HOW DO I EVEN REVIEW THIS IT'S LITTERALY MARIO KART 8 BUT BETTER
Mario Kart 8 was a critical success. Of course, it was stranded on the Wii U, so no one played it. This kinda brewed a perfect storm, as when the Switch launched, Nintendo could bring along a better version of a game that they already knew would be appreciated by the public (because it had already existed for 3 years at that point), all while insuring very good sales because the game would feel fresh to most players. It was a no-risk/huge reward situation.
As someone who played the original MK8 on the Wii U, I can say: I have no reason to go back to play it now that I finally bought Deluxe. The latter is better, it's as simple as that.
Let me just say I mainly played the single player modes on Deluxe, so I won't talk about the online. I also won't say that the track selection is amazing, the OST is a collection of bangers, that antigravity adds a lot to the track design and that the star cup is the best thing Nintendo has ever done, because all of the above is obvious and isn't new to this version of the game.
Only two major gameplay tweak were made : the addition of the ultra mini-boost (dumb name i know), which is just an extra level to drifting after the red boost, and the addition of a second item slot.
This second item slots make the game feel completely fresh. It's very simple: there are now more items into play: so there's more chaos, and more strategy.
Imagine for one second you're in the lead, and you have a defensive item (banana/shell/super horn) in your current slot, but a coin in your second slot. This may seem like an ok situation, but in reality, it's terrible: what if the guy behinds you has two offensive items ? He can just destroy your devensive item and get you again afterwards ! So, arriving at a double item box, you really ask yourself, do you try your luck and expose yourself for a few seconds while the items roll to try and get two defensive items, or do you prefer to stay as is, and risk that the guy behind you gets new offensive items to break through your defense ?
This new item strategy really made the game more difficult than on the Wii U. I actually didn't win every race against the CPU this time, even though I'm way better at holding good racing lines than before, simply because I could get f'ed over by items because of poor strategy.
200 CC is very fun, and really makes you think about your car setup. It really makes the cups competitive, because even the CPUs struggle with their speed. This leads to insane cups, where you may be fighting for the win with 4 or 5 CPUs. There was one cup where after me and Dry Bones taking an early championship lead, we were beaten in the last race by Daisy, who had been third this whole time, without me even noticing that she could still win the cup, because tipically, whichever CPU wins or finishes second in the first race will be the only one able to challenge you for first place in the standings. 200 CC was very refreshing in that sense, but also because it did feel way more skill-based than Mario kart usually is. You can more than make-up for bad item luck by gaining time by not crashing into the walls like the competition does. Sometimes, being hit by an item before a tight curve can even be an advantage, as it allows you to not gain too much speed heading into said-curve. 200 CC is very different than the rest of the game, but I wouldn't recomment playing exclusively in it, because heavens above that would get tiring.
Of course, the battle mode was changed in this, and it is leagues better. Cops and robbers is for short sessions, shine thief is my favourite, ballon-battle is always amazing and coin runners is ok.
If you were like me and said "I don't need MK8 deluxe, I've got MK8", shut up. This is way better. It makes MK8 defunct by comparison, and you can play it on the go, and nothign is better than playing Star Cup for the 100th time, but this time in your bed.
Mario Kart 8 was a critical success. Of course, it was stranded on the Wii U, so no one played it. This kinda brewed a perfect storm, as when the Switch launched, Nintendo could bring along a better version of a game that they already knew would be appreciated by the public (because it had already existed for 3 years at that point), all while insuring very good sales because the game would feel fresh to most players. It was a no-risk/huge reward situation.
As someone who played the original MK8 on the Wii U, I can say: I have no reason to go back to play it now that I finally bought Deluxe. The latter is better, it's as simple as that.
Let me just say I mainly played the single player modes on Deluxe, so I won't talk about the online. I also won't say that the track selection is amazing, the OST is a collection of bangers, that antigravity adds a lot to the track design and that the star cup is the best thing Nintendo has ever done, because all of the above is obvious and isn't new to this version of the game.
Only two major gameplay tweak were made : the addition of the ultra mini-boost (dumb name i know), which is just an extra level to drifting after the red boost, and the addition of a second item slot.
This second item slots make the game feel completely fresh. It's very simple: there are now more items into play: so there's more chaos, and more strategy.
Imagine for one second you're in the lead, and you have a defensive item (banana/shell/super horn) in your current slot, but a coin in your second slot. This may seem like an ok situation, but in reality, it's terrible: what if the guy behinds you has two offensive items ? He can just destroy your devensive item and get you again afterwards ! So, arriving at a double item box, you really ask yourself, do you try your luck and expose yourself for a few seconds while the items roll to try and get two defensive items, or do you prefer to stay as is, and risk that the guy behind you gets new offensive items to break through your defense ?
This new item strategy really made the game more difficult than on the Wii U. I actually didn't win every race against the CPU this time, even though I'm way better at holding good racing lines than before, simply because I could get f'ed over by items because of poor strategy.
200 CC is very fun, and really makes you think about your car setup. It really makes the cups competitive, because even the CPUs struggle with their speed. This leads to insane cups, where you may be fighting for the win with 4 or 5 CPUs. There was one cup where after me and Dry Bones taking an early championship lead, we were beaten in the last race by Daisy, who had been third this whole time, without me even noticing that she could still win the cup, because tipically, whichever CPU wins or finishes second in the first race will be the only one able to challenge you for first place in the standings. 200 CC was very refreshing in that sense, but also because it did feel way more skill-based than Mario kart usually is. You can more than make-up for bad item luck by gaining time by not crashing into the walls like the competition does. Sometimes, being hit by an item before a tight curve can even be an advantage, as it allows you to not gain too much speed heading into said-curve. 200 CC is very different than the rest of the game, but I wouldn't recomment playing exclusively in it, because heavens above that would get tiring.
Of course, the battle mode was changed in this, and it is leagues better. Cops and robbers is for short sessions, shine thief is my favourite, ballon-battle is always amazing and coin runners is ok.
If you were like me and said "I don't need MK8 deluxe, I've got MK8", shut up. This is way better. It makes MK8 defunct by comparison, and you can play it on the go, and nothign is better than playing Star Cup for the 100th time, but this time in your bed.