Before I dive into this week’s data story, let me state why I love the Nintendo Switch. I personally feel there’s a need for video games to be a social event, and couch co-op is a must have feature. The Nintendo Switch offers several games which meet this need.
My family loves playing video games and most of all we love playing video games together.
Most of the Nintendo games I’ve grown up on and have played over the years, Mario Kart by far is one of my favorites. I’ll admit my wife shows me how it’s done.
What I do find interesting about the Nintendo Switch is the joy con controllers, there’s a learning curve (but a huge improvement on the Wii-mote) and most veteran gamers prefer an alternative.
One alternative is the wireless controller, very similar to the X-box controller format. I did pick up the Yoshi version for my wife and she loves it and personally feels it improves her game-play.
I’d thought it was time to put this notion to the test, what impact if any does a wireless controller has on game-play performance versus using a joy con.
Mario Kart seemed like the logical choice for this is experiment, it’s a multiplayer game, you can standardize your users (via ride type and modifications), and performance is measured in a continuous variable of points.
A total of 8 trails were ran under these conditions:
-Standard Kart
-Standard Wheels
-Standard Flyer
-Mushroom Cup
-50 cc length race
-2 gamers
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Half through the trial one gamer switched to the wired controller (Test group) while the other gamer stayed on the single joy con (Control group).
Results were documented, and the etl. process began, points scored each race would be used as the key performance indicator.
I next ran a linear regression (great for evaluating an A/B test), with my dependent variable being the points scored after the event (introducing the wired controller) the two independent variables: Treatment and Pre Points Scored.
In this model I wasn’t concerned with the r-squared value or the significance level of each variable. The sample data was not large enough, this was closed circuit small market test.
The model itself did show to be significant, which is a good indicator I can continue with the results. Evaluating my Q’s graph, I see the model fits well, the trend goes through all the data points.
In my summary fit I notice there is a positive relationship between treatment (group) and post points scores. At first glance this says you improve your Mario Kart game-play performance if you play with a wireless controller.
To complete this story I want to know my upper confidence level to be able to know by how many points and is this enough to move me up the rankings.
Using a wired controller has the potential to increase a gamers point performance by over six points each race.
The average points differential between race placement is 1.2 points. This 6-point increase is enough to move you roughly 4 places, depending on your historic placement.
What have we learned from diving into the Mario Kart Data?
The controller you play with matters, switching to a traditional wired controller can potentially improve your point score by 6.5 points,
which depending on your average race placement can move you up 4 places in the final standings.
Observing the CPU controlled racers, Shy Guy performed the best with an average final placement of 2.8. The heavy class overall was the weakest group but without Bowser, it could have been worse. Bowser’s average final placement was 4th.
After you have consumed this meal, I hope you take these findings and enjoy your next Mario Kart Grand Prix. Also as always enjoy the featured pancake recipe below!
