I always loved the Mario Kart series – the previous games had already been pretty amazing. Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS are two games which I’ve had hundreds of hours of enjoyment with and which I continue to love to this day. So it should mean a lot when I say that this one blew them out of the water and became an instant favourite for me.

The unique selling point of this installment is that it introduces race tracks which have anti-gravity sections.  The anti-gravity aspect is quite fun and allows for exciting scenarios like racing up a waterfall. But, I think, what really sets this game apart from the rest is the fact that it is the first to be on a console which supports HD graphics. Every single level is absolutely gorgeous and the Mushroom World has never before felt so real and immersive. You’ve got creepy old haunted houses, airships up in the clouds, lands made of sweets, ancient temples and more. It was really exciting to see how old, returning tracks looked after their HD makeover too: Toad’s Turnpike (from Mario Kart 64) is now a beautiful highway in and out of a city,  Rainbow Road (also from Mario Kart 64) is now a really beautiful, sparking mural above a darkened city and Sherbet Land (from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!) has gone from being a bland, frustrating and uninteresting snowy race track to a beautiful snow covered road in the night. Every last track is a delight.

One thing that the game has been criticised for is it’s character selection and, I’ll admit, there were some odd additions, such as Bowser Jr., Birdo and all the Kongs other than Donkey, but I’d hardly call that a negative aspect of the game. You get a nice number of characters (including the Koopalings for the first time) and I never felt frustrated by the selection. Sure, there are maybe one too many babies and different variations on other characters, but I guess they were easy to make and I doubt they were instead of unique characters.

Of course, what most people like about these games is the multiplayer: once again, you can have a really good time playing locally with friends, or you can play with loads of people online. However you do it, it’s always highly enjoyable. Battle Mode has been changed so that you now only battle on the race tracks, but I’m not too bothered by the lack of battle specific areas. Plus, a new mode called MKTV allows you to watch and edit replays of races, which is really fun – you can even upload to YouTube!

What this game does for the first time in the Mario Kart series, is offer several pieces of additional content which can be purchased or added for free. Several Amiibo will give you unique Mii costumes (including Sonic and Mega Man!) and you can also download 200cc for the first time (which is really hard) as well as some Mercedes vehicles. But most excitingly, Mario Kart 8 has two packs of downloadable content which contain some really exciting things. You can get Link as a playable character and race around Hyrule, you can race as Isabelle or Animal Crossing Villagers and race in an Animal Crossing village and you can even race on some brand new F-Zero tracks! It’s some of the best downloadable content I have ever purchased and it really thrilled me as a Nintendo fan.

On the whole, this game is superb. It’s really fun to play by yourself or with friends and seeing all of the beautiful race tracks and leisurely speeding through them is an amazing experience all on its own. This is definitely something you should try.

Rating: 9.6/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

The StreetPass function on the Nintendo 3DS lets you collect the Miis of any 3DS owners you happen to pass on the street. The StreetPass series of games are quite simple but very fun and are all built around the meeting of different Miis.

In StreetPass Fishing your Mii goes off on a fishing holiday and every Mii that you pass on the street offers you a piece of bait. There are various different locations for you to visit, each having a different selection of fish available to catch and, of course, different kinds of bait help to catch different kinds of fish. It’s not just a holiday for your Mii either; you meet a woman named Coraline there and she and her father are investigating sightings of large, mystical sea creatures in the area – you have to help them find these creatures by catching them so that they can be studied.

What I really like about the game is that the story has a surprising level of depth to it. I really wouldn’t like to spoil what happens (as that will probably lessen its impact) but I was really shocked by how dark and cynical it became as I got towards the end. In some ways I was a bit disappointed, because I had convinced myself it was going to end up tying into the plot of the earlier Nintendo game, Endless Ocean but that’s a very minor complaint. As Nintendo are often criticised for their games lacking story, the amount of plot found in StreetPass Fishing is really impressive.

On the whole, this is a very enjoyable game. At the end of the day, all you are doing is choosing different locations and then pressing the A button and using the control stick to catch fish – it’s a basic premise, but very rewarding. There are a huge number of fish to catch and as somebody who loves aquatic life, it was great fun trying to catch them all; there were even a few rather unexpected creatures out there waiting to be caught. That’s not to mention that every fishing location looks like a real natural paradise and that the game has a wonderfully soothing soundtrack.

It was very addictive and the leaderboards generated from the records of everybody you StreetPass gave a great incentive to keep playing. I suppose to put it very simply, it’s a bit like taking the fishing from Animal Crossing and making a full game out of it and this works very well. One of the best StreetPass games.

Rating: 8.3/10

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)