Mario Kart 8 review

It’s a rare occasion when we find ourselves getting goose bumps over a game, but there’s simply nothing quite like the unfolding sight of a castle twisting upside down over your head as you advance into one of the main corkscrew corners of Mario Kart 8’s early tracks, Mario Circuit.

Mario Kart has never looked quite so gorgeous

The first time you whizz by, you probably won’t notice the gravity-defying bunting waving in the breeze or the topsy-turvy lamp posts lining the side of the road, but there’s no denying that this is the track you’ll be showing off to family and friends the first time you boot up it up for an audience. It’s this kind of jaw-dropping scale and attention to detail that defines Nintendo’s latest racer for Wii U, and it’s by far the series’ strongest entry to date.

Of course, it’s not really the castle somersaulting through the air; it’s the track beneath your feet, and the only reason why you still feel like you’re on solid ground is thanks to your brand new set of anti-gravity tires. Luckily, these automatically kick into action whenever you need them, much like your glider which makes a welcome return from Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS.

The Piranha Plant is one of Mario Kart 8’s brand new items which lets you chomp nearby opponents

Bikes are back, too, from Mario Kart Wii, but Mario Kart 8’s greatest strength is how it manages to meld each of these somewhat disparate additions to the series into a single well-oiled machine that feels as natural to play as the series’ first days on the SNES.

Controls retain their fundamental simplicity from previous titles, but the real joy is mastering the game’s nuances to boost your speed at every available opportunity. For example, squeezing the right trigger buttons will let you drift effortlessly round sharp bends, while tapping the same button as you launch off a ramp will gain you a small extra boost once you land. Bumping enemies while in anti-gravity mode will also earn you an extra boost, and collecting coins will increase your overall speed as well.

Sunshine Airport sees you contesting the runway with a host of planes as well as your fellow racers

Angling your glider is another crucial skill you’ll have to master. Nose-diving down to the ground is often the quickest route to pole position, but pulling up and sacrificing your speed might just let you sneak into a secret shortcut if you’ve gained enough height. It’s a constant game of risk and reward, and at a blisteringly fast 60fps in both single and two player multiplayer modes (adding a third and fourth racer drops down to a perfectly reasonable 30fps), those windows of opportunity often pass as soon as they arise.

A lot of your success will depend on how you’ve kitted out your chosen vehicle, as there’s a wide range of kart chassis, bikes, wheels and gliders to choose from that all affect your speed, weight, grip, handling and acceleration. In true Mario Kart style, nearly all of them are outrageously bonkers and flamboyant in their design, whether it’s the twin galloping wooden horses on front of the Prancer chassis or the pumping boom box in the boot of the “Badwagon”, but the idea of careering round in Bowser’s Landship with tiny sponge wheels or a giant metallic shoe with heavy duty monster truck tires is just too good to resist.

Anti-gravity enables each level to really make the most of the Wii U’s graphical heft

The courses themselves are also some of the best in Mario Kart history. This is partly down to the addition of anti-gravity, as it really lets the course designers let loose with some of the wildest track designs yet. Along with Mario Circuit, Mount Wario is another standout course that takes place over a single lap. Before the race is over, you’ll have been dropped out of an air carrier, glided down an icy mountain, raced across a dam and slalomed down a snowy ski track that wouldn’t look out of place in Mario & Sonic at the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Toad Harbour’s San Francisco-style tramways open out into a multi-tiered bazaar with two different pathways to follow, while Electrodome channels Mario Kart 7’s Melody Motorway (which also makes a welcome appearance in the retro cups) for a trip inside a giant disco ball as you race over twisting guitar frets and neon dance floors. Shy Guy Falls sees you racing up and down waterfalls while Cloudtop Cruise takes things skyward through stormy lightning clouds and a detour through Bowser’s airship (it even comes complete with a glorious riff of Super Mario Galaxy’s Gusty Garden Galaxy soundtrack). Speaking of music, the soundtrack is simply fantastic, featuring all manner of styles from big brass bands to funky synth and Celtic folk pipes, making every track sound just as good as it looks.

But Mario Kart 8 is about so much more than over the top kart designs and ludicrous F-Zero-style courses. It’s the acute attention to detail that really makes this game shine, and we’ve never seen a Wii U game looking more beautiful. It’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how much is going on every time you jostle for pole position, but the Highlight Reel (by far one of our favourite features) gives you the chance to hone in on the tiniest of details. It automatically picks out the best moments from each race and compiles them into a single video, but you can edit it to focus on items, specific drivers, action, item hits or drifting before uploading the video to Miiverse. You can also upload them straight to YouTube using the Wii U’s internet browser in-game as long as you have a Google account.

You won’t have much time to admire Water Park’s ferris wheel, but it leaves a huge impression when you re-watch your race in slow motion

You can also use the GamePad to slow down, fast forward or rewind certain events, and it’s here where you truly appreciate just how much craftsmanship has gone into making this game look so stunning. To give just a few examples, Mario’s wiggling moustache and Shy Guy’s hood both billow in the wind while Daisy strikes a vicious high kick whenever she lands a successful trick. Blooper-shaped spaceships also cruise round Mario Kart 8’s version of Rainbow Road, while Sunshine Airport is full of holiday destinations on flight departure boards that mirror each individual track name.

Of course, alongside the sixteen new tracks are an equal number of golden oldies from Mario Karts past. Admittedly, the very best tracks from later titles such as Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash for the GameCube have already been snagged by Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS, but with a roughly equal spread of courses from across all generations, there are still plenty of excellent choices here, from Donut Plains 3 on the SNES right through to the 3DS’s Melody Motorway and Piranha Plant Pipeway.

The Super Horn finally gives you a weapon to fight back against dreaded blue shells

Not only have they all been buffed and polished to look their very best in Full HD, but several have been retrofitted to take account of Mario Kart 8’s anti-gravity rules as well. Toad’s Turnpike is a particular favourite, as you can now drive up the walls of the highway and use cars as cheeky ramps to activate your glider and glean extra boosts off the top of lorries.

Sherbert Land’s icy lakes from the GameCube era have also been thawed to include new underwater pathways and Cheep Cheep Beach from Mario Kart DS has never been more versatile in its number of time attack approaches. Those hoping to cruise round Peach’s Castle in the N64’s Royal Raceway will be disappointed, though, as Nintendo has cruelly locked it away behind a pair of newly constructed gates.

Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 now lets you drive up walls and other trucks

Races get even better when you take them online. You can either play alone or with a friend, but each race will feature a full roster of twelve racers no matter which option you pick. There are both regional and global categories to get stuck in with, but you can also create your own tournament or race against friends registered to your Wii U and rivals from previous online games, so there’s plenty of variety on offer.

In ordinary matches, each player also has their own rank score, which helps pit players against others of a similar skill level. Unlike older Mario Kart games, though, your score goes up or down at the end of each individual race rather than, for example, the end of a four-race grand prix. This is a much better solution than previous online offerings, as it prevents players from losing out on points if any sore losers decide to drop out because they don’t want to dent their player score.

Tournaments are particularly flexible, as you can set them to occur daily, weekly or between a fixed period in time. You can also choose the number of races, set certain rules and disable the CPU if you wish. The only downside is that once you’ve finished the chosen number of matches, you’re effectively booted out of the competition. You can still compete in additional matches, but your ranking won’t change. This is perhaps a little less fun than a more traditional tournament structure which sees winners progress onto further rounds to determine a winner. Still, it’s a small complaint and certainly doesn’t detract from the overall competency of the whole online experience.

The only major puncture in Mario Kart 8’s tires is the Battle Mode. Here, players have three balloons tied to the back of their kart and the aim is use as many items as possible to try and pop everyone else’s before they deflate yours. But not since the heady days of Mario Kart 64 has Nintendo managed to replicate the sheer frantic genius of those four open-plan arenas, and Mario Kart 8 doesn’t fare much better.

New item Crazy Eight gives players a formidable arsenal of items to play with

However, Mario Kart 8 at least tries to break out of its series doldrums by offering players something completely new to get to grips with. Instead of lacklustre arenas, you have eight grand prix tracks at your disposal, giving you free rein to drive in whatever direction you like in order to take down the opposing team with whatever items you can get your hands on.

It’s a tantalising idea for anyone who’s wanted to poke about each track without having Lakitu shaking his fist and ringing alarm bells in your face, but in practice it rarely lives up to that giddy ideal. It’s not just that these tracks have been primarily designed for racing on, thereby making U-turns and hunting down enemies that much harder when you’re constantly being slowed down by gravel and rough terrain, but their huge size also makes them rather lonely, empty spaces even with a full twelve players whizzing round them. Even N64 classic Yoshi Valley and its perfect mishmash of criss-crossing pathways left us a little cold, and if that track can’t quicken the pulse, then nothing can.

Battle Mode may not be up to much cop, but the superb grand prix races more than make up for it

But while Battle Mode may be a bit of a disappointment, it’s not enough to stop Mario Kart 8 from being the best game currently available on Wii U. With the addition of a solid single and two player online mode as well, Mario Kart 8 is the greatest reason yet to go out and buy a Wii U. It wins a Best Buy award.