Mario Kart anytime, anywhere with anyone: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launches Friday

The latest addition to the Mario Kart series and indeed the Nintendo Switch lineup will be screeching out of the starting grid worldwide this Friday.

My initial reaction when I saw what first glance appeared to be a repackaged version of the MK8 we already had was that it was a bit lazy and was just there to help fill up the Switch game roster. However on closer examination there are some quite impressive differences to it's non-deluxe Wii U counterpart, of course theres the obvious differences like the portability of the Switch but theres quite a lot else added too, lets take a look.

Characters: The deluxe version adds several more characters to an already impressive lineup including: Bowser Jr, Dry Bones, Gold Mario and King Boo from the Mario series as well as Inkling Boy and Girl from Splatoon.

Battle mode returns better than ever featuring balloon battles and bob-omb blast game modes.

Two fresh new tracks for you to tear up: Urchin Underpass and the new Battle Stadium. Popular retro tracks also return (hmm can I call the Gamecube retro?) in the form of Luigi's Mansion (GCN) and the SNES Battle Course 1.

The power slide mechanic has been further enhanced in the deluxe version to give a third little speed boost for those with the skill to pull it off.

The deluxe version also sees the return of oldschool items such as the Boo power up from Mario Kart SNES which enables you to steal another players item/powerup and also the feather which can be put to particularly good use as a survival item in battle mode.

Noob friendly mode aka the smart steering system: this mechanic has been put in with the aim of helping newer/younger players stay on the track in higher difficulty modes like 200c. Given the extremely high skill level of the Mario Kart diehards I think this is a fairly welcome addition to make the game more accessible & make the skill gap a bit less demoralising for new players.

Graphically not much has changed, the Switch version looks a little sharper but from what I can see there isn't a huge amount in it. It was a nice looking game anyway.

For those of you haven't seen it here's the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe overview trailer:-

And heres a couple of the TV commercials

Personally I was a big fan of the battle mode back on the SNES so I will probably give this a go for that if nothing else. Click here to pre-order Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from Amazon.com. Will you be getting Mario Kart 8 deluxe? if so did you already have Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U? Would be interested to hear if you think the differences are enough to justify buying it and what you guys think about the new features particularly in terms of the Smart steering system.