Game Review: Mario Kart (Another One)

Lots of review inbound for the next week. Let’s start off with a short, fast, and simple review of Mario Kart 8.

Wow. If you had told me when I had a Gamecube and I was playing Double Dash that Mario Kart would still be going at #8 in just two more consoles, I’d think you were crazy. But then, looking at the Mario Party games, I guess it’s not that hard to imagine. But, still, I can’t believe we’ve got this many Mario Kart games and only a handful are any fun to play… again… like Mario Party. So we’ve had good and we’ve had bad. Where does Mario Kart 8 fall? What’s different enough to justify putting it out? And is it worth the admission price of the WiiU for those who are still on the fence on buying it (even though it is my preferred console of the current generation thus far)? I hope this review will answer most of these questions, let’s go!

What’s different is probably the best place to start. Among the many changes to the Mario Kart games, this one definitely has a visual overhaul thanks to the 1080p HD capabilities that the WiiU is outputting. The water looks better than ever. The sand looks drier than ever. The fire looks hotter than ever. And you can see all of the intricate details on all the cartoonish characters of the Mario series. I don’t think I’ve seen a HD game this pretty yet, and I thought Super Mario 3D World was pretty spectacular. Only makes me more excited for Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros 4, X, and Hyrule Warriors later this year. Certainly looks better than anything on the Xbone or PS4 at the moment. 

I don’t normally spend that much time praising visuals, but given Nintendo has only just stepped into the HD realm, I need to give them kudos for doing so with flying color. Just a shame we had to wade through the Wii to get to this. As for the more important FUNCTIONAL differences, there aren’t many. Driving, turning, and throwing bullshit items are the typical Mario Kart fashion and remain as such for this game. The drifting mechanic has seen a slightly improvement since the last game I played extensively (beat Mario Kart Double Dash, played some of Mario Kart Wii). No more do we you have to waggle the control stick, as it’s all based on time. This also allows making turns easier (with practice) as you can use the control stick to guide your slide while you try to get the drift-boost.

Additionally, the bullshit items have been changed up a bit to help restore balance to the game. While the blue shell is still a menace, it has been nerfed in a couple ways. One of which is that it no longer flies, which (from what I’ve seen) does allow player interference unexpectedly. Not only that, but a new item has been created, a sonic-boom like device that disrupts players, enemies, and items near the player. This includes the blue shell, making this your only sure-fire defense against it. 

The red-boxes are gone completely, likely because they’re boring and people stopped falling for those ages ago. In their place, the equally useless coins, which can be picked up almost all the time on the map, but they serve no in-race function. Instead, you save them up for upgrades outside of the race to help make your carts better for the next race. As nice as it is to be able to earn upgrades, it would be nice if I just got coins based on performance only, and not waste my time with them on the race course. That being said, playing locally with friends is a good way to get LOTS of coins to unlock those upgrades even faster.

The upgrades themselves are self-explanatory. You have three different kinds of parts (bodies, wheels, and flying mechanisms). Each one provides its own set of stats that play into your kart’s overall stats (which can be seen by hitting the plus-button when selecting parts). While this is certainly a nice change of pace from the previous games I’ve played, after a while, the parts you unlock cease to be interesting as you eventually find a set up that you’re good with and stick with it to win more races to unlock more goods (characters, tracks, modes, blackjack, and hookers). A part of me wish this could have been expanded upon. Even more, I wish there were more personalized vehicles again. I miss some of the old cars from previous games and seeing so many of basically the same carts and bikes on the track feels kind of bland.

Most of the new tracks do everything they can to show off the stunning new visuals for the game with lots of lighting and particle effects, tasteful use of bloom, dazzling water, and so on. There are also a couple courses that I absolutely love for breaking the traditional 3-lap structure for just one long course, making it more difficult to get used to the track’s twists and turns since you don’t repeat the course in the same race. This also breaks up the tedium of racing some courses over and over again. However, this is only on a couple (maybe 3 at most) tracks, leaving this as something I’d like to see more of, but clearly won’t get.

As you may already know, new characters have also been thrown into the mix. You have the koopalings, Bowser’s kids, making their contractual appearance for whatever reason. I’m not sure what the real selling point here is since none of them are all that spectacular. Though it is weird to see an omitted Bowser Jr. Likewise, Rosalina returns because Nintendo is throwing her everywhere now. Nothing against her, but it just seems weird a character who is basically GOD of the Mario universe is go-karting with Mario, Peach, and the Mario universe equivalent of SATAN (Bowser). 

That said, it’s weirder we wasted a slot making a Baby version of Rosalina. Because we need ANOTHER baby character instead of just bringing in a different Bowser underling, a character from the Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi games, or (god forbid) surprise us with a crossover guest character from another Nintendo title (Fox, Captain Falcon, Samus, Link, Pit, or Olimar would all be fun and interesting). Let’s just make another baby character. Worst of all, no love for Baby Waluigi? Hell, you could have at least brought back Diddy Kong (best character in Double Dash).

So that’s all the differences (and similarities) in this game from the predecessors. So the next question, is it good? And, yes, it is good. It’s functionally sound like your average Nintendo game. Visually and musically, it’s probably the best the series has ever been. And, if you were smart and bought it at launch to get the free game bonus deal Nintendo is offering, then you’d  be getting it at basically half-price, which is a bargain. BUT, for the sake of argument, let’s say you didn’t buy it at launch… 

Well, personally, there are better racers out there that have the same style as Mario Kart. Personally, I still prefer Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed. The drifting feels like a more important mechanic to the race than it ever has in the Mario Kart games, and it functions much better. The items are less relevant in Sonic All-Stars, but still play a role. And all those items CAN BE AVOIDED by skilled/lucky players whereas Mario, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the red-shell or blue-shell without the right item on hand. Not to mention that the single player (while insanely difficult) at least gives you more to do to unlock stuff. Whereas Mario Kart, you unlock all the characters and tracks pretty fast without that much effort either.

This isn’t to say Mario Kart 8 is completely outclassed. Certainly level design (on a good majority of courses) is stronger than in Sonic All-Stars, making the roads wider and making everything feel less cluttered. There’s also far less shit on the screen you have to try to read, which is a nice boost when you’re trying to drive fast and not be distracted. In fact, there’s less on the screen now than there was in Double Dash, which is a nice plus. Also Mario Kart 8, arguably has a much better cast of characters (though Pink-Gold Princess Peach is on the same level of stupid additions as Danica Patrick, so we may be evened out here). 

In short, you have at least two very good and very solid racing games on the WiiU with Sonic All-Stars and Mario Kart 8, both of which feature a lot of good things to the racing genre and can be a blast to play with friends. Both feature online components and neither one will really disappoint. If you’re looking for something requiring more skill, go Sonic All-Stars, but if you want something a bit more familiar and simpler, then Mario Kart 8 is the way to go. Tune in again soon for a review of the latest Steam Greenlight Release: The Stomping Land and a TV show review of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.