Review (2025 December)

Introduction

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (as "MK8D" afterwards) is a kart racing game exclusive on Switch developed by Nintendo and released in 2017. Comparing to other games in the Mario Kart series:

• Objectively, MK8D is one with the biggest volume.

• Subjectively, MK8D is one among the best.

• Personally, MK8D is the one that I spent the longest time with.

• Friendly new players and easy to get started, but with a relatively high skill ceiling – absolutely higher than Mario Kart 7 – one famous for its surprisingly low skill ceiling.

• A big upgrade in visual aspects. Although only up to 1080p and 60 FPS in the end, the actual performance turns out to be great. And considering that MK8D was released in 2017, overall a decent kart racing game. When doubting the performance, remember that there are famous games on Switch being released in 2025 performing much worse than MK8D!

• Stable and reliable netcode. Although I only played online for a while back in 2018 with one of my classmates' Switch, I still remembered that I enjoy a lot with the experience – much better comparing to Mario Kart 7!

DLCs and Updates

MK8D started with everything Mario Kart 8 had in its final version – main contents and DLCs – and later had its own DLCs with 48 new tracks, some new characters, and other features. The whole thing exactly doubles the amount of tracks, which may sound exciting at first, but soon turn out to show its disappointing side. Most of the DLC tracks were easy copies from the mobile game called Mario Kart Tour with quick implementation, but less polished for sure. 

• The visual style in those DLC tracks looks very different from the main tracks.

• Jump actions become weird and janky in many of the DLC tracks, which hardly ever happens in any of the main tracks.

• Some new features – though being added – should not belong to MK8D at all! The worst famous example is the half-pipe section, which solely produced 2 of the top 5 evilest tracks (to me) in Time Trial.

Nintendo changed the statistics of some characters and vehicle parts, which made things much more complicated and was a huge insult to those Time Trial players.

• Some got buffed, so you have to rerun the whole tracks with the exact same strategies.

• Others got debuffed, which means your previous record may have become history and you will probably never ever get that time again!

• As I did not want to redo those "completed" tracks, in the end, I had to mention the exact version of MK8D when I created the time. Otherwise, my time could look stupidly slow or like something done by cheating.

Those updates might be beneficial for online play to make the environment more balanced, but in the end, not necessary at all. Anyway, some players would simply abandon the previous god tier build and switch to the new meta – are you going to do another buff or debuff update and keep repeating? Another evidence that online play is much more important than Time Trial, at least from Nintendo's point of view.

Grand Prix

As time went by, the difficulty of singleplayer content decreased gradually (apart from Time Trial). That said, Grand Prix in MK8D is pretty easy to 100%. Forget about final times, coins, optimal shortcuts, item utilisation, or mistakes, all you need for 3 stars is the final ranking: staying 1st throughout the 4 tracks and you are done.

Additionally, the CPU players are designed to be very generous to the player or are simply too bad. As long as you know the basics of every track, there is no problem of beating them at all. It is no longer like playing in a real competition, where everyone wants to win; but rather a friendship competition, where all others sincerely want you to win – I appreciate that ;(.

Do not compare it to Mario Kart 7, where a small mistake or 9 coins at the end of a track would disappoint you with only 2 stars, let alone tougher ones like Mario Kart DS or even Mario Kart Wii. In short, smooth and pressureless – nowhere near challenging.

Time Trial

As a 100% player, maybe I should not have started getting too serious with Time Trial. Initially, my plan was to beat every official ghost, regardless of the final record or performance I actually achieved. But then, you know, sometimes I did beat with a decent time; but the official ghosts in some tracks were not awful at all, so it took much longer to beat them: it was a bit inconsistent.

In the end, I played every track seriously with the default build (Mario and Standard Set), using a unique criterion that focused more on performance (e.g., coins and collisions) instead of the final records.

• There were cases where I achieved an average time but then stopped, simply because I was satisfied by my overall performance.

• Conversely, a good time with unsatisfying performance meant extra attempts! That said, I will never be a real speedrunner, where all you need to focus on is the time.

Given the 48 extra tracks introduced by MK8D's DLC for a total of 96 tracks, I probably soaked around 300–400 hours into Time Trial. Even though I was too obsessed (indeed a mental issue) with small mistakes, most of the tracks could be done within 2 hours. However, some are too janky and could take up to 35 hours. Seriously, 35 hours to hold my sanity with just a single track! Yes, I was talking about the track that got 1st place in my ranking.

Given my special criteria, I was indeed tough enough to survive the whole run. I will not delve into the very detailed strategies for every track, otherwise I could write a book, which is also unnecessary as I already explained every little thing in my videos. In summary, the following tracks are ones that gave me most headache back then. Of course, there do exist some serious personal biases, but I guess most players who have played those tracks in Time Trial would more or less agree with me.

キノピオハーバー / Toad Harbor (Top 10)

ドルフィンみさき / Dolphin Shoals

GBAチーズランド / GBA Cheese Land

N64カラカラさばく / N64 Kalimari Desert (Top 10)

Wiiグラグラかざん / Wii Grumble Volcano

ハイラルサーキット / Hyrule Circuit

3DSネオクッパシティ / 3DS Neo Bowser City (Top 10)

GBAリボンロード / GBA Ribbon Road (2nd Place)

Wiiココナッツモール / Wii Coconut Mall (Top 10)

ニンニンドージョー / Ninja Hideaway

Tourシドニーサンシャイン / Tour Sydney Sprint

Wiiキノコキャニオン | Wii Mushroom Gorge (Top 5)

WiiDKスノーボードクロス / Wii DK Summit (1st Place)

ヨッシーアイランド / Yoshi’s Island

GCワルイージスタジアム / GCN Waluigi Stadium (3rd Place)

シャボンロード / Squeaky Clean Sprint (Top 10)

Tourバンクーバーバレー / Tour Vancouver Velocity

GCDKマウンテン / GCN DK Mountain (Top 5)

After completing it, I promised to myself that I would not do something similar in other racing games anymore. But then, at the time I am writing this review, I am being tortured by another racing game again! Humans never learn – silly humans – silly humans!