Happy Monday, folks! Wolfman Jew here, welcoming you to the Weekly Video Games Thread!
We’re nearing the end of the year, so I’ve been trying—well, fitfully, anyway—to tie up a few loose ends. Games to play, articles to publish; you know the works. One of those is a piece on Mario Kart, and since it’s mostly done, all that’s left is collecting, transferring, and setting up screenshots. Fortunately, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe makes getting pictures as easy as, well, playing the game. The Switch’s internal system for getting pictures is really good; the act of moving them out of it kinda sucks, but the actual mechanic is worlds better than what the PS4 and Series X have. But Deluxe also has a mode that automatically replays the match, giving you (mostly) great camera perspectives that give me the opportunity to show scenes prettier, more dynamic, and lacking in UI elements. I’ll have a combination of them and normal screenshots.
Of course, Mario Kart did not invent this. It’s been the standard for many multiplayer games for well over a decade, especially sports and racing games. You could even consider things like Call of Duty‘s kill cam to be a hyper-specific part of this. Replays are a godsend for competitive nerds, influencers, casual players wanting to enjoy a great moment, and anyone wanting to, say, gather visual evidence for an essay or piece. They’re really cool! And they’re only one part of a greater, years-long push to give players greater and more granular control over the depiction of what they play. Bonus filters and camera modes and the like. But let’s stick with this today and discuss your favorite highlight reels in games. I spent a decade mostly ignoring Mario Kart TV except for the occasional post-game view with a family member, but in this instance it’s become an essential part of what I’d like to call the journalistic process. It’s made me interested in others, and I’d love to hear about them.
In the meantime, what did you play this weekend? Hopefully it was more than me because again, this was super focused on one thing.