Sonic Kart 8

***Sonic Kart 8*** is a racing game developed primarily by Nintendo EAD, with Namco Bandai Holdings assisting, for the Wii U. It is the eighth installment in the main ***Sonic Kart*** series (hence the game's name) and, including the arcade games, the eleventh overall. This installment is the follow-up game of the Nintendo 3DS title ***Sonic Kart 7***. Like other Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games, this game can be purchased both physically at retail and digitally through the Nintendo eShop, with the digital version requiring 4949.8 MB (approx. 4.83 GB) of memory to be installed. The game was released on the last three days of May 2014 worldwide.

A prominent new addition is anti-gravity, allowing players to drive on almost any surface. Elements from ***Sonic Kart Wii*** and ***Sonic Kart 7*** are reused, such as 12-racer fields, Bikes and 2-Player online from ***Sonic Kart Wii***; and gliding, underwater driving, and kart customizing from ***Sonic Kart 7***. In addition, ATVs join the returning karts and bikes as a new class of vehicle. The game also features more detail in courses, specifically retro tracks, which appear more redesigned than their original appearances. The game is also the best selling title for the Wii U, selling 8 million copies as of September 30, 2016, surpassing sales of both ***Sonic Kart: Super Circuit*** and ***Sonic Kart: Double Dash!!***.

## Gameplay

The gameplay maintains the traditional elements of previous ***Sonic Kart*** games, mostly from the two recent installments on the Wii and Nintendo 3DS respectively. Players pick a character of three weight classes and drive vehicles of varying stats, strengths, and weaknesses around an obstacle course-like racetrack, in an attempt to finish first of the twelve racers, the number of racers used in ***Sonic Kart Wii***. During the race, racers can pick up items from Item Boxes, where the probability of receiving items is dependent on the racers' distance from the frontrunner; for example, first place typically receives defense items such as Ringss and Red Rings, while racers at intermediate distance from the lead receive more powerful offense items such as Triple Red Shells and Fire Flowers and racers far from the lead receive items that lead to an increase in speed or the possibility of going off-road without losing speed, such as the Super Chaos Emerald or Power Rings, to help compensate their distance. Players receive an amount of points depending on the position they end up with. Whichever player has the most amount of points wins the entire race.

Karts, which feature similar designs from ***Sonic Kart 7***, can be customized once again, alongside the returning bikes, which handle similar to the karts now and can only perform a wheelie via a boost, and the newly introduced ATVs. The hang-glider and underwater mechanics also return from ***Sonic Kart 7***, as well as Coins, with the player being able to collect up to ten in one race, and automatic drifting activated by steering in a direction for a certain amount of time, with a turning capability that, unless a Wii Remote without motion controls is used, matches the one while drifting (and even surpasses that in the case of sport bikes) and the ability to slowly charge Mini-Turbo and Super Mini-Turbo boosts, added in this game. Tricks and the ability to look behind also return in this game.

The newest feature for the series is anti-gravitational segments that not only allow for more dynamic track design, but also for racers to drive across walls, ceilings, and other seemingly unusual places. When in anti-gravity, if a racer bumps into another racer, the kart spins rather than just bumping and both racers receive a speed boost. This is called a "Spin Boost".

Two types of bikes return: standard bikes, that perform regular drifts, and sport bikes, that lean toward the inside of the turn instead of drifting. While leaning instead of drifting, sport bikes lose less speed, but have a lower turning capability with respect to outside drifting vehicles, this being a feature seen in ***Sonic Kart Wii*** as well.

The game also features Wii U GamePad integration. In addition to the standard Off-TV Play, players also have the option of displaying the course map, and when neither the television gameplay nor the map are being displayed, the GamePad can be used as a horn button. Players have the option to toggle between these features at will. The GamePad can also be used to toggle on and off the gyroscopic steering, and in its default display and when displaying the map the GamePad also displays the current rankings.

There is also Miiverse integration, which allows players to share their replay videos and comment on others' videos, in a feature called **Sonic Kart TV**. Another change is that in 2-player mode, the screen splits vertically instead of the horizontally in the other console ***Sonic Kart*** games, a feature that was originally intended to be in ***Sonic Kart 64*** but was removed from the final game. Additionally, if the player falls off the edge of the track, Omochao will pick them up and drop them back on to the track more quickly when compared to how he did this in past installments. This makes glitches involving falling into areas impossible.

## Characters

### **Playable Characters**

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Princess Sally Acorn
* Cream the Rabbit
* Big the Cat
* Tikal the Echidna
* E-102 Gamma
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Rouge the Bat
* E-123 Omega
* Espio the Chameleon
* Charmy Bee
* Vector the Crocodile
* Blaze the Cat
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Marine the Raccoon
* Jet the Hawk
* Wave the Swallow
* Storm the Albatross
* Sticks the Badger
* Chaos
* Zavok
* Zazz
* Metal Sonic
* Dr. Eggman Nega
* Dr. Eggman

## Game Modes

There are various game modes for ***Sonic Kart 8***. All modes available on single player (some also on local and online multiplayer) are listed here.

### **Grand Prix**

***Sonic Kart 8's*** Grand Prix works similar to past installments. Like past games the 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc engine classes are available by default, and completing 150cc unlocks Mirror; for the former three, however, Grand Prix rankings carry over to the lower engine classes after being completed on a higher engine class. In addition, and for the first time in the series, a 200cc engine class has been added as of the version 4.0 update, which is available by default alongside Mirror as of version 4.1. Players choose a cup, which takes them through four consecutive races of set order in that cup. Only the Rings and Chaos Emerald Cups (and the DLC cups) are available at the start of the game, with the others being unlocked after completing the cup before, and are available in every engine class after being unlocked. Players now have the option to do a multiplayer Grand Prix up to four players, unlike in most previous home console ***Sonic Kart*** games, where only up to two players can race in Grand Prix.

### **Time Trials**

Time Trial mode lets the player complete a selected course in the fastest time possible. Among the other features, in addition to viewing ghost data, players can upload their own ghost data onto Miiverse, which other players can download and comment on. In addition, beating one of Nintendo's Staff Ghosts in a race earns the player a stamp based on the course they raced on which they can use in Miiverse posts. Leaderboards as seen in ***Sonic Kart Wii*** also return.

### **VS Race**

VS mode can be played locally with up to four players. Players can set rules such as which items appear, the difficulty level of the CPUs, how many races to play, and whether to race on a Team or race Solo. Players can also set how the courses appear, choose a course after one is finished, or play all tracks randomly or in order. In this game, Mirror Mode appears as a default engine class, even if it isn't unlocked in Grand Prix. The point system is the same as the Grand Prix.

### **Battle**

Battle mode now features race tracks remixed to fit battle mode rather than containing all-new separate arenas. Balloon Battle can be played in teams or in free-for-all mode. It combines survival battle mode from ***Sonic Kart DS*** and earlier installments and the timed points battle mode introduced in ***Sonic Kart Wii***; all players start with three points and three balloons each. Successfully making an opponent lose a balloon awards the player a point, and losing a balloon through any method will cause the player to lose a point. Balloons can never be regained (unless one is stolen from another player with a Rings or a Chaos Emerald), and if all balloons are lost, points can no longer be lost or gained. Defeated players can still drive and attack players as a Ghost, although they cannot receive points. Players can also now adjust the time limit from one to five minutes, and they can set up to 32 rounds in set intervals.

## Courses

There are 32 tracks in the main game (excluding DLC Cups); 16 new and 16 retro, featuring one track each from ***Super Sonic Kart*** and ***Sonic Kart: Super Circuit***, four tracks from ***Sonic Kart 64***, two each from ***Sonic Kart: Double Dash!!*** and ***Sonic Kart Wii***, and three each from ***Sonic Kart DS*** and ***Sonic Kart 7***. As with the retro tracks from the 3DS installment, those in this game feature altered sections that incorporate the game's hang-glider, underwater, and anti-gravity features. The game features orchestrated music for all of the new tracks and most of the retro tracks. The tracks have been described as narrower compared to previous ***Sonic Kart*** tracks, specifically those from ***Sonic Kart Wii***. Names in italics are names used in the PAL version.