Finding the best Mario Kart character, statistically speaking

Henry Hinnefeld answers the age-old debate of which Mario Kart character is best, using data as his guide.

Some people swore by zippy Yoshi, others argued that big, heavy Bowser was the best option. Back then there were only eight options to choose from; fast forward to the current iteration of the Mario Kart franchise and the question is even more complicated because you can select different karts and tires to go with your character. My Mario Kart reflexes aren’t what they used to be, but I am better at data science than I was as a fourth grader, so in this post I’ll use data to finally answer the question “Who is the best character in Mario Kart?”

For me, it doesn’t matter. You will smoke me regardless of which character I have, because I am world’s worst video game player.

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History of the health meter in video games

The health meter in video games wasn’t always so commonplace. It took time, iterations, and various incarnations before it converged to what we know now. Ahoy describes the history:

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Super Mario Bros. was designed on graph paper

Super Mario Bros. on graph paper

Leading up to the release of Super Mario Maker, which lets you create your own Mario world, Miyamoto and Tezuka talked about their own process while creating the original video game, Super Mario Bros. They drew their designs on graph paper and then handed the drawings to developers for implementation.

Pretty cool. I need some graph paper. [via Boing Boing]

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Computer program learns to play classic Nintendo games

Mario Bros.

I knew I had seen another automated video game thing before. Tom Murphy published work a couple of years ago on creating a computer program that learns how to play classic Nintendo games.

It's a different approach than the project from earlier this week. The program is generalized, so it can be applied to games besides Mario Bros., and the computer can eventually beat more than one level. Plus, the program finds and takes advantage of glitches in games.

Watch Murphy's video explanation below, and geek out about Lexicographic Orderings. Oh my.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCurBYI_gY

Here's the paper (pdf) if you want more details. The best part is the title: "The First Level of Super Mario Bros. is Easy with Lexicographic Orderings and Time Travel...after that it gets a little tricky."

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Graph-based video game

Last year, Metrico, an infographic-based puzzle game for the PlayStation Vita, was announced for future release. It's out now.

I must've been in a pissy mood from too many spam-fographics in my suggestions inbox last year, because I brushed this game off for whateversville (and seemed upset about it). Metrico totally seems like a game I would like though. You essentially navigate a 3-D world of graphs, and the terrain changes based on your own actions and button pushes. Just don't use the game design as an idea bucket for your next slide deck. [via Wired]

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