Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the most successful game on the Nintendo Switch – and rightly so! Most of you will be playing against each other on the couch or racing against your friends or strangers online. The best game mode, however, is ignored by everyone. It lets you play against your friends and you don't even have to be online at the same time!
During the first Corona lockdown, Robert and I discovered an interesting way to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe against each other asynchronously (i.e. not at the same time).. However, Nintendo goes to great lengths to hide this type of game. That's a shame, but let me enlighten you.
Advertisement
Steep thesis: Most players will Time trial mode More or less ignore (“Time Trial”) from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You shouldn't do that, because it makes sense in three ways:
On the one hand, you can get good ones here Gain route knowledge – much faster than, for example, in online mode. Secondly, you get the golden hoops as a bonus item for defeating the Nintendo Ghost on all 150cc tracks. Okay, these things are relatively useless in terms of gameplay, but completists still need the item. And thirdly, the time trial mode is good for incredibly fun challenges with friends to use. I'll now explain to you how it works.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in “Trackmania Mode”
Explanatory Bear Insert: In racing games, this is called Ghosts as enemies that you can simply drive through; they are usually shown in a slightly transparent manner. Advantage: You can change the driving style Enemy ghosts study, compete with them, even without driving and with them at the same time Optimize your own driving style. For the Trackmania series, ghosts are part of the core gameplay.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Time Trial mode also has ghosts as an option. Whenever you have improved your best time on a route, you can upload it as a ghost. In addition to the Nintendo ghosts, you can also Download ghosts of other players and compete against them. For this purpose, Nintendo has created a perpetual leaderboard for each route.
Advertisement
The problem is that competing against the top ghosts on the leaderboard doesn't make much sense, because that's who they are global record times set by Mario Kart demigodswho optimized the entire race with millisecond precision. They pull away in such a way that as a “normal mortal” you can only reach the finish line 10 to 20 seconds later, even with a lot of practice. The learning effect is small, the frustration is great.
The ghosts of my friends
And now here's the thing: it gets much better if you… compete against the ghosts of your own friends in a time trial.
Nintendo hides the fact that this possibility exists incredibly well – I have no idea why. The trick is in the list of downloadable ghosts scroll all the way down! There you will eventually find the best times of all the friends you are linked to on Switch Online, which can be recognized by the Mii image with an orange background. I'll show you where in this short clip:
“Robert, today there is war in Cheeseland!”
That's half the battle, if you will: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in Trackmania mode. Now in Trackmania the entire game series is built around the principle of “human against human in asynchronous combat situations”, in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe you have to organize a bit around it. I recommend this approach:
Step 1: Open one Group on Messenger of your choice with people who want to compete against each other in MK8DX.
Step 2: Add each other on Switch Onlineif not already done.
Step 3: Challenge each other via Messenger (“Today WW3 on the Kuh-Muh-Weide Nordschleife, you leeks!”), download your friends’ best times and/or set one yourself.
Step 4: Celebrate with a flight posted evidence photo Taunts in the messenger group if you have beaten a friend's time and/or curses your “frenemies” in the most obscene way if you have been beaten. Here are some impressions from our WhatsApp group:
And that's essentially it. It's a great way to simultaneously improve yourself, challenge your friends for best times, improve your driving skills and experiment with the vehicle/driver setup, while also learning shortcuts, optimizing ideal lines and the use of mushrooms. Oh yes, of course also to joke around.
How Nintendo could improve Time Trial mode
The fact that this way of playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is largely unknown is because Nintendo clearly hasn't realized how much fun asynchronous time trial battles between friends can be. I once asked around unrepresentatively: No Mario Kart driver in my environment knew that you could race against friend's ghosts.
I think it's a missed opportunity, but maybe the next Mario Kart will be different. Here is my partial list of suggestions for what Nintendo could do better:
Remove the stupid restriction that you can only have 16 ghosts downloaded on the Switch at the same time. Seriously: Why do I have to delete a ghost on one track just so I can compete against another ghost on another track? Make it possible to compete against multiple ghosts at the same time List friends' best times separately from global times In-game notifications when a friend uses yours The best time has been broken. List in the duel statistics who is ahead on how many routes.
So now please beat my 2:07.821 in the Wario Arena. That goes for you too, Robert. You rag!