The power of Mario Kart is undeniable.
First released as a Wii U title almost ten years ago MK8 has been enjoyed by casual and competitive fans nonstop. It is one of the bestselling games ever and I think the best selling switch game. It's one of the games most present outside of internet gaming spaces, with parties, workplaces and even dating apps becoming instruments for people to boast about their Mario Kart prowess. All this, I have never played the game until 2 weeks ago. I bought the game and the dlc on a whim after seeing it on sale. For 2 weeks this was all I played, it had me completely entranced in its charm. After completing all the 150cc, mirror and 200cc courses, I can safely say that the game is great. It is a fun time full of polish and charm that can only be described as Nintendo. It is very easy to say that it is a perfect game at first glance. Unfortunately, it is when Mario Kart 8's system are thoroughly tested that the cracks start to show.
Don't get me wrong, Mario Kart 8 gets most things right especially where it counts. It has a fantastic cast of characters, the best out of the entire series. It has some clones between the metal, gold and pink gold variants but it has just about everyone I can think of. It even has Link! Something I never imagined happening. I personally really love that the squidlings are in. The only characters I could see adding more value the game would be Diddy Kong, Funky Kong and Kirby. The courses themselves are phenomenal. The new tracks in particular are so amazing that I found myself bewildered by the level of detail and imagination on display. Not only that but the tracks themselves are developed in such a way that each one provides a memorable experience. The remixed tracks from older games are fantastic as well. I particularly love how much care went into reimagining the GBA game tracks from the fairly basic Super Circuit to the highly creative ones we got in MK8. I want to make special shoutout the GBA Mario Circuit that got remixed. It's a traditional track by Mario Kart standards, but something about the way the curves are designed make so much fun to drift and blast away. And my god, Dolphin Shoals; what a masterpiece of a track. Flying in and out of the water with accompanying musical changes, boosting along the big eel, and that song. That freaking song. The Dolphin Shoals is a crowning achievement and this game's peak.
I wish I could say that the game is without faults but that is unfortunately not true. Game balance is big issue. Drifting, or mini turbo, is clearly the most important factor in racing. It affects how soon after a drift you develop sparks, how fast your sparks change color and how long you stay boosting after you release the drift. It is of paramount importance. You're basically drifting the entire game so using a build with poor drift is essentially setting yourself up for failure, even if you have a faster top speed build. That immediately makes 66% of the cast, most of the karts, and like 99% of the wheels and gliders irrelevant. The simple fact is that Mario Kart 8 is built around drifting and mini turbos. You're incentivized to use builds that maximize on those stats based on pure course design. This leads to characters being straight up better than others. Bowser/Wario/DK will always be worse than the baby characters because they have a significantly worse mini turbo stat. The heavier characters are faster, but Mario Kart 8 is a game about drifting, not speed. Not to mention the lighter characters will have much higher acceleration, meaning that they will be able to reach top speed faster, which is a big deal when you're constantly getting hit by items. This is already an issue in 150cc, but the introduction of 200cc makes it even more problematic. In 200cc you are literally flying across the racetrack. You can quite literally finish a lap before the song finishes looping. If you're not super careful, a simple curve can send your kart careening off the track and to your doom. In speeds this fast, handling is super important. Otherwise, you need to brake and slow down to take the curve safely. And guess which character and karts have the best handling? The exact same with the best mini turbo! So now there's even less incentive to play heavy characters. If you play any 200cc online lobby you'll quickly see that everyone uses the same 4ish characters, which is a real shame given how impressive the cast is. One last thing I'll mention is the content from the booster pass. Now, MK8 has a lot of content to go through. By the end of the game's lifecycle there will be about 90+ courses, that is a looot. Unfortunately, it seems like Nintendo is content in providing mediocre courses just fluff up the number. About half of the courses we have gotten from the booster pass have been from Mario Kart Tour, the mobile game. And that's fine, but these tracks more often than not are among the worst in the game. They are samey, overly complicated and the songs are bland. I'm writing this review at the time of version 2.3, so maybe that will change by the time the game finishes updating.
Complaints aside, I had an absolute blast with Mario Kart 8. Probably my favorite and the only one I seriously engaged with. The music is incredible and charm factor is off the charts. It's a gorgeous, highly polished romp that is easy to pick up and always a blast. Just as long as you're not taking it too seriously.
First released as a Wii U title almost ten years ago MK8 has been enjoyed by casual and competitive fans nonstop. It is one of the bestselling games ever and I think the best selling switch game. It's one of the games most present outside of internet gaming spaces, with parties, workplaces and even dating apps becoming instruments for people to boast about their Mario Kart prowess. All this, I have never played the game until 2 weeks ago. I bought the game and the dlc on a whim after seeing it on sale. For 2 weeks this was all I played, it had me completely entranced in its charm. After completing all the 150cc, mirror and 200cc courses, I can safely say that the game is great. It is a fun time full of polish and charm that can only be described as Nintendo. It is very easy to say that it is a perfect game at first glance. Unfortunately, it is when Mario Kart 8's system are thoroughly tested that the cracks start to show.
Don't get me wrong, Mario Kart 8 gets most things right especially where it counts. It has a fantastic cast of characters, the best out of the entire series. It has some clones between the metal, gold and pink gold variants but it has just about everyone I can think of. It even has Link! Something I never imagined happening. I personally really love that the squidlings are in. The only characters I could see adding more value the game would be Diddy Kong, Funky Kong and Kirby. The courses themselves are phenomenal. The new tracks in particular are so amazing that I found myself bewildered by the level of detail and imagination on display. Not only that but the tracks themselves are developed in such a way that each one provides a memorable experience. The remixed tracks from older games are fantastic as well. I particularly love how much care went into reimagining the GBA game tracks from the fairly basic Super Circuit to the highly creative ones we got in MK8. I want to make special shoutout the GBA Mario Circuit that got remixed. It's a traditional track by Mario Kart standards, but something about the way the curves are designed make so much fun to drift and blast away. And my god, Dolphin Shoals; what a masterpiece of a track. Flying in and out of the water with accompanying musical changes, boosting along the big eel, and that song. That freaking song. The Dolphin Shoals is a crowning achievement and this game's peak.
I wish I could say that the game is without faults but that is unfortunately not true. Game balance is big issue. Drifting, or mini turbo, is clearly the most important factor in racing. It affects how soon after a drift you develop sparks, how fast your sparks change color and how long you stay boosting after you release the drift. It is of paramount importance. You're basically drifting the entire game so using a build with poor drift is essentially setting yourself up for failure, even if you have a faster top speed build. That immediately makes 66% of the cast, most of the karts, and like 99% of the wheels and gliders irrelevant. The simple fact is that Mario Kart 8 is built around drifting and mini turbos. You're incentivized to use builds that maximize on those stats based on pure course design. This leads to characters being straight up better than others. Bowser/Wario/DK will always be worse than the baby characters because they have a significantly worse mini turbo stat. The heavier characters are faster, but Mario Kart 8 is a game about drifting, not speed. Not to mention the lighter characters will have much higher acceleration, meaning that they will be able to reach top speed faster, which is a big deal when you're constantly getting hit by items. This is already an issue in 150cc, but the introduction of 200cc makes it even more problematic. In 200cc you are literally flying across the racetrack. You can quite literally finish a lap before the song finishes looping. If you're not super careful, a simple curve can send your kart careening off the track and to your doom. In speeds this fast, handling is super important. Otherwise, you need to brake and slow down to take the curve safely. And guess which character and karts have the best handling? The exact same with the best mini turbo! So now there's even less incentive to play heavy characters. If you play any 200cc online lobby you'll quickly see that everyone uses the same 4ish characters, which is a real shame given how impressive the cast is. One last thing I'll mention is the content from the booster pass. Now, MK8 has a lot of content to go through. By the end of the game's lifecycle there will be about 90+ courses, that is a looot. Unfortunately, it seems like Nintendo is content in providing mediocre courses just fluff up the number. About half of the courses we have gotten from the booster pass have been from Mario Kart Tour, the mobile game. And that's fine, but these tracks more often than not are among the worst in the game. They are samey, overly complicated and the songs are bland. I'm writing this review at the time of version 2.3, so maybe that will change by the time the game finishes updating.
Complaints aside, I had an absolute blast with Mario Kart 8. Probably my favorite and the only one I seriously engaged with. The music is incredible and charm factor is off the charts. It's a gorgeous, highly polished romp that is easy to pick up and always a blast. Just as long as you're not taking it too seriously.