Whoever gets out ahead to first place stands the best chance of actually keeping first place thanks largely in part to the way the items work. If you're in first and can avoid whatever 2nd place uses early in the race, the rest of the race, outside of blue shells, turns into a cluster with 1st place cruising to an easy victory (barring poor driving skills and epic failure). I'm not saying there's a way to fix it, but i would argue that 50% of the races play out that way. So I don't think it makes sense to downplay the impacts that items have in the game. Yeah, it's a racing game, but outside of items or watching the person ahead screw up, there is no real way to catch a person through "racing" when in second place. So the whole racing element in mario kart 8 can be a bit of a misnomer.
Yes, but there are still blue shells, triple red shells, boosts and so on. There are reasonable chances to take the first place. Not that often, of course, but my point is that the opportunity to fuck the 1st shouldn't really be at every corner. I'm not playing down the impact of the items, I just don't want them to have even more of an impact as of now. If the 1st place is an easy target there's no motivation to be in the 1st place until the very last moment and I don't think that's would be a good thing in a racing game.
Between 27th August and 23rd September, Nintendo and Mercedes-Benz will also host an online worldwide Mercedes Cup tournament. All competitors need is a Wii U console, Mario Kart 8, a broadband Internet connection and the Mercedes-Benz karts. Access to the Mercedes Cup in the game can be found in the online tournament section.
That's nice.