Mario Kart 8 Preview

With different car types now making a bigger impact than ever before, one thing we did miss was the star gauge from Double Dash on the GameCube telling us how each combination would affect our speed, acceleration, and weight. This kind of feature may yet make it into the final game, but with no current way of telling how one set of wheels would work on another body type, for example, the onus was very much on us to discover what worked best and what didn’t.

All the Koopalings will be making their debut appearance as playable characters

Of course, discovery is all part of the fun of Mario Kart, but even more delightful was just how many ways there are to approach each track. Toad Harbour is a great example. After just the first corner of this strongly San Francisco-themed course, you’re presented with two options for crossing the river. Follow the track line and you’ll be taken across a bridge, but eagle-eyed players will spot a boost pad just off to the left that requires you to hop across a boat to the other side. It looks simple enough, but miss the second boost pad on the boat and you can kiss your lead goodbye. Luckily, handy rescue man Lakitu seems to have got his act together since Mario Kart 7, for as soon as you fall off course, you’re back up and running again within seconds, helping you get back on track much faster than previous entries.

For those that did manage to hit the boat shortcut, you’re now in much better position to nip up the ramp in the upcoming market area and zip along the colourful tarpaulin above the rest of the race. This will take you down a winding little side street before you rejoin the main track, but even this quickly splits off into another two pathways, one as a bridge that takes you further up another side road while the other curves round underneath.

Despite having a strong San Francisco vibe, Toad Harbour also has a Princess Peach Statue of Liberty out in the bay

Then, just as the course begins to open out into a wide plaza of tram tracks and boost ramps, there’s another opportunity to shoot up the side wall and gain a few extra item boxes to help take out your nearest opponent. Just be aware that you can no longer stockpile your items like previous Mario Kart games, as once you hit an item box, you’ll be stuck with that item until you use it, regardless of whether you dangle it behind you or not. This will no doubt upset some players, but the good news is that blue shell usage seems to be more under control in Mario Kart 8. They were still fairly frequent, but we rarely got more than one per race, if indeed we got one at all.

New pathways sometimes open up on the second lap as well, giving players even more scope to switch their strategy on the fly or try out a new route. In Thwomp Ruins, for example, the safest place to be on the first lap is riding along the walls as huge, circular cogs trundle down the main race track behind you. As the tunnel opens into a watery temple, the walls are still your best bet, although adventurous players can always whip out their propeller if they fancy a swim. On the second lap, however, those cogs will now be in front of you, bowling down a new pathway in the temple to let you zoom straight down the middle, as long as you don’t mind weaving in and out of the thwomps, of course.

Thwomp Ruins offers you plenty of routes to take – just watch out for the thwomps

With adapting, multi-tiered tracks like these, Mario Kart 8 shows a level of imagination we haven’t seen before in previous titles, but the best part is that all the returning tracks from games past have been retrofitted with these new improvements as well. Take Toad’s Turnpike, a classic Nintendo 64 track that saw you racing through a highway full of oncoming traffic. Not only has it been given a very slick coat of graphical paint, but you can now also shoot up the walls and ride up the back of certain vehicles to enable your glider. If you aim your kart just right, you can land on a pair of lorries to get an extra boost. Even SNES tracks such as Donut Plains 3 now let you go in the water, giving you more freedom to race than ever before.

The fun doesn’t stop with the race ends either, as Mario Kart 8 now has a Highlight Reel you can edit and presumably upload to Miiverse to show off your best racing moments to the wider Mario Kart 8 community. We weren’t able to try out this feature ourselves during our preview, but we were able to watch one the game put together for us. With controls to rewind, slow down and fast forward the footage, we bet this will become a fast favourite with fans of the series. It also opened our eyes to just how much is going on while you’re whizzing round each track, whether it’s the gorgeous detail of Princess Daisy’s high kick as she boosts off a jump, or the tiny crosses in Waluigi’s eyes as he spins out from a shell attack.

You’ll have to be careful on the landing strip of Sunshine Airport

With so much to take in and sink your teeth into, Mario Kart 8 is shaping up to be the best Mario Kart game yet. By incorporating everything the series has gradually been building up to over the last few entries, from the bikes and gliders to different kart combinations, this is Mario Kart reborn as a Greatest Hits album from your favourite artist. If the rest of the game can deliver the same level of polish and jaw-dropping track design, Wii U may finally have its killer app.