Quick Look: Mario Kart 8

The anger in the comments has surpassed the misery in the video four times over now. Relax, everybody!!! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN HERE!

Dunno if people have said so, but the Wii game was the worst handling game in the franchise. It's awful. I concur.

The GameCube one is pretty good, as is the DS one. Haven't played 7 or 8.

Yea, fuck vertical split screen. Do I really need to see 50% roof/sky?

@adamwd:

wtf is this talk of 'the best player'? In online matches, with humans controlling their preferred characters, and racing on different tracks, with the basic elements of randomness that people display in the ways they execute things in all daily life, you will see variance among who might come in first and who might come in second and third and fourth etc. Why the fuck would or should the same person always come in first place? I dont even know what you're trying to say anymore

I'd be much more interested in a new F-Zero, though it is pretty cool that every other kart racer is borrowing anti-gravity aspects for themselves.

Wilson: Lesser known fifth Ghostbuster, may or may not be a football with a face...

Other than graphics I don't think there is really a difference between the SNES and N64 mario karts you guys.

Alex is cooler smarter and faster than you, time you came to terms with it like everyone else

I can't wait for the multiplayer servers to be taken down...

And here I thought to avoid this video because it would convince me to buy it. Sounds like the Jeff/Brad "Nothing Impresses Me Anymore" combo is really happening. Vinny seemed to be the one that got the positivity and comedy out. Gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out.

It's creepy seeing so many adult Nintendo fans in one place.

I agree with Jeff. I'm surprised anyone is asking for cart racers in 2014.

Jeff wasn't over the top, just saying what he thinks. Game does look pretty but it IS mario kart...8. At least from that perspective I understand the cynicism, it's more mario kart, but if you're tired of mario kart, who cares? Jeff doesn't, so maybe it's not the game he wants to rave to people about.

I'd prefer an honest Jeff than a fake enthusiasm Jeff.

@icantbestopped: You got it.

I cringe to think that anyone could take these whiny comments seriously. I enjoyed this QL greatly. Jeff is a 38 year-old man and you want him to get excited about a Mario Kart game? Come on guys. Mario Kart is kiddish and annoying to play. The only thing it's really good for is playing with kids to see the joy it gives them to get one over old Dad, because it's a racing game that gives everyone a chance of winning.

I'm glad these comments are getting into the "BUT DAD I'M TOO MATURE FOR NINTENDOOOOOO!" section now.

Surprising how much in agreement I am with Brad & Jeff about favorite Mario Kart games. SNES is my all-time favorite, and the only one I didn't like was 64.

Well I guess at the time the graphics were actually "amazing" lol. But its lots other of things like the music, the handling of different characters, the shortcuts. I may be wrong but I think it's the first game to introduce racing your own ghost in time trial which was a big feat at the time. I don't expect anyone now to play it and go "OMG" but considering its the only Mario Kart I've really enjoyed, so much I'm probably going to by a Wii U just to play this somewhat remake, that says something about the original.

I don't know, I'm not all that fond of SNES Mario Kart either, the totally flat levels did nothing for me at a time when there had been quite a bit more detailed levels in racing games on PC for about 5 years.

Racing against ghosts was certainly a thing in Stunts that came out on PC and Amiga 2 years prior, and that was probably not the first to do it either.

Sure, most combat racing games on home computers at the time were entirely top down, so being able to actually see in front of you in Mario Kart was beneficial, but there was nothing particularly impressive about the game for me even back then.

I thought N64 game was technically impressive, and I had a lot of fun with the battle mode in there, even though I had seen Wipeout at that point, and found that more fun.

I still return to Mario Kart 64 every year and have a good deal of fun with it, but I rarely even bother finishing a single race the times I boot up SNES Mario Kart to see if I remember it all wrong.

Too much Wario butt talk.

While I am with Jeff in not caring about Mario Kart and bored of Nintendo's lack of innovation, I still see the appeal of the game and more importantly I can't help but feel worried about quicklooks in the future with the negative/cynical/jaded/bored/low energy duo of Jeff + Brad being the two main guys left. Vinny brought some positiveness, energy and silly fun even if the games weren't that good and provided the counter balance to the dark side of the force led by Jeff and Brad. Hope to god the new hires have some positive energy or Qlooks are going to start bumming me out.

Crash Team Racing is the greatest Mario Kart game, so thank you for mentioning it Jeff.

Those persistent skidmarks are just fucking AMAZING me.

Haha, sorry I should have said "games people actually played" when mentioning the ghost thing, jokes. Yeah I bought Mario Kart 64 and really wanted to like it but thought the racing, was just... car racing with toys. The original is more kart which is why it was so different. Little putt-putts going around a fantasy world, not so much focused on racing more the shortcuts and different exploits. The music of the original is undeniably awesome.

Gotta say, I really like Alex grilling Jeff about why he dislikes the game at about 15 minutes. Certainly better than just saying "I dunno, I don't like it."

The snes mario kart was great at the time, but do people really think it holds up? Come on. MK64 all the way.

They are really using the Mario Galaxy tricks in this. It does look good and ultimately fun locally with friends, but I'm with Jeff that the rubber-banding is bullshit. Back to Trackmania...

Also, the N64 Mario Kart was my first Mario Kart and I will always remember it as being the best. Damnit.

But dont you understand? He was hurting their precious feelings. Daddy doesn't like the game they play. It is so, so unfair.

Please start making a list for this. That would be amazing.

I disagree.

Man... Honestly I would have to peg you as sounding like the most offended and overly defensive amidst all of these comments, because Holy Shit would you give it a rest?

It's pretty clear Jeff did not want any part of this game as he comes into it with negative preconceptions. While I agree with many of his complaints (currently not a big Nintendo/Mario/Kart fan), I just wanted to watch this to see potentially fun and entertaining QL. I made it 25 min. elapsed time before shutting it down as it became too much of a downer. Ranging from indifference to outright dislike isn't something I consider fun to watch. Negativity breeds negativity, so reading some of these comments doesn't surprise me.

Late to the party reading Vinny's departure, I really hope Jeff and Brad find some future games they enjoy.

This in my opinion is the lowest point of the Giant Bomb as far as any produced material is concerned. The members may be qualified to be masochists if they have to bear this effluence of negativity and loathing anymore.

I'm using tilt controls

regarding splitscreen, the reason vertical split is such a problem in racing games is that if you're kinda sorta taking the thing seriously and want to play well, your peripheral vision of the track is really important going in to corners. I don't see why you couldn't just make that an option in the menu.

Can somebody get Jeff a hug and an anti-depressant prescription?

you people getting mad are fucking weird.

The Mii conversation was really fucking frustrating. You guys assumed that Mii's couldn't be transferred from any of the systems that have them, lamented how shitty that was, then all of a sudden decided that it didn't matter. I've transferred Mii's from Wii to 3DS, Wii to Wii U, and 3DS to Wii U. Nintendo has ALL THEIR MII BASES FUCKING COVERED. Of all the reasons to criticize them for, you blow up something that would be a minor problem anyways that they have actually went out of there way to ensure is not a problem at all.

Video text on this page is gray for some reason. The video player seems a bit wonky, too.

anyone else notice the design of the anti grav stuff is identical to the ones from crash nitro kart

I love this series. Started back in the SNES days *wistful sigh*

I can't stop thinking about how much Alex tries to be funny, but it falls flat with Nicholas Cage and butt jokes.

Debbie downer Jeff strikes back! :)

@justinaquarius: Nintendo fanboys.

Brad doesn't like Alex and it makes me uncomfortable

No one cares.

Having had the opportunity over the last weekend to really sit down and give this game a try, I found that I kept wanting to play Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed. This isn't some Nintendo versus Sega thing from my youth talking, I just genuinely feel that the Sega offering is a superior kart racer with more replay value and better overall gameplay than Mario Kart 8.

Edit: However, Shadow the Hedgehog can only wish he had Luigi's death stare.

All I do in lobbies now is spam the "I'm using motion controls."

i cant believe how bad the arena is. why even include that?