Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) Review

 (Originally posted on February, 2018)

(2017, Nintendo Switch)

I’ve seldom been grasped by the racing genre, as it tends to demand a bit too much practice and attention to detail, all while never letting up on the nerve-wracking sort of tension that comes with being pursued. The games can certainly be rewarding for others, particularly for vehicle enthusiasts (which I am not), but I’ve always drifted towards being a casual player all the way down to the most inviting and beginner friendly of them: the Mario Kart series, a game so easy to pick up and play that you’ll often see 3 or 4 year-olds wearing its merchandise. The earlier games I’ve played somewhat thoroughly before gradually tiring of the series. Fun as Mario Kart was in the 90s, as time went on, the lack of freshness, increasing presence of b-tier characters and the overly saccharine courses of the newer entries tended to extinguish my interest after just one race. Despite concluding years ago that Mario Kart was no longer for me, the combination of hearing that 2014’s Mario Kart 8 is the very best of them, still being in that ‘new system honeymoon state’ where I want to purchase Switch games just for the sake of it and finally, the carefree urge to burn some cash on an indulgent Christmas day convinced me to finally give the series another chance with the upgraded Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

MK8DX puts forth the greatest effort yet to surpass past games, impressing to the degree that even those who’ve long tired of the series will at least be made curious once more. The most immediate draw is that despite being designed around inferior hardware over 3 years ago, the graphics are still arguably Nintendo’s finest work yet. The racers are impressively programmed to interact with one another in the heat of the action while built with such brilliant modeling and lighting that’s it difficult to imagine they could be rendered any better. Many courses offer mainline platformer fans some intriguing takes on the Mario universe (and even several entirely different series). Often full of cheering Toads, Yoshis and Shyguys on the sidelines in worlds free of any threat, the whimsical cake lands and lego-like metropolitan centers are sometimes dangerously cute and sterile. Even if you can’t stand some of the courses, their sincere, detailed crafting makes them difficult to automatically hold your nose at the sight. The new anti-gravity feature allows the tracks to twist and turn in some the series’ most daring and creative designs yet, as you’ll often find yourself not entirely aware of your orientation to the land amid  all the upside down chaos of drifting into items boxes and avoiding fireballs.

The bulk of my time with the series being spent on 64 and Super Circuit, each with a paltry roster of 8, the amount of selectable riders here is almost overwhelming. As a big Super Mario World and especially Super Mario Brothers 3 fan, being able to control all the Koopa Kids was a huge draw even without taking everyone else into account. After easily clearing all the courses in the beginner 50CC mode, the game provides a progressively serious challenge with the 100, 150 and 200CC modes. Feeling barely in control of your kart at 200CC, every moment is chaotic and engaging. But even with such a formidable challenge, after a couple hours the allure of gradually unlocking parts to create your custom made vehicle wore out, driving me to move onto other games before I could obtain the final prize that is the playable Golden Mario. Of course, diluting the kind of satisfyingly obsessive minutia that comes from shaving milliseconds off your lap time with the random chance of being penalized with the homing hit of a red or purple shell doesn’t aid in the replay value.

Quite a bit meatier than a simple cash-in port, Nintendo went out of their way in addressing the feedback from the 2014 release. Upgrades from the Wii U version include various graphical improvements, the most noticeable being a resolution increase. In addition to all the previously sold-separate downloadable content being made immediately available, the Squid Kids from the surprisingly wildly popular Splatoon join in. Something I left unexplored was the robust battle mode packed with new courses and items; its omission from the Wii U original being sorely missed by many gamers, as this is a racer long known for excelling at specialized multiplayer play.

Even though just seeing relatively minor upgrades from a game featured on the last generation of Nintendo hardware, the graphics still impress with their colorful, nearly perfect sense of polish, almost nailing that still vaunted “Toy Story” look. The child’s room level in particular captures the carefree fun of the series, whether drifting the hills of the train-track courses or watching in the background for certain toys I sometimes still have to resist buying for myself. Other standouts include the dreamy Chinese style stage built around Super Mario Galaxy 2’s slender dragon boss, the roller coaster like drop on the tracks Wario’s Mine, a masterfully designed ski resort descent and enjoying the several gorgeous remixed courses from the now primitive, but once highly enviable N64 game that I was most fond. The music to Luigi’s Twisted Mansion is wonderfully over the top and the main theme is catchy, but otherwise the soundtrack is rather forgettable, though to its credit, more professional and diverse than past games.

Drawing me in more than the actual racing was simply spotting and experiencing the endless Nintendo references. There are so many amazing little touches for both kids and those who’ve been playing since the 80s to watch for, like the Thunder of “Neo Bowser City” mirroring that of Bower’s Hideout in Super Mario World. The carefully placed nostalgia isn’t just invoked from the Mario universe, but in the F-Zero series’ pre/post-race music being used during the Big Blue and Mute City stages, picking up rupees rather than coins in the Legend of Zelda stage, or using fruit to power up within the roads of the Animal Crossing town. The series’ emergence beyond the Mushroom Kingdom make not just for a greater variety of enjoyable races, but to stimulate the imagination of what these other properties could be like when eventually built with the Switch hardware in mind.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may be the grandest game in the series yet, but didn’t do much to rekindle my general interest, nor should it really, as it’s wildly successful as is. It was a brief joy to take part in the celebration of the Mario series and other Nintendo games, but didn’t leave me with much reason to stay after the many stages’ gorgeous and fun sights lost their initial novelty. I intend to resell the game, but can’t say I regret buying it in the first place. Even if you’re not crazy about the series, the game’s irresistible overall appeal will still trail any Nintendo fan with the same unavoidability as one of those dreaded red shells.