Hail Mario

Kyle Starr, writing on his new The State of Gaming site rebranded site, Zero Counts:

Mario Kart 8 proves that Nintendo is deeply in tune with generational gaming gaps. As our Link to the Past lover so eloquently put it, the ease of entry to Mario Kart 8 iterates on the tried and true idiom “it’s like riding a bike” with an updated “it’s like playing Mario Kart.”

From the first race to the last, we would chuckle at my fiancée’s incessant need to comment on how gorgeous the levels looked. Funny at first, I couldn’t help but look closer at the imagery in the courses. It became evident that Nintendo is unabashedly gunning for Disney-level aesthetics; a tactic to win over most demographics.

We got our copy yesterday, and it’s so fun it made me not want to leave for WWDC today. (I’m worried my son is going to surpass me while I’m out of town.) The game is fun, familiar-yet-novel, and indeed beautiful. Oh, and the music is great.

★ Sunday, 1 June 2014