There has been a love-hate relationship with the ability to snake (no, not him) in Mario Kart. For those unfamiliar with the (in)famous technique, it involves using the drift-boosting over and over again, causing a snake-like movement pattern across the tracks. It has been in the game since Mario Kart 64.
It appears that might have changed with the upcoming Mario Kart Wii. Go Nintendo reports on a passage from the Official Nintendo Magazine UK's review of the game, where it says, "[Snaking] has finally been scrapped, and now your speed boost is determined by how long you can hold the slide." IGN has also corroborated the lack of snaking with their build, although to us that sounds like racers will simply find a way to slide through the entire course as we did in back in the Super Nintendo Mario Kart.
Reader Comments (68)
Posted: Mar 18th 2008 11:16AM (Unverified) said
Agreed. Because if I can't win at a video game there's just no reason to even play it.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 12:56PM (Unverified) said
Hey, it's not about the winning. Snaking was something which broke the balance of the game, simple as that. The best player should win, not the player who knows that repetitiously doing a power slide is an automatic victory.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:24PM Dopple Boppler said
The thing I don't understand is that snaking made the game such a hassle to play and yet people still did it. When people were beating me left and right online in the DS game I learned how to do it, and I pretty much won every match from then on (my record to this day is like, 1,000 wins and 40 losses), but it made the game a lot less fun to play. I mean, at least don't snake when no one else is doing it; anyone who gets any kind of satisfaction from doing that every single match shouldn't be playing games in the first place.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:33PM (Unverified) said
As stated above,snakers basically ruined the DS version of the game.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:34PM (Unverified) said
And wave dashing, and Lcanceling. Opps wrong game.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 1:03PM (Unverified) said
Wavedashing, perhaps. L-canceling, however? Hell no.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:39PM (Unverified) said
I had mario kart for the DS (Until my ds and all of my games were stolen), and it was fun, but I now realize why I lost almost every online matcdh.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:42PM (Unverified) said
Awesome, another game besides Smash Bros. to beat Fernando in! :)
Seriously, though, old news. Why is this making rounds now? It was already confirmed long ago that the analog flicking-style boost was scrapped in favor of a timed boost system.
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Seriously, though, old news. Why is this making rounds now? It was already confirmed long ago that the analog flicking-style boost was scrapped in favor of a timed boost system.
Posted: Mar 18th 2008 2:48AM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said
Hey, FoK. Add my Brawl code? Alright?
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 8:55PM NO DOUBT GET LOUD said
Snaking isnt cheating. If it was, then why is it in the game? Its just a skill like L-cancelling or wavedashing.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 9:00PM (Unverified) said
True, isn't really cheating, is more like exploiting a game feature.
So it's a great thing that it has been removed altogether.
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So it's a great thing that it has been removed altogether.
Posted: Mar 17th 2008 9:03PM (Unverified) said
It's not a cheat like you said, but it is however not the way it is intended to be played.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 9:21PM (Unverified) said
which depending on who you speak to means it is cheating...
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 1:23AM (Unverified) said
Like camping outside a respawn point in Tf2,is not cheating but is annoying. (It never bother me tho')
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 10:16PM (Unverified) said
Exactly. I do not remember any snaking in 64, especially to the level of DS. 64's boosting was also determined on how long you could hold your slide.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 10:53PM (Unverified) said
Snaking's been around since the original MK on the SNES. It was definitely in 64 as well.
Just because your buddies never figured it out doesn't remove it from the game. ;)
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Just because your buddies never figured it out doesn't remove it from the game. ;)
Posted: Mar 18th 2008 1:30AM MisterSquared said
If you feverishly flicked your analog stick whilst in a slide in MK64, the white letters emanating would change from white, to yellow, to orange. Then on orange you could release and get a boost.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 5:11AM (Unverified) said
When drifting in the 64 version you just had to flick the stick to the outside of the corner (not feverishly) twice to get a boost.
Man I wish that game were online.
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Man I wish that game were online.
Posted: Mar 17th 2008 9:58PM mr nimblewick said
When I used to play mario kart ds online, I went by the name snake=d/c. Of course, I stopped playing the game altogether after a few instances of losing by 2 laps against snakers. This is great news.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 10:22PM (Unverified) said
Sad fact of the matter is that if something is possible to do in a game, legit or not, people will use it.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 11:07PM (Unverified) said
Thank God! Those cheating fuckheads can go to hell.
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Posted: Mar 17th 2008 11:15PM KentuckyFrydCow28 said
As a serious snaker, I have to say that hackers ruined the DS game for me.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 12:47AM waynski1457 said
damn beat me to it.
but seriously, i loved snaking... when used how the developers intended. snaking an entire race was crazy, but i for one will not decry the skill to do so. snakers were just playing the game using what was there. but try playing MKDS online now... its all action replay whores...
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but seriously, i loved snaking... when used how the developers intended. snaking an entire race was crazy, but i for one will not decry the skill to do so. snakers were just playing the game using what was there. but try playing MKDS online now... its all action replay whores...
Posted: Mar 17th 2008 11:31PM (Unverified) said
Even if you don't think snaking is cheating (it's an exploitation, and a big problem, but not cheating) you have to admit it turned a game about cartoon characters racing with tame weaponry into a chore. A game shouldn't feel like work, and if it does, the game fails.
Good riddance to snaking.
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Good riddance to snaking.
Posted: Mar 20th 2008 5:47PM (Unverified) said
What are you saying ? It's like people who win in Street Fighter or Mortal Combat by just sweeping the legs continuously... Learn to defend against it and that'll stop your rampant crying. Remember... What makes people who master a skill dangerous is the fact that they also learned how to counter it. Learn the game full circle and not half ass and then you'll stop begging the makers to make an easier version for you to win. Peace.
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Posted: Mar 21st 2008 3:25AM (Unverified) said
Who's complaining that I kept losing? I can snake, I can win by snaking. Doing so makes for an unfun game, so I stopped playing online. I don't beat my head against a wall, it was poor game design (or play-testing) that made Mario Kart DS a chore. A game that isn't fun is a bad game, and snaking isn't fun and isn't skill.
Hence, good riddance to snaking.
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Hence, good riddance to snaking.
Posted: Mar 18th 2008 12:49AM ae86takumi said
Finally!!! In Mario Kart DS I would see that these people snaking the whole race., but when it came Rainbow Road.. I left them in the dust... Snaking is a total joke to compensate for a lack of skill. Now Mario Kart is back to basics again.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 1:21AM (Unverified) said
goood job Nintendonald's! dumb down the game even further for your precious casual audience.
here's a solution: offer both modes online: a "snaking" mode and a "normal" mode? hows that for solving the "problem"? way to piss off all the pro-snakers. they might not even buy the game because of this.
Nintendonald's: dumbing down gameplay since November 2004!
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here's a solution: offer both modes online: a "snaking" mode and a "normal" mode? hows that for solving the "problem"? way to piss off all the pro-snakers. they might not even buy the game because of this.
Nintendonald's: dumbing down gameplay since November 2004!
Posted: Mar 18th 2008 2:42AM (Unverified) said
If they have a snaking mode and a non-snaking mode even the snakers won't play the snaking mode since the only reason they do it is to slaughter the 95% of people who don't want to snake. They don't want to have races against a bunch of other snakers, since that's a level playing field, they do it for an advantage, not for fun. That's what Nintendo are doing, taking out something that was annoying, not something to make the game more casual. I don't know a single 'hardcore' gamer who'd be angry about snaking being taken out, like someone said above, it's just like spawn camping in an online FPS game.
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Posted: Mar 18th 2008 2:52AM (Unverified) said
chris,
i've played months of MKDS online races snaking against other top snakers and they would rarely disconnect. infact, the anti-snakers would disconnect much more frequently than the pro-snakers.
seriously Nintendonald's, if you ever end up releasing Mario Kart Wii 2 or something, include both online modes. it will only increase sales of the game for you.
oh and a big LOL at xenkylm. from my experience, most pro-snakers have mastered the non-snaking skills/techniques of MK which really dont require a PHD degree to learn. infact, alot of them even know how to dodge blue shells which i bet you didnt even know was possible.
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i've played months of MKDS online races snaking against other top snakers and they would rarely disconnect. infact, the anti-snakers would disconnect much more frequently than the pro-snakers.
seriously Nintendonald's, if you ever end up releasing Mario Kart Wii 2 or something, include both online modes. it will only increase sales of the game for you.
oh and a big LOL at xenkylm. from my experience, most pro-snakers have mastered the non-snaking skills/techniques of MK which really dont require a PHD degree to learn. infact, alot of them even know how to dodge blue shells which i bet you didnt even know was possible.
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