Console: Nintendo Wii U
Genre: Kart Racing
Release Date: May 30th, 2014
Date Reviewed: June 20th, 2014
I’ve been a big fan of the entire Mario Kart series since the very first one on the SNES. I have played and owned all of them at some point. I even enjoyed Mario Kart: Double Dash immensely for the Nintendo Gamecube. I just recently bought a Wii U to add to my collection and decided to buy the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition. I to this day love my new Wii U and the games I have for it. Enjoy the review!
Gameplay:
Mario Kart 8 (MK8) is a breath of fresh air to the
series. The very first Mario Kart game to be HD on the big screen! MK8
plays like any other Mario Kart game. There is a great new mechanic in
MK8 that adds a “WOW” factor to the races.
The new mechanic is anti-gravity. With this mechanic you can basically
race in any direction! You drive upside down, around in loops, etc… This
adds new dynamic to the Mario Kart. With this new mechanic they can
create new and refreshing courses to future
Mario Kart games. Even with Mario Kart 8, these courses are really
enjoyable. MK8 also offers some new items to use against other racers.
One of these new items is the boomerang. Using this item allows you to,
you guessed it, throw a boomerang ahead or behind
you and it comes right back to you. You can throw the boomerang up to 3
times in front of you or behind you. When you throw it, the boomerang
will go ahead and then circle back to you allowing you to throw it
again. Very handy item if you have the accuracy
to use it like the green shell. Another new item added to the game is
the “8” item. When you use this you will get 8 items that circle around
you. Some of these items include a star, a bomb omb, a banana and a
green shell. Whichever item is in front of you
circling, you will use that item first.
Anti Gravity is the new Mechanic.
Coins make their way back into MK8 as well. These
coins will help you unlock new karts, wheels, and parasails. There are a
lot to unlock with these coins so make sure you collect them. You can
collect up to 10 per race. Drift boosting also
makes a return to MK8 but it is much easier to do this time around.
Simply press and hold the right of left trigger to drift and continue to
hold it to get a boost when you let go of it. There are also many
different characters that you can unlock in MK8.
Unlocking characters is extremely easy. By completing courses and
earning cups you will always unlock a random character. Some of these
characters include Rosalina, Toadette, and all of the Koopa Kids. The
Wii U tablet can be used as a controller or can be
used as a secondary screen which displays the race track and all of the
racers. The same modes are back as well including Grand Prix, Versus,
Time Trials, and Battle. All of these can be played online while Time
Trials gives you uploaded ghost data to race
against.
Online racing in MK8 is fantastic. The Wii version
had a lot of lag issues while racing online. MK8 puts you up against 11
other people per race and I have not experienced any lagging or hiccups
in my connection while racing. If you need
something to do besides earning trophies in Grand Prix then give the
online modes a try. It is great if you are racing competitively or just
for fun. You start off with 1000 points and depending how well you do
you will earn a certain amount of points. But
if you’re coming in 10th, 11th, or 12th
all of the time then you will slowly start to lose points. It’s a good
system especially if you are very good at the game. What I mean by that
is Nintendo tries to promote “just have
fun” feel online instead of “you have 18 losses and 2 wins, you suck”.
This way people don’t really care and race to have fun. At the time of
this review my score is at 1600.
Awesome character Roster.
Overall reaction for MK8 has been very positive for
me. I am still having a lot of fun with the game just by racing online
and with communities I know and enjoy playing with. I am very happy that
you are able to join communities to play
with your friends, live streamers, youtubers, etc… MK8 is very fun,
beautiful, fast paced and cheerful as it always has been. This is a
great edition to the series and probably one of the best since Mario
Kart: 64.
Graphics/Visuals:
MK8 is the first Mario Kart game to enter the HD
market with Wii U being able to do so now. The characters look so good;
all of them have received a major HD upgrade. The character animations
are very good as well. The biggest thing you
will notice when playing MK8 are the environments of the courses. I
have caught myself multiple times not paying attention to the races
themselves because I was just amazed by the environment. They are very
colorful, detailed and look outstanding. The visual
effects are extremely well done and the game runs incredibly smooth. No
lag, no frame drops, just smooth gameplay all the way through.
Soundtrack/Music:
The second you load up MK8 the music starts up. The
menu music is fast paced and sounds great. Gets your adrenaline going.
The menu music has a nice rock feeling to it with small sections with an
electric guitar. Compared to MK7, the music
in MK8 is much much better. The new courses are no remixed versions of
older tracks. All music in the new tracks is brand new editions to the
series. The music in the older tracks from previous games are the same
obviously but sound so much better and updated
to today’s standards.
Menu music is sooooooooooo good.
Final Thoughts:
MK8 is a breath of fresh air. Yes it remains to be
basically the same as the previous games but the game has been amped up
to HD quality with a brand new anti-gravity mechanic that adds a lot to
the game itself. With the amazing quality,
to great online play MK8 is definitely a breath of fresh air. You will
enjoy this game immensely with endless game play. I highly recommend
this game to everyone.
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