Real risks that Americans face when they get on the road

April 27, 2017 1:54 PM

ClickHole: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Is A Sobering Commentary On The Perils Of America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
posted by porn in the woods (13 comments total)

We are all Donkey Kong driving on the deathtraps we call roads in this nation. It's time for a change, people!
posted by hot_monster at 2:15 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I spent £40 on this game in May '14 (and then I bought the DLC...) and here we are entering May '17 and I've spent £40 buying it all over again. There's a commentary in there somewhere but I _really_ don't want to face up to it.
posted by samworm at 2:27 PM on April 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

What role do Blue Shells play in this metaphor?
posted by Nelson at 2:29 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've always viewed Blue Shells as a commentary on progressive taxation myself.
posted by zachlipton at 2:48 PM on April 27, 2017 [7 favorites]

I've long been impressed with the accurate portrayal of Mario and Luigi as professional plumbers (moreso with Luigi; Mario is more of a General Contractor).
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:07 PM on April 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

See and here I thought the lava signified a massive fire that might bring down a busy part of a highway if things were left unattended.
posted by Carillon at 3:13 PM on April 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

the whole thing about this is really OSHA should be up in arms about this as mario and luigi plumbing still do nothing to address the safety issues where they operate their vehicle fleet. yes, there are infrastructure hazzards like the potholes, but no one on their crew seems to obey speed limits, and they recklessly hurl hazzards onto the road like banana peels.
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:38 PM on April 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

A sobering commentary, true, but one that stares into the abyss of underfunded public infrastructure and at the last second blinks. What is Lakitu but a cop-out that never truly forces the player to confront the monstrousness with which they -- and all of us -- are complicit as it would if Toad was sucked down through the Dry Dry Desert quicksand into hell itself while some lucky few take brief notice and move on in desperation. It reveals either a certain naive faith in the natural order that some unknown creator would somehow compel this otherwise brutal and neglectful society to create a quite literal safety net, or perhaps yet another tragically mistaken paean to capitalism that assumes the menial but necessary labor of saving us from ourselves will somehow always be a few coins away, off-screen but reassuringly present. In our own world, though, we have no helpful cloud-riding turtles at our beck and call, and when our thumb slips and we veer slightly too close to the inside curve amid the all-too-glittering distractions of Rainbow Road, our doom will be total, unceasing, and entirely of our own making.

Graphics: 7/10
Philosophical Contribution: 3/10
UI: 9/10
Difficulty: 4/10
Ideology: Ultimately Vapid
posted by Copronymus at 3:57 PM on April 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

If this video and Copronymus's comment were narrated by Werner Herzog then my life would be complete.
posted by mmoncur at 4:08 PM on April 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Holy shit I found A Master At Work: George Saunders Orders One Mousetrap Over The Phone so funny.
posted by little onion at 4:18 PM on April 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, essentially Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a metaphor for Dark Souls?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:39 PM on April 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

On the other hand, Lakitu, who shows up to rescue you free of charge if you drive off a cliff, is a valuable commentary on public services and universal healthcare.
posted by zachlipton at 5:50 PM on April 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mario Kart 8 is 101 level theorizing. The problem serious mascot racing game academics are currently struggling with is, where does Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed fit into this? There is no Lakitu conceit; rather, going off-course causes the player to just instantly teleport back on-course with no acknowledgement. True, there are areas where the road is destroyed by some part of the environment or simply stops, but these roadless spots feel almost intentionally designed, as they do absolutely nothing to impede the flow of traffic, this being a world where every car turns into a boat and/or airplane/helicopter/cute little UFO thing. It's clear that, even without an obvious ground-level road, there's still infrastructure in the glowy hologram things that direct air traffic and elaborately made canals that allow for water travel.

Further, almost every part of almost every track (even the ones set in postapocalyptic or feudal periods! even the ones that were just blown apart in outer space!) are not only free of potholes and structural damage but sparkling clean. Equally baffling is that players can drive a forklift - a clear and obvious symbol of the working class - but only after shelling out for a special forklift DLC. What on earth is this game trying to say?

Utopian vision of the kind of infrastructure we could all have if we simply valued infrastructure as a nation or head-shaking artifact of stunningly oblivious privilege? Ultimately, the game lacks any reasonably achievable conclusion at all, so questions like this remain open for the audience to answer.
posted by byanyothername at 10:04 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]