How is Mario Kart 8 a disappointment for some gamers?

Eventhough I was only disappointed with the Battle Mode, overall, I am quite satisfied with Mario Kart 8. But for some gamers who hare long-time fans of Mario Kart, they see the eight game in the series as a disappointment. How so?

@onesiphorus: Not sure, ive played Mario Kart series for awhile and Mario Kart 8 is easily my favorite racing game of all time.

I really enjoyed it. One of the best games on the system

I think most people agree that MK8 is the best in the series.

I was gonna say, the Battle mode. That is the one disappointment for me. Besides that it's a fantastic Mario Kart game. I hope for the next one, that they bring back a Battle Mode.

I loved 8. Not a disappointment at all for me. DD is still my favorite in the series tho.

dissapointed for me is only carry 1 item....sometimes that item is a coin!

graphics - 10

racing - 9

battle mode- garbage

online - 8

Well, the most disappointing thing about it is it's crappy battle mode. I'm a huge fan of battle mode and when battle mode is done right like in Mario Kart 64, I think that it is even more fun than the racing mode, so the crappy battle mode that Nintendo gave us in Mario Kart 8 is a huge strike against it. I'm seriously angry at Nintendo for what they did to battle mode in this game; I expect better from Nintendo than this lazy effort and then they even had an opportunity to fix it with DLC, but they still left it as garbage.

The character roster was also disappointing compared to some past games.

The game had terrible item balance. Getting nothing but coins when in first place is annoying and it sucks that they removed the fake item box.

I felt that you recover too quickly after falling off of a track in this game which makes me worry less about falling off the track since the punishment isn't as big of a deal as it was in past games.

I was kind of disappointed with the tracks too. Sure, they looked cool, but I felt that they were lacking in Mario related hazards that provide that Mario Kart charm and chaos that makes other Mario Kart games so much fun.

Personally I found the physics to be a little heavy compared to previous games. Mind you, I still love MK8. It's just not my favourite due to the physics.

Also, the item balance is a little weird. Particularly, the game makes it so that the item you get will be the same as the people around you (not always, but often). This is lame as oftentimes, everyone will just cancel each other out since everyone has the same item.

@onesiphorus: It is? Who? I've been a huge Mario Kart fan since the original and I've bought and played the hell out of all of the console MK games. MK8 is easily the best MK game of them all. Anyone who is "disappointed" clearly hasn't played (or has forgotten) the crap fest that is MK64.

But in all fairness, I've only played the consoles versions and not the handheld. Maybe there is handheld MK that is better?

Battle Mode is unbelievably disappointing. Mario Kart DS did so much right with the Battle System/Coin Runner etc.

Count me as someone who is disappointed with Mario Kart 8. And I strongly disagree with Mario Kart 64 being a crap fest. Mario Kart 64 is actually my favorite Mario Kart game since it has by far the best battle mode.

Only able to carry 1 item, not enough races/not enough really memorable tracks (also too many rehashes of the old races), terrible battle mode, item frustration (get a star or speed boost and you hardly move up the race field). Those are my main complaints.

It's safe to say for single player, Mario Kart 8 met expectations. The customization wasn't as deep as I would like and the game lacked the charm of the originals imho.

I also think the game felt too similar to previous entries in the series (the DS ones), so I was a bit bored with it tbh.

It's a solid entry, but it doesn't do anything new/interesting that keeps me hooked. I could see if you're newer to the series how you may think it's the best thing ever. I've been playing since the original game and still find it to be the best.

I liked what I played of it (hammered and with a group of people). It felt more fair than Wii, although I still think Double Dash and DS are my two favorites in the series.

Because it became painfully obvious how much they dumbed down the game and made it too easy to suffer penalties or fail in a significant manner.

I think 8 is a really good game. The tracks are excellent and there are a good number of them, especially when you count in the DLC. It's easy to see why people would be disappointed with Battle Mode. I mean, it's just plain lazy.

Battle mode sucks, but really, if I wanted car combat, I'd play Twisted Metal or games of it's ilk, so... eh.

Ugh, Mk64 was a snooze-fest.

It's mainly because of the battle mode...I still don't understand why Nintendo can't return to the style of 64 and Double Dash, especially the latter. Bomb-omb blast was always my favorite!

@bowserjr123: I'm kinda happy they dont, I never liked Battle Mode.

@iandizion713: Battle mode was the shit back in the day, so many great memories with my friends. I would love to see an updated split screen battle mode (done with the right courses) with all of the Double Dash modes, now that would be amazing!

@bowserjr123: I just never enjoyed it. I never enjoyed Twisted Metal either. Car battling always seemed kinda silly to me. I just like car racing. I like customizing your cars for different tracks.

@iandizion713: I never played Twisted Metal so I can't comment on that but even though I like battling, I do agree that racing is still better. I would love to see an F-Zero for the NX as F-Zero GX is my favorite racing game ever.

@bowserjr123: Yeah, I actually had the game but never got into it. I always meant to play it more, but never got around. That Fast Racing Neo game people say is good, but it didn't look as appealing to me. F-Zero has that wild goofy Sega appeal. It sucks Nintendo couldn't find a studio to develop it, would have been fun.

@iandizion713: It does take a while to get into since it's brutal but it's so worth it. I don't know what you mean by goofy Sega appeal...if anything, Nintendo should continue to let Sega make F-Zero games if they're GX-level quality.

@bowserjr123: It's hard to explain, Sega always has these wild crazy goofy designs. All the old Sega games have that wild design. Sonic for instance, he's a blue hedgehog that runs fast.

@iandizion713: Haha there are some...unique character designs in GX, I love using Octoman though lol