20 Essential Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

13. Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8 Airplane Screenshot
Nintendo

Party games have their detractors, but Nintendo still defy any group of friends to pick up controllers for a Mario Kart game and not have the best few minutes of their entire lives.

The eighth instalment in one of gaming's most successful franchises, Mario Kart has delighted and infuriated players from the first SNES edition right up to last year's WiiU release.

Taking an idea as simple as racing go-karts, Mario Kart's addition of hazards, pick-ups, ingenious level design, and huge array of playing options makes it an impossibly enjoyable experience for players of all ages and abilities.

 
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Managing Editor

WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine