If you’ve had a chance to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch over the weekend, one of the first things you may have noticed is that your kart might sometimes steer itself. This is thanks to a new feature called Smart Steering, and Nintendo decided to turn Smart Steering on by default. Many articles popped up across the web over the weekend, telling players how to turn it off first thing. For one young player, however, this feature finally levels the playing field.
Redditor MyAudioDNA originally made a post (which was later reported on by Kotaku) with his story: his four-year-old daughter had suffered a stroke shortly after she was born, and ever since she has not had full faculty over the right side of her body and, thus, could not hold a controller in a way conducive to playing most games. Smart Steering in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe changes all of that, as she can now focus on accelerating while the game steers for her.
“Thanks to Mario Kart’s new Auto Drive feature, she can now steer with her left hand and let the game drive for her or vice versa. I’m sure this feature will be an annoyance to many, but for my daughter, who would otherwise not really be able to participate, it is the best feature ever added to a Mario Kart game. …This is truly a day I won’t forget thanks to Nintendo.”
Accessibility in games is an oft-overlooked aspect, but many players find their own workarounds. For example, one Smash (Project M) player could no longer play video games with his hands due to a repetitive stress injury, so he learned to play with his feet. Another gamer, who played competitive Mortal Kombat, was rendered blind and learned to use the game’s audio cues to continue playing.
Up until this point, gamers have had to, for the most part, come up with their own methods of working around their disabilities or impairments, so it’s nice to see Nintendo implementing Smart Steering in this case. While many Mario Kart players balked at Smart Steering being on by default, I’m glad to see it’s there, for younger children and disabled gamers alike. For MyAudioDNA’s daughter, accessibility in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has added yet another facet of joy to her life:
“Her neurologist told us that a stroke the size of the one she had would have killed over 90% of adults and left another 9% permanently and severely handicapped, however because she was so young when it happened her brain was able to adjust and largely compensate. We were initially told that she would most like never walk unassisted and could possibly even never talk. We were told all of this after an evaluation when she was 9 months old. She is now 4 and not only can she walk and talk completely unassisted, she can run, read, cook (with help of course) and now thanks to Nintendo, play video games as well!”
Hats off to Nintendo for this one!
What do you think of this option being available in the game? Do you think other publishers and developers should follow suit in making games more accessible for everyone? Let us know by leaving a reply!
