Generally
I wait until I have beaten a game to give you the review, which is why you have
yet to hear anything about Darksiders 2
and Wonderful 101 (I’m working on
them, I promise). With Mario Kart 8, I feel like I have played
enough of it, despite just recently purchasing it, to do the game justice with
a review.
I
love Mario Kart, my kids love Mario Kart, and while I wanted this game
from the moment it was announced, sixty dollars is a steep price to pay. Luckily, my brother brought to my attention
that if you bought Mario Kart 8 and
registered it on Club Nintendo by July 31, you got a free game (a $50
value!). This was something that I found
hard to pass up. Not to mention the fact
that I was able to knock twenty-five dollars off the price by cashing in some
of my Gamestop points, and I was sold.
Two WiiU games for thirty-five dollars?
I doubt I’ll ever see Mario Kart
for that much, much less two games (I chose Pikmin
3, that’s on the list for review as well).
I jumped at the opportunity.
I went
home and fired up the game and it was like an old friend greeted me. I had Mario
Kart for the Wii, though that was stolen from me along with the system last
year, and I have the 3DS version as well (one of Logan’s favorite games). Hell, I remember when I was younger, Mario Kart on the SNES was the only game
my father would play with us, so to say that Mario Kart and I have quite the history would be an understatement. Nintendo games in general and Mario games specifically are the kinds
of games that are perfect for families, perfect games to share with your
children, and because of that I would have recommended this game before I even
started playing it.
Now
that I have played through a good portion of it (six different “cups” totaling
twenty-four races) I can easily state that this is some of the most fun I have
had playing the WiiU. Now, I’ll be
honest with you, I haven’t played the WiiU much, and I sure as shit haven’t
explored much in the way of its full capabilities yet either, but Mario Kart 8 might just wake me up in
that respect. I have only played New Super Mario Brothers WiiU and Wonderful 101 on the system and while
both were nice games, they didn’t really overwhelm me in any way. Mario
Kart 8 did that in spades though. I
was blown away from my very first race in terms of the graphics and the
gameplay. The graphics were beautiful,
taking full advantage of the WiiU’s HD graphics to make every bit of the
scenery as vibrant and breathtaking as possible. The controls are easy to use and respond well
regardless of whether you are using the traditional joystick method or the
motion sensor (both options available on the gamepad).
The
major difference (selling point?) of Mario
Kart 8 is the inclusion of “hover craft” mode. Unfortunately I didn’t see this utilized to
any great degree within the races I participated in. There are some instances where you can drive
along the walls, usually collecting coins or speed bursts along the way, but
more often than not, that mechanic is utilized along the general track, and
because you are looking at the race from the perspective of being behind the
racer, it doesn’t change much. The
initial view of the racetrack is impressive, seeing the track go from
horizontal to vertical and back again, but beyond that it doesn’t give you a
different feel when you’re actually racing.
The
courses in Mario Kart 8 are
interesting and inventive. They feel
similar to other Mario Kart courses
but only because of the amount of tracks I have raced on since the inception of
the series. The construction and slight
nuances in the new courses are wonderful to behold (I’ve run into more than one
wall while marveling at my surroundings).
As in every newer Mario Kart,
the tracks are split between brand new tracks and old tracks, reimagined for
the new system. This is one of the first
times I have seen those tracks completely reimagined. Usually it’s just a matter of updating the graphics
and making things a bit smoother for the new system. With this edition of the game it looks like
Nintendo upped their game and recreated the standard tracks, using the same
premise as the old tracks but completely reinventing them so they feel brand
new.
Mario Kart 8, like all of the Mario Kart games is chock full of
replayability. Beyond just the standard
of there being no real end to the game, no end boss or something of that
nature, Nintendo gave you goals, things to unlock as you progress within the
game. The inclusion of coins on the
track give you ways to unlock parts for your carts (as well as giving you a
speed boost on the track itself) making the customization of your ride a
constant thing. In order to see how this
customization effects the attributes of your kart, just hit the + button. The ability to unlock other characters is fun
as well. My wife and I, even if we
didn’t want to race the next race, couldn’t wait to see who we unlocked by
beating the previous “cup”.
I’ll
have to admit, the best part of this game was that I was able to bring it home,
pop it in the system, give a controller to my wife and five minutes later,
after choosing our characters and some cart customization we were literally off
to the races. We played for a good sixty
to ninety minutes and had a great time doing it. She even won a couple races!
Whether
you have kids or not, Mario Kart 8 is
a perfect addition to your WiiU collection.
If you don’t have a WiiU yet, this is the game you were waiting for,
trust me.
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