Mario Kart 8 Prototype ( English Version )

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MK8 Trailer

Variety of Personality

t8 Offical Site

Available on Wii U

Your favourite kart - racing game is back and better than ever.

Mario Kart 8 is the sequel to the last generation console Mario Kart Wii ( 2008 ) on the Nintendo Wii. And now with the new hardware, everything has been improved. From tracks, characters and karts designs, to online integration made the next game in its series as stunning as always.

Characters

Before getting straight into action, Nintendo has already improved the variety of options for players to suit their style. There are a total of 30 playable characters, with 16 being default, while the other 14 are unlockable. These characters are not entirely all the same.

There are light, medium and heavy categories. Their attributes affects the different karts you can choose, and its stats.

Selecting your vehicle has also been change drastically. You can now choose the body, the tyres and the glider to make your own vehicle. Each part will affect you final stats which include, speed, acceleration, weight, handling and traction. Each part will have positive and negative outcomes on each stat, like choosing the monster tyres will give you good weight and traction, but your acceleration and handling will reduce. This gives players a much wider variety to suite their playing style.

Vehicles

Mario Kart 8’s track designs are what it stood out in this game. There are a total of 32 tracks, which 16 of them are new, and the other 16 are from past series. Throughout these 32 tracks, Nintendo made each one different to the rest. The Electrodome has that disco theme to it, while Mount warrior has the winter Olympics feel to it. These tracks lets you dive in underwater, soar through the air and race upside down through the newly addition, antigravity. When entering antigravity mode, it lets you give a small boost when bumping into another player, this makes players to change tactics in half way of the track.

Tracks

The Wii U Gamepad also has some awesome features to the game. The gamepad allows the player to play off screen, which allows them to play just on the game pad. They can also view the map, the position of the players and the item their holding, and use the gyroscope mode, to steer your vehicle using motion controls.

Controllers Balloon battle also returns as a special mode to the series, but sadly this was the only disappointment to the game. Balloon battle lets each players have 3 balloons, and try to take away all of those balloons by using items. You can also steal balloons by bumping to other players using a mushroom. The idea of it sounds fun, but it was the stages which allow it from happening. There are 8 stages you can choose from, but all of them are the same ones in the normal racing mode. It feels like you are driving like in a race, but just hoping to see someone ahead to hit them.

This doesn’t give that intense vibe to it, like in the previous series.

Online Play

MKTV

Online multiplayer is also added, which supports up to 12 players. This time, you can now create your own tournaments. Creating a tournament lets you choose to change the difficulty, turn items on or off, which vehicles, maps and more. A unique feature to it is that you can set when it starts, and if you want it to repeat it in a certain day, like every Sunday at 3pm. It allows the community to also play competitively going up against great players across the world.

A new feature called Mario Kart TV, allows you to view highlights of your recent matches which allows you to focus in different characters, or watch in slow motion. Which makes the players to feel the experience once again.

Final Thoughts

Buy

Mario Kart 8 is one of the best racing games out there, which targets both casual and competitive players.

The game strikes with beautiful personality through the variety of options they provide you. Through the characters, the tracks and the different parts of the vehicles, you will surely find your match. Even though the battle mode was a disappointment, the core of the game is still as enjoyable as ever.