Mario Kart 8 Review

I don't think I need to explain Mario Kart to you, so I'm only going to cover the new things here. The most new and interesting mechanic is anti-gravity, where you can drive along walls and upside down. It's an interesting concept that makes for the most interesting track design the series has seen yet. It even mixes up the mechanics where in anti-gravity you will attempt to crash into other racers and obstacles in the road, where previously you'd want to avoid collisions, here you actually get a speed boost. It adds a new layer to the game where if you and a foe are far behind first, you can actually work together by crashing into each other to nab first place. Game mechanics like Bikes, new playable ATVs, Coins, Hang Gliding  Underwater Driving and Customisable Karts, Wheels and Glidars, among others, all get brought back for a racing experience full of variety.

The character roster is a mixed bag I feel, there are 30 characters to play as (including the Mii, ugh) and although many are great, there seems to be a lot of filler characters due to time constraints on the game and it's easy to see. There are two, heavier metal reskins of Mario and Peach, five baby versions of existing characters characters and seven of Bowser's children taking up space which really decrease the diversity of races when 14 racers are so similar to others (fortunately I adore the Koopalings and have wanted to see them playable for a long time since their release on the NES, they're shown below). Fortunately fan-favourites like Shy Guy and Lakitu are here, so there is sill variety somewhat. Also the characters are wonderfully and smoothly animated and they really show their personality whist doing flips and tricks over ramps, laughing absolutely manically when slamming an opponent with a shell, or blowing a kiss and winking to the audience when finishing first, the game just has so much charm all the while playing at 60 frames-per second at 1080p.

Also counting Bowser, Koopa and Lakitu, and maybe even Yoshi if you want (but I won't), there are ten turtles in the game! And yes, you drive up and down that waterfall in the background.

The track selection is the same count as ever, 16 new and 16 revamped retro tracks from past games with the new mechanics 8 introduces.The tracks are the best in the series as all of the different types of gameplay can create some incredible track design, be it driving up and down a waterfall, through a bustling Airport or jumping from a plane atop a snowy mountain and finishing all the way at the bottom with a final ski jump. There's just so much variety here, and with the wonderful live orchestrated music. there's little to go wrong with here.

Overall Mario Kart 8 is a fantastic game that anyone can play, but it's brutal to master. There are a few nitpicks  for me such as the odd choice of characters in the roster, online voice chat being limited to lobbies only and Battle Mode being Balloon Battle only, whilst being played on the actual tracks rather than having dedicated courses to that mode. Even so, if you have a Wii U this game is a must-buy.

It gets a 9.5/ 10 from me.