The biggest miss from 2014’s amazing Mario Kart 8 on Wii U was its low-effort take on battle mode. Instead of the tightly designed battle arenas from the now classic Mario Kart games, Nintendo opted to recycle the standard circuit tracks and basically just added three balloons. The result was one of the weakest battle modes in series history.
While it’s mostly a redo of the Wii U game’s tracks and races, with some extra characters and vehicles like Bowser Jr. and Splatoon’s Inklings, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch sets out to provide the Battle Mode experience we all wanted in the first time around.
For starters, all eight battle mode stages are either custom-designed for the Switch version or updates of returning favorites from prior Mario Kart games with some neat changes. Fans with fond memories of Super Mario Kart will be happy to see Battle Course 1 return, complete with the color-coded guard rails, but Nintendo wisely updated the layout to include some new tricks: You can now drive on top of the dividers for a quick escape from turtle shells and the edges are lined with ramps, three of which feature Boost Pads that launch players into the center area.
Nintendo brought back a few more classics. Mario Kart 7’s Wuhu Town sets up intense battles since all of the pathways lead to the wide open town square at the center of the map. Finally, Luigi’s Mansion makes the leap from 2003’s Mario Kart: Double Dash!! with a complete visual overhaul.
We’re all for revisiting the classic maps of Mario Kart’s past, but the brand-new stages are no slouches either. Sweet Sweet Kingdom is an arena take on MK8’s Sweet Sweet Canyon circuit track that uses a complex system of ramps and turns to make it perfect for hide-and-seek attacks. The lovely (candy) cones lining the track aren’t just decor either, since you can use them to shake off incoming projectiles. Dragon Palace, based off of MK8’s visually stunning Dragon Driftway DLC course, features an outdoor courtyard headlined by two giant dragon statues and a two-tier pagoda. The circular battle arena has screen doors that lead into additional rooms. Battle Stadium is the closest to a traditional Mario Kart circuit track, but it’s much smaller and keeps combatants closer together, while also tossing in some ramps, anti-gravity segments and tunnels for additional chaos (the good kind).
And then there’s Lunar Colony, a map set in space that introduces yet another curve ball. Since it’s set on the Moon, all battles take place in low gravity, making for bigger jumps and a very different feel. A large crater field littered with ? Blocks acts as the hub for much of the mayhem. Players have to charge into the open area and use craters to go airborne and reach the power-ups before chasing down opponents in the nearby space station.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also continues the tradition of mixing in other popular Nintendo franchises like F-Zero, Animal Crossing. Urchin Underpass, from Splatoon, joins the roster with a surprisingly authentic recreation of the double-tiered shooter map. The green and purple ink patches on the ground slows down your kart, making it harder to escape from rivals.
The collection of maps work well in classic Battle Mode, but they also shine across the four modes Nintendo is including in this port. Each one brings back the fun, maddening screaming we fondly remembered from our favorite Mario Kart games. Shine Thief and Bob-omb Blast return from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Coin Runners is in from Mario Kart 7, and the designers even took a note from other online racers to create Mario Kart’s very own version of “Cops and Robbers,” called Renegade Roundup.
It’s tough to beat Balloon Mode because of how elegant it is, but if you want complete chaos, Bob-omb Blast upends that formula by turning all items into bombs (and letting you hold up to 10 of them at one time). Shine Thief is a pretty crazy scramble where a player wins by holding on to a star until time runs out. If you get hit, you lose the star and it can be picked up by other players. If you didn’t play it in Double Dash!!, imagine all players pursuing the leader in an all-on-one frenzy, only to have everyone turn on each other when the Shine is “loose.”
While most modes focus on combat skill, Coin Runners favors driving ability as you drift through the courses trying to collect the most coins possible. That means players who camp are unlikely to win. The returning Feather item, which wasn’t included in the Wii U version, comes in handy as players try to avoid projectiles that causes them to drop their coins. Meanwhile, Mushroom power-ups let you rocket into opponents and steal their coins instantly.
While you can choose between free-for-all and team setups for other modes, Renegade Roundup is custom-designed to be played with teams. Each round, one team plays the Authorities -- signified by having a Piranha Plant with a police light on your kart -- and the other plays as the Renegades. The Authority racers try to get close to the Renegades to have their Piranha Plant gobble them up and place them in jail, where they’re essentially confined to playing bumper cars until one of their teammates gets them out. That’s done by driving over a large switch located right underneath the cage. Meanwhile, Renegades can also disable their opponents’ Piranha Plants temporarily by hitting them with an item. If the Renegades even have a single driver in the field when time runs out, they win. It’s an exciting and fresh new mode. The only downside is that if your Renegade teammates don’t know what they’re doing, you’ll be stuck in jail twiddling your thumbs. Since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is set to launch without team chat, it may be a better option for local or split-screen play.
Speaking of which, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe enables players to link eight Nintendo Switch units locally. But since you can have two players play on one system, you can still run full 12-player matches even without an online connection. We were able to test out the rock-solid and fast LAN mode at PAX, which was set up using a hub and USB LAN adapters.
Based on our experience at PAX East, Mario Kart 8 adds a good amount of tweaks and changes to an already amazing game. The new characters, fleshed out battle mode, and more stages (at least so far) provide some good reasons to give it a go on Nintendo Switch. And the manic competitive madness is welcome, since it's been a hallmark of this stellar series since the beginning on the Super Nintendo.
Nintendo Voice Chat is a weekly show on IGN. You can subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or RSS.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire