When I finish a great game, I’m always left with an empty feeling inside. After you spend dozens of hours with a game, it’s normal to feel directionless when the experience ends. I always end up asking myself, “What do I play after [insert game here]?”
In this new series of articles, I’ll be suggesting games that might help to fill the void left by one you’ve completed. They may not replace the game you loved, but they’ll make the wait until your next anticipated release a bit more bearable.
Let’s start with …
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
We all love Mario Kart. Thanks to its perfectly tuned controls, intricate course design, and jolly vibes, the game has sold nearly 40 million copies. It’s also the perfect game for beginners and experts alike.
But you can only play so many hours of Deluxe before you start longing for something new. Luckily, Nintendo recently announced the Booster Course Pack, which will bring 48 new courses to the game.
The first wave of courses is still a few weeks away, and there are plenty of other great games for kids and the family.
For those looking for a game to shake up the standings at gatherings, here are a few games you can play after Mario Kart 8.
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
Crash Team Racing is the most obvious entry on this list, but it’s here for good reason. There are plenty of Mario Kart knock-offs — I’m looking at you, Disney Speedstorm—but one of the only games to have a shot at taking the cart racing crown is Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
Nitro-Fueled is a fully remastered version of the original CTR experience from the ’90s. It has beautiful visuals, tight controls, and that classic Crash Bandicoot charm.
It’s available on all major consoles, so if you don’t own a Nintendo Switch, this is a great alternative. And CTR has online multiplayer, so you can dive in with friends and family wherever you are.
MobileSyrup’s Bradly Shankar praised the game, saying it’s “simply one of the best racing game experiences to date.” If you’re looking for another multiplayer racing game that’s easy to pick up and play, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled might be just what you’re looking for.
WarioWare: Get It Together
The WarioWare series has delivered some of the most competitive and hilarious moments I’ve had with friends. We’ve been playing the series since the original title on GameCube, and the latest entry on the Nintendo Switch is one of the best yet.
Get It Together is a party game for up to four players that features dozens of micro-games that’ll challenge experienced players as much as first-timers. There’s also a two-player co-op campaign that’s perfect for passing controllers around a group.
You’re always jumping from one micro-game to the next, which keeps the game fresh and frustration-free. You’ll be screaming one second and intensely focused the next.
The humour isn’t going to be for everyone, but for family events and parties, WarioWare: Get It Together is a great game to have on the shelf.
Mario Party Superstars
Let’s be honest—Mario Party games have been more miss than hit over the past decade. But Mario Party Superstars has proven itself to be the best in the series since the days of the N64.
Superstars is a collection of the best maps and minigames from all of the previous entries, dating back to the very first game. It has the updated graphics, accessibility features, and controls of the modern games, but it skips all of the tedious minigames and unnecessary features that have bogged down recent titles.
As MobileSyrup’s Patrick O’Rourke puts it, if you were “one of those kids who got a hole in their hand after playing Mario Party’s ‘Tug o’ War’ minigame … you’ll likely find a lot to like about Mario Party Superstars.”
We could also see a DLC update for the game in the future as part of Nintendo’s online offering. Fingers crossed for even more maps and minigames down the road.
There’s no party like a Mario Party, ’cause a Mario Party feud will tear family and friends apart for years to come.
That’s You
That’s You isn’t a game that’s talked about as much as Jackbox Party Pack or Mario games, but it remains one of my family’s favourites. That’s You uses your smartphone as the controller, and tests to see how well you know the other players.
It’s the most fun when you get together with your entire family and bring your new partner home to meet them for the first time, and then watch as they have to explain why they chose your dad as the person most likely to blow out someone else’s candles on their birthday in the game. That’s a purely hypothetical scenario though …
The game does a great job of always keeping the focus on the players instead of the game itself, which is why I’d recommend it over some of the recent Jackbox games. Unlike with Jackbox, the enjoyment of the game isn’t dependent on how funny the players are. With That’s You, every moment has the potential to be funny, tense, and eye-opening.
That’s You is only available on Playstation consoles, but you can play it remotely with a single copy of the game, so it’s a great one to play if you aren’t able to be with your friends or family for an event.
Overcooked: All You Can Eat
Cooking is a big part of many family events, and the kitchen is often the place where most of the shouting goes down. To escape that, play some Overcooked: All You Can Eat, the game designed to get you shouting in a virtual kitchen instead.
If you aren’t familiar with Overcooked, you play as a chef tasked with serving as many customers as possible in a set amount of time. But you’re going to need to work together as a team to pass each level.
Whether you’re dodging traffic to deliver the food to customers or sliding across ice to cook the chicken, Overcooked always finds a way to make being a chef as chaotic as possible.
All You Can Eat bundles together the original Overcooked, Overcooked 2, and all of the DLC in one package. It’s the perfect game to make your family forget that your uncle spilled gravy all over the new sofa.
Hidden Agenda
To be clear, this isn’t a game for kids. This is a mature game about solving a series of murders. But if you’re looking for a game to play with friends or older family members that you can complete in a single sitting, Hidden Agenda is a blast.
Developed by Supermassive Games, the team behind Until Dawn and the Dark Pictures Anthology, Hidden Agenda is designed to be played as a group. Up to six players can join the experience by voting on major decisions via an app on your smartphone.
And if working together to solve a murder isn’t challenging enough, you can play the competitive mode where one player is tasked with working against the group to throw them off the scent.
It’s the closest you’ll get to being in a horror movie with your friends. That alone makes it a game that I can easily recommend.
Let us know which games you’d like recommendations for down in the comments below. We’ll be continuing the “What to play after…” series in the coming weeks with Horizon: Forbidden West.
And if you have any recommendations for games to play after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, recommend them so that we can check them out!
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