| Attack of the Fanboy |
Kyle Hanson |
3.5 / 5 stars |
10-20-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a gleefully successful experiment for Nintendo and Velan Studios…though some minor elements hold it back from exceeding expectations. |
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| Cerealkillerz |
Gabriel Bogdan |
7.5 / 10 |
10-21-2020 |
Nintendo earns a plus point for creativity with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit but the technical and gameplay limitations are shown a lot sooner than expected. If you have a extensive amount of free space in your apartment and good wifi you’ll get some fun hours out of this innovative package. |
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| Cheat Code Central |
Jenni Lada |
4 / 5 stars |
10-20-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit feels like a technology and toy that can work in the right conditions. |
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| Checkpoint Gaming |
Luke Mitchell |
7 / 10 |
10-21-2020 |
It’s interesting and innovative for sure, but what it brings in terms of magic and child-like wonderment, it loses something in the repetitive nature of each course being in the same space of your house over and over. While kids may be stoked to let their imagination run wild with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, I think most adults will enjoy the novelty for a few races, show their friends and family, but ultimately go back to the more feature-packed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The question is, beyond the real-world factors of space to play, how much are you willing to pay for that Nintendo Magic? |
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| COGconnected |
Alex Everatt |
70 / 100 |
10-22-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a unique experience that is really impressive at first glance. I enjoyed putting the courses together and exploring the variety of Grand Prix’s, but after a while, the experience does lose its charm much faster than normal Mario Kart experiences. I think this is in part due to the fact that there really is only so many ways I can set up four gates in my living room, the game gets stale because my ideas get stale. Some of the in-game obstacles that impact your RC cars steering, like the Chain-Chomp power-up and the high winds, often caused me to crash into living room objects or knock the gates out of place. This was incredibly annoying and really ruins the experience more than a badly timed Blue Shell. Moreover, the cost to play multiplayer is way too steep, keeping this ultimately a single-player experience for most families. While there is a nice amount of variety in courses, there really isn’t much to do after you master the 200cc difficulty – assuming you haven’t lost interest long before then. |
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| Critical Hit |
Darryn Bonthuys |
8 / 10 |
10-19-2020 |
Hindered or enhanced by your imagination, Nintendo’s latest mad project is still a well-designed and madly charming new entry in its beloved karting franchise. |
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| Cubed3 |
Jorge Ba-oh |
8 / 10 |
10-18-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is immersive, addictive and refreshingly fun |
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| Daily Mirror |
James Ide |
4 / 5 stars |
10-21-2020 |
It’s one of the best applications of AR I’ve got my hands on and features some impressive tech. The kart is a joy to drive and responds as closely to the game as physically possible, with multiplayer adding even more fun into the mix. |
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| Daily Star |
Tom Hutchison |
4 / 5 stars |
10-18-2020 |
Overall, I came away feeling like I did when I first played tennis on the original Nintendo Wii console years ago. That feeling of something genuinely evolutionary when we were able to play with motion controls for the first time agains nan on Christmas day. And I suspect this Christmas, there will be many game fans trying this out for the first time and really getting a kick out of the use of augmented reality in a familiar family-friendly race game. It’s not perfect, it feels like the start of a new genre rather than the definitive conquering of one. |
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| DASHGAMER.com |
Dan Rizzo |
8.5 / 10 |
10-24-2020 |
A myriad of discernible properties that could be attached in waves of unimaginable facets, would deliver concepts unseen within this great medium. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is an essential for Switch owners who love the Super Mario franchise itself, and a must have for Mario Kart mainstays. |
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| Digital Trends |
Tom Caswell |
3 / 5 stars |
10-14-2020 |
At its core, there’s a solid Mario Kart game here, and I hope the environmental and gate effects are brought over to the main series for the proper ninth installment, as I think those additions could add something to the franchise. |
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| Eurogamer |
Martin Robinson |
Not Recommended |
10-21-2020 |
There’s real magic at the heart of this brilliantly faithful AR take on Mario Kart, but a fair few caveats abound. |
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| Game Informer |
Brian Shea |
7.5 / 10 |
10-14-2020 |
While it doesn’t deliver a flawless performance, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a novel concept that provides a unique twist to the well-established racing experience |
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| Gameblog |
Alix Dulac |
6 / 10 |
10-30-2020 |
If Mario Kart Live Home Circuit plays well and feels fresh it also has some awkward limitations. First, the connection between the kart and your Switch is too short. Then, if you live in a small flat, it’s complicated. Finally, if you plan to play with other people, you have to buy another complete set, as there are no individual karts for sale. |
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| GameSpot |
Steve Watts |
7 / 10 |
10-14-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is Nintendo at its toyetic peak, with a magical AR effect that nonetheless requires some elbow grease to find the fun. |
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| GamesRadar+ |
Tabitha Baker |
4.5 / 5 stars |
10-23-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit brings back that sense of wonder we all felt when we cracked open our first video game and realised there was another world behind the screen. Only now that other world is in our living rooms. |
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| GameXplain |
GameXplain |
Recommended |
10-14-2020 |
Video Review |
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| God is a Geek |
Adam Cook |
8 / 10 |
10-21-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit feels like magic. It’s expensive to play multiplayer, but if your imagination (and house) is big enough, there’s plenty of fun on offer. |
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| GotGame |
David Poole |
7.5 / 10 |
10-25-2020 |
If you can manage to find one, it should make for a fun gift for this holiday season. Even with some shortcomings, this is yet another innovative experience from the minds at Nintendo. With nearly endless options on courses and a cool use of technology, I look forward to seeing what some players come up with. As a game it might be somewhat lacking, but as a toy, this is surely going to be a hit. |
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| GRYOnline.pl |
Adam Zechenter |
6 / 10 |
11-02-2020 |
It’s an expensive gadget that becomes boring quickly, but I appreciate the risk Nintendo takes. Mari Kart Live is far from perfect, but in a few years… Maybe we’re witnessing the birth of a new type of toy? As many innovations before, there are problems in the beginning. |
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| Hobby Consolas |
David Martinez |
Recommended |
10-14-2020 |
Live Home Circuit is a great combination between a toy (a radio controlled kart) and an augmented reality game for Nintendo Switch, with some creative additions in the way we design each circuit. |
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| IGN |
Janet Garcia |
7 / 10 |
10-14-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit’s course creation and in-game tracks are a blast held back by some key limitations. |
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| Impulsegamer |
Tony Smith |
4.4 / 5 stars |
10-25-2020 |
Mario Kart Live Home Circuit is fun, fun and more fun! Again, there’s so much fun to be found in this game plus lot of track creating. However the game feels like you’re racing in a virtual Mario Kart title but in the real-world and if you’re looking for a game with some escapism to draw you in, Mario Kart Live Home is indeed that game. |
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| Kotaku |
Ash Parrish |
Recommended |
10-14-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is the natural extension of Nintendo’s penchant for unique peripherals, from the Zapper and Power Pad of the ‘80s to the Wii’s endless assortment of plastic junk (for which the planet may never forgive us). A couple years ago Nintendo smartened up with the more environmentally friendly cardboard Labo kits, which enjoyed only passing popularity. |
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| Metro GameCentral |
Unknown |
7 / 10 |
10-20-2020 |
A wonderfully inventive attempt to bring Mario Kart into the real world, whose mere premise is enough to amuse and delight, despite some unavoidable practical limitations. |
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| Nintendo Life |
Damien McFerran |
8 / 10 |
10-14-2020 |
We can’t deliver our final verdict on Mario Kart Live until we’ve fully explored its multiplayer potential with a second RC car, but what we can say at this stage is that this is a startlingly authentic “mixed reality” recreation of Nintendo’s most popular racing series which encourages you to be inventive with your course designs and does an excellent job of combining your real world surroundings with the fantasy environments of the Mushroom Kingdom. The tech side of things is undeniably impressive and it’s impossible to not raise a smile the first time you play; the question is how long that magic will last, especially if your home limits your track designs and you’ve only got the budget to cover the cost of a single car. |
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| NintendoWorldReport |
Jordan Rudek |
7 / 10 |
10-30-2020 |
There may be just as many, though, that open up the box and begin setting up the game only to find that their home just isn’t a great fit or they don’t have others around to enjoy it with. Without question, its novelty is charming and it makes a stellar first impression, but the experience can start to seem shallow the more and more laps you make around the track. If you have a good amount of space and flexibility where you can play, Mario Kart Live is a neat and well-functioning toy, but diehard Kart fans are likely to be left in the dust not long after the race begins. |
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| Player2.net.au |
Dylan Burns |
Recommended |
10-28-2020 |
There’s an undeniable thrill in exploring your house from a lowered viewpoint and while the racing itself is nothing new, the versatility of the experience means you don’t even have to pull out the gates to have a bit of fun or to give the kids a novel distraction. |
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| Polygon |
Ben Kuchera |
Recommended |
10-14-2020 |
From racing against the computer to taking on friends with their own karts to designing the perfect track to just exploring your place through the eyes of a tiny, kart-racing Mario, this is a toy in the best way: a portal to inventive, constantly changing play that’s fun no matter how you decide to interact with the platform. Your home is now Mario’s own set of challenges and opportunities, and that’s a jump I did not expect from the Mario Kart franchise. |
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| Post Arcade (National Post) |
Chad Sapieha |
6.5 / 10 |
10-22-2020 |
Nintendo’s augmented reality kart racer – which involves a miniature kart – works better as a creative toy than a traditional racing game |
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| Press Start |
Shannon Grixti |
8.5 / 10 |
10-15-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit provides a fresh and unique gaming experience, which feels hard to come by these days. The kart is cleverly designed and well put together, responding to every precise movement. Whilst the core gameplay might get a little repetitive, the technology has a bright future, and it’s guaranteed to provide fun for the whole family. |
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| Rice Digital |
Isaac Todd |
3 / 5 stars |
10-22-2020 |
While the tech used for Mario Kart Live is undeniably impressive, most people will get more out of the £100 required to play it by getting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a few years of Switch Online instead. The way tracks are created in game limits the designs you can create, and you’re out of luck if your house has a limited amount of useable space, or flooring that isn’t completely flat. Still, there’s fun to be had for at least a few hours before the novelty wears off, and it’s hard not to enjoy seeing Mario speed around track you have made. There’s potential, just not enough for this to be worth it for most Mario Kart fans (though cats certainly seem to love it). |
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| Rocket Chainsaw |
David Latham |
3.5 / 5 stars |
10-23-2020 |
The package you get for $149.95 AUD RRP doesn’t include enough to sustain the amount of gameplay we expect from a game that expensive. |
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| SECTOR.sk |
Matúš Štrba |
7 / 10 |
10-21-2020 |
Very well made proof of concept that Mario Kart can be fun to play in AR. |
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| Shacknews |
Donovan Erskine |
8 / 10 |
10-19-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is an entertaining take on the classic franchise. The mixed reality format allows player creativity to shine, as the ceiling for possibility is practically infinite. Nintendo is able to expertly weave staple Mario Kart features and characteristics into an augmented reality setting, making the game stand out from other RC racers. |
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| Stevivor |
Steve Wright |
Recommended |
10-20-2020 |
After a couple different track designs and laps, we’d had our fun with the tech, but I’d imagine children wouldn’t tire (pun intended) of Mario Kart Live Home Circuit‘s novelty quite as quickly. It’s largely targeted for that demographic, we’d say, a creative and novel way to spend time in whatever level of lockdown you’re currently engaged in. |
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| TheSixthAxis |
Dominic Leighton |
8 / 10 |
10-19-2020 |
Mario Kart Live is a wondrous and magical toy that combines real world and digital play in an incredible way. It’s a shame though that not everyone will have the space, or the money, to experience it. |
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| Twinfinite |
Rebecca Stone |
3.5 / 5 stars |
10-19-2020 |
My time with Home Circuit was fun, and I’m sure I’ll set up a new course sometime in the future when I’m feeling particularly inspired. I just wish there were two karts in the box so I could play with a friend, and I wish the range was double what it is so I could build bigger and better courses. I’m not so sure I feel like I got a $99 value out of what I played so far. |
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| Video Chums |
A.J. Maciejewski |
7.5 / 10 |
10-20-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit does nearly everything it can to offer a commendably fun-filled AR racing experience. Although it has its inherent limitations, it’s definitely a novel concept with a lot of promise, especially if you want to create your own real-life courses. |
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| Video Games Chronicle |
Andy Robinson |
4 / 5 stars |
10-20-2020 |
Nintendo’s toys-to-like experiment can feel like magic, but also requires a sizable living space to work effectively. |
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| Wccftech |
Dave Aubrey |
7 / 10 |
10-19-2020 |
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is heavily dependent on the amount of free floor space you have available. If you have a large home, space to drive under the sofas, no extra rugs or thick carpets, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit will be an amazing experience to share with the children. If you live somewhere fairly cramped or have a lot of clutter that’s going to get in the way, then you will find this very difficult to enjoy indeed. Great for the kids at Christmas, as long as you have the space. |
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