"Anybody has addicted memories of the Mario Kart series" reads a blurb in the review materials for the eighth game in the series. Until now, I really didn't.

Mario Kart was never my game. When Super Mario Kart was released for N American Super Nintendo systems in 1992, I was already in love with some other Nintendo EAD-developed racing game featuring high-tech Mode 7 graphics — the progenitor of the futuristic racing sub-genre, F-Nothing. In the heart of a science fiction-loving teenager, a super-flattened Mushroom Kingdom was zippo compared to the flickering electronic cityscapes of the yr 2560.

So instead of playing Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart 64, I was playing MegaRace, Wipeout, Farthermost-G and Jet Moto. While my friends were forming 2-homo teams for Mario Kart Double Dash!!, I was playing... well, more Wipeout.

That's non to say I don't capeesh the appeal of the serial. I've dabbled with each iteration of Mario Kart over the past couple of decades. It's just the closest I get to a addicted retentiveness is sitting in the bathroom playing Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS and marveling over how, despite daring new additions like underwater segments and gliding, it didn't feel much dissimilar than every other Mario Kart game I'd played.

I'm not attempting to incense the franchise's fan base. I'k merely establishing a baseline, and then when I say that Mario Kart eight feels different, readers can appreciate what a profound statement I am making. Within seconds of starting my showtime race, I could tell this was more just plainly old Mario Kart with fancy Hd graphics.

In the past I've struggled with Mario Kart driving controls, struggling to grasp the correct timing of the series' signature drift and heave system. Moments into my showtime run through the game's start track, Mario Kart Stadium, I was powersliding around corners like a semi-pro.

Vehicle handling is more than intuitive than ever before, and adjusting from a wide-sliding kart to the tight cornering of a motorbike is simply a matter of taking a quick test drive effectually a track. For a relatively novice player the learning curve is incredibly brusk, which breeds the confidence needed to take on tougher tracks at higher difficulties. Never in my history with the series have I tore through all of the courses (16 new and xvi revamped classics) with such enthusiasm.

It helps that the new batch of tracks has been designed with the game's new anti-gravity feature in mind. When the route goes sideways, turns upward or spins upside-down, karts are transformed into loftier-tech anti-grav vehicles, and suddenly I'chiliad enjoying the best of both worlds — futuristic hover-craft racing with some of the industry'southward most iconic characters. It's exactly the tweak to the standard formula I was looking for. I only wish the xvi updated classic tracks made more use of it.

Aside from the perfect arcade-style vehicle treatment, ultra-inventive course design and the sharp visuals, Mario Kart 8 doesn't exercise much to change upward formula established in previous games. At that place are eight cups to challenge — 4 featuring brand new tracks and some other four consisting of revamped tracks from previous Mario Kart games. Every bit per usual in that location are iii racing classes, 50cc, 100cc and 150cc, each faster and more than challenging than the last.

Racers greedily snatch at power-up boxes filled with devious devices designed to ensure that no lead is every substantial enough that it couldn't be stolen away in the glimmer of an centre. Annoying armaments similar the red and spiked turtle shells return, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure. I particularly savor the rare Crazy 8, which spawns viii power-ups at one time that tin be fired off in quick succession. It'south saved my bacon on more than than one occasion.

Vehicle handling is more intuitive than ever before

Reckoner controlled racers are every bit brutal equally ever in the college classes, and while new power-ups and enhanced handling make it slightly easier to dodge their slings and arrows, it non plenty to keep me from yelling inappropriate words at my innocent television screen. They're abrasive, yes, but they also making playing alone much more dramatic.

I shouldn't seek respite in the games diverse online multiplayer modes either. Even in its pre-release state, the competition (when I could discover it) was fierce. Equally I was existence knocked to the rear of the pack again and again while battling against real people from effectually the globe, I found myself wishing massive lag spikes upon my competitors. Unfortunately the online races were annoyingly lag-free, and my greatest triumph was against a person who I am convinced was AFK the entire race.

Thankfully Mario Kart 8 allows for custom multiplayer sessions, giving players the ability to ban the nearly abrasive power-ups (almost of them), stripping away the element of luck in favor of pure skill. I sadly did not become to participate in an online tournament, only I was impressed by the options for setting 1 up. Using a simple interface, players tin can schedule weekly or daily tournaments with relative ease, which I'k sure volition come up in handy in one case anybody else is playing.

The only downside to online multiplayer (and multiplayer in full general) was Mario Kart 8'southward Battle Way. Traditionally held in custom-crafted arenas, the airship-popping competitive game manner is instead played on normal circuit tracks. Players drive around in circles, hoping to run into someone that'southward not driving quickly in the opposite direction. They hardly do. The tracks are and then large and winding they'd be lucky to see another person more than once or twice in a given round. It's horribly dull, borderline unplayable.

Mario Kart viii is more than just a pretty face up, but damn what a pretty face it's putting forwards. Some of the screenshots Nintendo released before this twelvemonth were so gorgeous, many felt they were bullshots, more than bonny than the game could perhaps be. I'm pleased to report that, while they might be taken from an bending players might never run across in-game, this what Mario Kart 8 really looks like.

And it looks even better in action. Hair, facial and otherwise, flutters in the wind as the characters race along the track. Each track is filled with and so much animated detail they're almost characters in their own right. This is one of the best-looking games on the Wii U. It makes me wonder what would happen if Nintendo started sharing the secrets of making pretty games on its consoles with third parties.

Nowhere is the game'south stunning beauty more evident than in Mario Kart TV, a special expanse where players tin can edit and share their race replay footage with the community. The player'due south about recent 12 races are automatically saved, ready to exist teased with a painfully restrictive editor and thrust along into the world.

Each rail is filled with and so much animated detail. This is one of the all-time-looking games on the Wii U.

I'd barely even phone call it an editor. Players tin can choose to fucos on specific characters or events during the race, gear up the prune's run time, turn off sounds and/or music, and that's well-nigh it. You can't clip a few seconds, or modify the camera angle. You tin can slow the playback down (which looks amazing), but you can't save a slowed-downwards clip for sharing.

I sympathise Nintendo likes to keep things simple and accessible, but an advanced menu for those unafraid of video editing would have been squeamish. Still, the fact that I am invested enough in this game to intendance about video editing tools speaks volumes most my appreciation.

"Everyone has fond memories of the Mario Kart series." Like the time I saturday on the couch with my two-year-old twin boys, revving the engine of Shyguy's motorcycle as they counted down "Three, ii, one, Get!" in unison. Or staying up until two in the morning, flipping through my highlight reels, making Mario leap a chasm once more and again in irksome motion. Or the moment I realized that, thanks to wonderful design, tight controls and exquisite visuals of Mario Kart 8, I finally had fond Mario Kart memories of my own.