What is the best Mario Kart racer? Science offers a solution thanks to a 19th century method | Games

Anyone who has ever played the game knows that driving the character Mario is not the same as racing the heavy Bowser or the featherweight Baby Peach. You can be a good driver, but the car, tires and other characteristics also influence your chances of winning.

Is it best to go for a speed devil? Or is it better to choose a driver who can take a beating? If you do get pushed off the road, which kart performs best off the track and can accelerate the fastest after a collision? And what about the always handy mini turbo to speed past your opponents?

French scientist Antoine Mayerowitz studied all these properties in the latest version of the game for the Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart 8. He determined that no fewer than 703,560 different combinations are possible. One much better than the other. To determine the most successful, he uses a method from his 19th-century compatriot and economist Wilfried Fritz Pareto.

He came up with the idea (simplified) that you can choose the best outcome by identifying components that – in the right combination – contribute most to the desired outcome. In the case of Mario Kart: winning the race. These components include speed, weight and acceleration power. Mayerowitz cast the game statistics into the Pareto method.

This is how he ranked every driver, car, tire, etc. He quickly saw that driver Koopa, for example, always lags behind other drivers in terms of both speed and acceleration. If you want to win, it’s best not to put the turtle behind the wheel. It is just one example after arranging the more than 700,000 possible combinations, which he managed to reduce to a few optimal configurations.

Mayerowitz came to the conclusion that it is best to choose Princess Peach in combination with the Teddy Buggy, Roller Tires and the Cloud Glider. Then you almost fly over the track! This combination offers the best balance between things like speed, weight and acceleration. But also with drivers Birdo, Daisy, Peachette and Yoshi – who have similar characteristics to the princess, you will leave the competition (far) behind you in Mario Kart 8.

Mayerowitz does warn that your playing style also influences the result. So maybe a different combination of driver, car and tires works a little better for you. The good news is that you can now easily find out. On the scientist’s interactive site you can indicate what the most important characteristics of the driver and car are for you and thus view the personalized ranking to choose the best combination for you.

This way you can be sure that you will appear optimally at the start the next time you compete against your friends!

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