Mario Kart 8
Location Played: Nintendo Wii U
Price: $59.99
Creator: Nintendo
Original Location: Nintendo Digital/Retail Wii U
Genre: Racing
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| Source: mariowiki.com |
Mario Kart 8, which launched on May 30th, is the Wii U’s BEST selling game. In one weekend, the game reached 1.2 million purchases, a hefty feat for Nintendo’s failing system. But is the game good enough? Let’s just try and find out, shall we?
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| Source: maroonersrock.com |
The first thing you want to do in this game is unlock and race. Good thing is, both are easy to come by to! Depending on the racing class you choose (50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror mode, which is unlocked later on), you’ll have to deal with different speeds and different difficulties. Both 50cc and 100cc are pretty easy, but 150cc is where the challenge begins. A veteran to the series like me would probably want to go here first. Racing itself if a blast! Each track is creative in it’s own way, especially with the anti-gravity twist to the series. From the stony ruins of Thwomp Ruins, to the sunny city of
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| Source: mynintendonews.com |
Toad Harbor, up through the high-in-the sky cloudy turns in Cloudtop Cruise, then , each track feels fresh and different. Some courses can be a bit on the boring side, the most notable in my eyes being Twisted Mansion, and the semi-lackluster Rainbow Road, but overall I believe the tracks themselves are perfect; especially like I mentioned before, with the inclusion of anti-gravity. Plus, the game itself LOOKS and SOUNDS amazing. There are little details scattered about in the game, like flights sending off to other courses in Sunshine Airport, and each little brick is drawn in on other courses, too. Besides the excellent songs for courses like Mount Wario and N64 Rainbow Road, there are even some audio easter eggs. Shy Guy Falls, for instance, has the Shy Guys singing while they mine! Adorable! Not to mention that the Retro courses look AMAZING. Tick-Tock Clock hardly looks like it’s original form on the Nintendo DS, and is a bit more difficult. GBA Mario Circuit, such a simple course original, has part of the course SPRINGING out of the ground for an anti-gravity section, too. It’s crazy how much was changed for the better!
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| Source: mariowiki.com |
Speaking of anti-gravity, I actually think it’s a pretty interesting mechanic! While the added feature of
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| Source: mariopartylegacy.com |
bumping into people giving you a speed boost, which is called a speed-boost in the game, it’s really not used too much. Often times, the players will be spread out of the beginning race “cluster” by the time you reach the anti-gravity portions of the track, making it difficult to bump into players and get that boost. But when you do… MAN is it refreshing! Plus, while you might not be able to bump into PLAYERS on the anti-gravity turns, you can nudge into these little spinners on certain courses like Electrodrome and Rainbow Road itself. Plus, the new items are super fun! The Boomerang, an item them you can fire and have it return up to three times, is really fun to use! The Piranha Plant has you having a random boost every couple of seconds, but can allow you to chomp on your foes and obstacles on the course. The final one is the Super Horn, and with proper timing, can allow you to break a blue shell. Both the blue shell and the Super Horn are rather infrequent, but I’m GLAD with that, really! With all these changes, I say this game is the most balanced Mario Kart to date.
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| Source: fronttowardsgamer.com |
While a lot of people like to nudge off on the fact that the character selection is boring, I think it’s fine. The amount of diversity you can put into the game is great, really. Pink Gold Peach and Baby Rosalina were… unexpected, but I’m perfectly fine with them now that I’m used to them. Well… maybe not Pink Gold Peach. Heck, I’m still not used to Metal Mario, and he’s been in the kart-racing games for three or four YEARS. But since the characters share their stats with someone else, you can just switch to someone you like that has identical stats (like Mario and Luigi have the same stats). Honestly, I don’t like people complaining that there are too many babies, on the topic of characters. While, yes, five babies is a bit of overkill, we have NINE characters that fall under the “Koopa” race: Bowser, Koopa Troopa, and the newcomers, the Koopalings. Mind you, that’s a LOT of koopas compared to babies. While, I’m not too much a fan of the way I can group characters together so easily, I GUESS I’m okay with it.
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| Source: mariopartylegacy.com |
But characters aren’t the games WORST feature. I’m sure you’ve already seen it already, but battle mode is a MESS. While the game goes back to the original Balloon Battle rules (once you lose three balloons you’re out) that doesn’t mean they go all in. Once you get knocked out, you can still play. You don’t lose anymore balloons, and players can’t see you. Now, you are a ghost who can blast bananas, bob-ombs, and green shells while the players are none the wiser. Make you lose balloons to someone you can’t even SEE. While I don’t actually run into that problem a lot, it’s still on the annoying side. The REAL problem with battle mode is that there aren’t any arenas anymore. Sorry all you fans of Cookie Land or Funky Stadium, sayonara to those arenas! This time around, Nintendo has decided to use minimally-modified messes of tracks, eight of them in total. Some of them are actually pretty fun to play on. Two of them, Yoshi Valley and Toad Harbor, are the two best for your balloon-popping experience. Mario Circuit and Sherbet Land are much too big, whilst Dry Dry Desert has too many sand-traps for any real fun. Moo Moo Meadows, Donut Plains 3, and Toad’s Turnpike are the last three, and they are fine, but it doesn’t compare to a standard arena. These courses are still too big anyways, so getting to your opponents is a challenge in it of itself. There’s nothing easy about this mode, and easily is where Mario Kart 8 falls flat on it’s face.
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| Source: neogaf.com |
The other two features of the game are multiplayer and online play. Both are really fun, but don’t need too much changing since there isn’t much change between previous console Mario Karts. Tournaments in Online Mode are excellent though. Basically, they are the GOOD parts of Mario Kart 7’s
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| Source: bitcrossentertainment.wordpress.com |
communities mixed in with some excellent scheduling options. Plus, due to you not having a selection of all the courses on Online Mode entirely, rooms aren’t filled with people only choosing Sweet Sweet Canyon or Bowser’s Castle. Now, you can only choose from three randomly selected courses at a time or you can just pick Random, which will just select any ol’ course from the 32 available if you are selected. If you want a choice of all 32 at a time, try playing in Friend mode. It’s really fun, and you can only play with your closest buddies you’ve added through your Nintendo Network. Multiplayer has never been so great!
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| Source: marios-hat.com |
Mario Kart TV is the LAST feature of Mario Kart 8. Basically it’s a replay system for the game, meant to highlight moments in a race. At first, I thought MKTV was pretty boring, but I uploaded one video I made and I really like it! It’s pretty simple, but it’s really fun to share over the internet. You can set videos between 30 second, 45 second, 60 second, or full-race intervals and share them over Miiverse or even YouTube (but for YouTube, full race time intervals aren’t present). Each highlight reel allows you edit who it focuses on, whether it be one player or many, and what it will actually focus on. Whether it be some sleek drifting, some item usage, or just a grab bag of everything, you can make lots of reels all from one race! This one below is one with me using my Mii as well as focus on my two favorite characters, Rosalina and Larry Koopa.
Rating:
9.0/10 Anti-Gravity Spins
Mario Kart 8 is excellent really. While I’m not having as much fun as I did in Super Mario 3D World, I am CERTAINLY having more replay fun than I did with that game. Mario Kart 8’s racing is much more balanced, and despite Battle Mode and the roster being a bit lackluster, it’s just a speedbump to run over for this game. If you want some excellent racing experiences, especially with friends and family, this is the game to buy for your Wii U!
NintendoSpot 