‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ For Nintendo Switch Sets Record-Breaking Sales For The Franchise
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was released on April 28, 2017, and sold 459,000 copies of the game, in both physical and digital formats, on launch day, making it the fastest-selling Mario Kart game in Nintendo’s history.
Mario Kart has been giving players an opportunity to race against their friends and family members for generations. The very first Mario Kart game was Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1992. It was one of the first kart-racing games on the market, and it had a split-screen mode so that two people could play at once. According to Venture Beat, which details the history of the Mario Kart franchise, the racing roster for the first game only included a handful of characters to play as. In the first game, players could race as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Toad, Koopa Troopa, and Donkey Kong Jr. Unlike other racing games at the time, Super Mario Kart was not simply a matter of how well players handled their karts, but it introduced items, such as banana peels and the infamous homing shells, that players could use to trip up their opponents and try to speed their way into first place.
Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch, the company’s newest console, earlier this year in March. Despite the limited number of games available, Nintendo has sold over 2.7 million consoles worldwide, according to Gamespot. The Gamespot article also states that Nintendo has had to ship some Nintendo Switch consoles by air just to meet the high demand.
Although the Nintendo Switch does offer some very interesting games, such as 1-2-Switch and Snipperclips, the game that fans were most looking forward to playing was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild is an expansive, open-world style Zelda game that is unlike any other Zelda game to date. Instead of finding unique weapons in dungeons that are meant to be explored in a particular order, Breath of the Wild allows players to pick up weapons from various different places, and dungeons can be completed in practically any order. Breath of the Wild still holds the charm that fans of the franchise have come to love, and it follows the traditional Zelda formula of having the legendary hero Link save the world and Princess Zelda from the ancient evil, but it does it in such a fresh and new way that it some come to consider Breath of the Wild the be the best Zelda game. It is certainly the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, outselling the Nintendo Switch console itself, according to Polygon.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a welcome addition to the Mario Kart and Nintendo Switch families. Although Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is not an original game, but rather an expansion on Mario Kart 8 that was released on the Nintendo Wii U, its popularity is proof that none of that matters to fans of the game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has what every Mario Kart player wants in a Mario Kart game, including popular tracks like Rainbow Road, a multitude of characters to choose from, and an enhanced battle mode. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also comes equipped with all of the courses and race cups already available, without players needing to unlock them.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has outsold its predecessor Mario Kart 8, which has sold a total of 8.31 million copies since its release nearly three years ago, and has surpassed the previous Mario Kart record holder, Mario Kart Wii from 2008, which sold 433,900 copies on its launch day, according to The Verge. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a game well worth buying a Nintendo Switch for.
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