Review: Mario Kart 8

Release Date: Out now
Platforms: Wii U
Price: £39.99
Developer: Nintendo, Namco Bandai Games 
Website: mariokart8.nintendo.com

I hate driving games, as I don’t understand cars and I take corners in them like Aryton Senna. That said, I adore the Mario Kart series, and the latest entry has done nothing to change my mind. Mario Kart is a bit of fun for the casual player, but serious business for the pros, and it has done more to shift Wii Us than the entire Nintendo publicity team. Indeed, the release of this game has increased Wii U sales by 666%, and that ought to indicate something about the quality of this latest masterpiece.

The controls are simple, and you’d pick them up straight away – for the Gamepad basics, A accelerates and B brakes. You steer with the left joystick and power slide with the shoulder buttons. The Gamepad also functions as a map screen, with shortcuts hidden everywhere for you to find. I was going around one track for ages, replaying, desperate to find the path that lead to a speed boost placed tantalizingly in view but just out of reach.

The game follows the same formula, but with a few new additions – there are a lot of characters (although there are some odd ones. The Mushroom Kingdom is packed – give Fawful, E. Gadd or a Boo a shot before Baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach) and customization options. There are some new items; the Boomerang Flower, a projectile you can re-use a couple of times, the Piranha Plant, which bites at racers and coins in front of the user, and the Super Horn, which has the power to repel blue shells. Then we have the game’s big new feature: anti-gravity. You’ll be racing upside-down and on the sides of tracks as much as on top of them. It adds for some trippy dynamics, but a new aspect to the game, and I think it’s incredibly fun – on tracks like Toad’s Turnpike, where you’ll otherwise be stuck in slow traffic, dodging and swerving as much as you are racing to the finish, it’s invaluable as well.

The game offers 32 tracks (regular Mario Karters, rest assured we have a new Bowser’s Castle and Rainbow Road), with drives through about every terrain you can think of. Personal favourites include Cloudtop Cruise, a drive through the stratosphere complete with beanstalk and lightning, and Grumble Volcano, a course so fiendishly tricky that it must’ve been created after taking one of those Guatemalan insanity peppers. The fun comes in working your way through the difficulties, unlocking the different cups and proving yourself the best of the best. Only a real man gets three gold stars on every course at 150cc. Then, you can watch it all over again, using the highlight reel function, and the attention to detail in these videos is staggering.

When you’re a bit tired of racing, head over to Battle Mode – I particularly enjoy Balloon Battle, in which you are given three balloons and three points. Get hit with an item, you lose one of each, and you gain a point for every opponent you hit. Imagine the satisfaction that comes with striking down your opponent with a well-calculated green shell, and before racing around the course to do it again. This has been changed from previous games, losing battle arenas in favour of adapted tracks, and it is worse off for it, but I still had a good laugh playing it. If that doesn’t take your fancy, Time Trial mode can pit you against ghosts and hone your skills so you can blitz around tracks like a shot. Then we retain a feature from Mario Kart 7 – as you collect coins, you unlock new customization options for your kart (bodies, wheels and gliders) and acquiring them all will take you a good amount of time as well.

Then we have the game’s big new feature: anti-gravity. You’ll be racing upside-down and on the sides of tracks as much as on top of them

A lot of the fun in the Mario Kart series comes from multiplayer, and this entry does not disappoint. As fun as it is to beat a computer player, it doesn’t compare to the joy that comes with shelling a relative or a stranger across the world and prying first place from their grasp. Online mode functions as you would expect – there were a few moments of lack, but nothing noticeable enough to ruin your experience. There is an odd system where tracks are chosen from three options, and then at random as opposed to a majority vote, but after the fiasco of Wuhu Mountain Loop after everyone discovered the glitchy shortcut, I shan’t complain too much.

It’s Mario Kart – in the eyes of many a gamer, that is recommendation enough. It is great fun, with a score that could be up there with Nintendo’s best, a blistering sense of speed and such lovely graphics that it is a treat for the eyes as much as for the soul. It’s something you will keep coming back to, and you won’t be doing so with a heavy heart. Ultimately, I can’t make you buy this game, but I can tell you that if you don’t, you’ll be missing out on one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of this decade.

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