I'm back from the mall a few hours ago and came away impressed after playing Mario Kart 8 demo at GameStop. There's not much else to say since everyone's read the reviews and other demo impressions here on GAF, but believe it ,the game looks and plays very well. The graphics are as great as they've been made out to be, the tweaked gameplay improvements seem to make things better and more balanced, and the new features are welcomed additions. I only got to use two piranha plants and one boomerang. I noticed I rarely got hit by the AI racers, maybe 3-4 times in all my play sessions on Cloudtop Cruise, MK Circuit, Toad Harbor, Sweet Sweet Canyon using Wario, Bowser, Metal Mario, Shy Guy, Morton and Ludwig. I fell off once on Toad Harbor, but Lakitu quickly picks you up ,so it doesn't feel like you're getting screwed by having him take so long for him to recover your fallen vehicle and place it back on the track. The anti-graviy sections were fairly subtle when you encounter them, but they still provide a cool and refreshing twist despite their minimal impact on the core gameplay.