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Mario Kart 8 Announced For Wii U

Roo

Member
I WANT IT!
1gtP6g0.png

DAT ASS!!
But seriously.. so many good tracks from previous games... it sucks they'll stick with 16 RC instead of 20 :(
 
Didn't they slightly alter the classic courses in mario kart 7 to add glider sections? I can see them doing the same thing for this game too.

They did, and it added some freshness to the old courses. I hope they not only add gliders and underwater segments, but they also twist and contort the courses to add anti-gravity parts as well.
 

prag16

Banned
They did, and it added some freshness to the old courses. I hope they not only add gliders and underwater segments, but they also twist and contort the courses to add anti-gravity parts as well.
Eh, I'm not sure I want antigrav to be a staple for every course, but we'll see.
 
Eh, I'm not sure I want antigrav to be a staple for every course, but we'll see.

Not every course, but one of the things I like about retro courses is that there's a chance to play old courses with a new freshness, whether with the new items, the "feel" of the latest game, or the new mechanics. If I wanted to play them as they were originally made, I personally still have the carts (or discs) for all the older Mario Karts.

Maybe there are some courses where it just makes sense to drive on a wall that was once merely a barrier.
 

Berordn

Member
Is that confirmed? I wish they had 40 tracks at least. 20 new and 20 classic.

Such a pity if they continue sticking to 16, 2 new cups would be awesome.

There's been no confirmation either way, but the current trend dictates 16 new, 16 old, no repeats.

But if they felt like breaking tradition, now would be a perfect time.
 

Randdalf

Member
There's been no confirmation either way, but the current trend dictates 16 new, 16 old, no repeats.

But if they felt like breaking tradition, now would be a perfect time.

Yeah, it would. There are definitely certain tracks I wouldn't mind repeating. Heck, they could do track packs or something as DLC.
 

DaBoss

Member
From what was shown so far, the new courses seem to be a lot better than most of MK7's new courses. For me, MK7 probably has the weakest new courses. The course design felt subpar. Especially those long courses that don't have actual laps, Rainbow Road included.

Honestly I wouldn't be averse to Maple Treeway a third time in a row :p in HD!

Definitely. One of my favourite stages.
 
Nintendo already kind of broke the “retro tracks tradition” with Mario Kart 7, since it is the first Mario Kart to feature a retro Rainbow Road since the 16 new/16 retro tracks setup was implemented (with Mario Kart DS). I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo made noticeable changes to this system again in MK8.
 

Roo

Member
Nintendo already kind of broke the “retro tracks tradition” with Mario Kart 7, since it is the first Mario Kart to feature a retro Rainbow Road since the 16 new/16 retro tracks setup was implemented (with Mario Kart DS). I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo made noticeable changes to this system again in MK8.

I don't see how they "broke the retro tracks tradition"... after all, SNES Rainbow Road is just another retro track like any other. The same could be said about any Wario track... so far none has been used despite there being 5 tracks in 5 games out of 7 and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised to see at least two in MK8

I don't get all the love Rainbow Road gets...those tend to be long and boring IMO (outside of Mario Kart Wii Rainbow Road) the rest are mehh.
 
From what was shown so far, the new courses seem to be a lot better than most of MK7's new courses. For me, MK7 probably has the weakest new courses. The course design felt subpar. Especially those long courses that don't have actual laps, Rainbow Road included.
Hmm. I don't particularly agree with this. I actually thought it was refreshing for there to be so many (well, about half) "simple" (but not simplistic) race tracks.

Like, Mario Circuit and Daisy Hills are quite enjoyable I think - a bit more traditional but still loaded with subtle new elements. Cheep Cheep Cape/Lagoon is a bit boring perhaps but a reasonable introduction into diving I guess. And likewise Rock Rock Mountain/Alpine Pass is a bit bland and - in a way - very similar to Koopa Cape, but again it's the ultimate gliding course.

Toad Circuit holds up the Course 1 tradition of a super easy tarmac circuit. It's ideal for what it is, IMHO.

The Wuhu tracks are pretty divisive I guess. I enjoy them but more as a refreshing change of pace; the track designs themselves are nice and varied, but ultimately I think I would probably like them more if they were Mushroom Kingdom themed rather than Wii Sports :/

Other than that, the other 9 tracks are killer, IMHO:

Shy Guy Bazaar
Music Park
Piranha Plant Slide
Wario Shipyard / Galleon
Neo Bowser / Koopa City
DK Jungle
Rosalina's Ice World
Bowser's Castle
Rainbow Road

It rivals the previous 4 games for best course selection, I think, excluding the retro courses - which is by far the greatest assembly of Mario Kart historia yet.
 

DaBoss

Member
Hmm. I don't particularly agree with this. I actually thought it was refreshing for there to be so many (well, about half) "simple" (but not simplistic) race tracks.

Like, Mario Circuit and Daisy Hills are quite enjoyable I think - a bit more traditional but still loaded with subtle new elements. Cheep Cheep Cape/Lagoon is a bit boring perhaps but a reasonable introduction into diving I guess. And likewise Rock Rock Mountain/Alpine Pass is a bit bland and - in a way - very similar to Koopa Cape, but again it's the ultimate gliding course.

Toad Circuit holds up the Course 1 tradition of a super easy tarmac circuit. It's ideal for what it is, IMHO.

The Wuhu tracks are pretty divisive I guess. I enjoy them but more as a refreshing change of pace; the track designs themselves are nice and varied, but ultimately I think I would probably like them more if they were Mushroom Kingdom themed rather than Wii Sports :/

Other than that, the other 9 tracks are killer, IMHO:

Shy Guy Bazaar
Music Park
Piranha Plant Slide
Wario Shipyard / Galleon
Neo Bowser / Koopa City
DK Jungle
Rosalina's Ice World
Bowser's Castle
Rainbow Road

It rivals the previous 4 games for best course selection, I think, excluding the retro courses - which is by far the greatest assembly of Mario Kart historia yet.

Looks like I liked a lot more than I thought I did, here's my list of favorites:
Mario Circuit
Daisy Hills (music in this one is my fave)
Music Park
Piranha Plant Slide
Wario Shipyard
Neo Bowser City
Rosalina's Ice World
Rock Rock Mountain

Toad Circuit I'm indifferent towards. Bowser's Castle had the whole end section and flying section I didn't really feel were designed well, otherwise it was all right. The Wuhu Island theme didn't bother me, but I felt the tracks' design was so simple and felt too long. Rainbow Road had a poor design IMO. The whole moon section and everything after was really subpar. It also didn't help that whole turning section near the beginning and the mushroom platform jump was "awkward". Cheep Cheep Lagoon is probably the weakest stage. Wario's Shipyard was really good with underwater, but Cheep Cheep Lagoon was just boring and doesn't really have much to it. IIRC, it only has 2 item box locations (barring clam shells). DK Jungle doesn't have anything that I feel is wrong, I just didn't really enjoy it. Same with Shy Guy Bazaar.

I guess I was wrong to say it was the weakest. I probably am thinking that the retro courses are much better than the new courses which I have never felt that way before in MKDS and MKWii.
 
I liked MK7's courses. Shy Guy Bazaar, Piranha Plant Slide, and DK Jungle were my favorites. Rainbow Road was great. Bowser's Castle was a disappointment. It felt too scattershot, going from each "section" to the next.

Music Park was designed well, but it really didn't feel like it belonged in a Mario game, not happy to see it back. At least Wuhu Island sort of still feels like it fits thematically, since it's just a generic island course, and I did like the one where you glide to the finish.
 

Roo

Member
The game definitely will feel way too constrained with only 4 Retro Cups.
If they want to put tracks from every previous games, they'll have to limit the number to 2 per game which sounds awful...
2 GCN, 2 N64, 2 3DS, 2 Wii tracks etc??? yeah.. no.
5 cups should be the bare minimum... not sure if they have the guts to do it.
 

vareon

Member
Glad to see people are liking Yoshi Valley. I always thought I was the only one since no one ever mentions it and the fact that Nintendo never included it in any of the retro tracks in the recent games. Could also be a limitations thing where they can't track placements....they could always just use the ?'s :)

Oh and please include MK7's Rainbow Road WITH the option to loop the entire course for more than a single lap! :D

640px-RainbowroadMK7.png

I keep thinking this. Rainbow Road with anti-gravity mechanic should be mindblowing.
 

Roo

Member
Yes, if you want to, or you could just skip it. That's the way it used to work up until MK DS I think.

It never worked that way tho
The race ends and places are set once you cross the finish line.
I don't really undestand why would you want to wait for the CPU to end the race what
about those who are even a lap behind?
 

Anustart

Member
I can't get over how clean and amazing this game looks. Sure I'm looking forward to playing 3D World, but this is the game that made me go "HD Nintendo is good Nintendo".
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Never mind the courses, this thread needs more roster discussion! Who do we want the line-up to be? I'd love for:

Ultra Light
| Baby Mario
| Baby Luigi
| Baby Peach
| Baby Daisy

Light ||
| Toad
| Toadette
| Koopa Troopa
| Koopa Paratroopa
| Dry Bones
| Shy Guy
| Fly Guy
| Kamek
| Lakitu

Medium ||
| Mario
| Luigi
| Princess Peach
| Princess Daisy
| Diddy Kong
| Yoshi
| Birdo
| Bowser Jr.
| Rosalina

Heavy ||
| Donkey Kong
| Wario
| Waluigi
| Bowser
| Dry Bowser
| King Boo
| Petey Piranha
| Hammer Bro.
| R.O.B.

Variable II
II Mii
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Nawwww, that shit is for the revival of Diddy Kong Racing, mang. Let's have some Mario series purity in here ('cept R.O.B.).
 

Roo

Member
Never mind the courses, this thread needs more roster discussion! Who do we want the line-up to be? I'd love for:

Ultra Light
| Baby Mario
| Baby Luigi
| Baby Peach
| Baby Daisy

Light ||
| Toad
| Toadette
| Koopa Troopa
| Koopa Paratroopa
| Dry Bones
| Shy Guy
| Fly Guy
| Kamek
| Lakitu

Medium ||
| Mario
| Luigi
| Princess Peach
| Princess Daisy
| Diddy Kong
| Yoshi
| Birdo
| Bowser Jr.
| Rosalina

Heavy ||
| Donkey Kong
| Wario
| Waluigi
| Bowser
| Dry Bowser
| King Boo
| Petey Piranha
| Hammer Bro.
| R.O.B.

Variable II
II Mii

I totally love this roster. I would switch Rosalina back to heavyweights and Hammer Bro to medium tho.
By the way, I feel like Fly guy is just a clone of Shy Guy just like Metal Mario was a Mario clone....
what a waste of roster space that was.
Get Nabbit in instead.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
I totally love this roster. I would switch Rosalina back to heavyweights and Hammer Bro to medium tho.
By the way, I feel like Fly guy is just a clone of Shy Guy just like Metal Mario was a Mario clone....
what a waste of roster space that was.
Get Nabbit in instead.

I was trying to maintain viable pairing because the way I play with my friends is that, because we'd all been MKDD fans, we played with 4 groups of 2 teams, and the winning team was one with highest point total. However, the teams had to be acceptably "themed". Shy Guy doesn't really have any obvious partners but I really want Shy Guy and also the satisfaction of being able to maintain our thang. :p Hence Fly Guy, who was a doubles partner for Shy Guy in one of the Mario Tennis games.

EDIT: Dear God, the "You were quoted" colour is HIDEOUS. That shit is getting userstyled asap. I apologise to everyone I have ever quoted.
 

rekameohs

Banned
It never worked that way tho
The race ends and places are set once you cross the finish line.
I don't really undestand why would you want to wait for the CPU to end the race what
about those who are even a lap behind?

In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, after you win a race, the game gives around 5 seconds for the CPU's to cross the finish line, and then sets the rest of the order based on their current placement. That was a pretty good way to allow for things to shake around during that short time.
 

rokero

Member
am I the only one who thinks retro tracks are a waste of space I want all new tracks keep the retro tracks as DLC : SNES DLC pack N64 DLC pack ect ect
 

mf luder

Member
It never worked that way tho
The race ends and places are set once you cross the finish line.
I don't really undestand why would you want to wait for the CPU to end the race what
about those who are even a lap behind?

It definitely did used to work that way. Say you needed to beat luigi by a certain number of points to win the overall GP you lay bananas or shells they can hit them and other AI karts go past them so you come 1st overall.
 
you can add the N64 rainbow course as the retro rainbow course for MK8
just have to add a ton of boost pads or i would make it a single lap race to the finish


bonus online everyone would try the leap and hilarity would happen


do it Nintendo
 

Kunan

Member
This game looks quite good. The anti gravity mechanic sounds like it will inject even more wild ideas for tracks. Rainbow Road is going to be great!

I actually said HOLY FUCK at how the visuals looked. They did NOT look LAZY at ALLL. Damnnnn. The first time I was really impressed by Mario Kart visuals, and it looks trippy on top of it. Weeping. Hope I'm not alone :(
Yea it's so weird how, graphically, Mario Kart 8 and Mario 3D Land are the complete reverse of when they showed off MKWii and Galaxy. Kart looks like the one that's trying this time.

am I the only one who thinks retro tracks are a waste of space I want all new tracks keep the retro tracks as DLC : SNES DLC pack N64 DLC pack ect ect
I would love if they released some more course packs in the future to keep it going. Give me the 32 minimum that we get now (16 new and 16 old), and do a NSLU-style expansion later with another prix of 16.
 

Berordn

Member
am I the only one who thinks retro tracks are a waste of space I want all new tracks keep the retro tracks as DLC : SNES DLC pack N64 DLC pack ect ect

If you think that not including the Retro GP tracks would somehow double the amount of original tracks we get you're a bit misguided. It's an easy upscale for most of them and it's little effort on their part since they can farm it out to another studio like they did with Retro in MK7.

Also Piranha Plant slide is like the best track ever.
 

Roo

Member
In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, after you win a race, the game gives around 5 seconds for the CPU's to cross the finish line, and then sets the rest of the order based on their current placement. That was a pretty good way to allow for things to shake around during that short time.

If anything, Super Circuit was the exception no the rule. There must be a reason they stopped using that mechanic.
It was just an idea that crossed mf luder's mind so let's just move on.
 

mf luder

Member
If anything, Super Circuit was the exception no the rule. There must be a reason they stopped using that mechanic.
It was just an idea that crossed mf luder's mind so let's just move on.

It looks like it was just the original mario kart and super circuit. I didn't play 64 much as the single player was crap and it felt so slow so I couldn't remember if they AI just stopped when you did. I'm in the uk so maybe it was the PAL version that felt slow, does anyone know if the wii VC in uk is the same 50hz with borders as the retail version? Hopefully when it comes to the wii u we will get the 60hz game. Same goes for the snes game which should be out soon as its already on the japanese VC.
 
The game definitely will feel way too constrained with only 4 Retro Cups.
If they want to put tracks from every previous games, they'll have to limit the number to 2 per game which sounds awful...
2 GCN, 2 N64, 2 3DS, 2 Wii tracks etc??? yeah.. no.
5 cups should be the bare minimum... not sure if they have the guts to do it.

How is it awful?
Anyway they probably want to keep a few tracks in reserve for future MK installments, as they've been sticking to the retro system since MKDS.
 

Roo

Member
How is it awful?
Anyway they probably want to keep a few tracks in reserve for future MK installments, as they've been sticking to the retro system since MKDS.

I don't really know how to explain it.
It feels like two tracks per game sounds more like a tease than an actual retro selection.
Like "man, I wish there were more N64 tracks- - that 3DS track could've been awesome in HD- - That GCN track was a waste of time" I don't know, it's an odd situation.

And about the retro track reserve, like I said before, they have 69 tracks to choose from and every new game they're adding 16 new tracks to the list. The amount is obviously not a issue. The track selection is.
 

Neki

Member
I hope Mario Kart takes some cues from Sonic Racing, though I doubt we'll see airplanes and hovercrafts (which were pretty fun to control), a more diverse and engrossing single player mode would be welcome, Sonic really nailed it in that regard.
 
And about the retro track reserve, like I said before, they have 69 tracks to choose from and every new game they're adding 16 new tracks to the list. The amount is obviously not a issue. The track selection is.
The amount IS an issue, more precisely the difference of available tracks between retro games: 4× N64, 5× GCN versus 11× GBA, 12× Wii/SNES and 16× 3DS. It is more than obvious they're not going to put 3/4 retro N64 and GCN tracks.
 

HeySeuss

Member
I keep thinking this. Rainbow Road with anti-gravity mechanic should be mindblowing.

I like how you think. Give me a rainbow Road Möbius strip with spirals. Or go all out and change it to Rainbow Tube and make it a spiritual FZero track.
 
All past Mario Kart characters should return, there is no reason to leave anyone out.

As for newcomers? I want Pauline, Blooper & Goomba.
 
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