Chill out bro! It's only 1 point away from "Universal acclaim", what's so bad 'bout dat?

I haven't slept yet and won't sleep until metacritic is 90 or greater.

No. I can't wait for it. 89, 90, 79, 85...just numbers, nothing compared to the fun you can have with a game not everyone likes but everyone likes Mario Kart and it's fun so it couldn't be better (yeah, it could but I hope you know what I mean)

I agree, the reviews may have been higher, however the current ones may be having a postive impact as MK8 did manage to add on another 56k in pre-orders alone (hoping for 350k pre-order total for launch).

I really don't understand why people think MK64 had the best battle mode. You say it has a lot of depth, which is what exactly? Iirc it only has four different arenas, only one mode being Balloon battle, and didn't allow for AI opponents, meaning it was unplayable by yourself, and even when you have people with ya, the max amount of players is only four. MK8's battle mode is pretty much on par with this, except no arenas of course, but you can have AI opponent's, there's online play, and you've got options like teams or setting what items there'll be.

Don't get me wrong, these are all good things but lack of arenas is a pretty big omission.

What MK64 battle mode had going for it was that it did the simple things properly

1. The Arenas: Only a few, but impeccably designed and each requiring precise knowledge of the stages and unique tactics to be successful.

2. Weapon balance: all weapons had their uses both offensively and defensively, even the fake item boxes, that you had to learn and exploit.  The knowledge that if you fired a shell from just the right angle you could circumvent shell or banana defence that someone was employing, or conversely if they saw it coming in time they could change the angle of their drift to counter. Or that if you shot from above, with the right timing, there was no defence.

3. The fact that you only had three balloons: this was key (similar to the fact that stock matches were preferred over timed or other modes for the competitive Melee community), it didn't matter if you lost two balloons in the first five seconds.  If you had the skills and the patience you could camp, claw, hide your way to victory from there, even if it took 10-15 minutes.

On paper it didn't have much, but the interplay of the above elements in the hands of skilled players made it incredibly compelling.  For my mind they could have taken those elements, added a few more fiendishly clever arenas, AI opponent's,  online play, and additional item and team settings and you would have a game I would have bought even if there were no other modes.

Now I fully admit I haven't played MK8 so I'm willing to concede that it may excel with some of these elements but from what I've heard I'm not too hopeful.

1 and 2 can be applied to any MK game's battle mode, and 3 can be seen as a negative. I surely don't find it fun chasing cowards around for 10-15 minutes!

I know that its a Spurge thread, but I have to say, 89% is roughly in line, with what I was expecting.

To all the people, who say it should be downgraded because its not original: true, in some genres, but cart games are more about refinement, then full blow revolution. I am not a fan of MK games, they tend to bore me, but it seems its the perfect game for the target audience, and so it looks like it deserves an 89 average.

No its still a good score and a must have

The only Mariokart game I ever hated was the GBA version and that is the highest rated! Something's not right with this universe.

89 is a little disappointing. 90 or more is the top tier of reviews so to miss that by one point is a bit irritating. Perhaps if there is a patch to improve the game we need to push review sites to re-review the game just to edge it over 90.