Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Reviews

Mario Kart 8 review

Anthony John Agnello
By
Mario Kart 8 review
Mario Kart 8
MSRP $60.00
Score Details
DT Recommended Product
“Mario Kart 8 is a sterling example of Nintendo at their best as craftsmen, a game whose attention to detail and joy is mostly unsullied by some unfortunate misunderstandings about how people communicate online.”
Pros
  • Spectacular new tracks
  • Awesome new kart types
  • Superior competitive balancing to recent entries
  • Absolutely gorgeous
  • Best online play of any Nintendo game
Cons
  • Kart races can still end in unfair circumstances
  • Poor tools for communicating with friends online
  • Some legacy tracks don’t hold up to new ones

Mario Kart 8 is here. The game that should have launched with Wii U – old faithful itself – is back. It’s is not the first online version, or the first to offer co-op, but with anti-gravity karts, gliding carts, new items, HD graphics, and new course types, Mario Kart 8 isn’t resting on its laurels either.

The game’s small changes stack on top of one another adding up to a game that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but passes its forebears through sheer execution. Bottom line, it’s one of the best multiplayer games available on Wii U. Were it not for a couple irksome problems born of Nintendo’s still flawed online services, it would be the best game on the console, period.

Mario Kart 8 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but passes its forebears through sheer execution.

The attention to fine detail in Mario Kart 8 demonstrates handily why people were frustrated by Nintendo’s reluctance to make HD games last decade. Of the 16 new courses, none fail to impress. Little raver Shy Guys bug out and dance all over the club themed Electropark; giant stone wheels rumble down Thwomp Ruins obscuring ramps to let you drive up walls; and snaking branches open new routes around clouds and Bowser’s airships on Cloudtop Cruise.

That attention to detail also extends to the 16 classic courses pulled from past games, though the facelift doesn’t save the ones that weren’t great start with. Donut Plains from the SNES is spiced up with jumps and Wii’s Moo Moo Meadows has some beautiful lighting, but neither is up to the standard of new courses like Mount Wario – our new favorite.

Mount Wario deserves special note because it embodies Kart 8’s sly variation on the standard circuit racing. Rather than just a closed loop, Mount Wario is a literal race down the mountain, bringing you through icy caverns, snowy forests, and even down a slalom course until you reach the base. (The all-mountain rush reminds us of snowboarding titles like 1080 Snowboarding and SSX 3.) Double Dash introduced this idea with DK Mountain, where you’d race down the mountain, but even it would shoot you back up with a cannon to repeat the course, as usual.

Mount Wario also emphasizes how speed manipulation is so crucial, and so fun when you pull it off correctly. Holding the right trigger on your controller still lets you jump your kart, bike, car, or ATV and hug a corner, turning a long drift into a Power Slide or a boost if you hop off a ledge or jump in a course.

The new courses thread opportunities to use these methods one after the other just right, rewarding skill and practice with different karts and racers of varying weight and speed.

Like Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii, your kart type greatly impacts your steering, and like all of the series, there are different weight classes. If you choose with Rosalina in one of the big Caddy racers, and you may want to avoid routes with tight corners. Instead, save those tight corners until you are using Iggy Koopa on a bike. The course design also benefits from new items like the boomerang and Super Horn. The Super Horn is a defense tool that can even cancel out the dreaded Blue Shell, which automatically targets whoever’s in first place. Blue Shells are the great equalizer, so we’re glad there’s at least one way skilled players can avoid them.

Though it’s possible to play with friends, it’s difficult to communicate with them.

Crazy items like those and improved AI makes solo racing feel more competitive, but not perfect. Still, all too often, a perfect run at the Grand Prix can be spoiled at the very last second by the AI bombing you with multiple attack items, Super Horn or no Super Horn. Frustrations like those are part and parcel with Mario Kart even here, which is a shame for anyone looking for perfectly balanced competition.

In multiplayer mode, the better item balancing creates beautiful chaos. Split-screen multiplayer with friends on the couch also benefits the most from the increased visual fidelity, making it much easier to follow the action. Online multiplayer, meanwhile, is the smoothest offered on any home Nintendo console. One or two local players can hop online, select from world, regional, or friend racing pools and get going swiftly. We had no problems finding matches when we were testing the game several weeks before its retail release, though it was rare to find a full 12-player showdown, and the wait from mode selection to race was just minutes. Even races with just half that12-player maximum were competitive and hectic. Whether or not someone discovers a way to cheat like the infamous snaking method in Mario Kart DS remains to be seen, but at this point everything is solid, with one major exception.

Mario Kart 8’s biggest problem that, though it’s possible to play with friends, it’s difficult to communicate with them. Unlike in PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, or even Apple Game Center games, there are no obvious cues when your friends are online, or if they’re trying to invite you to race. In fact, the only reason we noticed a friend had popped online at one point was that we were playing using the GamePad screen and not the television. A quick blue flash on the home screen indicated that my friend was online, so we went to start a race open to friends. The in-game menu made no indication that he was playing (though I confirmed later he was), but we sent a Nintendo Network message to him to get in touch.

Mario Kart 8 review

Wii U doesn’t flash a notice on screen that you’ve received a message from a friend, so our friend had no clue we’d tried to set something up at all. In a game as carefully considered in almost every other respect, a small issue like this becomes a glaring problem. Nintendo has certainly made strides since Mario Kart 7 (3DS) in letting you play with strangers, but communicating with your own friends is still a hassle.

Not being able to communicate with friends properly isn’t a big enough hassle to bring down the complete product, though. Mario Kart 8 is going to go down in history as the Mario Kart that everyone likes best. Not many people out there own a Wii U at this point, but anyone who gets the chance to play Mario Kart 8, whether it’s their first or their eighth Mario Kart, may find their new favorite.

Highs

  • Spectacular new tracks
  • Awesome new kart types
  • Superior competitive balancing to recent entries
  • Absolutely gorgeous
  • Best online play of any Nintendo game

Lows

  • Kart races can still end in unfair circumstances
  • Poor tools for communicating with friends online
  • Some legacy tracks don’t hold up to new ones

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope beginner’s guide: 7 tips and tricks to get started
Mario and company in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

No one expected the first game to work, and yet somehow, the mixing of three unlikely unions -- Ubisoft and Nintendo, Mario and Rabbids, and Mario and a turn-based tactics game -- resulted in one of the best Mario spinoff games for the Switch. Even those who had no love for the Rabbids found the game a breath of fresh air for the franchise, as well as a perfect introduction into the tactics genre that is usually seen as overly punishing and complex.

With Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, along with their Rabbid counterparts, are all back on a new quest to save the Sparks from the mysterious Cursa. Even if you played the first one, this sequel does a lot to the formula, both in battle and outside of it, to create another amazing adventure. Just because it's a Mario game doesn't mean this journey will be a walk in the park. It's time to grab your blasters, plan your moves, and execute these tips and tricks when first starting out in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

Read more
Bowser attacks in The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s first trailer
super mario bros movie first trailer bowser

Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment finally gave us our first glimpse at the animated Mario movie, which is officially titled The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The trailer reveal came during New York Comic Con and got a special Nintendo Direct of its own. 
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Nintendo Direct kicks off with an introduction from Shigeru Miyamoto, Chris Meledandri, Chris Pratt, and Jack Black, who confirmed that the animation will be complete next week, although there are still other things to do, and hyped up the trailer. The trailer itself begins with Bowser attacking a city of Penguins before cutting to Mario finding himself in the Mushroom Kingdom and going on an adventure with Toad. We even see a little bit of Luigi at the end.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Official Teaser Trailer
Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment -- the Universal Pictures animation studio known for creating Despicable Me, Sing, and The Secret Life of Pets -- first announced a movie based on the iconic Super Mario Bros. video game series in 2018. While series creator Shigeru Miyamoto was a producer on the film from the start and Nintendo acquired a film studio during this movie's production, the announcement that really turned heads was the September 2021 Nintendo Direct, where its shocking all-star cast was revealed. 
During its segment in that Direct, we learned that Chris Pratt is Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach, Charlie Day is Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key is Toad, Seth Rogan is Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen is Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson is Kamek, Sebastian Maniscalco is Foreman Spike, and Jack Black is Bowser. They all felt like odd choices at the time of the announcement, and from this trailer, we learned what Kamek, Bowser, Mario, Toad, and Luigi will all sound like. 
While The Super Mario Bros. Movie was originally going to come out this year, you can now expect the animated feature to hit theaters on April 7, 2023 in the United States and April 28, 2023 in Japan. 

Read more
You can play a fan-made Super Mario Bros. 5 in Mario Maker 2 right now
Photo of Mario surrounded by coins in Super Mario Bros 5

It's been a bit since we've had a brand-new 2D Mario title, but one fan has taken it upon himself to provide that to those pining for a new entry in the classic platformer franchise. After seven years of hard work, Twitter user Metroid Mike 64 has finished his unofficial Super Mario Bros. 5 using Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch -- and you can play through the entire thing right now.

Metroid Mike 64 shared the news with his followers on Sunday, pointing out that he's been working on the project since 2015 with the goal of creating "a classic Mario game that plays as if Nintendo created it themselves." This, he points out, means a complete lack of the kinds of masochistic and troll levels that are commonly seen in Mario Maker 2, instead providing players with something focused on nostalgia and old-school charm.

Read more