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Games of the Decade #20/Blog a Day #11

Hello gamers™, how are you?

Certain video game franchises have been around for a long time and you can probably imagine that coming up with the next game in a popular franchise is difficult. Sometimes it might not live up to the previous game be it due to not having enough time to develop a game or whatever. But what do you do to keep your famous franchise in the public eye while you work on the next big installment? Why you make a spin-off game of course. Many main series games have gotten spin-off games like Mario for instance who is no stranger to spin-off titles and one of the most well Mario spin-offs is Mario Kart. For this post we will be racing down the track with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

          The music in the game is pretty great and this is the best title screen in MK8D ♥

Ah Mario Kart, the game where friendships go to die. Backstory time: I already had Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U and it was a really great game that sold well. Except the Wii U hardware did not. Years later Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch and they decided to port over the most recent Mario Kart game with extra content. So instead of an original Mario Kart game for the Switch, we got an enhanced port of MK8. But was the extra content worth doubledipping if you've already had played the Wii U version? 

Mario Kart 7 brought underwater racing and flight to the series and those same mechanics got carried over to 8. MK8 added antigravity to the racing mechanics. Ever play F-Zero? It's exactly like that. In many races you'll be going on the side of the walls or upside down due to the antigravity mechanic in the game. It's a very cool mechanic. Not every single course has antigravity though since I imagine it would get old really fast if every single course had it in areas that doesn't make sense for it to be there.

The courses look really great, the colors in this game look so vibrant and colorful. At the time, this was the best looking game on the Wii U. But the courses that look the best are the Retro courses, courses from past Mario Kart game. Seeing them reimagined in HD is a real treat and sometimes you could get distracted at everything going on in the background and how beautiful a course looks. The characters themselves look great as well and so do the karts and bikes. Everything in this game looks great.

                   The courses in this game looks gorgeous and are brimming with detail

Modes are you standard fare if you've played Mario Kart. You have Grand Prix, Time Trial, Battle Mode, and Online. You can play a number of these modes with others and multiplayer has always been Mario Kart's bread and butter and I can say it is just as fun as ever. Although I will say that the Battle Mode in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best one out of the 2. Online can get pretty hectic if you play with random people online but you can also create a custom lobby to play with only your friends too. You can set your own rules and whatnot.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well if you have a Wii U then you can get it there. The problem is that I have never once seen Mario Kart 8 go on sale at all. So if anything, you'll be paying almost full price for it even though it's an old game. Also Mario Kart 8 got dlc as well which will cost you $11.99 for more characters and tracks, which is a really good deal for what you get in the dlc itself but that also adds up to the base price of the game. You are better off trying to get a used copy.

Like I said, they have ported the game over to the Nintendo Switch and I will say get this version as it has more content than the original version of the game. It includes new characters not present in the Wii U version and it finally has an improved Battle Mode too. They inda messed it up on the Wii U, instead of having original maps for Battle Mode, they instead let you fight on the courses you race which wasn't that good for battling. On the Switch, they fixed it and they brought in original maps including a Splatoon one which in my opinion is the best one. And yes, this version includes all the dlc that has been released as well and it even includes a better framerate and it has Labo support if you are into that sort of thing. If you have a Switch, get that version instead.

                         — ?????N (@Captain_N64) February 3, 2020           

                Online can get quite hectic but it's always fun playing with friends

Final Thoughts: Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe) is a well made game that not only looks great but it plays great too. The game may have new mechanics thrown in but the core gameplay is still there and it's still as fun as ever. One thing that does disappoint me is that the developers have gone on to say that Mario Kart 8 would have been an F-Zero game and I honeslty would of had that instead. There will always be Mario Kart games and a new F-Zero is long overdue. Maybe one day.

I wish we could have gotten an original Mario Kart game on the Switch, but I suppose Nintendo decided to port the most recent one since I imagine they are working on Mario Kart 9 or whatever they end up calling it and I imagine it isn't ready yet. I may have already owned the original version but I bought it when it launched since at the time my only game on the Switch was Breath of the Wild, so I needed something new even though it's not really "new".

Mario Kart is always essential to have on a Nintendo system and they knew that pretty well, hence this enchanced port. I knew this too hence why I doubledipped. Do I regret it? Nope. Mario Kart 8 is a great game and still fun to play, especially with friends but I hope maybe one day we get something new. I wouldn't mind going back to basics like Mario Kart Wii and if they do, please make the bikes do wheelies. Or maybe do a Mario Kart Ultimate like Smash Bros. did and they bring the best of the entire series with new courses. I feel like that would be the best case scenario.

                      Sometimes you get so good that you can outsmart the Blue Shell

So that's it for this one. I will see you on the next race soon...