There might be another good reason to pick up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — no more obnoxious post-boost hopping. According to a video from GameXplain, the contentious “fire-hopping” technique apparently didn’t make the trip from Wii U to Switch.
Discovered way back in the winter of 2014, “fire-hopping” is a trick that helps maintain speed coming out of a short boost in Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. The idea is that vehicles lose speed from a boost when they are in the air, so the jumping helps keep the extra MPH for a little bit longer.
“Fire-hopping” has long been a point of contention among Mario Kart 8 players. Some see the unofficial technique as something players just need to master in order to enhance their play. Others feel like it’s an exploit, especially who favour inner-drifting bikes, as they’re the only vehicle type the technique doesn’t work with.
Looks like it’s all moot now, as GamXplain demonstrates in the video below.
I tried to replicate the video results with my copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, reaching the conclusion that I suck at Mario Kart before wandering off to play more Battle Mode.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launches for the Switch on April 28. I predict people will finally stop the futile hopping a month later.
Comments
8 responses to “Looks Like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Gets Rid Of Controversial ‘Fire-Hopping’ Technique”
Are they going to patch it out of the Wii U version too?
They would have done it by now if they were going to do it.
Anybody interested in Kotaku reader races or battles we could organise?
Despite what some people may think, Mario Kart is a skill based game and fire hopping is a skill. The only reason I can think that they would reduce/remove it is to level the playing field. Which seems ridiculous to me.
The entire game’s premise is to ‘level the playing field’.
– People in lower positions get faster speeds.
– People in lower positions get better items.
– People in the lead get a coin or some other low item 98% of the time.
Yeah there is some skill involved. Also luck. It makes the game a lot of fun with friends as the person that owns it is not always going to win. We break it out a lot with friends, this one will be no different.
But muh skill cap… Seriously though, good riddance. Now matches will actually be a battle of the best driver, not who can exploit the game the most efficiently
I don’t particularly like fire-hopping, but I’d have to say that properly doing it while also taking corners perfectly is very much a mark of “best driving” as it is very skill-intensive.