Mario Kart 8 review

Some of you might not be old enough to remember the very first edition of Mario Kart, which was the greatest of all time, but I think everyone has played at least one iteration of the game. As we continue our march into this brave new world of “Next Gen” consoles and games, Nintendo has finally started dropping real gaming gems on us, and Mario Kart 8 is no exception. With 32 courses, Mario Kart 8 takes the series to the next level, without the gimmicks of say Mario Kart: Double Dash.

Right from the get go, you’ll notice something completely different about Mario Kart 8: IT RUNS AT 60 FRAMES PER SECOND. “Yeah, yeah Mario Kart 7 ran at 60FPS” you say. “Oh Well” I say back at you! This is on the Wii U which Mario Kart 7 is not! So there! The game looks beautiful, and maintains 60FPS even on split screen two player mode, however it does scale down to 30FPS when playing three or more players.

Maps are huge, and even background details can effect your racing, such as a volcano shooting lava into the raceway, parts of the track falling off, or even giant stone spheres circa Indiana Jones! And while the maps are very impressive and well detailed, they don’t feel like it takes forever to navigate, all of which are very artistically done. From power ups to short cuts, everything you love is there in multiple amounts.

With 30 unlockable drivers ranging from Mario and the gang, the entire Koopa Famil, to Donkey Kong and popular Mario bad guys, there’s someone for everyone! Along with all these drivers come over 20 different “Karts” which also includes bikes which you can customize from chassis to wheels to gliders, allowing for a host of different combinations to enter the field.

One new feature added in Mario Kart 8 is “Mario TV”. It’s a very basic highlight reel that lets players show off awesome wins or amazing defeats on the Nintendo Network and if you have an account, upload these reels directly to . I’ve even added a couple of mine to this review so you can check it out!

All in all, Mario Kart 8 is extremely well done, online multiplayer is extremely easy to get into barring a few network connection issues and the game is very newbie friendly. If someone asked me for a reason to buy a Wii U, Mario Kart 8 is it!