If you’re looking for a fun way to experience Mario Kart 8 with your friends, you’ll be able to enjoy plenty of different multiplayer modes. If you’re looking to showcase your racing skills or take it to the streets in an epic battle, you’ll find plenty of ways to keep yourself busy, especially with all of the new tracks being added into the game with the help of the Booster Course Pack.

However, if you’re browsing through the menus before you start up a championship race with your friends, you may have come across the option to turn on Frantic Items, rather than having your standard weapons and power-ups. What does this do for you, and what can you expect? Let’s dive in and see if you need to turn on Frantic Items for your next race!

Frantic Items In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – What Are They?

If you’re looking to get into some chaos, Frantic Items is one of the best ways to do this. Normally, as you play Mario Kart, you’ll notice that if you’re at the front of the pack, you’ll get stuck with fairly normal items, such as Coins, Bananas, or Shells. However, with Frantic Items turned on, it’s anyone’s game, as you’ll be able to claim just about any item, no matter what place you’re in.

If you want to extend your lead in the first place, you may start getting Stars and Mushrooms, or even a Bullet Bill if you’re lucky enough. Anything goes in this mode, allowing anyone to get anything, no matter where they are. If you’re falling behind, expect to get the best weapons and items around, as well, so you’ll have an even better chance than ever to get back into the race, and steal the victory away from whoever is pulling away from you.

Even if you’re right behind the leader, there’s a high chance of you getting something like a Blue Shell, which can completely change the tide of a race quickly, so you’ll always need to be on your toes if you’re leading. This makes the already chaotic Mario Kart Multiplayer even more insane as well as making for some incredibly memorable races. Give this mode a try if you’re tired of always winning, or coming so close to it to change the tide, no matter your skill level.

If you love everything about this game, make sure that you’re checking out our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Guide Section, where you’ll be able to find out if the Booster Course DLC is worth your time and money, how to access these new tracks if you purchase it, and which tracks we hope to see make it into the DLC.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available now on Nintendo Switch.

Playing with friends in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Switch is proving to be quite difficult for those that purchased the game.  It’s not a great look for a game where one of the major draws is multiplayer and for a company who has plans to roll-out a paid for subscription service for online play.

Nintendo hasn’t yet addressed the issue, but some players have taken it upon themselves to find a work around that allows them to play with their friends in Mario Kart 8 and it’s a frustratingly complex process for a thing that should be seamless when you think how long online multiplayer on consoles has been a thing.

Regardless, here’s the method that some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe players have been using to play with their friends (via Reddit).

Of your group of friends that want to play together you need to have one of those people join a race.  You won’t be able to immediately join your friend, as the game will give you an error.  However, after they play a race and go into the next voting portion, the game will allow you to join that friend as a spectator for the next race.  After that race is over, you should be able to join your friend to play.

Yes, this is a completely ridiculous way to join friends in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but with so many people wanting to do so and not being able to, this seems like one of the only ways to do it at this point.  The unfortunate part about this is that many who purchased the game are getting communication errors on the Switch, or that the target device cannot accept more connection in both the new Battle Mode and in Versus mode.

Hopefully Nintendo does get these multiplayer issues fixed as they’ve got another big multiplayer-centric title on the way for the Switch with Splatoon.  If these issues persist, it could deter Switch owners from signing up from their premium subscription as well.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the latest entry in the long running series and is the first re-release in that time. As a result, a majority of the content is unlocked from the get go, though vehicle parts are not. Not all of these are unlocked simply by collecting coins, so we’re here to tell you about one in particular, the Gold Glider.

Gliders are a relatively new addition to the Mario Kart franchise, making their debut in Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. Gliders allow you to do just as you’d assume, glide after going off the right types of ramps. Mario Kart 8 utilized them as well, which meant Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did as well.

The Gold Glider was one of the most time consuming unlockables in Mario Kart 8, but thankfully that has been fixed a little bit here.

In Mario Kart 8, unlocking the Gold Glider required you to collect 10,000 coins, which took a very long time. Considering the other unlockables top out at much lower coin totals, this took a crazy amount of time after getting everything else.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fixes this major problem by making it nowhere near as time consuming. Instead of the 10,000 coins needed prior though, you will only need to collect 5,000 coins in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to unlock this very rare vehicle part.

Getting the Gold Glider is going to take awhile, so you might as well work towards it while unlocking the other Gold items. We have explained just how to get those in other guides, as well as explained how to get Gold Mario that would be a great fit inside. Needless to say, you’re going to have a lot of work before you to unlock all of the Gold related items on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but at least you’re going to be having a ton of fun while doing so.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe arrived at the end of last week and unlike its Wii U counterpart, there really isn’t all that much to unlock. All but one character is available and all tracks are unlocked from the start, but the vehicle parts still require some work. While some are just unlocked by outright collecting coins, a few require specific conditions, including the Gold Tires.

One element that has started to become tradition in Mario Kart is the series of gold vehicle parts. We already told you in another guide how to unlock the Gold Standard Vehicle itself, but the Gold Tires in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are even more difficult.

Rather than having to compete in Grand Prix races that are reliant on luck with items a lot of the time, getting the Gold Tires is done through Time Trials.

Time Trials allows you to just take on a track and see how fast you can finish it in with only being given three Mushrooms to help as boosts. However, you can also choose to challenge a Ghost, which is taken from the game’s staff times. This has you racing against a literal ghost version of that staff member’s chosen character.

To unlock the Gold Tires, you have quite a tall task ahead of you. You must complete the Time Trials for each of the game’s 48 tracks, which are set to be done at 150cc.

Beating these Staff Ghosts in these Time Trials is incredibly tough and will require precision and perhaps even some dumb luck. Your best bet is to keep an eye on any shortcuts that the ghost is taking, as well as see how they are taking specific corners to get an idea of how to get the best time.

After beating the final Staff Ghost, you should be rewarded with the Gold Tires, which will go right along with the Gold Standard Kart and the Gold Glider.

Mario Kart 8 had its fair share of unlockables when it released on Wii U three years ago, but the new version known as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch has changed that. Rather than having much of the character roster and cups need to be unlocked, they are all available from the start. However, what is the same as the original are the unlockable vehicle parts, with a few having specific unlocks.

The majority of the vehicle unlocks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are done by collecting coins that then lead to unlocks. Like the method to unlock Gold Mario though as we told you about in another guide, you’re going to have to complete a series of different challenges to get the sought after Gold Standard Kart.

The Gold Standard Kart makes its return in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and is definitely one of the tougher items to unlock in the game. To unlock the Gold Standard Kart, you will need to play through each of the 12 cups under Mirror Mode. Just playing through these won’t be enough though, as you need to finish each with at least a 1 star rating.

Thankfully, getting three stars is not a requirement, as that would be even tougher, but here you just have to come in first place in each of the 12 cups overall, while also securing a 1 star rating. Getting in first place should hopefully be enough to get you the one star rating, but in the chance it doesn’t, make sure to replay it until you do so.

Also, if you finish the last cup and get an unlock that isn’t the Gold Standard Kart, that just means that you received a standard unlock for reaching a certain level of coins in the game. All you have to do is compete again and after finishing that cup, you should get the Gold Standard Kart.

Mario Kart has been one of Nintendo’s most iconic series since its debut on Super Nintendo and still today is every bit as fun, the latest release coming on the Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. With up to 12 racers per race, keeping up with where your opponents are in relation to you is something that you would typically want available, but having a mini-map with that information can also be a bit distracting, making some people want to turn it off.

For those that want to turn off the map for whatever the reason, you can do so rather easily. This isn’t something you can do from within the pre-race menu or anything, but rather you have to do it from during the race itself from the pause menu. As you may have noticed in the past though, you cannot pause the game prior to the start of a race, so you will have to wait until after you get going before you can access the menu.

At the point where you can actually pause after the start of the race, do so and then look at the screen. You will notice in the bottom right corner of the box with information in it that it has an icon that says “Map On” with an X also there. This means you simply have to press X while in the pause menu and it will turn the map off. If you want to turn it back on, all you have to do is simply hit the X button again.

The good news for those that do not like having the map turned on, you will not have to turn it back off again if you leave it off. If you exit out and start a new race, the default will have it off at that point. It is a little annoying that there’s no pre-race option, but at least it will save your previous setting choice.

While turning off the mini-map works just fine in modes like Grand Prix, this is not the case in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s revamped Battle Mode. The mini-map is so important in that mode that you cannot disable it, which does make sense.

Mario Kart 8 was already a fantastic game when it released on the Wii U three years ago, but there were still a few features that were missing or could be improved. One of those was being limited to just holding one item at a time, which has not been adjusted in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch.

One of the biggest aspects of Mario Kart as a series is the ability to run into item boxes and acquire an array of different items that are mostly dependent on what place you are in. Mario Kart: Double Dash for GameCube switched up the formula a bit by allowing you to have two racers in your kart, which also mean each having an item.

While the idea of two racers has not returned in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the ability to have two items has. Throughout any race, you are able to get items through one of two methods. You can get two separate single item boxes individually or you can get two at one time with the returning double item box.

In Double Dash, you had the ability to switch between your two racers, which in turn meant you could switch between the two items you have. This mean you could use a mushroom in your second item slot and then save a red shell for just the right time in the first. This is something that you would have hoped could have been carried over into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with the return of two items, but sadly that is not the case.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, if you want to use the item in your second item slot, you will have to use the item in slot number one first. The only difference in this is if you have the boomerang item. By throwing the boomerang, it will technically leave your items for a second and move the secondary item to the primary spot. You can then use that other item, which would cause the boomerang to go back to the first spot again. Otherwise, there isn’t a way of switching your items in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sadly.

Mario Kart has always had various methods of getting ahead of your opponents in a race, whether these are via shortcuts, items, or even other methods that require more know how and precision. One of these in particular is the game’s boost system during each race that is absolutely necessary to master to finish in 1st place in the higher level difficulties.

We have already explained in another guide about getting a boost at the start of a race, which obviously can help you get that jump you need at the beginning. However, learning how to get turbo boosts effectively throughout the race is even more important, which is done through drifting.

For anyone that has played the Mario Kart series over the years, you should know what drifting is, even when it was known as powersliding in the past. This is a method of getting around curves without losing the speed you would have lost by turning otherwise. This is very helpful for cutting the tighter corners and avoiding ramming into the side wall, but it can also also help you in other ways as well.

Whenever you are about to go around any sort of curve, no matter how small, start to hold down the R button as you make your kart start to curve. You still need to control this, which can take a little practice, and the longer you hold the drift, the better boost you will get.

The first level is shown by blue sparks and will give you a little boost upon letting go of R, as long as you don’t run into something before doing so. Holding on longer will give you a second level boost that is shown by orange sparks. New to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a third level as well that is signified by pink sparks, which provides the biggest boost of the group.

Drifting is a vital piece of the puzzle for those looking to compete in the highest level difficulties and online as well. If you are playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe correctly, you should be drifting as much as possible to take advantage of these boosts.

Ever since Mario Kart hit the Wii it has had motion controls as a central part of the gameplay. Some players love it, some hate it, but there’s no doubt that those who enjoy it always want to use it. For the latest game on Switch motion controls are off by default. Here’s our guide for how to turn motion controls on in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Much like how you turn Smart Steering on and off in the kart selection screen, you can do the same for motion controls in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Before you start a race you can pull up the stats menu while selecting the parts of your kart. On the bottom left will be the icon for motion controls, which you can turn on or off by hitting the Y button.

You can do the same thing during a race. Just hit Plus to open the menu and then hit Y to turn motion controls on or off, depending on what you want for the race.

Motion controls in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe work great, though they’ll never be as quick and precise as standard controllers. This even includes the Joy-Con, which work quite well at controlling the game. It’s also rather jarring to use motion controls when playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in handheld mode on the Switch, with the screen constantly in motion.

Still, if you’re a motion control fan then you need to know how to turn it on, so hopefully this guide was helpful. And if you hate them, then at least you know what to do the next time your young relatives are visiting and demand that they be able to control their kart with motion controls. Telling them to shut up and use the Switch Pro Controller like an adult didn’t go well for me last time.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is like the Wii U original in almost every way, except that it has a whole lot more. More racers and more tracks thanks to the included DLC, and some more gameplay mechanics, like the new feather weapon. Along with these changes and additions came some behind the scenes stuff, like auto-steer, otherwise known as Smart Steering, which keeps players locked to the tracks, unable to fall off the sides. Sure, this is great for younger players, or on the insane 200cc, but veterans will want this feature off. Here’s a quick guide on how to turn auto-steer on and off in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

To turn auto-steer either on or off in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe you need to be in the kart selection menu. No matter what mode you’re playing, get here and hit either Plus or Minus to bring up the stat page. This is where you can see detailed info about your kart, including its speed, handling, and whether you have auto-steer turned on. To toggle it either on or off just hit the L button. You’ll see the auto-steer icon change to either solid, or have an X over it. The latter means it’s off.

If you’ve already started a race then you can turn Smart Steering off by hitting Plus to open the menu. Now just hit L to toggle the feature on and off as you need to.

If you can’t tell whether auto-steer is on or off just look at your kart. If it has a big antenna sticking out of the back then it is on. What this means is that your kart will be unable to fall off the sides. You can still jump, but no matter what you’ll be guided back onto the track. This can help inexperienced players, as they won’t fall to their doom so much.

However, for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe pros it can actually be a detriment. Most high skill strategies involve going off the track for some reason, such as when using the glider. Being forced back on when you’re not expecting it can be a huge problem. So, be sure to check whether it’s on or not and use this guide to toggle it to what you want.

The Mario Kart series has likely been the cause of the ending of some friendships over the years with the brutal competition it provides. Perhaps the most frustrating moment in all of Mario Kart is the Blue Shell, the bane of the person in first place’s existence. While it may seem invincible, there are actually two ways to make it out unscathed from an encounter with the Blue Shell in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The Blue Shell item has long been a way of keeping the races balanced by having someone between further back in the pack acquiring the item and then being able to throw it to where is instantly darts towards the person in first place. The shell then causes a big explosion, often taking out multiple racers.

While this can help those further back in the race, it has always been unfair how broken the Blue Shell is for the person who has earned first place otherwise and is the only one getting punished for it without no way to stop it. Thankfully, there is now a way to do so.

The following tactics carry over from Mario Kart 8 on Wii U as well, but it’s worth talking about them again with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe out for the Switch. First of all, Mario Kart 8 introduced a new item called the Super Horn, which is a red cube with a horn on top of it. This item is typically given to someone in the first few spots and can be used in two different ways.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Super Horn can be used as an offensive weapon by activating it when nearby other racers, where the shockwaves will cause them to spin out. The most common method you’ll end up saving it for though is to protect yourself. As long as you don’t lose it from a Lightning item or the Boo item, it’s wise to hold onto this item in first place one you get it, especially since you rarely get anything besides a Coin, Banana, or Green Shell when in first.

You will definitely see a Blue Shell coming as it will show up on the mini-map, but even if you don’t notice until it’s right on you, wait until it’s right above you and is about to crash down. At this point activate the item and it will destroy the Blue Shell and prevent any damage to you. In addition, this can be used on other items like the Red Shell, so feel free to use it when a Red Shell is coming near the finish line as well.

The other method of avoiding a Blue Shell is going to be a little more difficult and needs even more precise timing. This one involves you having a Mushroom item in your possession. Similar to how you activate the Super Horn just when the Blue Shell is about to crash down on you, you will instead activate the Mushroom to get a big boost and narrowly escape the Blue Shell explosion. Make sure you do it when it’s about to hit you, because it will continue to follow you after you speed away otherwise.

Mario Kart 8 originally released for Wii U back in 2014 and received rave reviews, but there were a lot of people that missed out on the game entirely due to not having a Wii U. That is why Nintendo wisely decided to re-release the game for the Nintendo Switch and with that mostly comes the same game with a few additions. This original game has many features that have lasted all throughout the franchise and one of those is boosting at the start of races.

The lower level difficulties such as 50cc and 100cc in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are not that bad and allow you to mess up and be able to recover pretty easily. However, the higher difficulties, especially 200cc give you no margin for error whatsoever. This also means you will need to take advantage of anything that is given to you and getting an extra boost at the start can be a help.

At the start of every race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a Lakitu will pop up with a traffic light and start a countdown of 3, 2, 1, before the go. What you may notice though is that some racers have managed to get an extra boost at the start while others may have a backfire and get left behind for a second. Like most things in Mario Kart, this all involves timing.

When Lakitu starts counting down, do not hold down the gas quite yet. Keep a close eye on the number and wait for the 2 to show up. Don’t start accelerating yet, but wait until the point right before you can assume the 2 is about to start fading away. Start holding down the A button, or whichever it is on the way you’re holding the controller, and you should get a boost right at the start that depends on how high your acceleration rank is on your vehicle.

This is something you’ll have to practice multiple times to get it right, and it’s not something you’ll probably even pull off correctly after you know exactly what you’re doing. It can be frustrating when you don’t get the boost, but it’s much better not to get one than to backfire by holding down on the gas too early, so be very careful when trying this out in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Unlocking items has mostly taken a backseat as a whole in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with the game already coming with most racers and all tracks unlocked from the very beginning. However, as we told you in another guide, the way to unlock new vehicle parts is with coins and we have a way you can easily farm coins without doing much work at all.

One of the new features in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is that of Smart Steering, which makes the game easier for people to play if they want to have it turned on, which essentially pushes the kart towards the track when it gets too close to the edge. In fact, you can actually perform well or even actually win if you pair this with the auto acceleration feature.

For an easy method to farm coins when you don’t want to just sit there and play constantly, you can go to Grand Prix and select 50cc. Simply pick the Mushroom Cup since that one is the easiest and when you get to the vehicle selection area, make sure to press the minus button to pull up not only the stats window, but also the options.

By default, Smart Steering is turned on, so those that are not a fan of it can disable it. For the purposes of this trick though, make sure it is turned on. In addition, make sure to press R to turn on auto-acceleration if you do not have it on already.

By turning both of these on, the race will start and you can basically be a spectator while getting other stuff done. By having these two on, your racer should finish in the top few spots most every time. The only thing is that you will have to press buttons between races to advance to the next, so don’t plan on leaving this going why you leave the house, unless you find something that can constantly press the A button for you.

This definitely isn’t the way that Nintendo intended this to be used, but it can help to prevent grinding if you are adamant against doing it again after doing it in the Wii U version. Just be warned that it’s not always a guarantee that this will rack up tons of coins, as it’s possible you could be hit by items near the end that would lower your total.

If you’re looking for a more legitimate way, your best bet is to just keep running the shortest courses, which likely are going to be found in the easier cups, and get them that way.

The Mario Kart series has always been about providing varying options of characters and vehicles for players and Mario Kart 8 was no different. While there isn’t much changed in that area in the new release on Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there are still plenty of vehicle parts to unlock while playing the game.

As in the original release on Wii U, and past entries before that as well, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe allows you to choose between three parts of the vehicle before any race that affect stats like speed, weight, and such. These are the kart itself, the tires, and a glider, with you starting off with a few of each to choose from.

In comparison to how the character roster is mostly unlocked outside of one racer from the start, the amount of vehicle parts available is very small, but there are a ton to unlock in the game. There are even more available here than in the original Mario Kart 8 release as well, because the DLC racers, such as the Mercedes ones, are now unlockables instead of being available otherwise.

While that may be different in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the actual unlocking of vehicles is just as it was in the original release on Wii U. For those that are just playing Mario Kart 8 for the first time in this form though, we’ll explain it to you.

Throughout each race, you will see an abundance of coins that you can pick up or obtain as an item, with you able to hold a maximum of 10. Having these in the race are important as they increase your top speed, but how many ever you finish the race with are added to your grand total as well. After a cup, you could potentially have up to 40 at a time, though there’s a chance you’ll get hit by some item before the finish line that will lower that total.

As you earn more coins, you will then start to unlock new vehicle parts, ranging from the different karts, tires, and gliders, which unlock fairly regularly. The more coins you earn, the further apart the unlocks become, but you just need to keep pushing and eventually you’ll get most of them.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is now available and with that comes the question of unlockables in the game. Unlike the release of Mario Kart 8 on Wii U that required you to unlock a lot of different characters, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch dials that back by having almost all of them available from the very start. However, there is one character for you to unlock and we’re here to tell you how to do so.

While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does add a few new characters from the get go in the game, one that you have to unlock is Gold Mario, which is essentially a variation of Metal Mario. But who doesn’t want to race as Mario in his gold form?

Unlocking characters in Mario Kart 8 was pretty simple, but you are going to have to get really good at the game if you want to get Gold Mario in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

To unlock Gold Mario in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, you have to take part in the toughest races in the game, the 200cc. You must play through each of the 12 cups under the 200cc difficulty and you must come in first in each of them to get the first place trophy.

If you can manage to finish in first in each of these races, you will unlock Gold Mario in the game. Rather than get his own character slot though, he just takes the place of Metal Mario on the select screen. This is definitely one of the toughest things to acquire in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so you likely will need a lot of practice before you even think about attempting the 200cc cups. However, if you played a lot of Mario Kart 8 already on the Wii U, you may be able to handle the 200cc cups without much problem.