[SPOILERS] just 101%ed the game. here are my impressions and some bugs I found.
yes, 101%. I got 100% when I beat 140/168 staff ghosts. idk what the deal is there. it took me about 32 hours, but I spent at least two to three hours of that in online, single races and improving time trials that I'd already beaten the staff ghost for (only did this for a few tracks).
you don't need all stickers, mods or achievements for 100% btw.
EDIT: nevermind, mods count. sitting at 102% now lol
impressions:
- stats seem fairly balanced in terms of how useful they are. it's very useful being able to pick which stats you want for each track, but I can't help but feel that handling above 3 is more or less useless (you can evade swarms with 1 handling easily enough). luckily each character gets at least one mod that reduces handling by a fair amount, so that's not really an issue. as a result, character balance is pretty good.
- tracks are amazing to look at and drive on... until you start time trialling, when all the little physics glitches and small design flaws in the tracks become alarmingly apparent. in most gameplay these things are irrelevant (they only really crop up on expert speed, i.e. time trials). I'll have a full list below, but the most glaring things are physics glitches where you get stuck inside something then go flying backwards at warp speed, some problems with cornering midair with the boat (hint: you can't) and so on.
- online is good but has a few flaws in the netcode that I hear are being worked on. I've been disconnected quite a few times and I've seen people who literally can't finish a race because of how much they get disconnected. also, running into someone driving slower than you and getting sent flying into a wall on the opposite side of the everything isn't particularly fun. that aside, the hit detection is excellent otherwise and there is a good amount of time between races.
- the difficulty is pretty much what I was wanting (i.e. expert is actually hard). the problem is, I'm not sure if it's what most people would want. especially since some of the best mods in the game for time trial require you to get deep into expert mode world tour. long story short, the people who beat expert mode will be probably the top 0.5% of players in this game.
- level 3 boosts are godly. and I'm not even kidding: as I'll explain below, if you use a level 3 boost/trick/boost item then just coast without boosting any more, you'll have so much speed that hitting a speed pad slows you down. there are other side-effects of this as well, but if you want to see the effect for yourself, go time trial Samba Studios, use your boost just before the start line on the second lap then hit the speed pads, then on the next lap don't hit them and watch how much faster you go compared to your ghost.
- all stars should not be available above 4th. ever. why you can get them in 2nd is completely beyond me. the number of times I have cheesed with and have been cheesed by 2nd place all stars is ridiculous, both online and off. I just raced a perfect second lap (it was like 30.5 with Beat/Console and a Hot Rod) on OVm online a few minutes ago and got hit once in the entire race but the guy in 2nd got an all star so he finished four seconds ahead.
ADDED: just got an all star in 2nd, first lap, barely a second behind 1st place in GP mode. ??????
- mirror TT seems kinda pointless, might have been better if it was a different part of each track (lap 3 of OV, lap 1 of BD, etc)
- it takes an extremely long time to respot on a lot of tracks. like, 10+ seconds of falling into nothingness sometimes. this seems excessive...
bugs:
- reala cannot get turbos on the first section of RoA. you can charge them for like two seconds then they fizzle as though you hit something. I suspect this is because of the 'magnetic' floor.
- as stated above, if you do a level 2, 3 or 4 boost (i.e. get all these levels simultaneously), you will not decelerate as you would if you got them incrementally. you still decelerate, but doing any boost of a lower level after the entire higher-level boost has worn off will slow you down.
reproduction:
1) Samba Studios time trial
2) do one lap, make sure it's slow and does not set a particularly fast PB, don't use your boost item.
3) end of first lap, use your boost across the finish line. drift around the first corner while taking the speed pads. make sure you get a PB so the ghost is saved.
4) at the end of the second lap (or whatever lap is most convenient), use your boost over the start line again.
5) this time don't hit any speed pads.
result: you should gain about 0.5-0.6 seconds on your ghost.
- there are super pickup boxes in Egg Hangar and Chilly Castle in time trial. there are also All Star coins in Egg Hangar time trial. the super pickup in Chilly Castle is pretty much unreachable though.
- a number of tracks have problems with physics collision where you can end up inside something, at which point you will spin around very rapidly then fly backwards, sideways or whatever direction the game feels like sending you.
reproduction:
1) Samba Studios time trial
2) the wooden ramps do it to me like one in ten times I hit them on expert speed so it'll happen eventually if you keep hitting those things
full list:
- Samba Studios wooden ramps
- Adder's Lair snake mouths (toward the end of the track)
- Dream Valley rocks
- Chilly Castle cavern entrance
- various parts of Graffiti City
- some others that I'm forgetting, I'll keep this up to date
- the barrels on lap 3 of graveyard gig can be blocked with a glove, but the glove doesn't get used up when it blocks one.
ADDED: same deal with the asteroids on galactic parade
- boat handling seems to be locked awkwardly when you are drifting or cornering and you get air. I'm fine with the concept, but it feels as though it locks in the opposite direction to what it should.
- if you drift, transform and stunt-fail, you will be locked on whatever line you were on until you stop drifting. easiest repro level is Tumbling Temple.
- I just earned the "beat someone 500 pts higher than you" sticker. the thing is, I was the highest rating at the room at 1685. >.>
- items, most notably the swarm, cannot travel through portals. the swarm definitely needs to be able to travel through portals.
- online: sometimes a race will end and everyone will have a time of 0:01.00. placements are distributed randomly and this is a client-side issue. not sure how to reproduce, it just happens sometimes.
- online: on the other end of the scale, I just finished a race of roulette road and it gave me a time of 37000 minutes. again, not sure how it happened exactly.
- online: aesthetic only, but "lap 2" keeps showing up after I finish a race for some reason. again, not sure how to reproduce.
I'll keep this up to date as much as I can. I'll leave the respot glitches and shortcuts to Mils.
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Originally Posted by The Cunning Condor
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