What Has the Best Acceleration and Handling in Mario Kart 8?
As a hardcore Mario Kart fan, I‘m constantly experimenting with different character and kart combinations trying to construct the optimal build. When it comes to mastering courses, especially technical tracks filled with twisting turns, you need great acceleration to hit top speed quickly out of corners and excellent handling to drift through them smoothly.
Through extensive testing and analysis, I‘ve determined the lightest weight characters paired with the best acceleration and handling focused karts and tires offer the ideal setup – here‘s why.
Understanding What Makes Acceleration and Handling So Crucial
Let‘s quickly break down what these key stats mean and why they matter so much:
Acceleration: How fast your kart reaches top speed. This affects how quickly you shoot out of tight corners.
Handling: How sharply your kart can turn. You need this to hug corners on technical courses.
Traction: How well your tires grip the track. More traction means better control drifting.
You want to maximize acceleration and handling because that enables faster cornering and exiting. Courses like Baby Park and Toad‘s Turnpike test straight line acceleration while Cheese Land and Dragon Driftway demand drift handling skills.
Why Lightweight Characters Have a Clear Edge
Here‘s the thing – you can boost any character‘s stats with the right kart parts, but lightweights have much higher base handling and acceleration. Heavyweights like Bowser can achieve decent handling butAccelerationthey can‘t touch Baby Peach off the starting line. That‘s why the lightest characters dominate time trial leaderboards on technical tracks.
Their featherweight also lets them conserve mini-turbo boosts better. Course features that interrupt boosts like off-road or anti-gravity barely slow them down, meaning they can chain together more mini-turbos through entire sections.
Finding the Best Supporting Kart and Tire Combinations
To maximize a lightweight‘s innate handling talents, you need grip and acceleration focused karts like the Biddybuggy or Pipe Frame paired with the Roller or Slim tires.
The Roller and Slim selection offers some of the best traction in the game, resulting in tighter drifts and better mini-turbo boost conservation. Combine that with the Biddybuggy and Pipe Frame‘s excellent handling stats and you‘ve got a complete speed demon setup perfect for technically demanding tracks.
Why Baby Peach Reigns Supreme
For my gold standard build focused purely on acceleration and handling, I have to go with Baby Peach. Her blistering 4.75 acceleration is only bested by lightweight peers Lemmy Koopa and Baby Daisy while her astronomical 5.5 handling ties for #1.
When equipped with acceleration glider like the Paper Glider and drift boosting Roller Tires on a Biddybuggy, Baby Peach simply cannot be caught on certain twisty tracks. Just check out some of these time trial records:
GCN Baby Park – 1‘25"902 (World Record)
DS Cheep Cheep Beach – 1’58”232 (2nd Place)
SNES Donut Plains 3 – 1’37”284 (#1 Regional)
Her mini-turbo game is so strong that skilled players can utilize advanced techniques like fire hopping and demon slides to devastate the opposition. I‘ve personally used her build to set multiple regional and global top 10 time trial marks.
Mastering Drift Techniques with Great Handling
Speaking of advanced tactics, meeting the technical demands maneuvers like snaking (stringing mini-boosts by rapidly hopping from left to right drifts) or fire hopping (using a boost panel or item to extend air time from a jump) requires stellar handling.
The tighter your drift radius courtesy of ultra high handling, the easier it‘ll be to make the quick direction changes necessary to chain together mini-turbo boosts. That enables you to carry ridiculous speeds through entire sections of tracks other builds could only dream of.
Comparing Top Builds Head-to-Head
To give you an idea of how important it is to prioritize acceleration and handling, I tested Baby Peach head-to-head with a heavy weight setup on acceleration focused Baby Park and the handling demanding Dragon Driftway:
Baby Peach (Baby Park)
- Finished in 1:26.201
- Used mini-boosts to reach top speed by first corner
- Nearly perfect run
Bowser (Baby Park)
- Finished in 1:29.101
- Struggled to accelerate quickly off the line
- Too slow through multiple corners
Baby Peach (Dragon Driftway)
- Finished in 2:08.211
- Smooth drifting through entire course
- Strong mini-turbo boost conservation
Bowser (Dragon Driftway)
- Finished in 2:12.022
- Too heavy, lost significant speed drifting
- Had to brake through several turns
As you can see, Baby Peach‘s agility dominated Bowser‘s sluggishness on both tracks. Her ability to reach top speed quickly and drift through corners smoothly was clearly superior.
The Verdict: Lightweights Are Your Best Bet
So for those looking to set speed records or dominate tournaments, using one of the featherweight characters is your best bet. Their high handling and acceleration combined with grip churning Roller Tires on an acceleration focused kart like the Biddybuggy can‘t be matched.
I‘d love to hear your thoughts and questions on the best ways to build a speed demon in Mario Kart 8 in the comments below! This is just the tip of the iceberg on everything these games have to offer.
