Angry

Graphics: They're actually really good. By far, it's the best looking Mario Kart title to date. Gameplay: It has it's moments, and the controls handle extremely well. Unfortunately, the skill ceiling has been lowered dramatically, essentially turning the game into an arcade kid's game. Characters: Boring. There's too many duplicates of characters (I'm looking at you, Peach). Not to mention, the entire set of koopalings make the roster feel repetitive. Why Nintendo decided to overlook characters such as Birdo, Diddy Kong, Petey Piranha, etc. is beyond me. If Nintendo is going to skip over previous unique characters in the franchise, I'd at least prefer to have new characters entirely (Kamek or Toadsworth, just to name a couple). Multiplayer: No real problems here. Multiplayer is exactly what I expected from Nintendo. Same problems, but more user friendly. Items: Abysmal. I get that Mario Kart is supposed to be a "wacky and arcade racer", but leaving every race to RNG can be very disappointing. The "Crazy 8" item is completely unnecessary and nobody wanted it. Along with this, no one wants to be in first, praying to their god that they get a banana or something useful to backspam, and get a coin. The other item I have problems with is the "Blue Shell". It's extremely annoying when you're in the middle of the pack and someone throws a Blue Shell to take first down a peg, just to get hit with the blue yourself and have the leader dodge it with a Super Horn. I prefer the times where Blue Shell's only punished the first place racer, rather than the people who are struggling to get in the lead in the first place. Conclusion: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a pretty fun and addicting game to play either by yourself, with your friends and family, or with others online. My opinions are my own, and they are based on my experiences with the previous titles in the franchise. At face value and not taking into account the previous titles, I might even say this game is fantastic. But, unfortunately, it's just another sub-par installation of a franchise who's prime was 16 - 11 years ago.