| Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit | ||||
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| Developer(s) | Clover Entertainment | |||
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo | |||
| Platform(s) | Wii U | |||
| Genre(s) | Action, Racing | |||
| Series | Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit (series) | |||
| Predecessor | N/A | |||
| Successor | Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit 2 | |||
| Release Date(s) |  May 6th, 2012  June 14th  August 10th | |||
| Mode(s) | Single Player, Nintendo Wi-fi | |||
| Age Rating(s) | 
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| Media Included | Disk | |||
Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit is a action-racing game by Clover Entertainment. It is the first installment of the Mario Kart series to introduce street racing and real-world cars. It was released for the Wii U on May 6, 2012. It has now sold 4 million copies worldwide, as of Septmeber 5th, 2012. It was popular enough to spawn 3 sequels, Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit 2, and Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit 3, and the upcoming, Mario Kart Hot Pursuit: Unleashed.
Gameplay[]
Mario Kart: Hot Pursuit is a different take on the Mario Kart series. It is the only game to be rated T, and it introduces some of the coolest real-world cars on the streets today and provides intense street racing on highways, open roads and city streets. It also features high-speed police chases. It also features some destructible objects in the environment, like ramming into traffic, smashing into stuff on the sidewalk like lamp posts and bus stop shelters and mailboxes, and ramming and totaling cop cars trying to stop the race and arrest the player.
Like the other Mario Kart games, they let the player pick the Mario character of their choice, each one having his or her own unique car. Mario for example, drives a 2010 Ford Mustang Convertible, and Bowser drives a 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan. Each character also has its own weight classes, which effects the performance of the character's car. For example, if a character's weight class is heavy, then the car is not very fast, but can tear through cops and racers with ease. But if it is light, then it is very fast, but pretty weak in power. And medium weights are a well balanced blend of speed and power.
It also amps up the extremeness by adding crashes into the game. Like stated above, the player is able to destroy police cars by crashing into them. The player can also crash into their opponents and destroy them. Power-ups return in the game, such as the Banana Peel and the Koopa Shells, but new ones appear as well, such as Spike Strips and EMPs. It's an arcade-style racing game with awe-inspiring crashes, power-ups and amazing real-world cars. It also has a free drive, where the player can drive around the area they have chosen freely. Of course, the player can also plow through traffic at high speed.
Modes[]
Racing[]
A race between Bowser (in a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan) and Mario (in a 2012 Ford Mustang Convertible)
The average Mario Kart gameplay. Get to the finish line first before everyone else. Races come in different forms. Circuit is the basic mode, where the player has to go around 3 times before everyone else, or sprint, where the player just get to the finish line first.
Campaign[]
The player has to race, drive, and crash their way to fame. Choose a Mario character, and earn money to upgrade the character's car.
Hot Pursuit[]
Win the race, but there's a catch. The police tag along to catch any character. The player has to race against opponents, but also should evade the cops. Fight or flee, but don't get busted.
Free Drive[]
Need a break? Then choose this mode. No cops, no racers, just you freely driving around the open-world streets, whether they be in the city, in rural roads, or highways.
Create a Track[]
For the first time in the series, the player can create their own race tracks and play them. It could be in the city streets, or rural open roads, or highways.
Nintendo Network[]
The player can race against other players around the world. Their goal in this mode is to dominate the competition by winning races and getting as much points as possible.
Traffic Attack[]
This is the mode where the player has to cause as much destruction on the highway as possible by sending their car flying into highway traffic and create a big multi-car pile-up. Also, if you charge up the KABOOM! meter by causing enough destruction, you can press the correct button combination, resulting in a big explosion from your car that causes even more damage.
Road Rage[]
In this mode, you have to ram into your rivals and cause as many of them to crash as possible within the time limit.
Characters and Vehicles[]
Playable Characters[]
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Vehicles[]
For a more detailed description on each vehicle, go here.
Sales Revenue[]
The game was a commercial success, selling 4 million copies, as of October 19, 2012. It was the top-selling game for 2 weeks.
To put in your review. go here.
Reception[]
Professional gaming critics, like IGN, Game Informer, and Gamespot praised the game, saying they liked the originality of the game and the large roster of cars and characters, but criticized it for not feeling like Mario, saying it was like Need for Speed except with Mario characters.
Critics on Fantendo weren't so enthusiastic about the game, however. Brock Dilley, critic for many, many, many years, said, "While it seems like some effort was put into it, the premise is completely stupid. Mario doesn't get in trouble with cops and drive around in the real world with real cops".
MarioPhineas76 said, A Mario Kart game will never be like this. There will never be an MK game where it takes place in an urban city and Mario is chased by the cops. Mario isn't a villain he's a hero, plus it just doesn't give me that Mario Kart vibe. I don't like how Clover tried to "change" the series. This is also the Mario version of a Midnight Club game, but at least you tried hard making this game.
A random IP stated "i wish mario kart was like this". After many people disagreed, Clover reminded us that opinions are always correct, even if they make no sense whatsoever. A common target for Fantendo critics was the addition of real world cars into the game. A lot of them stated that real world cars take away the goofiness and the wacky nature that made the Mario Kart games so great. Clover also decided it didn't matter and didn't take their opinions into effect whatsoever.
Bowsertendo666 gave it a 33/100, saying it was more unoriginal than other Mario Kart games and hates the fact that it’s “not like Mario Kart and the originality of the game is 0%.” He also said that they will be arrested and criticized of Sonic being playable and the fact that you have your own car instead of getting to choose your own kart/bike.
Soundtrack[]
See here