On the 16th of October 2020, Nintendo released a new era of Mario Kart that turns your home into a racetrack with unique cardboard gates. You can make the game more interesting by using objects like boxes, plants and more to create new roads and turns.
In Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, you race against Bowser jr. and the Koopalings to compete for victory.
Mario Kart Live includes most of the common features and items you’ll find in most Mario Kart games, however, there’s a few twists and changes to make it work well in its new augmented reality form.
Read through our Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit game review below to learn about this new and exciting game.
Creating The Ultimate Track in Your Living Room
The track choices are endless, making use of what’s around you to create new and interesting race tracks to compete on.
We made a track with objects like boxes, toys, ramps books and essentially anything else we could find in the living room. And after hours upon hours of playing, we can safely say that this new era of Mario Kart, or any type of game, is something to look forward to in the coming years.
Races change the way you see your surroundings.
Some races are set underwater and others have certain obstacles that change the way you see the track. This creates a unique experience as you watch the screen to maneuver the room, whilst the kart races around at your feet.
There are a total of 24 races, each with unique changes and obstacles to look out for.
Items Available in Mario Kart Live
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit has many of your favourite items you know and love found in most Mario Kart games.
The items can also change your speeds, some slowing and even stopping your kart and others giving you a speed boost to help cross over the finish line. This provides a responsive and realistic Mario Kart game experience.
- Mushroom: Providers your kart a speed boost and can be used to speed past your opponents.
- Triple Mushroom: Gives you three speed boosts similar to the single mushroom. These can be used separately at your leisure.
- Golden Mushroom: Lets you use an unlimited amount of speed boosts for a short duration of time.
- Coin: When you get coins from a question block, you receive five extra coins. The more coins you have, the faster your kart moves. Part of the story mode, coins can also get you more kart themes, horn noises, and costumes.
- Banana: When someone hits a banana, they lose control for a short time. You can throw bananas in front and behind your kart holding forward or back on the joystick as you throw.
- Triple Banana: The same effects as the banana, with the ability to throw banana’s three times.
- Red Shell: When thrown, red shells lock on to the kart in front of you, pausing their kart in its place for a short time.
- Blue Shell: Targets the driver in 1st place, hitting that players and those around them, slowing them for a short period.
- Bob-omb: They explode a short time after use or after impact with a kart, stopping that player from moving.
- Blooper: Obscures the vision of karts ahead of you by squirting ink on them.
- Lightning: Slows all karts ahead of you by striking them with lightning and making them lose all of their items.
- Boomerang: Hitting the closest kart will jolt their steering.
- Chain chomp: Goes to the nearest kart and tugs it in different directions. While it providers a speed boost, it can make controlling your kart a bit more difficult.
- Bullet Bill: Transforms your kart into a bullet bill for a short time, that steers you along the course and halts all karts you hit on the way.
- Super Star: You become invincible and your kart speed increases for a short time. Also, hitting another player halts their speed shortly.
A Note About Multi-Player
One of the downsides of the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is that if you wanted to have two Karts, you would need two Nintendo Switches. You’ll also need to purchase two copies of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit to play multiplayer.
