Mario Kart 8
When I sat down and started to compile my list of my top ten games of 2014, I figured Bayonetta was locked at number one and Mario Kart would sit somewhere in the lower portion of the top half of my list. As I thought more about it though, I began to realize there hasn't been a single other game from this year that I've sunk more time into, and there hasn't been any game that I've enjoyed playing more than Mario Kart.
I know there's not a whole lot of consensus on what the best Mario Kart is, everyone has their favorites, but for my money this is it. Not only is it the best Mario Kart game, but that puts it pretty high in the running for best kart racer of all time. In my experience, I would say second best. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed is still number one for me. That doesn't really matter though, the point is that Mario Kart 8 is a top tier kart racing game.
The first thing anyone will notice about Mario Kart 8 is that it's a damn good-looking game. Probably the best on the Wii U. I know some of you might roll your eyes or snicker at that statement, maybe make a "tallest midget" joke or something like that. Well, you know what? **** you. Most of the games I played this year that really wowed me visually, take one guess which platform I played them on. It wasn't the PS4. It wasn't the Xbone. It wasn't even the PC. It was the damn Wii U. Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, all of those games look absolutely amazing, and Mario Kart might be the
most amazing. It just goes to show that good art will trump raw horsepower every time.
The driving in Mario Kart 8 is tight and responsive. There's a decent variety of items, all of them fun to use, although I do feel there are two or three too many "comeback" items. The tracks are mostly excellent. There's only a couple that I outright don't like, and there are some that I like a little less than others, but the vast majority of them are a total delight to race through.
I feel the online play deserves a special mention. Nintendo has a reputation of being completely clueless about anything involving the internet, and trust me they still have a very long way to go, but in the case of Mario Kart at least, they absolutely nailed it. Disconnects have been exceptionally rare, and any sort of rubber-banding or hiccups during an actual race have been even more rare still. I've played
a ton of this game online, and truly it's been one of the smoothest online gaming experiences I've ever had.
The DLC for this game has also been really, really good. Both in quality as well as from a value for your money perspective. Think about Call of Duty map packs for a second. Fifteen dollars for three maps. MAYBE they'll throw in a new weapon if you're lucky. For
twelve dollars in Mario Kart you get sixteen tracks, eight new characters, as well as some new colors for a few of the characters that were already in the game. Also worth noting is that a lot of the DLC tracks and characters are themed around non-Mario/Donkey Kong IPs, which they've never done before. That's pretty novel, and hopefully a sign of things to come in the next version of the game.
Is the game perfect? Absolutely not. There's a pretty severe lack of single player content when you compare it to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed. The flying and water sections of the maps also feel kind of lame compared to the aforementioned game as well. They changed battle mode and it straight up sucks now. I never really enjoyed the mode all that much to begin with, but it's still worth mentioning. There are also
way too many baby characters, as well as clone characters. Some people took issue with them including all of the Koopalings as well, but I personally didn't mind that. Regardless, it's pretty clear Nintendo was trying to pad out the roster. Not sure why they didn't use better characters though. Where's Birdo? Where's Wart? Where's Mouser? What about some Donkey Kong side characters?
Some of those flaws are absolutely worth talking about, but a lot of it is pretty nitpicky to be honest. From front to finish Mario Kart 8 is a really fantastic game, and to be honest I'm as surprised as anybody that I would select it as my game of the year, but I guess it's appropriate considering what a weird year it's been.
Hmm... That ended up being much longer more reviewy than I intended. If you read all this crap, sorry for wasting your time.
