Mario Kart 8 Reviews
The core racing, driving and course design in Mario Kart 8 is better than any of the seven games that came before it. But battle mode stinks
Nintendo has put a lot of effort into making Mario Kart 8 the best it can be, and it almost got there with the end result being a gorgeous kart racer that innovates while staying true to its beloved formula. If there wasn't previously a reason to own a Wii U then there is now, and gamers will be hard-struck to find a more complete Wii U experience than what's offered here.
If you're looking for a whimsical and accessible racing game to play with your friends and family, Mario Kart 8 is one of the best. Just don't expect any additional content outside of the most basic modes.
You'd be hard pressed to argue against the potency and sheer joy of Mario Kart 8's racing and track design. Likely to be more contentious is its resolutely, almost stubbornly, simple structure in both single and multiplayer.
Intuitive controls, beautiful circuits, and a perfectly realigned power-up system – Mario Kart 8 has set out to top the 1992 original
Without a shadow of a doubt, Mario Kart 8 is a high-flying episode. Heir to a string of opuses sharing the same DNA, we are nevertheless surprised to spend countless hours on an incredibly fun game with more stunning tracks than ever and which offer us a refreshing point of view.
Review in French | Read full review
Nintendo's created a heck of a Mario Kart game that's great for fans and newcomers alike. It's what this series should be.
Mario Kart 8 is a conservative update, choosing to polish and refine rather than reinvent, but it's still as alluring a racer as it ever has been.
There is no doubt that Mario Kart 8 is a great game, plain and simple. With the power of the Wii U at their disposal Nintendo has been able to create some really great looking tracks, add a lot more racers for you to compete against, and there is a fairly robust local and online multiplayer component for fans to enjoy. But don't get me wrong, there is also a bump or two that along the road to greatness as well. At the end of the day if you have a Wii U you'd be crazy not to pick up this game. If you're still don't own a Wii U Mario Kart 8 is yet another title to make you realize that Nintendo's "next-gen" machine is capable of great games that the whole family can enjoy.
Mario Kart 8 is certainly more Mario Kart, but that isn't a bad thing. Any series that can last over two decades and still generate this much love from gamers has to be doing something right. While the latest entry doesn't set the world on fire with its innovation, it makes up for it by delivering some of the best tracks in the history of the franchise, and rock-solid visuals.
Mario Kart 8 is the new showcase title for the WiiU. If the fantastic visuals were never a hard sell for you, know that the gameplay really makes this game a must own for any WiiU owner.
The core is the same as ever, but this is kart racing at its finest.
Mario Kart 8 forms a loop that connects everything that makes Mario Kart one of the greatest multiplayer series of all time, not to mention offering what is expected of a spectacular title on a console like the Wii U.
Review in French | Read full review
Mario Kart is one of the things nintendo knows how to do best. This new chapter demonstrates this with obvious clarity, precisely because it is not content to revise the driving model here and there, to add some new power-ups and to improve the balance and the overall variety. Mario Kart 8, in addition to doing all this, pushes on the accelerator of design, proposing 32 tracks one more beautiful than the other.
Review in Italian | Read full review
To say that Mario Kart is popular is an understatement. Few series have ever matched its twenty-year legacy of sheer popularity and critical acclaim, so needless to say, Mario Kart 8 has a lot to live up to. Expectations have perhaps never been higher, as this is the first entry on a high-definition, online-competent console, but the game pretty much fulfills all of them. It is classic Mario Kart and that means it\'s great — the game even throws in several cool improvements and additions to the franchise. But it is not quite perfect, and by no means is it a revolution.
Nintendo promised and delivered. Mario Kart 8 is the shiniest star in one of the shiniest series in the world of videogames. Perfectly fine-tuned gameplay, a leap in the right direction for the online component, a magnificent audio-visual pillar worthy of the Wii U and an immensely fun and absorbing experience, whether solo or multiplayer, making Mario Kart 8 an instant and timeless classic.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
There is no reason to wait any longer. Get a Wii U and buy Mario Kart 8.
Mario Kart 8 for the Nintendo Wii U is the best-looking Mario Kart to date (and the first with HD graphics), thanks to some fantastic new and remixed tracks.
I commend Nintendo for crafting a game that continues to cater to those who still love having friends over to compete, but Mario Kart 8 needs to step out of its comfort zone in other ways. Despite this game's gleaming high-definition sheen, there's little doubt this granddaddy of the karting genre is beginning to show its age.
The game's 30-character roster has its pros (all hail Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach) and its cons (too many babies, and the Koopalings aren't all that special either), but there's enough dissimilarity in weight classes that there's always a suitable option in any versus situation.