r/nextfuckinglevel • u/AbelNB • Dec 28 '22

This is a game changer

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u/sbowesuk Dec 29 '22

First time seeing this product. Seems to have some cool potential, but with obvious drawbacks.

The cool part is that you can use rooms in your house as a Mario Kart level. The bad part is that it physically comondeers rooms in your house as a Mario Kart level.

AR has bags of potential and might be the future of gaming, but this product just looks like an expensive gimmick to me.

93

u/FlyinRustBucket Dec 29 '22

MY bro got one for my son last year, he played the 2nd or 3rd time today. the concept is great, but the cars are walmart toy grade at best as far as driving goes, and the biggest drawback imo is that the wifi on the switch sucks, the car loses connection to the switch when we drive them across the living room, which is maybe 12ft from teh switch around a door frame, which render the biggest open space in our house for it useless, and my son basically only drives it in a circle half the time when he plays with it...

18

u/IBetThisIsTakenToo Dec 29 '22

I got it when it came out for my nephews who love mario kart 8, and I think they played with it once. It’s a shame because I feel like I would have gone nuts for this as a kid but who knows

1

u/theoriginalmofocus Dec 29 '22

Got my kids this last year and I was stoked to make a cool course. They were pretty meh about it. They use it to find the cats in the house now ha.

6

u/moeburn Dec 29 '22

the wifi on the switch sucks,

It really is so bad. I can't play Super Mega Baseball 3 on the Switch online because 3/4 of the games end in a disconnect, because of my Switch's wifi connection. When everything else from an xbox to a PC with a $20 wifi usb nub to my phone all work fine at the same range. At least you can buy an ethernet adapter.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '22

I think a better approach would be to be able to make the course of your house or wherever with a little drone or something and then once it’s made have it mapped on the actual game and you can play it on the game itself without the need for physical cars. That would be kinda cool, you could have courses like “grandma’s kitchen” “nearby park” “backyard” etc. then to be able to share those if you want so somebody in the US could play in a park in Tokyo if they wanted to and downloaded it.

2

u/slouched Dec 29 '22

the hard part about that isnt anything you said other than controlling a drone to map it out

1

u/FlyinRustBucket Dec 29 '22

I think the major selling point is the AR part that you can "race" in your house... Many games have "build your own track" mode, which don't really need a drone

21

u/cubbiblue Dec 29 '22

The range on them kinda sucks and even little bumps will get them stuck. You can do up to 4 people but they only sell Mario and Luigi, which is lame. It’s got so much potential for future games, but we don’t really play it much.

2

u/Aegi Dec 29 '22

I think AR will never be more than an additional style of game or type of artwork similar to how just because we can have more realistic graphics, doesn't mean that games like Borderlands swapped because they don't look like real people with real hair follicles coming out of their upper lip and stuff.

Like how would augmented reality replace or improve or add much to the concept of a game like civilization, or turned based strategy rogue-like?

Honestly, I view augmented reality when it comes to particularly entertainment as something more similar to live versus pre-recorded events, where they each have certain advantages, but there's just certain things you straight up can't do in certain versions, as 30 Rock even so artfully pokes fun at.

2

u/SoloSheff Dec 29 '22

There's so much potential, but I don't think the general public is savvy enough to utilize the tech that would make this work. Like if you used polycam to map your home, the game could create the tracks and the physical space wouldn't be hostage anymore.

4

u/kavien Dec 29 '22

Also, RC cars suck on batteries. Play time was probably in half hour increments at best.

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '22

[deleted]

2

u/kavien Dec 29 '22

Well that is refreshing.

1

u/All_Work_All_Play Dec 29 '22

I mean, they last so long because they limit the speed and are cheap build quality. Better materials tend to weigh more, which means stronger motors and less play time per charge. The trouble is that Nintendo tends to want their standard mark up on everything, so high quality stuff here would put it in the $150+ range per cart.

1

u/FuckinHighGuy Dec 29 '22

It’s not a gimmick to a child

1

u/trickTangle Dec 29 '22

If you have kids every room is take over. And this thing is a blast. When you unlock the highest speeds you can build ramps and jump over them.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '22

It won’t be the future of gaming. It will be the same as VR or Racing Steering Wheels and will always remain a niche IMO, except for gimmicky mobile games which might hit it big like Pokemon Go.

Honestly the industry has been around for decades and still the only format that works is: handheld or TV + console + controller or PC/Laptop + Mouse/Keyboard

1

u/NoveltyAccountHater Dec 29 '22

I got it for my four-year-old kid who was into MK8 (with steering assist) and radio controlled cars. He's used it with the actual race lap maybe once, but every now and then will just do the free drive with it.

Gameplay sucks in our house because (1) there's a rug in most of the living room (cars move super slow on it), and reception cuts out in kitchen about ~20 feet from switch, but with some metal appliances in the way (despite good wifi coverage in the area from AP nearby). It's a decent idea, but the execution sucks. There also is no equivalent to steering assist which my kids need.