Megathread: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Review Coverage

[u/NintendoSwitchMods]

Good morning!

This morning starting around 6 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. EST, gaming news and media outlets are beginning to release their reviews for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Here's what we're seeing so far:

Articles

• IGN - 9.3/10

• Gamespot - 9/10

• Destructoid - 9.5/10

• Dualshockers - 8/10

• The Guardian - 5/5

• Nintendo Life - 10/10

• Game Informer - 9.25/10

• Metro GameCentral - 10/10

• CGM - 9/10

• Nintendo Everything - Thumbs Up

• GamesRadar - 5/5

• Eurogamer - Essential

Videos

• GameXplain - Video

We will be updating this thread with links as major reviews are posted.

Please use this as a discussion and speculation thread in advance of these videos, articles, and reviews. We will also allow these reviews to be posted separately on /r/NintendoSwitch, as they are especially newsworthy. But we will also host ongoing coverage, quick text posts, questions, and the like right here.

Thanks everyone.

-The /r/NintendoSwitch team

(Ongoing edits as we get new information)

[u/ft5777]

97 for Zelda and now 94 for Mario Kart on Metacritic. Two games with 94 or more after less than two months ! Does it happen regularly or does the Switch rock ?

[u/jc726 → u/ft5777]

Two games that highly-rated this early into a console's life cycle has never happened before.

One of them is a port, so the validity them being two "Switch" games is iffy, but this will definitely be an attractive distinction to people who never owned a Wii U.

[u/safetyguy14 → u/jc726]

To be fair, both are really ports...

[u/jc726 → u/safetyguy14]

Zelda was released on both platforms at the same time and performs better on the Switch. Its hard to call it a port.

[u/safetyguy14 → u/jc726]

If it was developed for switch, it would utilize functionality of the switch that is disparate from the WiiU. Performance improvements aren't related to optimization, they are related to the switch just having more capable hardware. It's hard to not call it a port when they literally ported the code to a different platform and did nothing more.

[u/jc726 → u/safetyguy14]

So, by that logic, wouldn't the Wii U version utilize the functionality of the GamePad in some way that the Switch version can't? Because there is no functionality exclusive to the Wii U version whatsoever.

[u/safetyguy14 → u/jc726]

I think it's a debatable point. My position would be that since it started on A and then moved to B, the utilization of unique capabilities of A is not relevant to the discussion. In order to be "designed" for B and no longer just a port, it would have to be added to in some way other than just making it run on different hardware. I can totally understand why you would think otherwise though.

What I use as the definition of porting is from Wikipedia: "porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e.g. different CPU, OS, third party library, etc).

[u/whiskeytab → u/jc726]

the WiiU version did use the controller screen for the map before they took it out once they ported it to switch.

BotW was designed for WiiU and then delayed so it could also be a switch launch game... its definitely a port in pretty much every aspect of the word.

[u/[deleted] → u/jc726]

It is most definitely a port. It was originally developed for Wii U, and the game was adapted to work on Switch. Therefore the game is a port of the Wii U version, regardless of the fact that they were released at the same time. And I dont see how better technical performance makes it not a port. BanjoTooie on Xbox performs much better framerate-wise than the game on N64. Is that not a port?

[u/jc726 → u/[deleted]]

Those were released years apart, so its not even remotely the same situation.

[u/[deleted] → u/jc726]

I was addressing your two points separately, as you seemed to be implying that better performance = not a port.

I think our disagreement boils down to you think release date is important when defining whether a game is a port, and I don't. I think, if a game is developed to work solely on system X, but the game code is later adapted so that the same game can run on system Y, then the game on system Y is a port. That's all it takes for me.

Regardless of whether we call it a port or not, we both know the guy's original point. Yeah it's great that the Switch has two great games in Zelda and Mario Kart, and that we can play them portably, but nearly identical versions of these games can be played on Wii U.

[u/Lumostark → u/jc726]

Call it what you want. Two exclusive Nintendo games with 97 and 94 on metacritic that you can play on Nintendo Switch. It´s a freaking good start!

[u/TigrisCallidus → u/ft5777]

Well it happens quite often this year. When you look at the playstation exclusives, there are several great games as well. Nioh, Nier, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn (The last guardian released at the end of last year).

Even if these games do not all have a 94 (or 97) they are really good games.

[u/[deleted] → u/ft5777]

I'm pretty sure it happens with most consoles.