MK8 Mini-Review (Problems List)

Mini Mario Kart 8 review:

Actually, I'll just state the negatives. I have been noticing a ton of them piling up. They're all minor, but together they make what seems like a very lacking game at this point.

I spent all of yesterday triple-starring every cup in single player to get the stars next to my name online. Turns out they don't appear online. Those are now worthless... great.

There is no map on screen. This might be my biggest problem. I love looking at how far ahead first is, who is behind me, etc. The only way to do this is to be using the gamepad and look down at the screen. This is not easy in most cases, as you're focused at looking at the TV.

Similarly, there is no lap time/total race time on the screen. I see that they took these off to remove clutter, but it wasn't cluttered to begin with. I like seeing my lap times and knowing how long courses are. To add to this, you can't see what time people finished at so I can't even tell how far ahead in first I was if I do really well.

It seems like they are pulling a "we want everyone to feel like they won", and it's really getting to me.

Customization of the karts doesn't feel varied. Most things are very similar stats wise. This game is actually TOO balanced, imo. This might change over time if there are little details added in, idk.

The skill ceiling is much lower this time around. I feel like they made the game too easy. :/

The roster is the worst in the series. 5 babies, 9 koopas, and 2 metalic skins? No.

Battle mode is garbage........again.

There is no stat tracking for offline or online.

The problem is that ALL of these things have been in one or all previous Mario Karts, and they're removed for no reason.

Stat tracking in MKWii was neat - I could see my first place %, and other cool things.

No stars by peoples names makes it way harder to tell who is good at a glance before a match starts to see who to focus on. This was in MKWii and 7, why not now?

Lap times, race times, and the map have always been present. Their absence makes the game seem plain while racing. It feels a lot more pointless, and like you're not accomplishing anything by being in first.

I don't know how I feel about this game at the moment. My opinion may change. I know they can patch games now, but I think they're too stubborn to fix any of these issues. I bet they don't consider them issues, but they're definitely making me pretty upset.

Positives: it looks nice, handles well (too well?) the online isn't laggy, the tournament system is cool.

The tracks in this game are amazing. The best in the series for sure. The new ones and the retro ones are all very good. EXCEPT DOLPHIN SHOALS, HOLY POO I HATE IT SO MUCH.

The end.