Hello there !
I’ve been playing MK8 since it came out on WiiU. I’ve clocked up many hours of gameplay and can easily tell the difference between normal players and cheaters. On Nintendo’s old official servers, there were a few hackers who had fun doing things like throwing lots of shells or bobombs, or moving faster than everyone else, but it was obvious and never lasted very long.
But since the Pretendo servers opened, I’ve discovered new forms of hacking that are much more subtle and difficult for the average player to detect. I’d like to list here a few cases that I’ve encountered repeatedly during my games.
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Blue shell prevention: this case is difficult to detect. You need to play at least 15 games in a row with the suspected hacker. The behaviour is as follows: the same player takes the lead and stays in first place throughout the race without a single blue shell. If this player is not in first place, the blue shell appears almost immediately until that player returns to first place. This hack relies on simulating the presence of a blue shell, which prevents it from being awarded to another player
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Teleportation: I am not referring here to lag, but rather to a player suddenly changing position during a race. This hack is often performed by two players, with one helping the other to finish first. The behaviour of the player who teleports is always the same. They stop, perform their hack to teleport behind their victim, and systematically throw a barrage of three red or green shells at them. Again, this hack can be detected by its recurrence. I encountered it just yesterday while playing against a player with the Chilean flag.
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False position: this hack can also be detected by its recurrence (the way it is performed) both in terms of the number of games and the player who uses it. This hack is obvious because your position on the mini map does not correspond to the one displayed on the right of the screen. You are first on the mini map, you see no one in front of you, and you are affected by the items of those behind you, including the blue shell. However, the race position shown on the screen is false and instead of showing ‘1st’, it shows 3rd, for example, even if you are far ahead. The end of the race is determined by your position shown on the screen and not that of the mini map. Again, this is not lag, because it acts differently and there is no difference between the mini map display and the position shown on the screen.
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Slowdown: this hack is only intended to annoy other players. It results in a substantial and constant slowdown in animation throughout the race. One might think that this is due to lag. However, when a player has an unstable connection, you can see them teleport on the mini map and in front of you if you are next to them. If several players have a poor internet connection, the game does slow down slightly, it’s true. But this slowdown is NEVER constant and does not last for an entire race, let alone several races. Detecting the hacker is fairly easy, as everything returns to normal as soon as they leave the lobby.
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Lottery that does not stop: sometimes, when the connection is poor, the item lottery lasts longer and pressing the button does not stop it. But this never lasts for an entire race. Here I am talking about a lottery that can last an entire lap or, more often (and this is how the hack can be detected), until the next set of items. This hack prevents you from getting items regularly and distorts their allocation. It can be detected by its recurrence, and if this anomaly occurs throughout an entire race, you can be sure that it is a hack.
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Distorted item allocation: you’re in first place, you have coins; you’re in last place… you have coins. You’re in 6th place, you have coins. You pick up a series of items while staying close to the boxes just to check that is no tricks… you always get coins! This can happen with any item. Often stars or mushrooms, and this happens throughout the race. It’s clearly a hack, because if you can get the same item several times in a row, it’s impossible for it to last an entire race, especially if you’re in first place and you get 3 mushrooms every time you take one from a box.
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Premature end to the race: it’s very simple, the race ends after just one or two laps without anyone disconnecting. This hack has a variant that consists of ending the race after 30 seconds by making the connected consoles believe that the first player has arrived and that 30 seconds have passed. In fact, if the first player crosses the finish line, the other players have 30 seconds to finish the race. If they do not cross the finish line within those 30 seconds, their position in the race will be recorded and the game will be over.
These are a few examples I have encountered while playing on Pretendo servers. Right now, and especially in the evening (9pm UTC+1/2). I’m posting them here as evidence because these hacks are difficult to prove and you have to be constantly on the lookout to be able to provide proof. Especially since it’s not easy to find the PNID of the player or players who are hacking. The recently encountered players system does not work on WiiU.
Feel free to share your experiences too, because if nothing is done, players will eventually get tired of playing rigged games and leave.
