Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Europe (Nintendo Switch)

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an instantly recognisable cart racing game, the eighth in the series from Nintendo. It features the iconic plumber, Mario, and all his friends from the games: Yoshi, Princess Peaches, Bowser, and, of course, Mario’s green-attired brother, Luigi and many more. There are forty-two characters to choose from altogether, many instantly recognisable from popular culture.

About the Game

The premise is almost laughably simple: pick a character, pick a car and pick a track to try out, then speed, blast and soar your way to the front of the pack.

This is a tried and tested format and the game remains as popular as ever thanks to all the new additions and fun quirky features.

What’s New?

Following on from the upgrade to the Wii U, this game boasts the same bigger tracks, for up to 12 people to compete in the races. The more the merrier!

Anti-gravity is a new fun feature: soar up walls or drive on the ceiling for a bit until you run out of ceiling, and then press a button so glider wings pop out to maximise your long drift back to earth.

There is a crossover with Animal Crossing with the addition of four seasonal themed tracks to bring the total number of tracks to choose from up to 48.

All the characters and tracks are there from the beginning, the only things that need to be unlocked with coins earned by racing are kart and bike parts to give your special vehicle the edge over the competition.

The turbo boost now comes with an additional third level, a cunning secret weapon to deploy when you need just a little extra to blast you ahead of the competition. This extra boost is earned by skidding around corners.

For less experienced players, the game comes with auto-accelerate so you keep on going when your attention is distracted, and auto-redirect which will turn your wheels back onto the track when it looks like you’re heading off to the side.

More Than Just Racing

The charm of Nintendo’s Mario world has always been the cute and compelling additional extras and this game is no different. Even in the battle mode, there are plenty of ways to play with lots more to do than simply drive past each other. For example:

• Coin Runners: blast around the track as fast as you can, grabbing up the coins that are waiting around the map for you, but also swiping them from other players if you can
• Shine Thief: try to grab hold of the Shine Sprite and keep it in your possession for the whole time of the countdown, some twenty seconds. It’s not as easy as it sounds as everyone else will be trying to get it off you!
• Renegade Round-Up: grab up the other players and throw them in jail. If your teammate is captured, you can rescue them, all the while evading your own capture. A great fun way to spend time with friends as you all compete with each other to lock up all the rest!
• Balloon Battle: start off with five balloons and keep them as safe as you can while you try and burst the competition’s balloons! Points are awarded for bursting other players’ balloons, but you will have all your points halved if all yours are burst
• There is a sub-game in Balloon Battle, called Bob-omb Blast, in which everything is explosive! Gather several and set them off at once to decimate the playing field!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available for purchase on Instant Gaming for a fraction of its retail price. You will receive an official key and be able to play the game in seconds. Play smart. Pay less.