Mario Kart 8 - Review thread

Defense in Mario Kart badly needed a nerf. You have enough advantages in first place anyway, being able to constantly horde defensive items was ridiculous. This is one of the changes that I'm most excited about.

Should also reduce the amount of blue shells needed to keep races close from first to last, which was previously a silly amount. 2nd and 3rd place should be the ones attacking 1st, but in past MKs 2nd and 3rd had all their attacks defended by a barrage of bannanas, triple bannanas, green shells etc, while 8th-12th had the only hope of breaking through 1st's defence - with a blue shell. That wasn't good design.

On Mario Kart Wii at least, 2nd and 3rd could still usually get into 1st with better racing and a good defense of their own. But really it's not so much my love of defense items as it is my hatred of tracking items. So if tracking items got nerfed as well, I would be pretty ok with that.

Can't believe that terrible game has so many fans. Got it for free on PS+ and I still paid too much for it.

You're a monster then. Racing Transformed is the best. The only problem it had was glitches that eventually got fixed in patches anyway.
 
I do have a question more about the Wii U than Mario Kart 8, but seems tangentially relevant since MK8 is in 720p:

Does the Wii U upscale to 1080p, or does it output at the native resolution and let your television do all the work?
 
Not sure if any reviews have mentioned my biggest bug bear yet, but unless I'm missing an option, you can't display the map/position indicator on the TV and basically the gamepad is an utter waste of time unless you're using it for off-screen play. It may as well not be there (just like with Donkey Kong). That they put a horn in the middle of the screen that you can't reach unless you take your hand off the controls is ridiculous too.

Other than that, it's bloody awesome!
 
Cant remember the last time I turned my wii u on but am mad hyped for this. Game looks dope!!

Have to get a pro controller though as not using the gamepad for this.
 
yes. It would indeed be a struggle to port/balance/choose from all the options now available in the racing mode.


you crazy. CRAZY. MK64 battle mode was the gift of the Gods. Block Fort with friends was synonymous with frenzied chases, sharp turns, bananas treacherous dumps and runs to the corners when the red shells were coming. and that Star...I felt like Godzilla on a kart when I had it.

I had to deal with friends only wanting to play Block Fort for years when all I wanted to do was race. Never enjoyed battle mode, never. The last couple of MKs things have swung my way, haha.

EDIT: A lot of people responded to the Sonic Racing comment, but that would derail the thread so I'm gonna leave it. Sorry for derailing in the first place. I've made my feelings on the game known in All Stars Racing threads before.
 
Yeah, pretty much.

However, as much as Nintendo gonna Nintendo, they HAVE to know how much people loved 64's Battle Mode.

In fact, they kind of brought back 64's rules, so they do but...

yeah

I think they know, but I sense this was a design decision to cut down on costs/dev time.
 
Reading through all of these reviews, it's clear to me that in terms of quality of prose, EDGE and Eurogamer are by far the best review outlets. Makes a lot of the other so called professional outlets look amateurish.
 
It has a better single player mode than MK. But MK's gameplay destroys it, and in a multiplayer centric title, that's all that really matters.

I agree with the single player bit. And nearly agree with the multiplayer but I've got multiple PC's with multiple steam bought Sonic racing games and it's great playing them in network mode.
Also. We've got the WiiU version and it's great that one plays on the TV and the other plays on the WiiU gamepad.
 
I had to deal with friends only wanting to play Block Fort for years when all I wanted to do was race. Never enjoyed battle mode, never. The last couple of MKs things have swung my way, haha.

EDIT: A lot of people responded to the Sonic Racing comment, but that would derail the thread so I'm gonna leave it. Sorry for derailing in the first place. I've made my feelings on the game known in All Stars Racing threads before.

A link to your previous comments then.
 
My theory is that some proper battle stages dlc will be announced at E3.

I hope so, because using what appear to be regular racetracks as battle areas really doesn't work too well. You can spend ages driving round and round and never seeing an opponent. It also makes it more difficult for younger players who struggle to stay on a track. The Donkey Kong Battle Arena in the last game was perfect for young players. Also, unless I'm missing it, there's no coin battles this time, just balloons?
 
Can't believe that terrible game has so many fans. Got it for free on PS+ and I still paid too much for it.

My man you are right. Payed 3 euros for this shit and still feel robbed. The worst kart racer i have played after the original and crazy frog kart racing. Horrible level design that does not feel like tracks + the worst rubber banding AI since mario kart 64 already makes me hate this game a lot. Also the handeling man it would be better if they called this sonic ice skaters transformed and weapon balance that throws out of the way the use of weapons ohh cool useless hornets blocking the way everybody drive past them. ohh you got ice one hit i didnt even make up 1 sec when hitting. It has some redeeming qualities which are better then mario kart such as it looks pretty darn good in pc. Also more meat to the single player. Can't believe these guys did the fantastic outrun 2006 and then created one of the worst games i own.

To make this more about mario kart also did not like 7 that much coins are way to overpowered in that game i hope they turned that down at least. Reviews are great i will not be there during launch day but i am sure to be there in launch month gotta get this game + free game i have not decided yet.
 
I do have a question more about the Wii U than Mario Kart 8, but seems tangentially relevant since MK8 is in 720p:

Does the Wii U upscale to 1080p, or does it output at the native resolution and let your television do all the work?

The Wii U has an upscaler that works very well. It all depends of the resolution you chose in the console settings.
 
I hope so, because using what appear to be regular racetracks as battle areas really doesn't work too well. You can spend ages driving round and round and never seeing an opponent. It also makes it more difficult for younger players who struggle to stay on a track. The Donkey Kong Battle Arena in the last game was perfect for young players. Also, unless I'm missing it, there's no coin battles this time, just balloons?

But you can still turn and drive back/wait for others, no?
 
Just so I get that right, vertically split means that that one screen is on the left and the other on the right?

Because that is the better way to do it in my opinion. You can see further ahead.
 
Just so I get that right, vertically split means that that one screen is on the left and the other on the right?

Because that is the better way to do it in my opinion. You can see further ahead.
Yes. It's the best way to do it in my opinion, too
 
Are you serious?

Maybe you can deal with it but i am not. Really throws me of my game in fps and other games sure but racing is the one where i need horizontal only. i will be playing it mostly with 4p but when the ocasional 2p happens it am gonna sit that out.

edit: just thought of the solution just always choose 3p plus even if i am only playing with 2 so we get a 4way split guess i can deal with that.
 
Maybe you can deal with it but i am not. Really throws me of my game in fps and other games sure but racing is the one where i need horizontal only. i will be playing it mostly with 4p but when the ocasional 2p happens it am gonna sit that out.

I think vertical split screen is necessary because of the increased verticality of the levels (hang-gliding/underwater racing).
 
I always thought vertical split makes the most sense for racing games (looking down the track).
but I guess there should be an option for people who like it horizontal.
 
Maybe you can deal with it but i am not. Really throws me of my game in fps and other games sure but racing is the one where i need horizontal only. i will be playing it mostly with 4p but when the ocasional 2p happens it am gonna sit that out.

edit: just thought of the solution just always choose 3p plus even if i am only playing with 2 so we get a 4way split guess i can deal with that.

I think the new design of the tracks would make really difficult to properly race and see where you are going in a horizontal split.
 
*shrug*

It's one of my favorite kart racers. I enjoyed it much more than any Mario Kart since the original.

Same. Incredible racing game.

Just watched the Gamersyde videos. Is it just me or does it lack a sense of speed? I remember disliking DD for this very reason. All-Star racing transformed feels insanely fast at times, this looks a little sluggish. Maybe they're just doing 50cc and it will look a lot better at 150. I loved the reaction on the faces of the drivers as people overtake or hit them with an item etc, brilliantly done
 
I think vertical split screen is necessary because of the increased verticality of the levels (hang-gliding/underwater racing).

I think it has more to do with scaling. If you look at uncharted or resident evil local mp you will get those crazy boxes so you have 1/3 of the screen filled with black. But if 2p is vertical how will they do 4p? 4 times vertical? I think that will look normal like 4 times small horizontal screen. why can't they give you the option like in f-zero gx for example. Nintendo knows how to do it. Guess they did a bit of rushing for this game.
 
I think the new design of the tracks would make really difficult to properly race and see where you are going in a horizontal split.

I always like the Lego approach where it's dynamic.
 
Reading through all of these reviews, it's clear to me that in terms of quality of prose, EDGE and Eurogamer are by far the best review outlets. Makes a lot of the other so called professional outlets look amateurish.

They have been my go to place for a long time. Edge might be harsh, but they always sum up the points they didn't like.
Eurogamer is more well rounded in general.
 
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