Luigi’s death stare: are you enjoying Mario Kart 8?

New weapons, new courses, end-of-race highlights and an ice-cold Luigi. How are you finding Mario Kart 8?

Mario Kart 8 has been out in the UK for a few weeks now, leading to a large increase in sales for the Wii U console. It’s even seen the birth of its own meme: the Luigi death stare, a celebration of the lesser-heralded Mario brother’s ice-cold reaction to the administration of shell-based justice.

I spent the weekend getting to grips with the latest Mario Kart iteration, sunny weather eschewed in favour of relentless four-player action.

Early impressions are positive. The karts drive, glide and slide like a dream, and as our review points out, the new weapons are a satisfying addition. And there are little pleasing tweaks that make logical sense: if you plunge off the course into a cute ravine, lakitu returns you to the track much more efficiently than before, power-up boxes reappear a touch more quickly, and there is now a means of combatting the blue shell. At last.