This week, I will be talking about a switch game I have had for a while, Mario kart 8. The reason I have put off making a blog on it is because I don’t normally play it. However, during Kalen’s birthday party, my friends and I probably spent a good 2-3 hours on it. With all this time under my belt, I’m now confident I could make a decent blog and know what I’m talking about.
In Mario kart 8, there is only really one game mode we play, which is grand prix. Basically, you create your kart, like in every other game mode, then you select a prix. A prix is just a round of four pre selected circuits. I prefer this game mode over the others because, it’s the most simple. You make a kart and play, no extras. As an added bonus, you can even win trophies if you land first place every single stage. Thats is what I primarily what I try to do when I play by myself, win trophies. In the end, these trophies don’t really do anything and are really only there for bragging rights. Overall, great game mode fore playing with friends, but can get a little boring if playing alone.
The next kind of game mode we play sometimes, is party mode. In this game mode, there are a lot of different individual games that can be played. There is a game where you see who can get more coins, how many ballon you can pop, and much more. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve even played all of them before. I usually only play this during parties because playing with bots is just chaos. Besides, it is more fun to play with friends anyway.
In general, whenever you select a stage of any kind, you need to select the CC. I don’t know what CC actually means, but I just interpret it as kart speed. The higher you go the faster your cart gets. There is 50CC, 100CC, 150CC, and 200CC. Usually, I like to play on either 100CC or 150CC. 50CC is to slow and 200CC is unplayable in my opinion. Another feature that is in almost every game mode is the items. There are a lot of items in the game, so I will only cover my favorite few. Out of all the items, I tend to favor the shells, star, and bullet bill. In terms of shells, there are three in total, green, red, and blue. Green is the most basic with no tracking and the fact you can hit yourself, red is the second with and almost guarantee chance it will hit someone, and finally there is the blue shell that will always hit the person in first place and hit others along the way. The star is another fun item that is extremely useful in desert maps. When the start is activated you don’t need to fallow the course and go off-roading. It can be slightly dangerous if you don’t know how long the buff will last, but it is fun none the less. Finally, there is Bullet Bill, the best come back item. Normally, you won’t obtain this item unless you are in the last five places. However, if you do get it, depending on how well people are doing on the map you can land yourself in sixth or fifth place. What it does, is turn you into a bullet that follows a set course on the map at a speed faster than what any kart is capable of.
In the end, I have had a wonderful experience. I think Mario Kart was our most family-friendly game. Before we got our hands on smash bros. After many consecutive hours with friends and family, I can say this is a really fun game for everyone.