[Open Assets] The KanzakiPak 4.0

A small, simple and good-looking track pack, I like it, both of the current maps (especially Sakura Serenity) have super pretty looking visuals that aren't too distracting while still making the tracks look more stylish than your average track, as well as the addition of blue spheres to make the races more fast-paced and interesting, only concern would be the lack of a real challenge as both tracks show themselves pretty easy in difficulty, while this itself may not be that big of an issue, on small player-count matches it can really make them sort of boring.

So far, one of the better packs I've played. Can't wait to see what's in store for the next versions.

This was a really chill track to play on!

Directioning was good all round and the visuals were different enough to make the level feel unique WITH out being too distracting.

I do wish the Sneaker panels textures where consistent... as you use both in this level. Whilst red fits nicely with the textures used they aren't full-bright like the green ones which I felt would help so much more in sneaker panel visibility.

Speaking of visibility the inside areas are quite difficult to see, The simple layout does counter act this however so i wont knock on it too hard - prehaps in the more open section i can see some confusion.

Wow, what a blast.

Outset Broadcast Zone is incredibly spectacular, as well as having great music.

And Sakura Serenity Zone is beautiful with excellent music too. I have some minor concerns about the lack of signals in some turns, but otherwise, both maps are great.

Outset Broadcast Zone is a bit buggy, because there is an invisible wall blocking my way near the beginning, but otherwise it's an awesome mod!

Ran this pack with a couple of friends with no major gameplay mods other than Juicebox and here's what we thought:

An overall sentiment we shared was that the item spawners are pretty intrusive. It's mostly orbis placed right in the middle of the track which only really helps 1st defend themselves for free while the rest of the pack uses it to attack the occasional person nearby or dump them entirely for a chance at a better item. Either way it feels like Mario Kart with 1st having 6 bananas ready to block attacks with the way these orbi spawners litter the track.

These tracks also are lacking in cuts to take (or cuts that ARE there but are somewhat unnoticeable) with most having 1 or 2 cuts that barely saves any time and some feeling more like an alternate item spawner area rather than an actual cut, with the one exception being Jade Garden whose cut is so strong that it separates you from the main track and puts you in boost pad heaven while being completely untouchable. These lack of cuts really hurt when the tracks have a lot of boost pads or blue spheres to collect and there's no shortcuts to bring me back to the pack.

The usage of horizontal springs, when not being used in a friction setpiece, are either used exclusively to just be annoying hazards or... just there. I do admit that using springs as a hazard is a good thing and there ARE genuinely helpful usage of horizontal springs here and there, but there's moments of them being out of the way and not very impactful, good or bad (maybe they're recovery springs?), and moments where I'm asking if you really needed to put so many hazard springs there. For example, every Torii gate in Sakura Serenity has a black spring shooting you back as opposed to just bumping and taking the speed loss.

For some specific map criticisms, Molten Mankind's spot with the shoe spawners can be mowed pretty easily. The problem of supplying 1st with easily obtainable shoes every lap is mitigated by the fact that there's nowhere else to use shoes on that map and they'd be better off picking up the orbis for defense, anyways.

Outset Broadcast's lower level feels completely useless. There's a boost pad dropdown but the drop is so long that the shoes run out before you land and when you get out, you get shot into a wall (with springs, but you'll probably run into the wall where the boost pads are, anyways). You'd be way better off taking the top path which is pretty easy to take, despite the death springs, and you get 2 jawz to attack and defend (or just an item reroll) with each lap!

And Moonlit Aqueduct's 2 shortcuts come up way too soon for you to either register them being there or for your roulette wheel to stop spinning without holding the item button down to get an item as soon as possible. It's also just... a series of large, empty straights with some simple turns after the spring setpiece. Not sure how non-9 speed characters are supposed to thrive here.