{"id":1201384,"date":"2023-11-09T12:46:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1201384"},"modified":"2023-11-09T12:46:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:46:19","slug":"mario-kart-8-update-nerfs-controversial-sandbagging-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1201384","title":{"rendered":"Mario Kart 8 update nerfs controversial \u201csandbagging\u201d strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Mario-Kart-8-6-640x360-1.png\" alt=\"Baby Luigi represents the reaction of sandbagging racers in this artistic rendering.\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\">Baby Luigi represents the reaction of sandbagging racers in this artistic rendering. (credit: Nintendo)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Since <em>Mario Kart 8<\/em>&#8216;s launch on the Wii U, one of the game&#8217;s most successful and controversial strategies has involved intentionally hanging out at the back of the pack to amass and abuse the game&#8217;s best items. Now, over nine years <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2014\/05\/mario-kart-8-review-one-step-forward-one-step-back\/\">since the game&#8217;s initial release<\/a>, Nintendo has taken steps to eliminate the controversial &#8220;bagging&#8221; strategy in the latest update to the Switch&#8217;s <em>Mario Kart 8 Deluxe<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mario Kart 8<\/em> players who made use of &#8220;bagging&#8221; (short for &#8220;sandbagging&#8221; and sometimes also called &#8220;item smuggling&#8221;) in online races would briefly retreat to last place to sit on a regenerating item box, waiting to acquire some of the game&#8217;s most powerful items (which are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariowiki.com\/Mario_Kart_8_item_probability_distributions\">much more likely to appear when you are far away from first place<\/a>). The bagging player could then use one of those items (say, a Golden Mushroom and\/or Starman) to quickly catch up with the pack before using the other amassed item (say, a Bullet Bill) to build up a dominant lead. The strategy can be especially effective on tracks like &#8220;Cheese Land,&#8221; where using a Bullet Bill in very specific locations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XmHoBDharl0\">can extend how long the powerful item lasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Not \u201ccheating,\u201d but not exactly \u201cracing\u201d?<\/h2>\n<p>Despite bagging&#8217;s controversial reputation among many players, the strategy isn&#8217;t really comparable to outright cheating\u2014baggers play an unmodified version of the game as it was designed, after all. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gamefaqs.gamespot.com\/boards\/700050-mario-kart-8\/73350438\">for years<\/a>, many <em>Mario Kart 8<\/em> players have argued that it&#8217;s a perfectly fair strategy that requires actual skill to use effectively. &#8220;Sandbagging is a risk vs reward kind of thing,&#8221; GameFAQs user RydeonHD <a href=\"https:\/\/gamefaqs.gamespot.com\/boards\/700050-mario-kart-8\/73350438\">wrote in 2016<\/a>. &#8220;There have been many times where it can just plain out backfire (in those cases, it would&#8217;ve just been better to strive for first).&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1982598#p3\">Read 5 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1982598&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1982598\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mario Kart 8 update nerfs controversial \u201csandbagging\u201d strategy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baby Luigi represents the reaction of sandbagging racers in this artistic rendering. (credit: Nintendo) Since Mario Kart 8&#8216;s launch on the Wii U, one of the game&#8217;s most successful and controversial strategies has involved intentionally hanging out at the back &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1201384\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1201385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1201384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1201384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1201385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1201384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1201384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1201384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}