Mario Kart 8 is one of my favourite games. Honestly the only game I prefer to it is Horizon Zero Dawn. I have played so much Mario Kart 8, it's probably something normies would think I should be embarrassed about but I'm not.

I think the main reason I love it so much is work. The golden age of Mario Kart 8 was lunchtimes at Buffalo around 2015 (oh my god a decade ago) where we used to convene at lunchtime and play for one hour. Five days a week. For a very long time. We clubbed together and bought a WiiU for the office. I have it in a cupboard. I have a WiiU that holds sentimental value to me.

We were so competitive, and I had different brands of competitive with everyone. Max is so effortlessly good at everything and I had to beat him. I didn't. Charlie is a sleeper-killer; the journeyman. Hugo was the only person to join late and persevere losing, to catch up to us. Hugo's willingness to lose and lose, and lose badly, to practice and eventually be able to win is one of the most fundamentally admirable qualities a person could have. When he started to win, I was so proud of him. And totally not in a patronising way. James is probably most like me. He worked his ass off to get as good as he was, and it's tough to lose when you've worked so hard. I loved beating James, because it was like beating myself. We had an intern called Tom who occasionally played with, who used to play Ludwig. We used to call him Ludwig!

200cc dropped when we were playing, and it flipped the entire script. At 150cc you were flat-out around the whole track; your line was what got you the win. But in 200cc, braking is not optional. It adds a brand new dimension to the game, and we learned this together. It was so fun mastering this game as a group; learning from each other. When someone had a breakthrough with the game or a specific track, everyone saw and learned it, and then it became a matter of who could do it more flawlessly. We willingly shared things we figured out because winning with an advantage like that isn't really winning.

Mario Kart World has a lot to live up to, and it's impossible for me to judge it separately to the true joy I experienced playing 8 with friends on a lunchbreak. It's what made me understand that esports are sports.

Nintendo had two choices with World: make it an incremental version of 8, or do something new. Half of me is sad that it's not more 8 (but the most recent DLC tracks for 8 are evidence that that idea is done), and half is happy that there's something new here.

The variety of characters and karts is so much fun. The karts all sound different and handle differently. It's not just inward vs outward drifting. They've somehow reduced the number of variables in kart configuration and increased the variety in how karts feel to drive. There's so many characters, but it's OK I unlocked Rosalina. I'm immune to cow memes; I take this seriously.

The tracks are a little boring, unfortunately, but I did see this coming. World Tour tracks are bland, and the most recent 8 DLC tracks aren't as strong as the ones that precede it. So many tracks have lots of long straights where nothing really happens. Most aren't circuits so there's nothing to really dial in. I think the tracks will be balanced in updates because they're not quite there. At best they're pretty creative, but at their worst they're just boring. The new Baby Park circuit is so fun, though; and I hate Baby Park.

I'm glad there's new Mario Kart, but I had an unreasonable expectation that I would love it like I love 8. The reason I love 8 so much is a group of people who haven't been in a room together for over five years. I would love if Nintendo had made that part of their launch strategy but they were never going to.

Also I won an 8 tournament that made someone say "who invited this kart murderer?!". That's not repeatable.