Mario Kart 8 - My game of the year

One of or maybe even THE best computer game franchise in history, Mario Kart is a game that is too often imitated but never matched. The newest embodiment of this iconic series highlights the reason why.

With so much emphasis put on the realism of games in the modern generation, be it the graphics, storyline or game-play, there is only one game that still evokes that juvenile yet pure want for competition, Mario Kart. With games such as the Call of Duty series or the EA Sports collections being so focused on the realistic expectations of competition with outcome based, to some extent, on logic and skill, practice is ultimately what makes perfect. Mario kart however? Mario kart is not biased to the experienced and never has been. The person who plays the single player campaign will not get better odds in a straight multiplayer race than somebody who stumbles onto the pad. The game is the most natural representation of gaming ability. Hand-eye co-ordination, reading the screen and rolling with the punches, mixed with an unpredictability that can have the most confident of players curled up in the fetal position sobbing over the blue shell that caught him just yards from a 1^st place finish. This is ultimately what makes Mario Kart so unique and important and the most recent incarnation of the 1992 release, Mario Kart 8 is the best example of this.

The only thing more fun than winning in Mario Kart 8 is seeing your friends fail in their respective attempt. Nothing brings more euphoria than being witness to that agonizing moment your friend hits a banana peel or gets hit by his or her own mis-timed shell. All staples of the Mario Kart franchise since it’s first release. Mario Kart 8 however has, to date, the best frustrations of any game I can think of. I’ve listed the top 5 additions to Mario Kart 8 that will provide you with those unforgettable multiplayer scenarios where one of your friends is going to fall out with you, throw a strop and maybe run home. God I love this game!

1.     Anti-gravity – A new feature of the Mario Kart series. Anti-gravity will have you and your friends able to drive up certain parts of a track and even up walls and on ceilings. This occasionally disorientating feature provides a wonderful evolution on the perfectly basic driving engine of Mario Kart and will constantly throw you curve balls. With the majority of these anti-gravity opportunities presented as alternatives to the conventional track it’s a risk to take them. A risk worth taking if it works and a risk you will lament the second it goes pear shaped. Represented by your wheels flipping on their sides and glowing, you’ll know ‘when?’ it happens but very rarely ‘how?’ or even ‘why?’ Wonderful.

2.     Spin Turbo’s – A key factor in deciding your character in previous Mario Kart games was the strength of the individual comparative to the speed. Mario Kart 8 has negated this headache with its ‘Spin-Turbo’ feature. If a racer has picked up enough speed and finds themselves colliding with an opponent or even one of the specially assigned ‘bumpers’, instead of spinning out of control, your racer will receive a boost as if feeding off of the energy of your slower opponent. This feature is wonderful for those ‘kick a man whilst he is down’ moments that Mario Kart is perfect for.  More often than not, you will find an opponent has slowed down due to a recent onslaught of shells or the like and piling on the misery with a bump that not only speeds yourself up but slows them down and can even, in extreme circumstances, bring them to a complete stop. Delicious.

3.     Piranha Plant – One of the new and awesome items in Mario Kart 8, the Piranha Plant is the new and super useful alternative to the still available ‘star’ which as we all know made you indestructible for a short period of time, usually when you are a distance off the lead. The Piranha Plant however has taken that feature of direct driving through oncoming racers and weapons with pure confidence to a new level. The Piranha Plant serves as both a defence, much like the star did and an attack. When any driver is close enough to you and your Piranha Plant, the plant will attack, in a very ‘Little shop of Horrors’ manner. Catching your friends or enemies with the Piranha Plant is sure to send them into a fit of rage and have them questioning the ‘logic’. Delightful.

4.     Super-Horn – The Super-Horn is again a new item added to the collection for Mario Kart 8. Obtainable in any position, the Super-Horn emits a large shockwave generated from sound that can flip nearby racers, destroy items (oncoming or static) and can even destroy the Blue Shell. YEAH! We finally now have the antidote to one of the most panic inducing moments in computer game history, the moment you see the warning signal pop-up in 1^st place and there’ a little blue shell with wings illustration. Even worse, when playing multi-payer and somebody just shouts “BLUE SHELL!” it’s over and you know it, not anymore. If you manage to obtain the super-horn you can destroy that crafty winged shell and cause your friends to spit in fury. Ingenious.

5.     Wii U GamePad – Nintendo are the kings of cross console compatibility. Most Nintendo titles for the static console; Wii, N64, Wii U. are perfectly translated onto their handheld systems; Nintendo DS etc. With Mario Kart 8, Nintendo have decided to blend the two and have introduced a synced gameplay that can run on your TV screen through your Wii U simultaneously with the Wii U GamePad. This means that you can use your GamePad as a pad and screen. This is great for one really important reason. With the GamePad you can’t look at my scree. You can’t see where I am going or where I am. This is especially brilliant for ‘Battle Mode’ as one of the best ways to cheat on ‘Battle-modes’ of past was to simply look at your opponent’s split-screen and decipher where they were on the map. With the GamePad, the element of surprise is re-introduced and it is about as entertaining as any other innovation I can think of. Win using the GamePad once and wait for your opponents to blame the pad for your success and not your undeniable skill. Perfect.