I don’t like racing games, yet I love Mario Kart. I think it’s the fact that it completely ignores the tropes of the genre, i.e. ultra-realism and pedantic mechanics, in favour of silly, OTT fun that is as attached to real-life go-karting as Metal Gear Solid is to actual warfare. Mario Kart 8 gleefully continues this tradition, bestowing its drivers with the ability to defy gravity.

Just in case somebody reading this doesn’t know much about the venerable Mario Kart series, as bizarre as that may sound, it is a series of racing games in which Mario, his regular companions and adversaries and a collection of other Nintendo characters race around a series of colourful courses, brutally attacking one another with a series of speed-hindering power-ups.

Much has been made of the anti-gravity mechanics and whether or not they serve as an essential part of game-play or simply as a game-selling quirk. As the kart is always centred on the screen, its hard to tell when your little karter is upside down or not. It looks impressive on the replays, but it doesn’t take long for the novelty to wear off.

However, the anti-gravity feature does add to the level design. It means that tracks can have several routes, with potential paths sprawling out in all possible directions. This makes the game easier, because it splits up the players. Less players around you, less crafty red shells and bananas to hinder your progress. There were times during races that I leapt from 5^th to 1^st place just by choosing a vacant route.

When in anti-gravity mode, if two karters collide they get each get a boost in speed. This adds an extra-layer of complexity, meaning that instead of avoiding other racers, when in anti-gravity mode it’s worth attempting to collide with them to in order to take advantage of the speed boost. The flight mechanics also make a welcome return from Mario Kart 7, meaning more airborne fun.

After each race, you can watch back your highlights. This is possibly the best part of Mario Kart 8 because it is genuinely, hysterically funny. I do not think I have ever laughed more than when I saw Donkey Kong rolling along in slow-motion with a toothy grin on his simian face, only to be struck by an expertly timed red shell, resulting in him flailing his arms around while sliding helplessly into a sinking sand pit.

And anybody who has not seen Luigi’s now infamous ‘death stare’ is seriously missing out. Seeing him roll slowly past a bested opponent with that sinister look on his face is worth buying the game for.

The courses are a delightful collection of tracks old and new. Seeing classic courses from older Mario Kart games (for some reason, I’ve always had a soft spot for Toad’s Turnpike) return in glorious HD is a joy to behold, and the anti-gravity gives each course a new dimension, practically re-inventing some of the best tracks from the series.

Along with the standard set of power-ups and hindrances at the player’s disposal, including red, green and blue shells for all occasions, Mario Kart 8 adds the ‘8’ power-up, which basically gives you eight power-ups in one. It’s completely unbalanced and poorly implemented, leaving one player randomly firing off power-ups, turning the races into more of a chaotic dash than they need to be. Also new is a power-up that attaches a piranha plant to your kart which chomps up players and possible threats (i.e. bananas) and gives you a speed boost each time it chomps. It’s as fun as it sounds.

Despite the fact that it probably only takes five or six hours of straight racing to unlock all 32 courses, Mario Kart has always been about being endlessly replayable. As a result, there is an extensive list of vehicles and vehicle customisation options which are unlocked through collecting coins strewn through-out the courses. Along with the sizeable roster of characters to unlock, there’s enough to keep anybody going probably until the next entry in the series comes out in the dim and distant future.

As well as all the locked-off content, there’s also an online mode, meaning that you can race with other karters from around the world. The online mode exudes everything that makes Nintendo so loveable. Instead of hearing some prepubescent teen screaming at everybody when they lose, in the lobby between races there are a selection of family friendly phrases your mii can utter, meaning no matter how pissed off you are with the guy who shelled you just as you were about to cross the finish line, all you can do is response is say “good luck” or “welcome!”. Despite my normal aversion to online play, I found myself spending hours with Mario Kart 8 online.

Alongside the ‘Grand Prix’ mode, which involves racing a selection of four-course collections, there’s a return for the battle mode, which sees racers facing off against one another in an attempt to pop each other’s balloons whilst desperately trying to protect their own. Whilst you can have teams in the battle mode, for some reason Nintendo saw fit to erase teams for the standard grand prix mode, which was a little disappointing.

It might not a massive evolution of the core concept, but I’m sure I speak for many people when I say that that is probably for the best. Mario Kart works brilliantly as it is, and all we wanted from a new sequel is subtle additions and improved graphics. On that note, Mario Kart 8 looks exquisite and is an absolute pleasure to play.

9/10

HIDDEN BONUS VIDEO

As a treat to those of you who got to the bottom of the review, here is a pleasing video of Donkey Kong winning – by Rique’s Entertainment Nation.

 

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