Better Late than Never on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

As most of you all know about me already, I am not much of a video game player. In fact, my son had to correct me and he said, and I quote, "you are not a gamer dad". I didn't know that the term "gamer" existed until he said that this morning. But, I do want to talk about one game I have really grown to like since my son purchased his Switch.

I have said on the site before that, when I do play video games, it is usually some kind of sports game. I love NBA Jam and NBA 2K and was an enormous fan of EA's NCAA Football game. I used to dominate RD in that one (ed note: With a cheat code). But, my son isn't too crazy about sports games. He thinks they are boring, and I get it. He is only 7 and the constant stopping and starting can be tiresome. It makes sense to me that he doesn't like them. Also, he only likes to play baseball, so NBA 2K and any football game are very boring to him. But, he loves games like Super Smash Brothers, he has a Pokémon fighting game he loves and anything and everything that involves Mario. He and my wife have both gotten 999 moons on Mario Odyssey. He and my wife consistently slaughter me, or the computer when they play Mario Party.

The game I want to single out today that I am growing to really like, I can now beat him in 9 times out of 10. That game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I am really starting to dig this game. I have always marginally enjoyed racing games. I loved Excitebike for the Nintendo when I was his age. I remember when the original PlayStation came out and it came with a racing game, not entirely sure which one, but I liked that one a lot. When I find myself in an arcade that doesn't have a sports game, I gravitate towards the racing games. And in my kid's dentist office, she has a Nintendo 64 that has their version of Mario Kart. I dominate my son when we are there in the waiting room. But Mario Kart 8 for the Switch is on a whole other level.

The game play is easy, which I appreciate. If you start at the lowest speed, 50 cc I believe, it is a great way to teach you how to play the game. It goes at a speed that is perfect for beginners. When I started to play, I had to stay on 50 cc for awhile to figure it all out. But when I did, I started to get decent at it. It does need to be said, my wife destroys us all in the game, but I am getting better. When I moved up to 100 cc, I started to enjoy the game more. The course comes at you faster. The computer racers are more of a challenge because they are better. The gifts you get, or maybe they are called power ups, I live for those things. If you get a mushroom, it blast you way ahead. A red shell is great to knock some opponents out of the way. The green shell is neat because you actually have to aim to hit someone. Even the coins are a solid one because the more coins you get, the faster you go. My son also taught me that.

The moment I knew that I was really getting into it was when I started to get frustrated if I wasn't finishing in the top three. Or when I would get hit by multiple shells or squid ink or bombs by people behind me. I was getting legit frustrated and mouthing that frustration to everyone in my house. I was taking it seriously, and even my wife pointed out that that was when she noticed I was getting into it. It is such a fun, easy and quick game to play. You also have a plethora of Mario characters to choose from to be your racer. If I may give a suggestion, pick someone small. I am a big fan of Lakitu, and my wife loves Peach. The problem with the bigger characters, they are too slow. Sure, they recover quicker from a hit, but they can never get that speed to the top level like the smaller characters.

Anyway, I like this game, and I wanted to spend my time today giving it a shout out. I highly recommend Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. It's a blast.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has not seen true Mario Kart pain until he plays the head editor in a race around Excitebike Arena. No one can beat Daisy.

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