Best Mario Setup in Mario Kart 8

Many players new to Mario Kart 8 assume that the only thing determining their character’s statistics is, well, the character they choose. However, that isn’t the case at all, as builds also play a huge part in determining how your kart handles, how fast it goes, and how quickly it reaches its top speed among other things.

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Builds are a fancy way of saying setup and refer to the combination of the kart, tires, and glider that influence the total speed, acceleration, weight, handling, and traction (or grip) of the kart you’re driving.

Now, because Mario is the main character of the games, it’s natural that he would have the most equipable options to choose from, which might make things a little overwhelming, especially for newcomers. Because of that, we’re here to tell you the best setup or build you can possibly use for our favorite mushroom eating plumber.

Kart: Tanooki Kart

Although not talked about as much as some of the more popular karts in the game, the Tanooki kart is a solid option to use for Mario’s build, especially if you’re playing on a map that has a lot of off-road terrain.

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The reason we picked the Tanooki kart is that it’s one of the most well-balanced karts there is. Good speed, good handling, good weight, good acceleration, and excellent traction make it one of the best off-road karts out there.

Tires: Retro Off Road Tires

Seeing as how we’re already well on our way to making the best Mario Kart 8 Mario off-road build, how about we up the level entirely by including the best off-road tires fittingly named retro off-road tires?

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What these tires do is increase the total water speed stat, ground speed stat, weight stat, and traction stat of the kart you’re using. Although some handling and acceleration stats are sacrificed in the process, we would say it’s more than worth it.

Glider: Super Glider

With two of the best off road build car parts, it’s only logical that we would next go for the glider that goes best with the Tanooki kart, the super glider. Now, this glider doesn’t offer any statistical advantages, meaning it will not affect how your kart drives at all.

However, with its featuring the emblem of the character at the center instead of on both sides like in previous installments, as well as having a stripe fitting the characters (in this case, Mario’s) color scheme in the middle, it’s sure to boost any kart’s appearance.

Final Thoughts

We believe the gold combo also deserves an honorable mention here. Although unlocking everything from gold Mario, to the gold kart, gold tires, and the gold glider is an extremely difficult feat because you have to complete every cup, it’s natural that the hardest to unlock build will be one of the best ones in the game.

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As for the Mario setup we mentioned above, with it, you’re sure to dominate the opposition in every race, both on and off the race track. Show everyone why Mario deserves to be the main character.