• Welcome to DestroyRepeat - The #1 place to talk about Video Games. Why not take a minute to register for your own free account now? Registration is completely free and will enable the use of all site features including the ability to join in or create your own discussions.

Mario Kart 8 Hands-on: The game the Wii needs

Welcome to Destroy Repeat

We are the gaming and tech community for you

aNi

Well-Known Member

With the Wii U struggling, the need for Mario Kart 8 to perform for the console is high.

But perhaps the best thing about Mario Kart 8 during our afternoon with the game is that it never once felt like it was a sales pitch; it's just wonderfully refined, confidently executed and a delight to play.

With stunning design and impeccable polish buffed into every course, kart and racer, Mario Kart 8 looks the part.

More impressively, the locked 60 frames-per-second visuals are as slick as motor oil, really improving the flow of the race, especially as you enter faster Grand Prix disciplines.

With shells flying, rockets blasting and turbo boosts aplenty, you've also got the new boomerang and piranha plant abilities, the latter of which sees your character holding a surprisingly adorable red venus flytrap as it snaps out at your on-track opponents, in an attempt to gobble up their race progress.

As with previous Mario Kart games, there are 32 new and classic tracks, an even split of fresh and familiar. And as always, even the older courses from all previous eras of Nintendo have been refined and play as well as their new counterparts.

The result is true cohesion, and anyone that hasn't played Mario Kart - where have you been? - probably couldn't tell that these courses were over a decade old by now.


Mario Kart 8 continues the trio of land, sea and air variety established in 3DS entry Mario Kart 7 but adds in anti-gravity just for safe measure.

Hitting opponents during these topsy-turvy sections give a Spin Turbo boost to catapult you forward, and while the inclusion of anti-gravity doesn't particularly add much to the actual formula of racing, it punctuates each lap with mushroom-boosted dodgem carnage for a cheeky boost off your opponents, as well as even more optional routes.

In one of our favourite new courses, Shy Guy Falls, Nintendo displays the inventive thrills it's so renowned for; the glorious ascension of a gigantic waterfall, boosting up using the turbo pads that are cascading toward you, before a quick rotation downward like a Niagra rollercoaster that results in a turbo boosted fling across a grand canyon.


Each course packs moments that feel relatively brief, lasting only a few seconds at a time, but the beauty of Mario Kart 8 is how these bite-sized moments make every lap exciting, even after a dozen, two dozen, maybe even a hundred times.

In Twisted Mansion, a Boo-haunted stately manor, Mario Kart 8 ramps up the challenge during a four player race. The interior is dark, beautifully atmospheric and difficult to manoeuvre without rubbing up against the walls and losing speed.

Spectral nuisances attempt to get in your way, and an exterior section packs haunted statues slamming down on the course with ferocious force; one mistimed pass and you'll slide down the leaderboards like a bogey on a window.

The attention to detail throughout the entire of Mario Kart 8 is stunning. The Mario Kart Stadium is a cacophony of lights and sounds, as fireworks explode with dazzling brilliance overhead.

There's a real buzz of F1, and it's like racing your own cartoon version of Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit; a glitzy highlight on the real-life F1 calendar. There are sponsor vinyls, tire branding and everything in between.


It's the most realistic Mario Kart 8 yet, if you could believe it.

All this excitement is compounded by the insanely funny, endlessly entertaining and competition-inducing highlight reel.

Editable and uploadable onto the Miiverse, the game provides a perfectly judged replay of events, presumably with Nintendo's magi-algorithm whirring under the hood of the Wii U.

Take one particular replay. We sat watching the grid line-up take off towards the first corner. The first glimpse of the action is a close-up front-on shot of Princess Peach sat out in front, comfortably leading the first-corner mayhem.

She's not particularly doing much, but before you know it the depth of field shifts suddenly, revealing a grinning Mario sat three places back. There's a weaponised shell fast approaching, and the red plumber's devious intents are revealed.

In a quick turn of events, Peach is sent careering into the barriers. You can even whack it all into glorious slow-motion at the easy flick of a stick, should you want to elongate your opponents' demise for victorious personal pleasure.


Mario Kart 8 is mostly a collection of stuff you've seen before, but it's pulled off so confidently that it feels fresh and exciting.

The new courses range from very good to excellent, and the refinements made to old courses, as well as anti-gravity, new powers, a gorgeous visual upgrade and the immediate ease of the highlight reel make for perhaps the most instantly enjoyable Mario Kart 8 game yet.

It never feels like a sales pitch, but even a couple of months from launch it stands among Nintendo's most persuasive dealers.

Source: DigitalSpy
 

Attachments

  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-01.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-01.jpg
    82.5 KB · Views: 8
  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-02.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-02.jpg
    103.8 KB · Views: 8
  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-03.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-03.jpg
    83.4 KB · Views: 8
  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-04.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-04.jpg
    96.9 KB · Views: 8
  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-05.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-05.jpg
    73.3 KB · Views: 8
  • gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-06.jpg
    gaming-mario-kart-8-screenshot-06.jpg
    81 KB · Views: 8
Last edited by a moderator:

KiTamarani

New Member
With the new Itemusing and so called new "balancing" it will be more harder for good players not to get raped by: 1. overpowered items , 2. simple red-/greenshells because you can't hold 2 items simultaneausly anymore - so no more defense , every second item will hit you (if the shell-AI is the same/improved like in MK7)
It will be hard for competetive Players i think because it's more casualized so "anybody has a chance to get first, regardless if you are a pro or noob"

But yes, it looks great ^^
 

aNi

Well-Known Member
With the new Itemusing and so called new "balancing" it will be more harder for good players not to get raped by: 1. overpowered items , 2. simple red-/greenshells because you can't hold 2 items simultaneausly anymore - so no more defense , every second item will hit you (if the shell-AI is the same/improved like in MK7)
It will be hard for competetive Players i think because it's more casualized so "anybody has a chance to get first, regardless if you are a pro or noob"

But yes, it looks great ^^

I agree to some extent. I'm not sure about all the Anti-grav stuff either.
 

KiTamarani

New Member
i think its in first case just for the look, of course you have some changes in Gameplay on Antigravity-Parts , but i think they won't affect the gameplay that much - the Boosts while hitting another player are interesting a bit.
As i could see in the trailers, the alternative paths with Antigravity are longer than the "normal" ways when you have a choice...
 

Like DestroyRepeat!

Advertisements

Top