Mount Wario is also one of the standout new courses because it's innovative for Mario Kart: it's a single long track from the top of a winter resort to the bottom. Not all of the tracks completely come together, but there are definite highlights like Electrodome, Twisted Mansion, and Cloudtop Cruise. There's visible shortcuts and hidden ones you can utilize if you have the right items. These courses were obviously designed to show off as much off the game as possible, so you'll jump from a normal track, to anti-grav, to underwater, and back again. You get 16 new tracks in total, four for each cup. Mario Kart 8 is family-friendly at 50cc, but at 150cc and online, it can get brutal.Īnd you'll need to get used to the shifts in strategy because the new tracks in Mario Kart 8 are. Essentially, there's a wide variety of tricks and moves you need to be using at the highest level of play. It changes the strategy if you're in the middle of the pack at that point, you want to combine slipstreaming and bumping other racers to get ahead. In anti-gravity mode, there are boost posts on the courses and bumping into other racers actually grants you a boost instead of slowing you down. There's the classic drift boost, boost pads, the slipstream effect, and Mario Kart Wii's trick boost off jumps. The grab-bag approach extends to the boosting system there's a ton of ways to move faster in Mario Kart 8. I found switching between karts and bikes was more down to personal preference. They each have a benefit, though the ATV's off-road capability is the easiest to differentiate. Kart customization also returns with karts, bikes, and ATVs in the mix. I'd say it's somewhere in-between classic Mario Kart and the later F-Zero games. The physics in anti-gravity are floatier and drifting requires a different set of reflexes than Mario Kart regulars are used to. Anti-grav doesn't look different from a visual perspective - your viewpoint stays the same even when you're upside-down - but it plays different. Underwater racing and hang-gliding return from Mario Kart 7, but Mario Kart 8 adds the all-new anti-gravity option. Mario Kart 8's gameplay begins from the Mario Kart racing core, but there's a little bit of everything in here. Pedal To the Medal (Gameplay, Tracks, and Weapons) I wish Nintendo had stepped up here and brought back some more varied characters like Mario Kart 7's Wiggler or Mario Kart DS's Dry Bones. The cast does feel padded out though, with new characters like the seven Koopa kids, Pink Gold Peach, and Baby Rosalina. You'll get mainstays like Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Donkey Kong, and an interesting new addition in Rosalina. Mario Kart 8 features a cast of 30 playable characters. The extras on the side of the tracks make them feel alive, like they're real race tracks in the Mushroom Kingdom. A sand ship with Toads tossing coins on the track, the cheering crowds, and the majesty of space are just pulsing at the corner of your eye while you race. Yabuki's art team has outdone themselves, especially when it comes to the extra flair on each track. The characters and tracks look gorgeous, with bright colors and effects everywhere.
#Mario kart 8 pc stutter 720p
It runs in full 720p resolution at 60 frames per second with nary a stutter ( Edit: According to Digital Foundry, there is in fact a stutter). It looks absolutely amazing on the Wii U. When taken that way, Mario Kart 8 does falter in a few areas, but not enough to torpedo the whole experience. This is the "best of" entry, taking a bit of everything that worked before and cramming it all into a single title.
It's from the more conservative side of Nintendo, the side that makes games like New Super Mario Bros U. Mario Kart 8 does not take the formula set by previous entries into wildly new directions.
#Mario kart 8 pc stutter portable
I ended up enjoying the portable entries, Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7, far more than their console counterparts. On paper, everything comes up golden in practice, it just didn't click with me. Mario Kart Wii? I honestly couldn't tell you why I didn't enjoy that game. Mario Kart: Double Dash for GameCube had bland tracks and didn't feel like a great improvement over its predecessor. I was worried about Mario Kart 8 because I wasn't a huge fan of the last two console entries in the series.