DEMO Mario Kart: Ultra Circuit

[Kritter]

Greetings what remains of Mario Fan Games Galaxy! Been a while.

It's also been a while since I've dabbled in Fangammery but here I am 9 years after Minigame Mayhem released, giving it another look.

So here we have Mario Kart: Ultra Circuit. Name isn't final. Starting to think I should stick with my naming conventions and just call it Mario Kart: Mayhem.



Been working on this for a good few months now. It started as just me messing around in Construct 3 for fun, between other projects, wanting to see if I could clone the look and feel of the old Mode 7 style games. I made a prototype using Super Circuit graphics, felt satisfied and then left it for a half a year. Gave it another look at recently and decided to see if I could push the idea further and before I knew it I had this demo all made up.

It's not perfect and has plenty of bugs which are listed on the Itch page, plus a few I'm probably sure I don't know about yet, but here's a list of features and things:

Features:
- 13 Playable characters from Mario to Birdo to Kamek!
- Race through the first 4 tracks of the Mushroom Cup and go for the trophy!
- All the usual items are here, mushrooms, shells, bananas and fireballs!

CONTROLS: (keyboard only for now)
Z: Accelerate
X: Items
CTRL: Slide
Left / Right: Steer
Enter: Start
----------------------------
Features to add or change
- Add Rosalina

Bugs that may be present
- Weird colours after AI invincible occasionally
- Can't go through ghost AI players
- AI players items being self-destroyed
- Getting hit with items while invincible
- Bomb/Lightning explosions don't always destroy items
- Red shells held behind don't get destroyed properly
- Items sometimes do no damage to AI
- AI sometimes too fast or too slow

Stuff to add MAYBE.
- Lap Times?

I've rushed this out the door a bit and haven't given it a proper test, so you can go ahead and do it for me.

Mario Kart: Ultra Circuit

[VinnyVideo]

Hey, welcome back! This is a really cool concept, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

I gave this a try. I really like the graphical style - something that puts a fresh coat of paint on the classic Mode 7 look.

The game was laggy when I played in the browser. While previous 3-D Mario Kart fangames have often required some elbow grease to get performance right, I noticed that even the menus were on the slow side. Does the game perform better as a stand-alone .EXE?

Ultra Circuit isn't a bad name, but I like the Mario Kart Mayhem name a lot.

Course clear! You got a card.

[Kritter]

Hey thanks!

Can't really comment on the lagginess of it. Runs at a smooth 60fps for me. Could be that it's in a browser but I've honestly no idea. Maybe it also depends on which browser you're using, I had fine performance in Chrome and Edge but plenty of hiccups in Firefox.

[WasabiCatto]

I could give it a go later on Opera GX and see how it performs

EDIT: So I gave this a go, controls are fine but I think the addition of gamepad controls will make the game easier to play

The unique problem I had is the results screen music not stopping when you start the next circuit, willing to test this again with a gamepad when it is available.

"shy guys are wall plugs confirmed" - Vitiman on Club Saturn Ex

[Kritter]

I'll be adding gamepad controls soon as I can, right now I just wanted to get a quick demo out there because I was kinda sick of working on it.

Also whoops, I think the music error should be fixed, that was a dumb oversight on my part.

[VinnyVideo]

The game runs just fine in Chrome - seems Firefox doesn't like it. The game is a lot of fun when it's running at full speed.

The biggest complaint I have is collisions with other karts - they should feel like a gentle bump, not something that sends even heavier racers careening off the track.

Also, a small nitpick: Sometimes the track music starts playing while the course intro fanfare is still playing.

Course clear! You got a card.

[Kritter]

I could give it a go later on Opera GX and see how it performs

EDIT: So I gave this a go, controls are fine but I think the addition of gamepad controls will make the game easier to play

The unique problem I had is the results screen music not stopping when you start the next circuit, willing to test this again with a gamepad when it is available.

I've added some tentative gamepad controls now, feel free to give it another go. I've also fixed (I hope) the music issues.
A Button - Accelerate
X Button - Items
Right Shoulder Button - Slide
Analogue Stick - Steer
Start or A - Start

The game runs just fine in Chrome - seems Firefox doesn't like it. The game is a lot of fun when it's running at full speed.

The biggest complaint I have is collisions with other karts - they should feel like a gentle bump, not something that sends even heavier racers careening off the track.

Also, a small nitpick: Sometimes the track music starts playing while the course intro fanfare is still playing.

I wish I could change how collisions work but the janky default collisions in Construct 3 worked against me. Maybe if I can wrangle it in the future. I'll just say "you get used to it". I HAVE uploaded a slightly tweaked version but not sure if it's better or not.

[WasabiCatto]

Oh right, I forgot.

I did tried this with my controller, definetly way better than using a keyboard.

"shy guys are wall plugs confirmed" - Vitiman on Club Saturn Ex

[Kritter]

Well I appreciate you and anyone else giving it a go.

As I say this was made purely for fun and to see what I could do using Construct 3 so even if it's somewhat janky I'm happy enough with what I've managed to make and I'm even more happy if anyone gets some enjoyment from playing it.

Gonna take a break for a while though to work on other stuff but I've got plenty of track ideas to come back to later for future cups.

[littlelum]

Hey! I just gave the game a shot, and like others have already said, I really like the visual style you went there, and the desert track in particular was pretty cool.

I have encountered some bugs, though, so here's a quick rundown:
Once or twice, the results music went into the next race.
At one point, I was stuck going in a circle. I don't remember the details, but I was able to get out of it after figuring out what was happening.
In the desert level, inside the pyramid, I clipped through a wall. It only happened on one lap, though.

Not a bug or anything like that, but I wasn't able to figure out the drifting. It kinda felt like normal driving had a better turning radius or something, I'm not sure how to describe it. It could be that I'm just used to the mode 7 games and didn't really adjust, but I'd thought that I'd let you know. (I should also mentioned that I've only tried 150cc, so that could also be why I had trouble.)

Overall, what you have so far is really good, and I look forward to any updates that you might have.

[Kritter]

Hey! I just gave the game a shot, and like others have already said, I really like the visual style you went there, and the desert track in particular was pretty cool.

I have encountered some bugs, though, so here's a quick rundown:
Once or twice, the results music went into the next race.
At one point, I was stuck going in a circle. I don't remember the details, but I was able to get out of it after figuring out what was happening.
In the desert level, inside the pyramid, I clipped through a wall. It only happened on one lap, though.

Not a bug or anything like that, but I wasn't able to figure out the drifting. It kinda felt like normal driving had a better turning radius or something, I'm not sure how to describe it. It could be that I'm just used to the mode 7 games and didn't really adjust, but I'd thought that I'd let you know. (I should also mentioned that I've only tried 150cc, so that could also be why I had trouble.)

Overall, what you have so far is really good, and I look forward to any updates that you might have.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've done some more stuff with results music carrying over, HOPEFULLY it's fixed now. I really should've tested it before I uploaded it the first time but I was in a hurry.

No idea what could've caused you to get stuck going in a circle, I've not experienced a bug like that. If you could remember what caused it or how you got out of it that'd be helpful.

I've also fixed the non-solid wall in the pyramid.

As for drifting, it works like Mario Kart Wii or games onwards where you hold drift while turning and when it goes blue, you let go of the drift button and get a little boost. It was the best I could bodge and works well enough. Also yeah 150cc can be brutal, I think 100cc is good for testing.

As for issues with collisions and such that others have experienced, I think it's most obvious on the first track because the actual track width is smaller than the other 3 and it's a much "tighter" track, it was the one I made first and I never bothered to adjust it for the movement in 150cc and such, it uses a smaller tile size for the track pieces. I might need to go back to the drawing board on that track in particular and update it to be a bit more forgiving in terms of width and space.

[littlelum]

After messing around in 100cc, it does feel like 100 is meant to be the "normal" mode. In terms of drifting, it feels somewhat like a hybrid between the modern games and the mode 7 games, for lack of a better term, in regards to angle, momentum, and whatnot.

I do have some additional bug reports:
A minor graphical glitch on the third track, a section of stone tiles on the left shoulder of the road at a left(?) turn, I think two overlapping textures/polygons were flickering.

In the desert track, on the last lap, when I crossed the finish line, the race didn't complete. I crossed way off to the left, as I got bumped by a CPU.

Unfortunately, the music bug is still happening.

Lastly, for the turning in circles, there's a large chance I simply spaced out and forgot that I was holding down buttons.

[TonyBalonneViper]

Surprising to see you again! I'll try it out once I get time to do so.

         

[Kritter]

After messing around in 100cc, it does feel like 100 is meant to be the "normal" mode. In terms of drifting, it feels somewhat like a hybrid between the modern games and the mode 7 games, for lack of a better term, in regards to angle, momentum, and whatnot.

I do have some additional bug reports:
A minor graphical glitch on the third track, a section of stone tiles on the left shoulder of the road at a left(?) turn, I think two overlapping textures/polygons were flickering.

In the desert track, on the last lap, when I crossed the finish line, the race didn't complete. I crossed way off to the left, as I got bumped by a CPU.

Unfortunately, the music bug is still happening.

Lastly, for the turning in circles, there's a large chance I simply spaced out and forgot that I was holding down buttons.

Turns out I hadn't uploaded the fixed version properly but I took the time to address those issues you found anyway and uploaded a new version.

So now the music SHOULD finally be fixed... I hope. I gave it a full test playthrough and had no issues with repeating music myself.

I also extended some of the invisible checkpoint markers on the desert track so hopefully they're not missable. I have a series of checkpoints that need to be crossed to register a full lap but you must've accidentally been bumped around one or something. As for the flickering tiles, I was aware of the z-fighting but hadn't been bothered to fix it but I've "fixed" it for now anyway and hopefully it's not noticeable. Thanks for reporting the bugs!

[Kritter]

I've just updated the game to make the first track significantly wider and more forgiving, it probably shouldn't have been the skinniest and most corner-centric course at the very beginning.

Also tweaked the steering to be less sensitive, it wasn't as noticeable with a keyboard but with a controller it definitely is. I've made mushrooms last longer so they're more useful, and I've made going off the track a bit less punishing with the speed loss.

[GeneralGuy]

Welcome back Kritter! This looks really good!