Mario Kart 8 review

[wakka]

They did a new Micro Machines recently. It was called Toybox Turbos and it was awful. Robbed of my ?6 on that one.

These are all great ideas though! I love the idea of a track where the graphics upgrade each lap, that would be so cool. Also the one where you drive over all the Nintendo consoles - that would be like Ribbon Road in terms of making you Micro Machine sized.

[Zen Monkey]

Best game this gen in my book and my favourite in the series. And 200cc mode elevates it further. It's almost too fast and chaotic, with new racing lines to master, short cuts to avoid, and items once loved now dreaded; it's like learning the game anew. Pity battle mode has been rendered awful, it was fantastic in SMK and SMK64.

[Asura]

Best game this gen in my book and my favourite in the series. And 200cc mode elevates it further. It's almost too fast and chaotic, with new racing lines to master, short cuts to avoid, and items once loved now dreaded; it's like learning the game anew. Pity battle mode has been rendered awful, it was fantastic in SMK and SMK64.

Yeah, that's the biggest mis-step. I don't like MK8's battle mode at all.

Then again, I think Mario Kart 7's on 3DS was pretty bad too.

[Dogg Thang]

I don't think I ever played battle mode more than once in any MK.

[Asura]

I don't think I ever played battle mode more than once in any MK.

64's was amazing; shame you missed out. Great fun with a few beers.

[Nu-Eclipse]

64's was amazing; shame you missed out. Great fun with a few beers.

Still not as good as SMK's Battle Mode.

Mario Kart Battle Mode will NEVER be that good again.

[Asura]

Still not as good as SMK's Battle Mode.

Mario Kart Battle Mode will NEVER be that good again.

I preferred 64's, largely by the virtue of being 4-player.

[Zen Monkey]

I enjoyed both SMK and SMK64s battle modes as much as their racing and time trialling conterparts. My friend and I played battle mode religiously and it's the perfect environment to learn the nuances of the controls and hone one's skills. With two evenly matched players, the courses are strewn with bananas and ricocheting shells and the cat and mouse gameplay can go on for 30 minutes before someone finally wins. It's really disappointing that MK8s is so poor, as online battles could and should have been wonderful.