You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (2024)

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ByJon Martindale

The age-old problem of slinging our controls at the TV when we get blue-shelled on the finish line could end, if only we could play Mario Kart 8 — one of the greatest racing games of all time — with a keyboard instead. Or at least play at a PC desk where everything is that bit more civilized. Well now you can and it’s the latest version of the game, too. Someone actually managed to emulate Mario Kart 8 on the PC.

It’s a work in progress, so don’t expect it to be perfect, but considering just two months ago the menu was barely working, the Cemu Wii U emulator is coming on in leaps and bounds. It’s now able to play Mario Kart 8 levels on the PC. There’s missing effects and you need a pretty powerful rig to get it running smoothly, but hey, look at it. It’s Mario Kart 8 on the PC.

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The most obvious problems are all to do with lighting, but the tracks are there at a decent resolution. The racers are there and they move around the track pretty smoothly. There’s even a skybox with clouds and firework effects.

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And look at how far this has come on in just 0.0.1 version changes. Cemu 1.1.1 hadno track or wall textures and now the game doesn’t look that different from the real deal.

For reference this was running on a PC fitted with an Intel Core-i7 4790K and a GTX 980 graphics card, so something a little more powerful than your average machine. Lower-end systems have struggled to produce the same sort of playable frame rates, but as Kotaku points out, this is all a work in progress.

The Dolphin emulator that makes playing Gamecube and Wii games on the PC possible is still being developed and worked on — it was recently made playable in VR — and improved many years after its initial release. It may be a few more years before Cemu can give us a perfect representation of what Wii U games are like on the PC, but it’s coming.

If you could play any one Wii U game on the PC, what would it be?

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You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (1)

Jon Martindale

Computing Coordinator

Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…

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You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (2)

A new piece of EU regulation is forcing tech companies to make some drastic changes to policy. To stay compliant with the Digital Markets Act, Apple is being forced to adopt RCS for iPhones and Microsoft will now let you uninstall the Edge browser from your Windows 11 PC.

Microsoft published a blog post with all the details on how it will stay compliant, but the biggest change is the ability to uninstall default apps. Edge is chief among them, but you'll also be able to uninstall Camera, Cortana, and Photos. You can even uninstall Bing from Web Search.

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s final DLC brings the series most iconic track

You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (3)

The final wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass launches on November 9, ending the racing game's long line of updates. Wave 6 brings several classic Mario Kart courses to the Switch game, including the long-requested Wii Rainbow Road.

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Play these 3DS and Wii U games before Nintendo shutters their online features

You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (4)

In April 2024, Nintendo will discontinue online services across its Wii U and 3DS consoles. While the eShops for both systems were shut down in March 2023, this will remove the online functionality of many apps and games, making gaming on either of these platforms an almost entirely offline experience. As a result, many games on those systems will lose important features and never be quite the same to play afterward. So, you'll need to get some gaming time in by next April if you want to refresh and preserve the memories of playing online on these two underdog Nintendo platforms.
While the aforementioned eShop closures make it impossible to buy new games digitally, plenty of games that you likely already own physical copies of or already had downloaded have online features that won't work properly come April 2024. As such, we recommend you play the following games online before the discontinuation of those services next year.
Kid Icarus Uprising

Kid Icarus Uprising is mostly remembered for its entertaining story, charismatic characters, and odd controls, but it also features a surprisingly fun multiplayer experience in Together Mode. In multiplayer, up to six players can use powerful weapons and abilities from the main adventure in one of two modes. Free-for-all lets players loose on a map, tasking them with racking up the most kills within a set time limit. Light vs. Dark is more complex, as two teams of three face off until enough players are defeated that one respawns as an angel; when that powered-up angel is killed, the match is over.
While far from balanced, Kid Icarus Uprising's Together Mode is one of the most entertaining competitive multiplayer experiences exclusive to 3DS. It can be played locally, using bots to fill in empty spots, so thankfully it won't stop working entirely. Still, it's not easy in 2023 to come across multiple people near you who have copies of Kid Icarus Uprising and want to play. As such, check out this cult classic 3DS game's hidden gem of a mode before praying that the rumors of a remaster eventually become true.
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You can play Mario Kart 8 on your PC right now | Digital Trends (2024)

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