I have a friend who has a Wii U. Since I've had a few MarioKart 64 tourneys in the past, he decided to invite me to a Mario Kart 8 tournament he had hosted this past weekend. I've played every version of Mario Kart except for the DS and 3DS games and, after a whole night, can come up with some legit pros and cons for it.
PROS
--The graphics. Considering I normally play Mario Kart on a 64, I think my "wow" factor was to be expected. Still, they look great.
--The music. I was a little disappointed in the Game Cube and Wii versions in terms of music (in general, some songs were good). Sure, it sounds a little bit like Wheel of Fortune music in the Wii U version, but it's still pretty good.
--The new item where it gives you one of everything is pretty neat.
--The fact you can use almost anything to control it is nice for those of us who have preferences. My buddy had practically every controller Nintendo has made in recent memory sitting out for us to choose from. Interestingly, nobody picked the wheels.
--Lots of kart customization options. It was honestly a little overwhelming at first!!
--Coins are back. It feels like SNES all over again.
CONS
--Maybe I'm going to be in the minority here, but there are way too many characters for my liking. 12 would have been more than adequate. Why do we really need a baby version of everyone, and how do these babies exist alongside their grown-up versions anyway? (I would have narrowed the roster down to Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Toad, Koopa Troopa, Bowser, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, and a Goomba--they really need to get one into a game sometime!)
--No fake item boxes!! Seriously, these were a classic item, even if N64 didn't have them.
--Not sure if maybe it's just me getting older, but it seems the computer got better on every lap. I'd be out in 1st or 2nd for the first lap or two, but then I'd always fall to 3rd/4th even with the computer on easy on the final lap.
--Only one SNES track. It's a good one though!!