Mario Kart 8

[Iceman404]

I just walked in and what the fuck is with all these clone characters. Metal Mario, 3 pointless babies, and Gold Pink... what? That's 5 slots of roster space used up in the dumbest way possible, I don't even understand. Otherwise I'm blown away by the visuals, level design, and thought put into this game (the physics don't look as stale this time around too, but that could just be me looking closely). I love how they brought back the original Super Mario Kart pipe-frame, and the four player mode looks like it didn't suffer at all from the graphic intensity like they thought it would.

My only other gripe is battle mode. Although I'm glad they brought the survival only system back, using the stages as rehashes for the battle courses was a horrible move, even more so because the level design is totally uninteresting. Just... donut circles? I can't imagine any strategy or variation coming out of this thing compared to SMK and MK64's level design. Nothing out of these 'derby games' will be as unique as climbing around on Block Fort. I can see the enjoyment of battle mode wearing off quickly after release yet again.

The only thing that slightly bugs me is how there aren't eleventy-seven items to use in this game and that characters STILL don't hold the items that they roll.

What do you mean "STILL"? The only other games that do it this way to my knowledge are Super Mario Kart and Double Dash. Honestly it's way more interesting to actually time your ability to block shit behind you rather than just hold the button and automatically shield yourself from every incoming weapon and player. In early Mario Kart 8 showings, it was in fact the traditional way of the item hovering behind you to be shot by something else, but I'm glad to see they changed their minds in recent builds.