Nintendo Mario Kart 8 Wii U

Awesome game, kids really enjoyed it. I must say wii u has the best games for kids as compared to sony or xbox. Mario is evergreen

Who says that sibling rivalry dies when you reach adulthood? For Christmas, my brother and his family got a Wii U. Guess who bought one before New Year’s. That’s right, it would be me. And this is despite not playing my Wii much at all during 2014. I also had to buy the latest version of my favorite Wii game – Mario Kart 8. Yes, it is just as awesome as I expected it to be. If you’ve played any of the previous seven versions of this game, you know the basics. You are racing against 11 other characters around fantastic courses trying to get first place in various cups. Depending on where you place in each of the four races, you earn points that determine your overall place in the cup. So what’s different this time around? There are new courses, for starters. About half of the courses are new or at least new variations on familiar themes. Of these, my favorites in the Twisted Mansion (a haunted house), Toad Harbor, and Sunshine Airport. Then there are 16 retro courses from the previous versions of the game. Since this is only the third Mario Kart I’ve bought, there are plenty on here I don’t recognize, but I do enjoy playing the familiar Moo Moo Meadow and Grumble Volcano from the Wii, the last version I bought. And a couple of the courses are one long race instead of going around the same course for three laps. For those, we get check points. If you are familiar with the Wii version, the controls will be familiar as well. Once again, you can use your Wiimote and tilt it to control your car. Or you can use your Nunchuck controller. And yes, the game pad controller that comes with the Wii U can also be used as a controller with either tilt or thumb stick control. There are a couple of changes to game play from the last version. They have brought the use of coins back to the game. They had used them in the very first Mario Kart, the one of the SNES. (And yes, that’s the other one I have.) Collecting coins will increase your speed. It’s a small amount, but I can see the boost at times. You start with somewhere between zero (1st place) and 5 (12th place) and can collect up to 10. They are scattered around the maps. Of course, you lose three each time you are hit by an object or drive off the edge of the map. (And if you do drive off the edge, they actually put you back on course faster than before, too.) In addition to being on the maps, coins might be hiding in the mystery boxes you can pick up along the way. If that is your prize, you’ll find two coins. Other new surprises are plants that will attack your fellow races and gobble up coins, a boomerang, and fire power. Of course, there are plenty of the old standbys like Bullet Bill, red and green shells, and invincibility. The final change to the game is the gravity defying part of the game. Parts of the courses allow you to race up walls and even upside down. There are clear indicators in the game when this is happening. It really doesn’t change how your car operates, but it is fun to think about. Oh, and if you crash into an opponent in this section of a course, you get a boost! Obviously, this is more prevalent on the new courses, but they’ve switched up a few of the old courses to let you do this as well. In addition to the traditional races, you can also do timed trials and fight battles to pop your opponent’s balloons. And you can race by yourself or with up to four people in the same room. Plus they’ve brought back the ability to play against people all over the world thanks to the internet. One or two people per machine can log in and race or battle to their hearts content. One change here I really like is that at the start of each new race, you are given a choice from three randomly selected courses. Everyone votes for one of those three and then the game randomly selects the course you actually race. If those three really don’t appeal to you, you do have a fourth choice – random, which will randomly pick any course in the system not necessarily one of those three courses. Overall, this cuts down significantly on those annoying people on line who always select the same course over and over again. There are a couple of things I don’t like about this game. First, the rankings and course map don’t appear in part of the TV screen but on the GamePad during the race. Any time I glance down to see those things, I lose track of where I am on the TV screen. Maybe I’ll get used to it as I go along. I’m also not happy that they have developed some extra content that is for sale separately. Oh, we get as many courses with this version as we did for the Wii, so they aren’t skimping on us, but after spending $60 for this game, it seems a shame that I have to pay extra for the final few characters and courses. I’ve resisted – so far, but I have a feeling I will wind up buying them. The game looks and sounds great. The picture is crisp and the sounds effects are fun. Both are definitely a step up from the last version, but what else would you expect from new video game system that uses an HDMI cable. Of course, it’s all still highly stylized cartoon action, but for what it is, it looks great. I’d been debating for a while about buying the new system, but I’m glad I did. So far, I’ve been concentrating on Mario Kart 8, just because it’s always been a favorite franchise. I’m sure I’ll be racing around these tracks for some time to come.

A lot of people kept their job over this game which has taken wii u media by storm for all the right reasons. Drift, drive under water, use piranha plants as a weapon of mass destruction, race playback with rewind and fast forward functions to laugh with your pals or kids over some beautiful tracks and a solid online connection or use multilayer to keep it simple fun. Driving on walls and paragliding will turn the game inside out and show you how much work went into the long hours of preparation. While nintendo has had a tendency of cheaping out on resolutions in the distant past, MK8 proves why they are the dream works of games all over again. They still have the "drive", drive by bike or quad, pink low rider and even a freaking catipillar. I'll leave the rest for you to discover, because there are tons of strange upgrades to smile over. Grab which ever compatible controller you wish to and experience it for yourself.

It arrived in perfect shape. I enjoy playing couch games, and this is hands down one of the best to spend time with wife and friends. It has 8 cups and you can buy another 2. I didn't like much that you can also buy racers, though it has a good 16 of them included, most of them are baby versions of the others. Regardles the tracks are superb and you will spend days trying to master the vehicles, speeds, and tracks. Llego en perfecto estado, me gustan mucho los juegos locales, no hay nada como un juego local sin lag, sin dificultad de conexiones y además divertido, este cumple con todo, gran variedad de pistas, de corredores y de dificultades o velocidades. Incluso puedes comprar mas pistas y corredores si eso no es suficiente. Tiene mucha diversion y rejugabilidad. Altamente recomendado.

Its as good as any other Mario Kart. The graphics are amazing and the added customization is awesome. I have only a couple of complaints. the first is the map selection. I know I know, there always have been 8 Grand Prix's. I just wish nintendo would pull some extra maps from previous games etiher as a DLC or inside the game as a extra set. While the new maps are nice, I find them to be short and more about the new racing mechanics (or gimmicks) than taking advantage of how wonderful the game looks. The game contains 32 tracks (which is a decent amount) but you spend 3 short laps on each one. But this is how MK has always been, so I can't dock them a star for that. The second point I want to make is about the items. This Mario Kart seems to almost be less about how well you race, and more abotu what items you get. This seems to be the case much more than any previous game. In particular it seems that red shells are much more common while the new items (boomerang and fire flower) dont show up as much where they should be (1-5th places) if you are in 2nd place or behind, you can almost expect a full out red shell war. When I play this with m brother, i can be just cruising along in first place while he has the fight of his life in 2nd. it isnt uncommon get steamrolled from 2nd to 8th getting hit by item after item. Items need to be re balanced. Another mechanic that sort of ruins the fun is the drifting mechanic, or more specifically how easy it is to use it. All you have to do is sit behind someone for a few seconds, and then you get to speed by them with the equivalent of a mushroom. So if your just barely ahead of someone in a close race, they can just speed ahead of you just because they are behind you. The mechanic either needs to be less intense, and/or harder to pull off. Both of these issues I find to be happening frequently and combined take a half star away. Nintendo's character selection in MK8 isnt the best. They removed good alternate skins such as dry-bones and dry bowser, and replaced them with pink-gold peach and metal mario. They also added all 7 Koopalings to the game which is rather annoying. While some people might enjoy 9 different koopas to choose from. i find it to make up a boring roster. It doesnt particularly affect me as I actually like lemmy and I race with Luigi/ Waluigi most of the time. On to some good news. The Kart customization is amazing, there are soo many possibilities to fit your play style. If you like to drft and have a need for speed like i do, you can make a Kart with good speed and traction with low handing. or maybe you're on of those guys who wants to pick Bowser in the heaviest Kart just so you can bash everyone off the track (Weight is really noticeable in MK8) The characters themselves are part of the customization as well. They each have their own stats for example, large characters like mario and up have higher speed than babies who have much better handling. They all have trade offs, which might not be good if you just feel like playing a single character. The game itself looks amazing and im definitely giving more respect to Nintendo. they are making some beautiful games. The maps are detailed for as little time as you spend in a area and the karts are equally impressive. Buy the game before the 30th (or was it the 31st) of July this year and get a free game from club nintendo. (you must have the code from inside the case) im not sure if the eStore counts