangouts is a sign that they want to say something to each other while scooting along Rainbow Road.
I hope that Nintendo finds a way to let all of us Mario Kart fans do that.
To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq
