- Hey, y'all Scott here. What'll it be? - [Crowd] Mario Kart 8. - This is a bar. All right, so Mario Kart 7. It happened, there was
nothing we can do about it. What can the series do next? (upbeat music) I got it. Mario Kart 8 was the series big
return to using even numbers and is easily the game that
had the most writing on it. So you release for the Wii U, Nintendo's least favorite
little disappointment. That system was having a
hell of a time, not failing. I mean, how is that possible? It launched in November, 2012 with... And then a year later in
2013, things got steamier with the release of,
I'm really trying here. To be fair, of course, the
Wii U had some solid games at this point, but they
just weren't enough to get people interested in the console. The Mario games released
for the system were fine but they looked like any other Mario game. Zelda remake, Lego game, a game that launched the same
week as Grand Theft Auto 5, the third entry in a somewhat niche series that was pretty much dormant for a decade and Game and Wario. What the hell is a Game and Wario? Yes, all of these games
were varying levels of good, but can you really blame
anybody with a pulse for not buying a Wii U. Oh my god. What the Wii U needed was
a Nintendo game that looked significantly better and
more fun than any other Nintendo game we've played in the past. One of the Wii U's problems
was that most of the games you'd buy a Wii U four
looked pretty similar to games you already had on your Wii. We needed a game with mass appeal, that felt like a huge step
up from previous generations. His mustache moves in the wind. Mario Kart 8 was the Wii U's
big chance to redeem itself, the system's killer app. Up until it's release, the
console was just kinda. And when Mario Kart 8 came out the console went from, to. As previously stated, the Wii
U launched in November, 2012, it sure did. Contrary to what most will say, the launch was pretty solid in my opinion, there was quite a lot to play and no games have made anybody, other than the diehard Nintendo fan boy, who'll buy anything they
release by the console. It's Wario. Nut if you bought the console at launch, you had quite a bit to play. Nintendo Land was great fun,
new Super Mario Brothers U gave your thumb something to do for a few hours and nothing more. Third party games weren't exciting, I mean, Mass Effect 3, oh my god, didn't that release eight months ago, and didn't everybody hate it. Regardless, you had
stuff to play on Wii U. And then January hit. There wasn't much on the Wii U's horizon in terms of game releases
for a good few months. Sure, Rayman Legends was set for February but you'd be soft said. ROK, M rated zombie
game exclusive to Wii U didn't sell as well as we wanted. Let's delay Rayman and
put it on other platforms the same month as Grand Theft Auto 5. I'm still not sure if that
was a good idea or not. Basically there wasn't
much coming until March. So Nintendo had to step up and give fans a reason to be excited. And what followed was easily
one of the best moments for a Wii U owner next to
it getting discontinued. The Wii U Direct focused
on reaffirming games we already knew were coming alongside soft announcing some as well. Many of these announcements were for games that were far away from
releasing anytime soon, like Shin Megami Tensei Crossfire Emblem, which ended up releasing in 2016 as... (song in foreign language) Not that. Yoshi's Wooly World looked
quite a bit different and was simply called
Yarn Yoshi at the time. The next Zelda title, later to be Breath of
the Wild, was discussed, but the reveals for games
happening that century happened to be a new 3D Mario
game and a new Mario Kart. Now nothing was really
said or shown about these other than there'll be at E3 this year. Personally, I was more excited
about the new 3D Mario game. I mean, these games can be
so unbelievably amazing. They've defined their
generations in gaming and set the standard for games to follow. And then there was Mario
Kart, like I give a. All right, let's be fair. An original 3D Mario was
kind of what the Wii U needed to feel justified with it's
banana boat controller. Surely a 3D Mario would
take advantage of it. I mean the Nintendo 64 controller was made with Mario 64 in mind. E3 2013 arrived. (upbeat music) I'm sad. Anyways, I was obviously
happy for a new Mario Kart, but I felt the same way I did when the previous title,
Mario Kart 7 came out. I just wasn't that excited. I mean, Mario Kart's Mario Kart. It's more of an inevitability
than a huge event when one released at that point. I think I was still upset I
was bad at Mario Kart Wii. E3 2013 arrived. (upbeat music) I'm glad. Oh my god, this game looked like a huge
leap forward for the series. Up until this point Mario Kart was never really
a huge graphical showcase for any system it was on. It always looked pleasant enough, but most of the time the presentation ranged from underwhelming to good enough. Mario Kart 8 actually looked
like it was taking advantage of the hardware it was running on. Who'd a thought? The gliding and underwater segments from 7 were quickly revealed to be returning alongside bikes from Mario Kart Wii with one major element being this game's standout
feature, anti-gravity. See now that tracks can
twist and turn all around, it doesn't matter, your
car can go on the walls. Newton was a, anyways. At the end of the trailer,
Mario's kart does... (upbeat music) This and forms an eight. (car buzzing) Nintendo stated they named it Mario Kart 8 because there's this one course that looks like a Mobius strip,
which looks like an eight. So, you know, let's name
this one Mario Kart 8. Even if this was the third Mario Kart, they'd still name it Mario Kart 8. Mario Kart TV was detailed
being a way to share replays of your races with others online, and the release date was... If you were a Wii U owner in June of 2013, you should know hearing
this game wasn't coming up for basically one more year. That was not my year's finest moment. So it happened with the Nintendo 3DS when it launched in spring
of 2011 throughout that year, it struggled because of a high price and not enough software, but it all came together that holiday with a price cut and the
back to back releases of a 3D Mario game and a Mario Kart. And ever since, look at this
thing, it did really well, had a ton of wonderful games
and kept getting game releases in 2019, my god. Things were lining up for the Wii U to experience the same fate with a 3D Mario and Mario
Kart down the pipeline. But Mario Kart was coming a
good bit later, unfortunately. But obviously that was for the best as the game was still a bit early on. Looking at the demo
playability for that year, a good bit changed by its release. Tons of user interface
tweaks, gameplay mechanics, that music wasn't finalized yet. And they used Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart Wii music in a few places. But hey, Waluigi was back after being cut from Mario Kart 7, that's right they were brave. Info would die down until December, 2013. A new trailer showed up
after Rosalina was announced for Smash Brothers for 3DS and Wii U. That opened up with a
reference to Mario Kart, and it made everybody question if Kirby was gonna be in Mario Kart 8. See no, but in the Mario Kart
8, shortly that followed, Baby Daisy was. New courses and characters were shown off and thankfully it wasn't
long until we saw even more during the February, 2014
Direct, a new trailer debuted, and this one was great. I think this was truly when it set in, just how gorgeous this game was. This trailer focused on the announcement that all seven Koopalings were
going to be playable racers. Thank god. I'd say this was a pretty
neat announcement initially, but I think people realized
how ridiculous this was when they saw the final
character select screen. Like imagine this is your brain, Jesus man, seven tumors. A little over a month later was when Nintendo was
going into full press mode with this thing. April, they invited
tons of game journalists to try out a nearly
final version of the game and alongside it, we
got another new trailer showcasing the more
new tracks, characters, and finally, some new items. The biggest aspect of this
trailer was the reveal that Mario Kart, 64's Rainbow
Road was making a comeback and it looked beautiful. That's the thing, Nintendo
finally figured out what the hell they were doing
with editing at this point. Does anybody remember
Nintendo's official videos back in 2013? They couldn't figure out how to capture their own gameplay footage. This Mario Kart 8 trailer,
they have this fun transition to the reveal of N64 Rainbow Road. They actually knew what they were doing. They knew how iconic that track was. It felt like they were
proud of Mario Kart 8 and wanted to show it off. Less than a month later the Mario Kart 8 Direct
randomly popped up on YouTube. What could this be, a
30 minute comedy skit. I'm not complaining, it
was just a bit unnecessary. The final details on the
game were debuted here, one month before it's released, such as the final new characters, tracks and items, a Wii U console bundle and an offer for global Nintendo members. If you registered your game
within the first two months you can pick one of four
games to download for free. I never understood this promotion. Wasn't every Wii U owner
already gonna buy Mario Kart 8? Wouldn't it make more
sense to do this promotion with like Bayoneta 2? Well, I got myself Pikmin
3 for buying Mario Kart 8. Nintendo forcibly gave me a game for free for buying a game where I
would have bought both of them separately for full
price, the nerve of them. And that was pretty much Mario Kart 8 up until it's released on May 30th. It was an exciting time. 2014 was truly the year the
Wii U started to fully feel like a solid console with Mario Kart and Smash Brothers coming
out later that year. I have a lot of fond memories of waiting for this game to come out and watching all the
previews and reviews I could all during that perfect
time of year in the spring, where the weather is just right. And not only did it feel good outside, but we had this amazing looking
game coming out as well. I look back at the buildup and
eventual release of this game with a lot of fondness. Of course, something I look forward to with every Mario Kart
game is the battle mode, which weirdly enough,
Nintendo wasn't detailing at all with this game. We didn't know anything about
it up until it's release. But you know, you can't
really mess up battle mode that much at its worst, it'll probably be like
Mario Kart Wii again. And even then that was tolerable. It was just kinda not my favorite. So either way, let's
take a look at the game that saved the Wii U. (buzzer sound effect) The game that justified the Wii U. (buzzer sound effect) The game. Here it is, Mario Kart
8, red case and all. Yep, goes wonderfully with the blue header and white spine and blue, white. Nintendo, let's talk. I understand why you gave a game like new Super Mario
Brothers Wii a red case, and the entire box art is
red, including the spine. It was cute, and it was a one-time thing. But if you're gonna go to the length of making the case red,
why not go all the way and make other parts red
like the Wii U header. At least the box art is fantastic. It feels very much like Mario Kart DS, but with actual color and stuff going on. Also, apparently if you
followed the logistics of where the racers are, Mario and Peach are
supposedly going the wrong way on the track. Another Mario Kart tradition
lives on, up the box art. You know I could've picked
up the Mario Kart 8, limited edition, it was only available at the Nintendo World store in New York. (upbeat music) Scratch that, I couldn't
have picked it up. That's what you call a limited edition, only available in one specific place. At least here in the US it was. It was far more readily
available in other countries. Wanna know how I know that? Well here's the European
version of the same damn game. And here's the North American version. All they both come with is a damn shell. Well, if I can't own that stupid thing, I guess the only thing I can
do is play the stupid thing. (cars buzzing) - [Mario] Mario Kart 8. (upbeat music) - I can't believe I
could have this much fun inserting a disc and I haven't
even done anything yet. This is a glorious moment and my ears are digging
every second of it. Mario Kart 8 features live recorded music and it goes for this jazzy
vibe and it is incredible. Music in Mario Kart was never bad but most of the games just
kinda sounded the same. Like here's the Mario Kart 7 title screen. (upbeat music) Using Mario Kart Wii music here. They all just kinda blend in for me. And again, they're not bad but I don't hear any
defining characteristics of DS's music compared to Wii's or 7's. 8 has its own flavor in the fact that it's all live record, gives the soundtrack a
feeling of significance that the series lacked up until this point the title screen's theme is amazing. And after a while I played Super Mario Karts title theme. Tons of Mario Karts have had
the Super Mario Kart theme thrown into their main themes. But there's something that feels so good about the implementation in 8, I love it. Heading into the menus. (upbeat music) I don't know what else I'm gonna do. Onto the character selection. Whoa. So initially, this would
be your starting roster and you'd unlock more characters, by just playing through the grand prix. You'd unlock a random character
for beating a new cup, that's it. That definitely makes
things pretty simple, but my god did I work my ass off to unlock King Boo and Petey
Piranha in Double Dash. That was a nightmare, but I am so proud of the
memory card they're on. Here, I mean, yeah, I unlocked everything, but I feel absolutely nothing looking at the complete
character select screen, for multiple reasons. Now listen, Mario Kart
8 has the highest number of playable characters in the series yet, but there are some baffling exclusions, and the new racers, okay, remember when I said they introduced the Koopalings as characters? Those are your new ones. You're welcome. This character selection,
is like a weird combination of Mario Kart Wii and
7 with some characters that make no sense to be here with staples of the series left
out for seemingly no reason. Bowser Jr, Diddy Kong, Dry
Bones, King Boo, Birdo. All not playable in this game at all. While Metal Mario returns
from Mario Kart 7, Baby Peach and Baby Daisy
return from Mario Kart Wii. And like I said, seeing
the Koopalings playable in that original trailer was pretty cool, but they ended up being
really the only new characters we got in this game. And when seven of the 30 playable
characters are variations of the exact same idea... But that's not all, we got
two other new characters in the form of Baby Rosalina. Listen to as your resident
Mario galaxy player, that game had an entire
backstory for Rosalina. And I will say Baby
Rosalina makes no sense. Now Baby Luigi, that's fine. And of course, Pink Gold Peach. (wind blowing) Metal Mario, you can
somewhat give a pass to. Weirdly enough, a metal version of Mario has been a part of Mario
games for quite a while. And in Mario Kart 8, the
metal effect looks kinda cool. I don't like him here, but I won't waste the picket sign on him. Pink Gold Peach, and
Baby Rosalina as well, were never a part of the Mario
series prior to this game. They were put in here because they were easy peasy to develop. You just take the Baby Peach and Baby Daisy models
and tweak them a bit. Bam, Baby Rosalina. You take Peach, make
her entirely pink, gold, bam skin disease. The Mario Kart 8 roster may be large but it's so focused on filler that it doesn't feel like
we have nearly as much variety as before. Don't get me wrong, there
are still enough characters to choose from. The selection could be far worse, but Mario Kart Wii had
so much more variety in terms of characters of
different shapes, sizes, colors. I'm not the biggest Birdo supporter, but I'd rather have one
Birdo than five children. Let's see how much of
those roster's pure filler. So we have five babies, at the most, I think three would be fine. So let's cut out two. Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach are the definition of filler characters they're just Mario and Peach
with lead poisoning, cut them. All seven of the Koopalings. Honestly, you just need Bowser Jr. to represent what they
represent, so cut six of them. And the remaining one, we could just label as a work in progress, Bowser Jr. And there we have it, about one third of the roster
taken up by pure filler. The other two thirds are just
your typical Mario Kart guest, nothing sticks out all too much. But moving on, kart
customization makes a return from Mario Kart 7 with
the customization menu, looking like they took the bottom screen in Mario Kart 7 and put it on my TV. Kart customization is the
exact same as it was in 7. It's fine, but I just ended up thinking about how it was in Mario Kart Wii, it was a lot quicker to just
pick your pre-made Kart. Here it gives me the illusion
I'm building my own vehicle, but it doesn't feel like
my creation or anything. It just feels like it takes
longer to pick a Kart now. Well let's get a move on to the tracks. We select the first cup and... (upbeat music) (birds chirping) (upbeat music) They finally changed
the Mario Kart formula. In actuality, it's more Mario Kart. Who could this be? It's most similar feeling to Mario Kart 7. Nearly all features that game introduced make the return in 8. So hopefully it now makes sense. Why Mario Kart 7 isn't that
appealing to go back to for me, it's basically a gimp to Mario Kart 8. We've got gliding and underwater sections. The controls feel pretty much the same. And of course, who could forget the coins? Seriously, who could, it's five
letters, it's not that hard. The first person (mumbles)
and return though, can we really call this a sequel? Now, considering this as a Wii U game, surely this game utilizes
Wii U's controller, right? You'd be surprised, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical
Freeze is a Wii U game, and it doesn't. I remember when the Wii
was first being rumored. The only thing people
really knew at that point was that the controller
would have a screen, and a specific idea people
had was making that screen the rear view mirror in a Mario Kart game. That would be hell. Imagine having to look up and down from the game pad to the TV screen, god. Now here they have some
light touch screen controls. If you wanna live that way. And during a race, it's a horn. I love that this controller single-handedly made the
Wii U far more expensive than it had to be. And its biggest games
core use of it is a horn. To be fair, we can toggle
through different modes. We can display what's on
the TV and show off a map, which is handy, but you'd think you'd be
able to do split-screen multi-player this way with one person getting their
own full view on the game pad while the other person gets the full TV. No, if you're playing local multiplayer the game pads display is a split screen, just like the TV, great. Split-screen multiplayer in Mario Kart 8 is a bit lacking in general, not only due to the lack of
asymmetrical multiplayer support but because when you play
with three or more people the frame rate gets cut in
half to 30 frames a second. Listen, I'm not that picky,
but it is very noticeable how much choppier this game gets when playing with more people. It's fine, but it's just a bit jarring. It's probably more noticeable
because outside of multiplayer with three plus people, this
game is smooth as butter. It looks and feels incredible. The character models look outstanding. The lighting and the small little details on the tracks, the vehicles,
the drivers themselves. This is not only the best
looking Mario Kart game, but one of the best looking
Nintendo games in general. These tracks are filled
to the brim with details. All these racing advertisements and nods to the Mario Universe make
these courses truly feel like they're a part of the Mario World and not just random Mario Kart tracks. They didn't cheap out on any area. Other than the audience here. Come on, the rest of
the game looks so good, but you're just gonna make the audience look like poster boards. Of course Mario Kart 8
features anti-gravity racing, something unlike anything Mario
Kart's experienced thus far and you're staring at it right now. This is anti-gravity racing. It's not the same as
regular racing, I swear. Anti-gravity in Mario
Kart 8 is a bit weird considering it seemed like it was gonna be a much
more obvious feature in the marketing there. The camera really sells
you on the gimmick. If a racer's on the ceiling,
they'll be upside down. In the actual game and the
camera stays consistently behind and the player at
the same angle all the time. So if you're upside down, it's
not immediately noticeable. It's only when you ride
on the side of walls that you'll instantly know. When you pass a blue strip,
your wheels shift to the sides and you just gained a Hoverkart. When you bump into these
safety hazards or other racers you get a little boost,
and that remains consistent until you pass a blue strip again, then we're back to reality. Anti-gravity may have seemed
like a marketing gimmick. I didn't say it wasn't. The trailers and commercials
really bushed it, making it seem like a big thing. It always show racers
upside down and all around, while when you're
actually playing the game. Yeah, I may be upside down here but this feels like your
everyday Mario Kart. It's not even that noticeable
when you're on the ceiling. But what anti-gravity truly
adds is insane track design. Now that the developers don't
have to uphold to the laws of physics, because we all know that was a Mario Kart
constant in the past. These tracks can go absolutely wild. They twist all around and make older courses feel
pedestrian by comparison. It's a similar addition to the underwater
sections and Mario Kart 7. It doesn't initially feel that different but when you look at how
it affects the track design it definitely allows
for far more creativity. It's truly game-changing and it makes these courses not only aesthetically interesting, but allows for the core
layout to be as well. Item wise, we have the
mainstays at this point. Basically everything
returns from Mario Kart 7 except for the Super Leaf and Lucky 7. Instead this time we got the Crazy 8, it's the same as the lucky seven, but now it gets a coin
thrown into the mix. I missed the Lucky 7. The Piranha Plant is new
and appears in front of you for a short period of time,
biting anything nearby you, racers, items, you name it, and automatically chomps and each time it does your speed up a bit but you can jam on the (mumbles) button if you just wanna get it over with. The Boomerang Flower you can
throw in front of or behind you three times and the Super Horn
blast everything around it and can destroy anything. Ink and piss other racers aspirations, and most notably the Blue Spiny Shell. Prior to this you would
have to use a Mushroom to outrun a Blue Shell. And even then that was tricky. I've looked up videos on people
out running the Blue Shell on Mario Kart Wii just
because I couldn't imagine that ever happening. I also looked up what happens
when you get a Blue Shell in first place, that. This is an item that you always
want on you in first place, and it's always a tough decision regarding whether or not
to use it on a Red Shell that's about to hit you for example, or wait for a Blue Shell
to appear to use it on. Because most of the time if you
end up securing a Super Horn that means a Blue Shell is soon to follow. Overall, the new items are all okay. I don't mind the Boomerang
or Piranha Plant, but they just don't really
leave much of an impression. I don't really feel that
empowered when I get them. But the Super Horn is
a very strategic weapon and I love its inclusion because it ties into one of
the biggest problems people had with Mario Kart 8 that I absolutely loved. See in previous status, you
could hold onto something like a Banana Peel to defend yourself from the back, while defending yourself,
you could grab another item to store in your items slot. Here in Mario Kart 8, you can only hold onto one item at a time. If you're defending yourself with a Banana you can't grab another item in reserve. On top of that, I initially
refused to mention that coins can now be an
option in the item roulette which makes them an immediate
threat to public health. Yes, there's just not
enough coins on the track. When I grab an item box,
I'm asking for a coin. Now getting a coin as an
item is incredibly annoying but that adds this interesting
strategy to Mario Kart 8. You can use up your item
to grab another item but it may be a coin and
leave you defenseless. You have to wager your options
every time you use an item. In previous games, when you
pass through an item box you'd get something that
you can defend yourself with at the very least here. Here, I don't know, I like
the element of strategy that the single slot and
coin that I'm bringing here. Everybody else hated it. I can see why, like I said,
the new items aren't that cool. They're fine, but couple
that with only one item and the coins, and this is one of the more
boring Mario Karts, item wise. The balancing actually pretty good. I mean, there were some times I got a Crazy 8 in like third place. I don't remember selling my soul for that. But mostly, this is one of
the lesser bull, Mario Karts. It feels much more fair. There's a very clear strategy
to use with the items. But since I recently
played Mario Kart Wii, that is so obviously more frustrating with its item balancing, but my god, it was more interesting. Mario Kart 8's items feel too bland. And when I look back at the garbage I put up with in Mario Kart Wii, I'll like kinda miss it in comparison. The balancing was so crazy that it made it fun in its own way. I'm not saying it's balancing
is completely boring. Like I said, I like the strategy
involved with items now, but Mario Kart Double Dash and Wii felt more like what everybody
expects out of Mario Kart, craziness happening at every moment. With 8, I feel way more on
autopilot with these items. Hold onto the Banana until
somebody throws a shell at it. Grab another item box,
pray it's not a coin, son of a bitch, grab another item box. Didn't I say I liked the
item set up in this game? I still do, but I can at least see why a lot of people didn't. But one thing I hope we can all agree on is how amazing literally all
the tracks are in this game. I have to hand it to them,
they hit it out of the park. Every track is, at the very
least, pretty damn good. They all have their own
unique background music now, which, weirdly enough, is
a first for Mario Kart. Every game had a couple of
courses that shared music. Here, it's all unique,
and it's all sublime. Even the tracks that are pretty basic have this wonderful flare to them. And then we have the tracks
that are incredibly complicated and they're a joy to experience. I just love the selection in this one. Starting out in the Mushroom
Cup, Mario Kart Stadium. I love the atmosphere here. It feels like I'm a superstar. Water Park, an oddly
generic name for a waterpark that is very obviously themed after Wario. This is my favorite
feature of Mario Kart 8. Drama. Sweet Sweet Canyon is all
about doughnuts in the store. It's a wild track to describe that makes you look
insane if you tried to. Doughnuts, everywhere. Thwomp Ruins is cool because
there's a section here that utilizes anti-gravity
gliding and underwater sections. Who knew face rocks owned ruins? Mario Circuit, the mobius strip the game's name is based off of. I never really think of this track for the figure eight design. I usually remember it for trauma. Toad Harbor, well if Toad's here, that's
gotta mean it's good. This is just a very happy feeling track. The sunshine, the cable cars all the different pathways to race on. This is one of the first tracks I think of when thinking Mario Kart 8. Twisted Mansion. Do you really think a
haunted house would be scary when flooded? If I'm under water, the last thing I'm freaking
out over is a ghost. I love the rippling floors
and the knights attacking you at the end of this one. Then there's Shy Guy Falls. I usually kinda group this one together with Thwomp Ruins in my mind, but they're pretty different tracks. Drive up a waterfall,
there's this little nook you can fly into, completely different. Sunshine Airport, this
would not fly in real life. But it does make for a fantastic track. I do wish they had a longer section inside the airport itself,
but I can't really complain, considering outside is
probably way more interesting. Dolphin Shoal is about
jumping in and out of water, riding on an eel. Again, this is physically improbable. Electrodrome is the
highlight course of the game. It's the most visually
and musically appealing, so many colors and lights
with the music being synced up to the action, and it's
followed up by Mount Wario. One big track, three sections. You start from a plane and you travel throughout
the ski resort to the end and the music adapts to what
segment of the race you're on. This is it. This is the best cup
in Mario Kart history. I gotta see what follows. Oh my god. Well, Cloudtop Cruise is fantastic. I mean, it has a Mario Galaxy remix as it's background music. You could throw up in my
face to Mario Galaxy music and I'd say that's a
good Mario Kart track. But then we move on to Bone Dry Dunes. This is probably my least
favorite track in the game. It's not bad at all, but it's easily one of the
least inspired feeling ones. I just don't really like
desert areas in games. Out of all the tracks here this is the one that
I could care the least about visiting in real life. Like what is there to do here? Bowser's Castle is a step up. I love how this giant Bowser
attacks the different pathways but it ends with a doozy. Rainbow Road, obviously the biggest
staple of any Mario Kart. All the games have to end
with their own iteration of the iconic track. And with this game, having
anti-gravity as a gimmick, I couldn't wait to see
Mario Kart 8's Rainbow Road. Especially after seeing
the N64 one remade. (calm music) This is lame. It's not a bad track. It's just pretty basic. Definitely. In comparison
to Mario Kart 7's version. You go on a rainbow road,
that's a good start, and then we go into a space station, and then go onto another
rainbow road and repeat. It's fine, but for all amazing
all the other tracks are it's shocking to me. Rainbow Road with the
anti-gravity mechanic is so basic in this game. But like I said, it's still a good track. All of these are, and
that's just half the story with the other 16 being the retro tracks. Obviously these have been a feature in the series for quite a long time, but most games, they felt like filler. More tracks to give you more content. It was nice to have them, sure, but you could almost always
tell what was a retro track and what wasn't. In Maria Kart 8, they
completely redid everything. And the retro tracks look
just as new, if not newer than the new tracks. They added anti-gravity,
remade all the music, even changed up some things aesthetically. Like Moo Moo Meadows from Mario Kart Wii takes place during sunrise,
and it's gorgeous now. I love the tracks they picked here. And sure they had to pick
courses they didn't remaster in previous games yet. So some fan favorites didn't make the cut, but by god we have some great ones. It's so fun to see Moo Moo
Meadows, Toad's Turnpike, Royal Raceway, Mario Stadium,
Yoshi Valley, Tick Tock Clock, and of course, N64 Rainbow Road. They changed it to be
a three section track rather than a three lap track. Come on, half the fun of the original was that it was overly long
and grueling to complete. Online is back and works great. Instead of giving you the
option to select any track in the game to play
online with random people, it now gives you a random
selection of three which I prefer. I found that when you give
me 32 tracks to choose from I'm probably just going to
either pick the same one over and over again, or I'm
gonna take too long to pick one. I think three makes it way easier to pick and keeps tracks from repeating too often. Online is great in this one, but it's really hard to
make friends with people and ask them for their email
with these pre-made chats. We can save replays and edit them with Mario Kart TV, post
them to YouTube and Miiverse. Not anymore, it was a
stupid feature anyways. You'd be able to create
30 seconds highlight reels of your race, but it wasn't
that big of a deal to me. Well, in terms of other modes, stamps. You get stamps in this game
for completing time trials and beating Grand Prixs
with different characters. You were originally
able to use these stamps on Miiverse, not anymore, it
was a stupid feature anyways. Speaking of Grand Prixs,
when you finish one you just get a highlight
reel from one of your races not the traditional
award ceremony cut scene. I mean, it's not a big deal. At least we get these cool trophies. They're such amazing designs. We can even touch them with
our thumbs on the game pad. But the lack of a cut scene, sure the way it's presented
here makes sense in the context of the whole Mario Kart TV thing, but was this game rushed? Obviously, no, not my Mario Kart 8. They put so much love and attention in every little detail with this game. This was probably an
example of them going, no we want this to make Mario Kart TV feel more like a sports broadcast thing. Either way we have one
more mode to check out. And that is Battle Mode. (beeping sound effect) What the is that? Battle Mode has been a staple
of the Mario Kart series ever since the very beginning, but, seemingly was getting less and less attention with each entry. And of course, with Mario Kart 8, Nintendo barely mentioned it until damn near 20
seconds after it released. Balloon Battle's all we got here. Wait, Moo Moo Meadows? That's a track. Oh my god. Wait, I'm not supposed
to talk about this yet. Let's talk about the updates. So Mario Kart 8 wasn't
perfect right out the gate. It wasn't perfect ever. There were a few big issues
at launch, like after a race the option to move on to the next race would be the second option. The first option was
viewing a highlight reel. Nintendo. Also the map wasn't
available on the TV screen, you can only view it on the game pad. Nintendo. Well they fixed these via a
free update in August of 2014 that arrived alongside
Mercedes Benz car parts. God, tell that to a dealership. What made you want a Mercedes? Well, it plays Roy Cooper a lot and the GLA goes with his eyes. It was really weird to have
such blatant product placement in a Mario game, but I've only
lost a couple nights of sleep because of it. But during the summer of
2014, it was fully announced Mario Kart 8 would be
getting paid DLC packs, both crossing over with
various Nintendo IPs. You can pre-purchase the DLC packs for $12 in total or $8 separately. And it was an insane deal. Six new characters, 60
new tracks, carparts, and for buying both we got multi-colored Shy Guys and Yoshis. Yes. So DLC pack one, offers two new cups, the Egg Cup and the Triforce Cup alongside Tanooki Mario
and Cat Peach and Link, guess which one's the most interesting? The tracks offered
across these are amazing. Yoshi's Circuit from Double Dash is back. Excitebike Arena is a
tribute to Excite Bike, and it's so much fun, it's so many ramps and
areas to do tricks off of. Dragon Driftway is awesome, and Mute City was the most
Nintendo's acknowledged (mumbles) in years. Wario's Goldmine from Wii and SNES Rainbow Road made a comeback. And the retro tracks they brought back were a bit more interesting
than some of the ones they picked for the base
game, like Grumble Volcano. And some of these were
already remade in older games. So it's nice to see they were
willing to double dip a bit. I'd say Sub Post is pretty lame, not bad, but not my first pick for anything and High Rule Circuit, a wonderful trip through
the world of Zelda. DLC pack one was awesome. It came at the perfect time for me, right when I was starting
to get a little old to Mario Kart 8 in November. And bam here are some amazing new tracks and things to spice it up. It also included amiibo support where you can unlock character
outfits for your Mii. It's a dream come true. Now DLC pack two came in April of 2015 and it was a bit lame for me. The tracks didn't wow me
in this pack all too much, the Baby Park from Double Dash
came back, which was nice. Cheese Land from GBA. I was happy to see them
make an actual course out of these GBA tracks,
but it's not really anything that stands out to me. Wild Woods, it felt like
a lesser Maple Treeway from Mario Kart Wii to me. And Animal Crossing, nice name. It's a fun course. The type of season is randomly decided. So it stays pretty fresh, but then there's a Neo Bowser
City from Mario Kart 7. This just wasn't interesting
enough to want bringing back. Ribbon Road from GBA is
a pretty cool one though. It's in a kid's room and
has a lot of fun details. Super Bell Subway is okay, and
we have another F-Zero track. I'm not complaining,
but I can if I want to. Just make a new F-Zero, Nintendo. I'm a Nintendo fan. That's a catch phrase of mine. Of course, Villager and Isabel from Animal Crossing became
playable alongside Dry Bowser. Thank god he's back. So the DLC rounded out
Mario Kart 8 quite well, but we have more tracks than ever with a better
character selection. It's cool to see Nintendo
willing to do more crossover content with Mario Kart. But that was far from
the biggest story here. They added 200cc to the game alongside DLC pack two as a free update, my god it was too fast. I remember this was a pain
to get ahold of originally. You had to do a lot
more braking on corners while drifting, and most of
these tracks were never designed for this kind of speed. But it a cool little free update to a game that was already one of the
best Mario Kart experiences, hands down. It's the best looking Mario Kart, the best sounding Mario Kart, the best controlling Mario Kart with the best tracks in
the series, hands down. I am a bit bummed out by
the lack of things to do in the game outside of racing. Like basically play the
Grand Prixs and play online. That's all you can really do. But when it comes down to it Mario Kart 8 was the definitive
Mario Kart experience at the time of its release. But they just had to, up the Battle Mode. So they didn't put any
battle tracks in here, they just used existing ones. Okay, that's already lame but they couldn't have even been bothered to alter the tracks just a
bit to make them more suitable for battle mode. They're terrible. They're so big and
designed to loop around. They aren't small closed in arenas like battle track should be. And out of all the tracks to
choose why Toad's Turnpike? Why Yoshi Valley? Why Toad Harbor? And when you die in battle
mode, you come back as a ghost and can still hurt the other players. That's not fair. What the hell are they
doing with this mode? It's ridiculous. I almost would've preferred that they just didn't bring the mode back, or at the very leas that
they just remastered old battle stages and nothing more. That would have been okay. But no, instead this is the worst mode in any Mario Kart game. And it used to be my favorite. Nintendo, what is wrong with you? See, that should show
you how bad this mode is. It made me break something, but I still did that out of
anger towards the Nintendo. What the, am I doing? (upbeat music)
Shame he didn't touch on the Switch update and what that added, although buying it again is its own can of worms. Quite informative the leading up to the game and reminding how the Wii U struggled for a while. Also liked his breakdown of the tracks and his humor kept me engaged. He may not be everyones favorite here but I at least enjoy his personal informed take on games.
What Scott touches upon with how anti-gravity opened up course design is what makes the addition so incredible. When a game has depth they usually make some deep level, difficult to understand mechanic that players have to figure out and learn in order to fully master the game.
Anti-gravity? You drive up walls and bumping into obstacles becomes a speed up instead of a speed down. Kids can see it and instantly get it. It changes up so much of the game and like the dilemma of using items in first place it gives players more to consider in their moment to moment gameplay without becoming a burden.
Scott's videos are great but I don't think they belong on this sub. They don't really lead to discussion about the games, they're pretty straight forward.