In a more limited apartment setting, things didn’t work as well. If a connection error did happen, it was only a few moments of lag or jumbled images and the kart would continue on its way.
I didn’t have many connection errors, though it did perform best if I was in handheld mode and sort of following the kart around the course, and I was able to actually win races. There was no shagginess to the carpeting, so it was flat, level, and allowed me to make one course that was a large oval and another that was a figure 8 in the living room. One was an ordinary home that was primarily carpeted. I tested Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit in two situations. Getting set up is rather effortless.īut, the game also very often reminds you of its limitations. It was easy to pair, since it involves pointing the kart at a screen or system to read a QR code. (200cc is wild in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit-I didn’t expect it to be so fast.) The main screen always shows your battery life, represented by a little gas pump, and the current connection between the system and kart. The optional Assist Mode will keep your premade track in mind and help with driving, which is especially handy on 150cc and 200cc. You can set the radio station as you drive, with lots of Mario Kart music available. There are a number of little niceties that help make it entertaining. Essentially, you go through the eight Cups, each with three tracks, in Grand Prix, go for a top time in Time Trials, race once on your Custom Course, or drive around your home in an Explore mode. Collecting coins gets you customization items like costumes for Mario and Luigi, different karts, and different horns. Power ups, like shells, coins, bananas, and Bullet Bills are available. 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and 200cc speeds are available, with latter ones unlocked as you succeed. They are now your virtual competitors for races, with four randomly showing up for each one when you go against AI opponents in Grand Prix or Custom Race. (You also have two AR arrow pieces, to add for extra ambiance.) After you set up your first course and run it to get the pattern and confirm you can drive the virtual car, Bowser Jr. In the tutorial, Lakitu walks through crafting your first track, which involves placing gates 1, 2, 3, and 4 in places around your home and initially driving through them in order to create the layout. Mario (or Luigi, depending on which version you get) is off to the races. The core gameplay is similar to all the Mario Kart games you have known and loved before.
So the course you see on-screen adds augmented reality elements that implement things from your home, themes from different courses, Koopaling enemies, power-ups, and music from the series into tracks. The more complicated take is that it lets you, within reason, turn an indoor space into an actual Mario Kart race track. The short explanation is, it turns the Switch into a controller for a remote control car with a camera on it that can be used in free-roaming and a game mode. Now, we have Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and yet another delightful, albeit not entirely perfect, experience.īefore we can get into how Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit plays (like Mario Kart) and works (surprisingly well, in the right circumstances), this is the sort of item that really needs to be explained. Like the last reach was the Labo line of toys, which led to pianos, robot costumes, and VR experiences. Ultimate with DK Bongos.) Since the Nintendo Switch is its newest darling, that means more experimental stuff. (That leads to things like people playing Dark Souls and Super Smash Bros. Which gives us stuff like the Power Glove, R.O.B., the eReader, and the DK Bongos. Like this is a company that gets wild sometimes. Know what’s fun? When Nintendo decides to do something crazy.