So I did the thing where you tell yourself you'll just play "one race" before bed and then it's 1am and you've done all 200cc Star Cup because apparently my brain has no off switch when a blue shell is involved. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out today for the Switch and I've had it running since about 6pm.
Sixty bucks. That's the number that made me hesitate for about four seconds in the eShop before I just bought it, because this is technically a re-release of a Wii U game and I know that, and I still don't care. The Wii U version sold something like 8 million copies less than the number of Wii U consoles Nintendo actually sold, which tells you everything about how many people actually owned a Wii U (me, for about eight months, before I sold it to a coworker for less than I paid for the memory card alone). So most of this content is new to most people, myself very much included, even though I technically "played" the original.
The big deal, and the thing every preview article has been going on about, is that Battle Mode is finally a real mode again instead of the afterthought it was on Wii U where they just slapped race tracks into it and called it a day. There are actual battle arenas now. Balloon Battle feels like Balloon Battle again. I played it against my roommate on the couch, splitscreen, at like 11:30, and we were both yelling at the TV over stolen balloons in a way that felt genuinely nostalgic for Double Dash on the GameCube, which is the last time I remember caring this much about a Mario Kart battle mode.
Every character has their own base stats now too — no more everyone-plus-kart-parts-equals-identical-builds thing from the Wii U version, where half the roster felt pointless because the numbers all washed out the same. Now Waluigi is genuinely just built different from Toad, weight-wise, and it actually matters what you pick. I've been maining Inkling Girl mostly because I like the game she's from, not because I've done the math on her stats, and honestly that's kind of the right way to pick a Mario Kart character. Nobody who tells you they picked based on optimal acceleration curves is having as much fun as they claim.
One thing I'll say, and this isn't really a complaint so much as an observation: online play is free right now, no Switch Online subscription needed, because Nintendo hasn't turned that service on yet. It's coming, they've said as much, sometime this year probably, and when it does you'll be paying for something you're currently getting for nothing. So if you're on the fence about buying a Switch game that leans on multiplayer, now's weirdly the best window to do it. Get your value in early. I don't know what it'll cost yet and neither does anyone else outside Nintendo, but "free" beats whatever number eventually replaces it.
Small gripe, unrelated to the game itself: I still haven't fully trusted the dock after all the stories back at launch in March about it scratching screens on certain early units. Mine's fine as far as I can tell, no marks, but I still find myself sliding the console in slower than I probably need to, like I'm defusing something. Bought a cheap sleeve to wipe it down before docking anyway. Probably unnecessary at this point but old habits from a rough launch month stick around.
Anti-Gravity sections are still doing that magnetized-to-the-track thing from the Wii U version where the whole world tilts and you drive up walls, and it's still visually the best trick this series has pulled since the original F-Zero-adjacent aesthetic, honestly. Mount Wario in particular is doing a lot of work at making me forgive Nintendo for charging me full price for a four-year-old game with some new paint.
Haven't touched 200cc long enough to say anything smart about it yet beyond "terrifying," and I clearly have work tomorrow that eight-hours-from-now me is going to resent past-me for ignoring in favor of one more Grand Prix. Rainbow Road is somehow still the worst track in every single game they put it in and I will die on this hill.