It's been over 20 years since Super Mario Kart made its debut on the Super Nintendo. From there, the franchise has evolved on several Nintendo hardware as the years went by. Enter Mario Kart 8; the newest addition to the franchise on Nintendo's recent piece of hardware the Wii U. From winning trophies in the Grand Prix to beating your friends in a race and/or battle both offline and online, there's a lot to do here.
The evolution of Mario Kart is shown in all of its glory. From the presentation to the ending credits. Here's a look at some of the things implemented from various games over the years.
- The original kart body design (Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64)
- Coins are back, for better or worse (Super Mario Kart)
- Motorbikes make their return (Mario Kart Wii)
- The ability to build your own vehicle from scratch (Mario Kart 7)
- Retro tracks and cups (Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7)
Along with shout-outs from the older games, newer aspects were implemented. ATVs have been added to the vehicle customisation, but the most obvious one is the anti-gravity gimmick. This is pretty fun. Driving through these sections turns your vehicle into a hovercraft and makes it a bit lighter. In these same sections are spin boosters that increases your speed slightly when you collide with them. In past games colliding with a vehicle usually slows you down. Doing so in the anti-gravity section gives a slight speed boost. This can work both ways. Sneaking up on someone and bumping them will cause them to slow down while you go forward (offensively) or smacking into anyone while wearing a shell barrier to take a commanding lead (defensively).
Speaking of shell barriers, items have also evolved since Super Mario Kart. Usually it was shells (red and green), bananas, speed boost mushrooms and special items for a specific character. Some of those items reappear along with others that made their debuts in recent titles. The Fire and Boomerang Flowers from Mario Kart 7? They're back. Lucky 7? Back as Lucky 8 now. Bob-ombs don't explode upon release; instead they travel across the track before they finally collide with someone or explode by itself. New to the franchise array of items is the Super Horn; this device unleashes a shockwave around the racer that decimates anyone within its range. Sure it sounds impractical......until you hear this. Look to your right. Upon looking, you'll cringe. This is the dreaded spiny shell since Mario Kart 64. If you're in first place, expect to see this incarnation of terror coming your way or hear the dreaded 'buzzer' indicating it's coming to get you. This thing was notorious in Mario Kart Wii and it's just as notorious now. The Super Horn destroys a spiny shell once it's within firing range. Impractical, yes. Useless, hell no. The problem is, Super Horns are the rarest of rare items to obtain. So if you get one, be smart about it.
Gameplay wise, it's everything you'd expect from a Mario Kart game. Especially one with the amount of history that it has. The usual Grand Prix is there with trophies to collect and star-rankings to obtain. Time trials to beat your best times on tracks over and over again. Versus mode and battle mode along with online mode for 1 or 2 players. One new addition to the series (and it's one that I'm surprised it took Nintendo that long to implement) is Mario Kart TV. This feature automatically saves the last 12 races you've done on the console. From there, or through the game itself after a race, you could edit them in a highlight reel and show it off to your friends if you have an active YouTube channel. The highlight can only go up to 60 seconds though.
Presentation wise (in-game), think of the kart customisation in Mario Kart 7. Yup, it's back again. You have a set of vehicle bodies (karts, bikes and now ATVs have been added to the mix), wheels and gliders that you can choose to make your own personal creation. Also, coin collecting from Super Mario Kart rears its head again and much like in Mario Kart 7, collecting them unlocks even more parts to use. Speaking of the bikes, they made their debut on Mario Kart Wii and were never seen since. That's because they were the most broken set of vehicles in that game. While they didn't have the super turbo boost like the karts did (they do now), all of them could do wheelies (and yes, even the ones that CAN'T do one). No longer, cause the bikes were nerfed. No more wheelies, which is good.
Now to the characters. The usual entourage are back that span from all of the games (that are worth keeping at least). And they do have some debutantes as well. A baby incarnation of Rosalina makes her debut. Metal Mario has his own princess in Pink Gold Peach. And the best of the debutantes? The Koopalings. Yes, those seven little tykes from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World finally make their debut on a Mario Kart game. Larry, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy and Ludwig are all back and needless to say, it's a blast to play as them.
Presentation wise, overall, the Wii U hardware really brings out the high-definition of Mario Kart 8 especially when playing at the highest visual settings. As per usual with Mario Kart games from the DS and onwards, older tracks from past generations also make their re-appearances in this game with a complete graphical overhaul and strategic placing of the gimmick embedded in the game, especially the anti-gravity. The music is on-par, especially now that Nintendo actually used LIVE recordings of the soundtrack for the game which is certainly not easy to do. Also the voices sound brand new. No, really, they do. How many times have we heard the same voiceovers for Mario or Peach or Daisy over the years? Too many times. Now all of the veterans have been giving new lines, grunts and expressions. It's like you've played games like these before, yet it still sounds new at the same time.
And before I conclude, Mario Kart 8 also comes with DLC. Two of them for now. Each one contains 3 new characters, new kart parts and a new cup with new tracks (retro and nitro) to race on. The first DLC is the Legend of Zelda pack. Yes, you read it. Legend of Zelda. Link makes his debut in the franchise and he's got his own set of wheels made entirely for him. The other characters are basically a tanooki and cat skin of Mario and Peach to be honest. The second one is the Animal Crossing pack. Animal Crossing crosses over with Mario Kart 8 with the Villager and Isabelle joining the ranks. And the third character? DRY BOWSER. Worth it for me. You can obtain both of them in one go as well. As a matter of fact, an update recently enables new owners to have everything available for them from the start. Obtaining them both in one go unlocks new colors for Yoshi and Shy Guy. Tired of playing as green Yoshi and red Shy Guy? Have a pink one, a black one, a dark blue one, etc. And remember when 150cc was considered the toughest track speed throughout the franchise? That might probably be a thing of the past. Now we have 200cc. And boy is it a big step from 150cc. When they say braking is crucial for 200cc, they weren't kidding.
Every time Nintendo releases a new Mario Kart, they always go above and beyond from the last one. Right now, it'd be hard for them to try and beat this one with Mario Kart 9 in the near future. They literally took everything from past games and combined them into one to make Mario Kart 8. With enough stuff to do and not get bored by it, Nintendo has surely outdone itself with Mario Kart 8 this time around.