Critique Assignment: Mario Kart (wii)

IAT 410
Advanced Game Design
1. Classical Conditioning
Critique Assignment:
Mario Kart (wii)
Dominic Kwon
SFU# 301006450
Jan 15, 2012
Classical Conditioning is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated
by Ivan Pavlov.
In the Mario Kart, the item is the key of the classical conditioning and this is the very
different stuff than other racing games. When users are playing Mario Kart, they can
see the “?” mark boxes while they are racing. When they get the box, they randomly
get the item. It can be a banana peel, turtle’ back, thunder, fire, mushroom, or etc. so
the player knows that he/she need to get the item even though he/she doesn’t know
what it is because it is useful, anyway.
Also, each item has different attribute, so users going to learn which item has which
attribute. For example, when one user get red turtle’s back, he doesn’t know what it is.
But after he uses it, he knows that it is for attack to one who is in front of him. And
the other user who got attacked knows that when the red turtle’s back is coming to
him, it is going to attack him.
Another classical conditioning is a start time. When the race begins, the numbers
goes back from three to one and go. So, every time, when the player plays the game,
he/she knows that when the race is going to starts.
And the GUI can be the classical conditioning in the Mario Kart. Every Mario Kart
and even other racing games have similar GUI in the game. When the player is doing
the race, he/she knows that there are stop watch and lap time on the right-top side,
and there’s a map which shows where the character is and others are on the rightbottom
side. Also, it shows the item which the player carries on the left-top side and it
shows the player’s current rank on the left-bottom side.

2. Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning is the use of a behavior’s antecedent and/or its consequence to
influence the occurrence and form of behavior.
In Mario Kart, if the player’s character falls down to water or hill, he/she needs to
start again where he/she falls. Therefore, the player is going to be careful when he/she
is near the fall or water.
And if he/she gets out from the racing track or hit the objects, speed decreases very
slowly.
Another operant conditioning in Mario Kart is an item with a character. Some
character got special item. For example, the turtle gets turtle’s back a lot of times for
item and only Koopa and his son can get dragon turtle’s back for the item.

3. Discuss what kinds of rewards scheduling
In Mario Kart, there are a lot of rewards scheduling and it is now very common to
every games to get much more play times.
� Cups
Star Cup: Successfully complete the Flower and Mushroom Cup with a trophy.

Special Cup: Successfully complete the Star Cup with a trophy.
Leaf Cup: Successfully complete the Banana and Shell Cup with a trophy.
Lightning Cup: Successfully complete the Leaf Cup with a trophy.
Characters
Baby Daisy: Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 50cc cups. Alternately, win
1,950 races.
Baby Luigi: Unlock eight Expert Staff Ghosts in Time Trials mode. Alternately,
win 3,150 races.
Birdo: Play 16 different courses in Time Trials mode. Alternately, get 250 Wi-Fi
wins or win 1,350 races.
Bowser Jr.: Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 100cc Retro Cups. Alternately,
win 3,450 races.
Daisy: Win the 150cc Special Cup. Alternately, win 2,850 races.
Diddy Kong: Successfully complete all 50cc Retro Cups. Alternately, win 450
races.
Dry Bones: Win the 100cc Leaf Cup. Alternately, win 1,050 races.
Dry Bowser: Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 150cc Wii Cups. Alternately,
win 4,350 races.
Funky Kong: Unlock four Expert Staff Ghosts in Time Trials mode. Alternately,
win 2,250 races.
King Boo: Win the 50cc Star Cup. Alternately, win 750 races.
Mii (Outfit A): Win the 100cc Special Cup. Alternately, win 1,650 races.
Mii (Outfit B): Unlock all 32 Expert Staff Ghosts in Time Trials mode. Alternately,
win 5,100 races.
Rosalina: Get a "One Star" rank or better in the Wii Cup Series. Alternately, have a
saved game file from Super Mario Galaxy and win 50 Grand Prix races; or win
4,950 races.
Toadette: Play on all 32 courses in Time Trials mode. Alternately, get 1,000 Wi-Fi
wins or win 2,550 races.
� Bikes
Daytripper: Win 2,700 races.
Dolphin Dasher (medium): Win the Mirror Star Cup. Alternately, win 3,750 races.
Jet Bubble (small): Win the Mirror Leaf Cup. Alternately, win 3,900 races.
Kamek (small): Defeat all the Nintendo ghosts in the Star Cup.
Magikruiser (small): Play on eight different courses in Time Trials mode.
Alternately, win 900 races.
Phantom (large): Win the Mirror Special Cup. Alternately, win 4,050 races.
Quacker (small): Win the 150cc Star Cup. Alternately, win 2,400 races.
Shooting Star (Twinkle Star, large): Win the 100cc Star Cup. Alternately, win
1,500 races.
Sneakster (Nitrocycle, medium): Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 100cc Wii
Grand Prix Cups. Alternately, win 3,300 races.
Spear (Torpedo, large): Unlock 12 Expert Staff Ghost in Time Trials mode.
Alternately, win 3,600 races.
Zip Zip (Rapide, medium): Win the 100cc Lightning Cup. Alternately, win 2,100
races.
� Karts

Aero Glider (large): Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 150cc Retro Cups.
Blue Falcon (small): Win the Mirror Lightning Cup. Alternately, win 4,200 races.
Cheep Charger (small): Get a "One Star" rank or better in all 50cc Retro Cups.
Alternately, win 1,800 races.
Honeycoupe (Dragonetti, large): Win the 150cc Lightning Cup. Alternately, win
3,000 races.
Jetsetter: Win 4,500 races.
Piranha Prowler (large): Win the 50cc Special Cup. Alternately, win 600 races.
Royal Racer (medium): Win the 150cc Leaf Cup.
Sprinter (B Dasher Mk 2, medium): Unlock 24 Expert Staff Ghosts in Time Trials
mode. Alternately, win 4,650 races.
Tiny Titan (small): Unlock one Expert Staff Ghost in Time Trials mode.
Alternately, get 50 Wi-Fi wins or win 1,200 races.
Turbo Blooper (medium): Get a "One Star" rank or better in the 50cc Leaf Cup.
Alternately, win 300 races.
� Mirror Mode
Win all 150cc Cups to unlock Mirror mode. Alternately, win 4,800 races.
� Expert Staff Ghosts
Defeat a Normal Staff Ghosts with a time at least seven seconds faster to unlock
the Expert Staff Ghost for that course.
� Alternate title screen and ending sequence
Get a "One Star" rank or better in all Cups, including those in Mirror mode to
unlock an alternate title screen and ending sequence.

4. What forms of Behavior Shaping and Behavior Chaining occur in the
game?
Behavior Shaping – It is a conditioning procedure used primarily in the experimental
analysis of behavior.
In Mario Kart, primarily thing is winning. Get the first place in the race is the most
important thing in the game. So, when the player is in 1 st place, he/she gets the
useless items such as banana peel, or faked item box and other players get useful
items such as mushroom which can boost up the speed. Also, the speed is decreasing.
It is very common for racing game because if the speed is same, the rest players never
get the first place’s player.

Behavior Chaining – It is an instructional procedure used in Behavioral psychology,
experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis.
In Mario Kart, the behavior chaining is the stage. After the player get within third
place, he/she can go to next round. It is different stage but it has same rule and same
style. So, even though it is harder, the player easily can play the next round because
he/she knows how to play it.