Mario Kart 8...a personal viewpoint

I spent £40 of my very hard earned money on this

I was lured in by distant memories of MK on the 64 being fun and MK on my DS being good
I was enticed by the offer of a free title if I bagged MK8 at release

I conveniently forgot how disappointed I was in MK7 on the 3DS(xl)

Which is a shame really because this new MK8 is all mouth and no trousers

Now I know anyone who has it might be screaming at me now going how great it is and how I just hate big N, but let me explain why I feel cheated out of £40

The game is shiny, very very shiny. The graphics are big and colourful and excellent
The ingame sounds are not that grating either and for Ninty that's amazing
The options are plentiful as has been the case for MK for a while, with the added bonus here of an excellent array of multiplayer options.

So where is the problem.

Quite frankly the game is as dull as dishwater. The skill element is practically zero. If you are leading you get rubber banded backwards by the inescapable power ups that the back markers get and so your reward for learning the tracks and driving cleanly and cleverly are completely nullified. Yes you will win most races and the challenge is mediocre at best, but the constant repetition of 4 races on essentially small dull tracks (putting jumps and mushrooms to bounce off or handglide over is fun for 20 mins then its all the same).
Its got no substance
Its got no soul.

After an hour I thought what am I actually getting out of playing this apart from a sense of satisfaction of guessing exactly what shell/lightning/blue shell was going to halt my progress on lap 3

Maybe back in the 8/16/32 bit era, which I grew up with and is embedded in me, the brief 'this is colourful and fun for 10 mins' was good enough. Now however its just a repetitive dull skilless experience

The omission of any ach/trophy system also means there is no point in grinding through the tours apart from the trite winners video and shite soundbyte you get when you bag yet another pointless win.

Its shiny and I am sure it would be an aimiable distraction playing in mp against friends for a brief time every so often. But I defy anyone to pop the disc in the WiiU and play nothing else for 2 weeks. You would be bored shitless by lunch on day one.

Its the same game as it always was. Exactly the same. Maybe the shininess will dazzle you into thinking its great. But sadly Ninty, HD graphics have been the norm for nearly a decade and so you cannot get away with polishing something and passing it off as great anymore.

Where is the option to race SP with no powerups, or a more balanced challenge. Last corner of race 4 if you have won the last three races is just a joke as the bombardment is no longer funny or acceptable. Its so shallow it makes my emotions look deep.

And the irony is that I picked Mario Brothers as my free game.

MK8

Graphics 8
Sound 8
Gameplay H8

Save your money

I could have been enjoying Wolfenstein. At least that game has moved on.

I have bought every ninty machine released and in fact 2 of lots of them. I have tried and tried to get back into the love. But apart from WiiSports and the Lego game their complete lack of innovation or effort to do anything but rehash almost identically everything everytime has left me the bitter twisted anti N man I am today.

You can now feel free to flame me for this, but I will be surprised if anyone is putting the hours into this title for very long as there is nothing to put the hours in to or for.

Dear oh dear.

Its the best ever Mario kart ever made, the best graphics, the best handling, the best tracks, the best online multiplayer.

I truly love this game and have played it everyday so far!

The first place always gets hit, that's the way its meant to be, its not forza which you also hate!

Save the right power up to block, but of course if it didn't have this element, we would breeze through the single player in a day or two. You need the challenge.

I love it and think it pisses on anything I have played on xone or ps4, it even looks better.

Every review I have read loves it!

88 on metacritic

Everton reviewing anything Nintendo is like me reviewing a Chelsea game, I hate them.

I like the game and what it has brought to the series love the element of being able to go up walls and stuff.

Graphically brilliant and sounds are better than they have been.

I have played this for quite a while since I have had it and think its great.

Some of the new tracks are good and I like how they have again brought back old ones but improved them.

I like the challenge of the faster races as 50cc is turd.

Online is brilliant I think I can play me until I met ze Germans and the frenchies Friday I got my arse handed to me  

I didn't play the older ones so I don't really have an etched impression of the game before jumping into this but I have played similar games in the past (that were no doubt emulating mk before people go into that), it is good and I quite enjoy it but I don't really see what justifies the price tag if that makes sense, except it being a mario game that everyone will buy so like the wii it'll be one of them few 1st party games that will stay at full price for a long ass time xD.

 It does get quite repetitive so I play it in small doses but I expected that when I got it since at the core the game is pretty simple and accessible for people as a whole.

 I can relate to what you said about the last corner of ughness -.- happened to me too many times for it to be amusing. I don't regret the purchase but, £40?  maybe 30 or something would've been better.