Mario Kart 8 – First Online Races

After winning all the grand prix cups in 100cc, I decided to try out some online races for the first time in the Wii wee hours of the morning. I chose a worldwide vs. race, and I soon noticed that the starting vs. rating (VR) is 1000. In Mario Kart Wii, the default rating was 5000; so you really have to work your way up in Mario Kart 8.

I chose my character, and I’m now playing as Walugi again (as I started to in Mario Kart Wii towards the end). As much as I like Koopa Troopa, I seem to do better with Waluigi. I found myself in a lobby, which quickly filled up to the maximum of 12 racers. We could vote for a track to race on, but there was one huge problem: There were only three tracks to vote on, plus a random option. Are you kidding me? Mario Kart Wii would let you vote for any of the 32 tracks in the game, so this is a huge step backwards.

The game randomly selected one of the three tracks, and all the Miis in the lobby reacted excitedly. Yeah, let’s pretend we’re happy with only being able to choose from 3 of the 32 tracks in the game.

The Miis in the lobby act excited (Mario Kart 8).Despite that big disappointment, I continued on and began my first race on the GCN Sherbet Land track. I hadn’t spent a ton of time with the game so far, so I wasn’t expecting to do very well. And indeed, I finished in 7th place out of 12 racers.

But the second race was a different story. It took place on the Bowser’s Castle track, and within about 30 seconds, I took the lead. Once I did, I never saw anyone else the rest of the race and finished with an easy win. Of course, the other players were probably noobs like me, but it still felt good to win my second online race. Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.

Waluigi celebrates a win in front of fireballs in Mario Kart 8.I raced on a total of nine tracks before ending for the night. For the most part, I was finishing in the middle of the pack, and occasionally doing better. Here are my results:

  • 7th / 12 – GCN Sherbet Land
  • 1st / 12 – Bowser’s Castle
  • 5th / 12 – N64 Yoshi Valley
  • 5th / 10 – Cloudtop Cruise
  • 6th / 12 – Thwomp Ruins
  • 1st / 10 – Electrodome
  • 5th / 12 – GCN Dry Dry Desert
  • 4th / 12 – Mount Wario
  • 5th / 12 – DS Cheep Cheep Beach

I finished the night with a versus rating of 1111. Despite the limited choices when choosing tracks, I had a lot of fun racing online. I’m going to be having my first get-together very soon. But I won’t be sending everyone an individual invitation message like I did for Mario Kart Wii get-togethers. I’ll be posting on Twitter and Facebook, so if you’re on my roster and want to be notified, make sure you follow me on one of those two places.

Or if you’re not on Twitter or Facebook, you can still bookmark those pages and check them out from time to time. Don’t feel bad if you can’t make it to any certain get-together though, because I’ll be having them fairly often.

Waluigi races through Dry Dry Desert in Mario Kart 8.UPDATE: I’ve heard from some people who said the new method prevents people from choosing the same courses over and over. That is a good point, but limiting the choices for everybody is not the ideal (or only) way that goal could be achieved. What if the last five courses played in a lobby were grayed out and unselectable? That would keep things varied, while still letting people choose their favorite tracks.

Mario Kart 8 – Retro Tracks

I’ve recently completed the 50cc grand prix cups of Mario Kart 8, and I’m going to share my thoughts on the retro tracks included in the game. Keep in mind that I haven’t played Mario Kart DS or Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, so I still haven’t formed much of an opinion on those tracks yet since I’ve only played them one time so far. But let’s start with a list of the retro tracks in the game:

Shell Cup:

  • Wii – Moo Moo Meadows
  • GBA – Mario Circuit
  • DS – Cheep Cheep Beach
  • N64 – Toad’s Turnpike

Banana Cup:

  • GCN – Dry Dry Desert
  • SNES – Donut Plains 3
  • N64 – Royal Raceway
  • 3DS – DK Jungle

Leaf Cup:

  • DS – Wario Stadium
  • GCN – Sherbet Land
  • 3DS – Music Park
  • N64 – Yoshi Valley

Lightning Cup:

  • DS – Tick-Tock Clock
  • 3DS – Piranha Plant Slide
  • Wii – Grumble Volcano
  • N64 – Rainbow Road

There are some good things and some bad things about this list.

What I Don’t Like: 

No love for SNES. Why is there only one SNES track?! The original Super Mario Kart gets almost no love from Nintendo here. Especially when there are…

Four N64 tracks, three from 3DS. Including four N64 tracks is mind-boggling, especially when Super Mario Kart (SNES) and Super Circuit (GBA) are so under-represented. And Mario Kart 7 (3DS) is the most recent release, so why should it have so many tracks? Many players are still playing these tracks on 3DS! If anything, 3DS should be the system with only one track in Mario Kart 8, and everything else should have at least two.

The Wii tracks. Moo Moo Meadows and Grumble Volcano aren’t awful tracks or anything. But there are so many better tracks in Mario Kart Wii that would have made better returns. Unfortunately, a lot of the best Wii tracks were already used in Mario Kart 7, such as Koopa Cape, Coconut Mall, and Maple Treeway. And I can understand them not wanting to use those in consecutive games. But I still would have preferred Wario’s Gold Mine or DK Summit over Moo Moo Meadows and Grumble Volcano.

What I do Like:

Donut Plains 3. Even though there’s only one track from Super Mario Kart, it’s one of my favorites. I love the graphical overhaul it got, while it still retains elements of the SNES track such as the broken bridges and the Monty Moles that pop up out at you. I’m really glad to see this track again.

Donut Plains 3 - Mario Kart 8N64 Rainbow Road. Mario Kart 64 wasn’t my favorite Mario Kart game, although some of that was because it didn’t have Koopa Troopa in it for some reason. But it’s hard to argue that it had an epic version of Rainbow Road, and I’m quite glad to see it back again with an impressive makeover. However, I do have one complaint about it. The N64 track was incredibly long, so instead of having three laps in MK8, you only race one lap! It’s divided by checkpoints so that it shows as three laps, but it’s really just one full circuit.

N64 Rainbow Road - Mario Kart 8There are two other things I’d like to point out about Mario Kart 8. After completing a track in the grand prix mode, the default option isn’t to continue to the next race. Instead, the default is to view a highlight reel. Why? Do they think watching replays is more important than racing?

Also, one thing I’ve noticed about the Blooper power-ups, which spray ink on players’ screens. In Mario Kart Wii, it wasn’t much of a hidrance to see through/around the ink. But in Mario Kart 8, the ink blots are a bit more concentrated and the opaque part is larger on-screen. They’re a bit more of a problem in this game.

mk8-inkI’ll be playing much more Mario Kart 8 in the weeks and months to come, so stay tuned for more.

Mario Kart 8 Impressions

Mario Kart 8 came out for Wii U today, and it has been my most anticipated game in years (so it was easily a day-one purchase for me). So far I’ve spent about an hour and a half with the game, completing the first four grand prix cups (all the new courses, not the retro tracks yet). I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing Mario Kart Wii since 2008, so my comparisons will mainly be based on Mario Kart Wii–although I am familiar with all of the console Mario Kart games (just not the portable ones, except for Super Circuit on GBA). So here are my first impressions, and some things I’ve noticed in my first 90 minutes of the game.

mk8impCoins are back. The original Super Mario Kart had coins laid out around the tracks, and collecting them would increase your top speed (until you reached maximum speed with 10 coins). The coins returned in Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, and they’re back for this game as well. I don’t particularly care about them one way or the other, but it does add a small strategic element as you try to make sure you have the maximum number of coins at all times. Also note that you can’t collect more than ten coins–so you can’t stockpile reserves like you could in Super Mario Kart.

Also, there’s no longer a choice between automatic and manual for drifting. So now anyone can get the boost by drifting around corners, not just those who chose manual like in Mario Kart Wii. I think this is a good change.

Customization. Mario Kart 8 provides some options for customizing your ride. Choose your car or bike frame, tires, and glider. I started out as Koopa Troopa and I chose a sport bike, monster tires, and a super glider.

mk8-bikeThere’s no map on the main screen. I couldn’t help but notice there’s no mini-map on the main screen! You can see the map on the Wii U gamepad screen of course, but you can’t exactly take the time to look down at the gamepad when you’re in the middle of a fierce race where one tiny mistake could cost you a win! Every previous Mario Kart game has had this feature, at least as an option. So this is a big disappointment to me. On the bright side, this is my only significant negative thing about my first 90 minutes.

No wheelies. When using bikes, you can’t use a wheelie for a speed boost like you could in Mario Kart Wii. This is a bit of a disappointment, but not a major problem. At first, I also thought you couldn’t do mid-air tricks (stunts) either. But fortunately, you can…you just have to press the ZR button instead of using the control pad like you did on Wii.

I like the new courses. I’ve raced on all 16 of the new courses, and none of them seem to be stinkers. Some are better than others of course, but overall my first impressions of the new courses are positive. Some of them are also quite graphically impressive. The tracks that particularly come to mind are the haunted Twisted Mansion, the neon-filled disco themed Electrodome, and the new Bowser’s Castle. Of course, Rainbow Road is no slouch, either.

Electrodome - Mario Kart 8Anti-gravity mode is pretty cool. Some courses have anti-gravity segments, where your cars and bikes can defy gravity, and running into things gives you a speed boost. It might take a while to master the mechanics of running into things on purpose, but it’s a nice addition that brings something new and different to the series.

As for the new power-ups, well I haven’t really tried them yet! I only played the 50cc cups so far, and those don’t provide much of a challenge to Mario Kart veterans like me. So being in 1st place most of the time mainly just got me banana peels and green shells, along with an occasional red shell or mushroom. My opinions on the new power-ups will have to wait for another time. Ditto for the retro tracks, Mario Kart TV, and online play. I’m enjoying the game so far, but there will be much more to come. I’m sure I’ll be playing this game a lot this summer.

Twisted Mansion - Mario Kart 8

Buy Mario Kart 8 at Amazon