N64 Bowser's Castle -
Date Driven: April 12th, 2023
This has always been one of my favorite tracks since starting to play competitive since 2008. I eventually excelled to the highest degree and had World Record here at different points during my most active time playing at my peak long ago. In late 2010 and the first half of 2011, I made a solid effort to gun for a very low 2:31. I always knew you can make a big leap by beating the middle thwomp lap 3 and going to the left of the sliding thwomp, which drove my efforts to see what I could do back then, and further believing the possibilities of getting a sub 2:31 is realistic with the current strats in play. Unfortunately, I did not meet that mark before stepping away from the game for the majority of mid 2012-2017.
Fast forward to returning to the game in mid 2017, from then until now I believe I've had exclusive grinds to finally get this 2:30 each year excluding 2018 and 2019 (to my memory), which ranged from 2 weeks to peak of ~1 month in 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and now this year, with this being the longest I've tried to grind this since the beginning of March until now. As with most who test this track at the highest standard, the inconsistency of the beginning bridge is very off-putting and was my source of growing bored of grinding longer when I'd play the track.
Truthfully, I grew disinterested in the game in general for a few months near the end of last year and entering this year with dealing with a lot in the background outside of gaming, even as far as thinking if I'd really want to put forth big efforts with TTing the game. At the beginning of the year, seeing Blake finally pull through on his DKSC efforts was very motivating to see a true OG of the game that came up during my time still defying the odds today, along with seeing Fox able to get a WR again after so long was also very motivating to see. My interest to return and get my own grinds eventually grew with returning recently.
I normally comment on each lap, but this will be a brief summary as the comparison speaks a lot for itself. The comparison is versus my recent PB of 2:31.121. I think this really shows just how much time loss I bled in the entire run, but also demonstrating my general driving speed has drastically improved since playing again. In particular lap 1 had so many errors in the second half that I'm really surprised it was even a 50.3 lap 1. Unlucky bounces on the bridge lap 2 made me only gain at most 70-80ms from a full chain wheelie instead of the expected 140ms+ you'd get if it's no bounce. My superman goes wrong all 3 laps; hopped too early lap 1, unlucky no air time before it lap 2 with over turning cost a lot, lap 3 I held it down as best as I could considering the pace. Lap 3 I kept reminding myself to not play careful as that's when most mistakes tend to happen here, and regrouped after the poor 2nd castle turn. I lost a lot of time near the end which you can see with the ghost comparison, but thankfully kept it together to get my first 2:30, concluding my on-off journey from 2011-2023 for this goal.
My ultimate goal here has always been a 2:30, and I can finally check that box off the bucket list. For those that may wonder, I have no intention on trying to reclaim the WR here. My best splits almost give it now, with time I can get the speed I'm confident in that, but the time required to get consistency would be too much to invest in. I'm happily outclassed here by several people (I've learned a ton with studying Luke and Zeke's driving extensively, and even more appreciate their immense talent at this track and pointers from them and believing I can finally get this sub done), and I look forward to what they can do in the future. However, I think I can realistically hit a 2:30.7 here without overextending much, especially with finally getting a 2:30 looming over my head not being an issue anymore. With that in mind, that will be the fun goal I'll try for once in a while. For now, I'll put this personal trophy on the shelf and work on other long term goals I've had. Thanks for watching.
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💡 Mario Kart Wii Resources!
• CTGP Website: http://www.chadsoft.co.uk/
• CTGP Leaderboards: http://www.chadsoft.co.uk/time-trials/
• MKWRs: https://mkwrs.com/
• CTGP Records: / @ctgprecords
• Best Known Splits Spreadsheet: https://tinyurl.com/bestknownsplits/
• WhatIsLoaf's Website for Time Trial Recording Resources: https://www.tt-rec.com
• The Game Restorers (making HD textures for MKW): / @gamerestorers
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Credits:
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Battle Theme
#MarioKartWii #NMeade #N64BowsersCastle
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