Overview
- Number of Players
- 4 (12 Player Online)
- Genre
- Release Date
Wii U
- 30th May 2014
- 30th May 2014
- 29th May 2014
- Series
- Tags
- Controller Support
- Feature Support
Reviews
8th Wonder of the World
Since the Super NES every Nintendo system — apart from the Game Boy Color and the doomed Virtual Boy — has been boosted by an entry in the iconic Mario Kart series. Despite its drastic evolution throughout the generations of hardware it nevertheless feels familiar each time around, while other entries in the kart racing...
Screenshots 32
Mario Kart 8 Guides
Guide Best Mario Kart Games Of All Time
Every Mario Kart, as ranked by you
Remember, this dynamic ranking is governed by every entry's User Rating on our database and is subject to real-time change, even now. Don't agree with the order? Feel free to get rating your game collection and potentially influence the ranking below. Enjoy! Back when Nintendo announced the very first Mario Kart...
Guide All You Need to Know on Mario Kart 8 Characters and Kart Customisations
The finer details
Mario Kart 8 is now well-established on the Wii U, shifting plenty of copies and attracting a sizeable and dedicated online audience. Whether trying to beat every Grand Prix with three stars or tackling the increasingly skilful opponents online, securing top spot is not becoming a tricky challenge of fine margins. This is a title...
Guide Getting Started in Mario Kart 8
Don't drive into the deep end
As some of the Nintendo Life team still like discs that come in boxes, our original plan was to release a getting started guide on 30th May; then we remembered some of you trendy types may download the title as soon as it pops up on the Wii U eShop, which may or may not be at midnight. You just can't wait, right? So...
Feature 14 Classic Nintendo Winter-Themed Levels to Play This Christmas
Winter wonderlands
It's Christmas, which might mean snow wherever you are in the world. However, not all of us are that lucky, and sadly have to settle for rain or – gasp! – ghastly sunshine instead. Fear not, though – there is a solution: playing winter-themed levels in your favourite games. Christmas is the best time for it too, as you're...
Video How To Become A Mario Kart 8 Master In Eight Easy Steps
Our newcomer's guide to mastering the basics
Mario Kart 8 launches at the end of this month, and if you've already read our glowing review, then you'll be well aware that this is a game you need to experience for yourself. The Mario Kart series has gradually evolved and developed over two decades, and there will be many people preparing to play...
Guide Funky Video Game Music - Groovy Playlist
Turn up the bass, baby
As part of our season of celebrating video game music that we're inventively calling the Nintendo Life VGM Fest, we're making a few lists of ~moods~, because that's pretty much how we organise our Spotify playlists these days. Everyone knows that video game soundtracks are full of epic orchestrations, relaxing melodies, and...
Mario Kart 8 News
The sweat, the tears, the evil babies
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mario Kart 8, George recently enlisted a troupe of willing racers (at least that's what he told us) to tackle every single track in the upgraded, DLC-laden Deluxe version in a local four-player blowout to end them all. What follows is a twisting tale of glory and grief,...
News Bandai Namco Announces New Dev Studio For Commissioned Projects
Nintendo appears to be a big part of the plans
Update [Wed 20th Dec, 2023 00:55 GMT]: New job listings for Bandai Namco Studio 2 & Studio S have reportedly surfaced on the official company website. One, in particular, is believed to be linked to a Nintendo project that first made headlines in April last year. It could supposedly be a...
News After 5 Months, Mario Kart 8 And Splatoon Are Finally Going Back Online For Wii U
Titles underwent 'emergency maintenance'
Nintendo has announced that it will be resuming online play for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon for the Wii U after commencing emergency maintenance back in March 2023. Both games will be back online from August 3rd, 2023. The titles were taken offline entirely after a potentially severe vulnerability was...
Update: Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 for Wii U taken offline
Update [Fri 3rd Mar, 2023 15:30 GMT]: Nintendo has announced that it has begun temporary emergency maintenance on Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. While unconfirmed, it's heavily speculated that the maintenance - which at the time of writing has no time frame attached to it - is...
Soapbox After 10 Years I Finally Got A Wii U, Here’s What I Thought
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, following up on his piece from a few weeks back, Jim delivers his verdict on the ten-year-old console and how it holds up in 2022 ... Picture the scene. The year...
UK Charts Nintendo Continues Its Strong Performance Amid Stiff Competition
God of War Ragnarok reclaims its crown
The latest UK boxed charts are here and it's a familiar scene for many, with no new entries into the top ten for this week (Cuphead's physical release came in at number eighteen, with the Switch version making up 79% of the copies sold). God of War Ragnarok reclaimed the crown to come in at number one,...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 5th)
Bonfire Night gaming
Remember, remember the 5th November, gunpowder, treason and gaming. It's something along those lines, right? While we can't really comment on the first two of these, we have had a week filled with the third here at Nintendo Life. The week kicked off with Halloween, and we got into the spirit by chatting about the gaming moments...
Feature The Spookiest Levels In Non-Spooky Games
Melloween
Aside from costumes, big bowls of sweets and the impending fear that I'm A Celebrity will soon dominate TV again, if there is one thing that you can bank on over Halloween, it's lots, and lots of scary video games. The spooky season has an annoying habit of seeking out those of us — this writer included — who are not the best with...
Japanese Charts Nintendo Switch Sports Knocks Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Off The Top Spot
Game, set, and match!
The latest Japanese Charts are in courtesy of Famitsu and it's predictably another strong turnout for the Nintendo Switch. Coming in at number one, Nintendo Switch Sports managed to sell an impressive 53,900 units, bringing its total so far to 677,393. Meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hold strong at the number two slot,...
Japanese Charts Monster Hunter Rise Is Still Top Of The Pack Thanks To Sunbreak
The expansion is bringing in the loot
Capcom and Monster Hunter are once again top of the class in this week's Japanese charts. Published by Famitsu and shared by Gematsu, we can see that Sunbreak is still pulling in the numbers for Monster Hunter Rise, and the set is once again the best-selling game of the week with 29,006 sales. No surprises there...
Previews
Hands On Hitting the Tracks in Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 2 and 200cc Mode
It just keeps getting better...
When Nintendo announced that the second Mario Kart 8 DLC pack was coming earlier than promised, we were appropriately excited. Now that we've had a chance to get to grips with everything this extra content has to offer, suffice to say we're not disappointed. In this early look at the full DLC pack we check out the...
Preview Power Sliding Around The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 DLC
The great just got even greater!
Recently we were invited to Nintendo's UK headquarters to have a go at The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 DLC that's arriving on 13th November, and naturally we just had to tell you what we thought of it. This is the first time a Mario Kart game has had DLC, so Nintendo has to make an impact to convince buyers to...
The green light is nearly on
When it comes down to major, triple-A retail releases on the way that will — Nintendo hopes — lift the Wii U's sales and boost the public's perception of the system, there's currently only one show in town. While there are a number of exciting titles on the way from Nintendo and its partners, Mario Kart 8 has a firm...
First Impressions Mario Kart 8
Turning things upside down
Imagine the Mario Kart series as an enormous living being made out of adorable cars, happy drivers, delightful loops passing through volcanoes and haunted houses and vicious blue shells. Envision this being, this body of Kartdom, and now answer this simple question: where is its heart? What is the thumping engine within...
About The Game
Turn Your Racing Experience Upside Down!
For the first time in HD, Nintendo's Mario Kart franchise comes to the Wii U console, introducing new racing circuit designs and antigravity karts that will have players driving upside down. Players will also enjoy a variety of series-favourite features, including the return of 12-player online competitive play, hang-gliders, underwater racing and motorbikes.
Features:
- The new antigravity feature allows for never-imagined racing circuit designs. Players will speed through courses and find themselves suddenly racing on walls in a haunted mansion or upside-down over Princess Peach's Castle as their wheels automatically rotate and shift into antigravity gear.
- Mario Kart TV lets players share highlight videos they submitted to Miiverse.
- Experience a wealth of features that span the series, including 12-player online competitive play. Elements first introduced in Mario Kart 7, such as hang gliders and underwater racing, along with elements introduced in Mario Kart Wii, such as motorbikes and performing tricks in midair, also make their return.
- Fan-favourites Waluigi and Toadette re-join the cast of familiar characters from the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Crisp HD graphics and a 60-frames-per-second frame rate offer players the most visually stunning entry in the series yet.
Comments 52
Nintendo should have different costumes for characters, that way people can pick the same character (offline) and it would be easier to tell them apart online.
Mario - Dr.Mario, Sunshine Mario, Pirate Mario
Peach - Nurse Peach, Long-Haired Peach, Pirate Peach
and so forth...(some from Mario Party 2)
hmm. well a discription wouldve been nice but if its good im all for it
Hopefully we'll get a holiday release for this game.
Every Mario Kart game I have played is really neat. I expect the same for this future title.
@Ulala That sounds awesome. U also know what I liked. In double dash, where u would unlock new cars and characters after u won each tournament. That would be something to look forward to in the future game.
Those 60 pixel per what ever the developer said really grabbed many's attention.
Why will you have 2 Laps not 3 Laps maybe too much space in the game in Mario Kart 8
60 Frames per second is pretty impressive
@Johnny12 because it is the demo that is why its not 3 laps
Mario Kart 8 has a new feature: Anti-gravity. pretty cool huh? but what really shocked me is that Mario Kart 8 not only has Internet/Wifi/Worldwide racing like it did in Mario Kart DS where it made its debut. Mr.Iwata said it will have LOCAL play. Local? how will this work? The handheld Mario Karts had local but, a home console with a local feature?
Ok. @ammar003
Mario Kart Rankings:
#1: Mario Kart 7
#2: Wii
#3: Double Dash
#4: DS
#5: Mario Kart 64
#6: Super Mario Kart
#7: Super Circuit
Can I have a time machine? I wanna go to Spring 2014 to get the game!
Can't wait!
@ItsaMeMario1126 I wish I had a time machine to get sonic lost world super mario 3d world and mario kart 8
I really need this game to come out, I love all Mario Kart games
@ItsaMeMario1126 No way, Double Dash is hands down the best. I have it on the Wii as well, but they took away snaking which was for skilled players and the battles of double dash were good enough to play for an entire night with 3 friends.
@luigi71 I agree, double dash ROCKS. my only complaint is that when you play multiplayer, there are no cpus, and i usally play with just my mum, as no one else will play it with me.
mariokart 8 looks like a whole bunch of fun but I don't have a wii u if only you could play it on 3ds or wii cause I got those but I dont have a wii u two bad!
there should be a pokemonkart game that would be awsome! well a pikagirl can dream ) :
Damn this looks amazing!!!
aw sh*t, now i need a wii u
I can see Wii U sales rising exponentially as soon as this and Super Smash Bros hit the market.
did anyone notice that now bikes can get the orange slide
@CthulhuBlooper
I'm pretty sure ALL of the home console Mario Karts had local play...
thanks god for custom Mario kart Wii levels, they will keep me going till MK8 release.
I wish this game has 5 players local mode.
Hey, if Mario Kart Wii sold more games than Minecraft, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and Mario Kart 7 COMBINED (which it did), I'm positive Mario Kart 8 can overrule it too.
Less than two months left
Really looking forward to this game. I sold my Xbox One because I was so bored with it and got the Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD Wii U Bundle and preordered this as well. Cannot wait for May 30th.
@Rosalina That sounds like it would be a good idea
I will be getting this!
Well, now we have a reason to buy a Wii U.
Get the hype train going
All aboard the hype train guys!
@GamerOZO Choo-Choo!
@epicdude12302 I bet every Wii U owner has their ticket...
The best Mario Kart ever! 10/10... Period.
Mario Kart 8 - 10/10
@Rosalina Good idea!
◄ My kind of game X3
I'm looking for friends to add so I can play with them on Mario Kart 8. My name is Clive44
I think them adding some DLC whether its costumes, new karts, or new tracks might really help the gameplay. When I bought Mario Kart 8 I expected a large game just like double kart dash and the games following. But what I noticed was that it felt very "bare bones" per say, for example I felt like the roster was not very extensive like it was in the past or that they could have added better tracks to show off the HD qualities or possibly even more kart customization. Do not get me wrong I love playing Mario kart 8 its a household treasure, but there is a part of me that wishes they will add on more dlc (than currently revealed) and that the amiibo's will bring more gameplay and diversity in drivers and karts!
There are 3 DLC's!!! One that includes the Mercedes-Benz' and the others include characters' karts' courses' and cups! In addition' if you get both of the ones with characters' karts' courses and cups' you get colored shy guys and yoshi's!
I was just thinking;
The amiibo's you can use in MK8 are: Mario, Luigi, DK, Peach, Yoshi, captain Falcon, Link, Fox, Samus and Kirby.
The first five amiibo's are already in the game, captain Falcon and Link have their own racing track...
Could this mean that Fox, Samus and Kirby get their own tracks as well in DLC pack 2?
Question for all of you! I have MK8 -rest removed due to caps-
Lay off the caplocks
-TW
Best racing game on the Wii U! =)
I really like the Mario Kart games.
whats it called when you hit off of someone and get a boost?
Truly my most favorite game on the wii u so far. Love playing this online versus others!
Who needs Forza, Need for Speed and Gran Turismo when there is Mario Kart 8
With the added DLC, I honestly think this is my favourite MK game of them all. Fun to play, great tracks, loads of characters and kart options, beautiful to look at and the sound/music are just fantastic too.
This Games is great! Tracks 10/10, Karts/Customization (although I don't really care) 10/10, Characters 7.5/10| PinkGold Peach BAD, M Mario Meh, All of the DLC characters (except for Dry Bowser) Disappointing, No Diddy, Bowser Jr., King Boo, Birdo, Petey, or Dry Bones but another baby c'mon! (Well they did bring 3/6 of those characters back in MK8DX) But don't let me get started on Battle Mode! In total, 9.6 out of 10.
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