New Viz: Character Optimization in Mario Kart

For many more years to come, I will have "old man" strength over my son.  He's 15 and he will always be weak compared to his father (well, until I'm 80 or so).  But the same concept doesn't apply to video games.  My son has been kicking the snot out of me in video games for years.  He is clearly superior and this is exceedingly evident when we play the game, Mario Kart.  I absolutely love the game, but he beats me 99 out of 100 times.  I just don't get it!

So if I'm not getting it done with my hand-eye coordination, I might as well try a little brain power.  With a little digging and some patience, I compiled a list of all the character, vehicle, tire, and glider attributes in Mario Kart as well as their rankings (or scores).  My idea was simple, let me find the best possible combination of character and accessories so that I could bridge the gap between us ever so slightly (and maybe turn 1 win in 100 to 2 wins in 100).  

So that's what I did and of course, I visualized it in Tableau.  In my new viz, The Complete Guide to Character Optimization in Mario Kart, I look at all the characters, all the vehicles accessories and then analyzed all 482,160 possible combinations.  Which one is the best?  Check out the full viz to find out!!!  (Please note that the image below is only the front page of the workbook - in total, there are 6 pages of analyses).

  

 

Kevin Flerlage, November 8, 2021

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