The Mario Kart Retrospective. Part Eight - Mario Kart 8

I can distinctly remember going out and buying this. Me and a mate fired up the online split screen and had a ball. It's been a familiar fixture in the old Buskadome ever since. It's the perfect multiplayer game for a mixed crowd. Apart from obvious things like Wii Sports or Nobby's House Party, this is the only game I know that I can bust out no matter the occasion, with expert gamers or inexplicably talented females who supposedly don't play it that much.
Also makes for a cracking drinking game.
Starting to show its standard definition cracks now, but will do nicely for the last two weeks before 8. Fuck that lightning cloud, mind.

Moo Moo Meadows!




*drops mic*

I cannot get past the frame rate issue with this one. It was horrible in four-player. I didn't like the bikes either, or the tricks (which sadly seems to have become a returning element of the franchise), but the focus on online over local was what really annoyed me. Also extended to having wider tracks than usual, which weren't as much fun with fewer players.

That said, wideness aside, there were some quality tracks in this game. Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape are two of my absolute favourite Mario Kart tracks ever. Until MK7 ruined the tunnel in the latter.  

Drunkalilly wrote:

Fuck that lightning cloud, mind.

No way! The lightning cloud was one of the best parts of MKWii, turning races (with lots of people) into high-octane games of Hot Potato. I loved it, and I've missed it in later instalments.

This one was fun to play while drunk, especially with trying to stay on Rainbow Road.

shanks wrote:

This one was fun to play while drunk, especially with trying to stay on Rainbow Road.

Hear hear!
I've heard a lot of complaints about the frame rate but it's never been something I've noticed, even with regular four player sessions.

It says something about Mario Kart Wii that it's my least favourite of the MK games I played on the Wii (Double Dash!! and Super being the others). The bikes! Also, as a predominantly single-player experience it struggled to succeed: courses were mostly too wide to feel interesting. Where are my hairpin bends on roads the width of two karts? Hilarious in not-often-experienced multiplayer, as ever.

I'm going to make the argument that Mario Kart Wii is the most underrated Mario Kart game, it does a lot of things so well. Its single player had a lot to do, and the recently deceased online was brilliant. I think in time, a lot of people will appreciate this more.

You've just named the two less important modes out of the three, Dusty. It does the main one badly, and that's its main problem. And what do you mean about its single-player having a lot to do? It had less than its predecessor, MKDS - same number of cups, no Mission Mode.

I should give my proper thoughts on this now.

I had plenty of great times on this through single player & the local/online multiplayer while its not my favourite its certainly not far off it, also quite bold of them to use motion control in such an important series & still make it feel like Mario Kart.

Also I don't think Mario Kart has been a game that needs a lot of modes especially as you have the online element to it now.

MKWii - didn't like it as much as the Gamecube version. Maybe it was because Double Dash was my first "proper" Mario Kart, but MKWii didn't feel as special for me.

The_Jaster wrote:

Also I don't think Mario Kart has been a game that needs a lot of modes especially as you have the online element to it now.

By "modes" I just meant single-player, split-screen and online in that case. Agreed that Mario Kart is not a franchise that needs a lot of bells and whistles, although an expanded single-player would be appreciated.

Rounding off the Mario Kart Retrospective with the most recent game in the series; Mario Kart 7, which landed on the 3DS in 2011.


Mario Kart 7's biggest changes were the inclusion of underwater sections, and kart mounted gliders. Other changes included races that weren't raced over laps, instead they were in point-to-point sections.


Another new inclusion was the option to customise karts, allowing players to choose the type of body, wheels and glider that they used: these choices affected a kart's speed, acceleration, weight and handling. Mario Kart 7 also utilised the 3DS's SpotPass feature: this gave players a chance to race against each other's ghosts.


Well that almost concludes the Mario Kart Retrospective. As always, post your comments, thoughts, and stories about Mario Kart 7 below, and let the discussion continue! Thanks to everyone who took part in the thread, and supported it, your contributions are much appreciated. Mario Kart 8 is almost here, and it will soon be time to write another chapter in Mario Kart history, I'll hopefully see you all on the starting grid next week.

In b4 Andyman's stream of negativity.

I'm fond of MK7.  I may have said this before.  It's mostly because its "gimmick" was the best since DD!!'s.  Not the submarines - them I could take or leave, and given that their first course was the dull-as-ditchwater Cheep Cheep Lagoon I'd rather leave them on the whole - but the gliders.  I've always loved flight in games, and it was no different here.  Alpine Pass was brilliant, solely because of the gliding.

The other courses were a mixed bag.  For every Melody Motorway, there was a Wuhu Loop of some variety.  On the subject of negatives, I'd rather have a straightforward choice of karts than fanny around with bodies and gliders and tyres.  And why wasn't Waluigi in the game?  (Lack of time, according to MarioWiki.)  But the ridiculousness of having the Honey Queen in a kart makes up for that.

Overall, a fine addition to the franchise, and the first Mario Kart where I played with y'all online!  And got beaten hollow by Jas, I seem to recall.


Also, since it's the last week of this fine feature (bravo Dusty!  ), I thought I'd give my definitive ranking of Mario Karts.  I say "definitive": the top two, bottom two, and especially the middle three are all subject to swapping.  And of course there'll be another entry soon.  From worst to best:

Super Mario Kart (probably - haven't really played enough)
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Less than a week until they're all pushed down an entry, I hope!

Balladeer wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

Also I don't think Mario Kart has been a game that needs a lot of modes especially as you have the online element to it now.

By "modes" I just meant single-player, split-screen and online in that case.  Agreed that Mario Kart is not a franchise that needs a lot of bells and whistles, although an expanded single-player would be appreciated.

Ohh I see, a bit more to single-player would be nice but I only really came to that mindset after playing sonic racing transformed so it isn't massive deal to me.

7 was a nice little game, right up until I played Sonic Transformed. The innovations of the gliding and underwater sections were suddenly shown up by having a game repeat the trick but not slow things down so much. After that, any time I had to dive or glide became a huge chore. The kart customisation stuff didn't seem to affect things very much, either.

If it seems like I'm on a downer for the Mario Kart series from my replies here, that's because I am, generally.  Hopefully the ability to play on-line multiplayer in 8 will bring some of the magic back...

Went to Timewarp the arcade near me today who's just opened, what did we play have the most fun on. Yep Mario Kart 64 on a X-Box through emulation, had 4 of us playing it and it's still as good as I remember.

On 7 it was good that's about all I can say.

To rank the Karts like Balla, based on what I've played more then 1 or 2 races of
Last Super Mario Kart
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart Double Dash
First Mario Kart 64

What's the frame rate like Mas?  Somebody said it was close to unplayable in four-player in the modern day.  I don't remember it being so, but the last time I played it was a while ago.

Well the X-Box seemed to of upresed all the games on it including this as it did looking quite lovely. Then we started playing and it seems rather jumpy and unable to cope with shells going across the screen at each other.   But who cares though when it was that much fun.

Good to know but sad to hear.  If it's anything like MKWii's multiplayer, then I care: did my eyes in, that did.  That means that only DD!! has managed to produce a flawless (local) multiplayer experience that stands the test of time - sadly MK8's already out the running on the basis of its neutered battle mode.

Mario Kart 7 was a weird one in that I expected much more from it considering the critics' reactions. The gliders and underwater sections really didn't seem to add anything and I found the kart customisation a bit of a pain considering Mario Kart has always been a series where I've just wanted to get stuck into a race right off the bat. The rubber banding isn't as bad as it was in MKWii, and the StreetPass functionality was pretty cool, but it was very much a decent, not amazing, game. It didn't have much personality. Still, it had a few cool courses, like Melody Motorway and Koopa City. And I really liked the makeover of the SNES Rainbow Road.

I think rum hit it on the head when he mentioned a lack personality. I enjoyed Mario kart 7 and got a fair bit of play time from it. That being said, it just felt too similar to Wii, and overexposure of Miis and inclusion of Wuhu tracks just made it feel pretty unmario. And also, for me, Mario kart is always better on a sofa with mates playing split screen.

While I agree with you, Drunka, surely that last line flies in the face of your high praise for MKDS?

It seems to me that the handheld Mario Karts have more trouble establishing a "personality" than the home console editions, although I felt that MK7 had more of one than MKDS.

I've missed quite a few of these, but from GameCube onwards:

Double Dash!! - I like it a lot! It isn't my most played, nor is it the most progressive Mario Kart, but I admire the sheer lunacy of it all. 'They don't make them like this anymore'.

Mario Kart DS - Definitely my least favourite in the series. I personally found to be quite mundane all-around, and nowhere near competitive enough as a single player game. I played it just the once in local multiplayer with my mates, and I recall it being quite good fun then. Of course, we're all ten years older and don't carry our DS Phats around with us anymore. It isn't one I revisit particularly often.

Mario Kart Wii - I hated this when it came out! The aesthetic really put me off - it looked like shite even when it was brand new. Really, really frantic as well - in fact, it just ripped the piss in single player. I really thought that, after the DS and Wii versions, Mario Kart was a series in regression. It wasn't until the start of 2010 when I finally figured out how to get my Wii online (    ) that it all clicked. Simply put, it was a superb online game. That said, I don't know if I'll play it much again now that the servers are closed.

Mario Kart 7 - Such a great 'best of Mario Kart', but definitely stands on it's own merits too. Genuinely one of my favourite handheld games of all time.

I liked MK7 but didn't love it. it was way better then the DS version by a long shot and I did love this ones Rainbow Road (think I even got the 6th best time for that track), but in the end got sick of everyone picking the same damn tracks all the time which was usually a Wahu Island one

Drunkalilly wrote:

I think rum hit it on the head when he mentioned a lack personality. I enjoyed Mario kart 7 and got a fair bit of play time from it. That being said, it just felt too similar to Wii, and overexposure of Miis and inclusion of Wuhu tracks just made it feel pretty unmario. And also, for me, Mario kart is always better on a sofa with mates playing split screen.

Buska sums it up nicely for me here. At the time I played and completed MK7, I felt hugely overexposed to the series. The gliding lost its appeal pretty much straight away, and the underwater bits can just go straight to Hell. I'm hoping to revisit this some day to see if my opinions have changed.