Win Mario Kart by Choosing Your Character Using Data Science
One night in my church youth group, I thought I had played the best Mario Kart game of my life. Somehow the controller perfectly interpreted my movements better than usual – I didn’t crash or go in the wrong direction! In the end, I realized that I was actually looking at my opponent’s screen and never realized that I was not actually in control of him. In the meantime, my character just accidentally rushed towards the race track.
I’ve never gotten better at Mario Kart. But you can improve it thanks to data analyst Henry Hinnefeld’s exploration of all the possible combinations in the Mario Kart character selection menu.
Hinnefeld calculated the most optimal combinations of characters, go-kart bodies and tire styles. Even though there are 149,760 combinations, many variations give you identical statistics. Some cards and tires are functionally identical, as are some characters, which can usually be classified by weight. A total of 294 unique combinations of characteristics. Of these, 15 are superior to all others.
You can get one of these optimal deployments using any character other than Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach. Your choice depends on whether you want speed or acceleration. For maximum acceleration, select one of the Baby characters, ride the Biddybuggy and use the Roller wheels. For maximum speed, select the heaviest character class (Vario, Bowser, Morton Koopa and Mii Heavy), use the Gold Standard and use Slick tires. To balance them, choose one of the other combinations from the Hinnefeld table .
Hinnefeld lists all the options below, so you can choose the combination with the best “flavor” while optimizing performance. For example, Wario on Gold Standard with Slick tires is exactly the same as Bowser on Sports Coupe with Cyber Slick tires.
Of course, this will only optimize your potential. Your performance also depends on your gaming ability and whether you are looking at the correct screen.
Data Science’s Best Mario Kart Character | Civis Journal