Mario Kart 8 review (Wii U)

super cool 8 item weapon!

Mario Kart 8 has been out for about two years, so, as far as new games go, it's right in my wheelhouse.  Jane and I play this all the time now.  It's really fun!  Good old fashioned fun, I guess.  This game has a pick up and play on the couch kind of fun that I haven't had in a log time.  

Mario Kart 8 has a pretty high challenge curve-- 150 ccs is tough!  I can't even imagine 200ccs. You start with 8 cups.  4 have original tracks and 4 have classic tracks* from previous games.  Lots of good ones.  I haven't played a lot of the intervening Mario Kart games much, so it's almost all new to me. 

There are lots of little details I enjoy.  Most tracks have hidden shortcuts. When you do tricks, your characters do funny poses which vary from character to character.  The levels are very bright and colorful, and generally very cool looking.  On the Legend of Zelda level, all the coins are rupees, and the track hazards have Zelda skins. I'm still finding new things.  

The controls are intuitive and easy.  You can do little tricks when you hit ramps by pressing the jump/slide button.  They give you a little speed boost. Power slides are still around from previous games, and they're very important to my game.  That said, Jane doesn't power slide at all, but she does just fine.  She also likes to use the Wii U controller like a steering wheel which... I just can't handle.  I run into walls endlessly when I do that.

It's nice that we both have our own individual preferences taken care of.  There are also many many different kinds of vehicle options.  I'm not sure how much of a difference most of them make, however, I know that I prefer motorcycles, as does Jane.  Additionally, I like to sometimes pick the really silly vehicles, like the Biddy Buggy or Mr. Scooty plastic toy bike, and give it roller wheels, because I think that's funny.  I usually pick a silly vehicle when I pick a silly character, like Shy Guy or Iggy Koopa.  

I switch up characters a lot, but Jane prefers to be the princesses.   There are three princesses, Daisy, Rosalina and Peach -- baby versions of each, and then two more versions of Peach.   That might sound like a lot, but it ends up not being much.  The base versions of the Princesses are all pretty much generic and the same.  Peach's extra costumes include Cat Peach, who is hilariously adorable and Pink/Gold peach who is like Metal Mario, but pink gold.  And Peach.

My favorite characters are:  Koopa Troopa, Lakitu, WaLuigi and Ludwig Von Koopa.  I also like to play as Shy Guy, Iggy Koopa and Luigi.  Suffice it to say, it's tough for Jane to remember who I am sometimes when we play Grand Prix together.  I think Jane would switch characters more if the princesses had more variation, rather than being different versions of the same princesses.  That is just one very minor complaint, though.  In general, we love the game and have a ton of fun playing it.  It's become a real past time for Jane and I. 

-D

*In addition, there are 4 more cups available as downloadable content.  This initially annoyed me, as any pay-for DLC annoys automatically.  However, Mario Kart 8 was packaged with my Wii U console, so I was able to justify the purchase by saying it isn't additional money.  Also, honestly, Jane and I love playing the unlocked courses, so I think they are paying for themselves in play time.

 

Lakitu in a biddybuggy