The Wii U may not have been met with as strong a response as its predecessor or fellow current generation consoles have, but it is hard to deny the appeal of a brand new Mario Kart game. I look back fondly at Mario Kart 64 which served as my very first console game in the hundreds of hours I spent doing wheelies around Princess Peach’s castle, trying to make the cheat jump in Rainbow Road and finding the quickest route around Yoshi Valley. That was only the second game in the series, and Nintendo is making myself and I am sure many other gamers feel old with their release of Mario Kart 8 at the end of this month.
As part of their Mario Kart 8 exclusive Nintendo Direct conference last night, Nintendo announced several new features that are coming to the Wii U exclusive racing game including:
Online multiplayer
In Mario Kart 8, up to 12 players can race together online, with four main ways to find opponents (Global, Regional, Friends and Rivals, Tournament)**. Like to banter with your friends while you’re preparing for a race? Mario Kart 8 lets players chat with one another in the lobby area using the GamePad microphone as they wait for their friends to join in comparison to no other options being available in earlier releases.
Players can also create public or private tournaments for which they specify the day of the week, the time and the rules. As is Mario Kart tradition, players will be able to race against ghost data from friends, or even the top 10 worldwide racers. Players can try to beat them or just pick up a few tips and tricks from studying the best. If you beat the Mario Kart 8 development team’s ghosts, you’ll get a special Miiverse stamp.
Mario Kart TV
On this in-game channel, players can view Highlight Reels from their races and tournaments they take part in – with rewind and slow motion replay features to boot – while racers eager to learn from others can watch the world’s most popular Highlight Reels via Mario Kart TV and comment on them. Players with Google accounts can also upload their reels directly to YouTube from within Mario Kart TV, and post these videos directly to Miiverse.
New Items
No matter how skilled some racers are, they’re just a blue Spiny Shell away from peril. A well-timed item turning defeat into victory in an instant. The new Super Horn blows away all other items – literally. Sounding the Super Horn issues forth a sonic shock wave that blasts away everything in the vicinity, including other drivers, Red Shells and even Spiny Shells. It’s a potent asset, especially for drivers trying to maintain their lead. But I highly doubt it will be something a player could collect while in first place.
Mario Kart 8 also introduces the Crazy Eight, a swirl of eight different items that lucky players can use one by one. If they are random, I await the day someone receives eight spiny shells.
New Racers
Two new playable female characters make their debut appearances in Mario Kart 8. New heavyweight driver Pink Gold Peach glows with a golden light and makes a shiny counterpart to Metal Mario, while the new Baby Rosalina shows up for a play date with other Baby characters. As in past Mario Kart games, players can again choose to play as their Mii characters, rounding out the field of racers to a total of 30.
PLUS FREEBIES!
It seems like Nintendo is really going all-out with trying to appeal to as many gamers as possible with Mario Kart 8. Imagine this scenario: You are a younger gamer who relies on parents or carefully saving your money to buy Mario Kart 8 with the console. You pick up the console with the game included and then decide you want to play a second game after a six hour racing marathon. It is Console Buying 101 that games aren’t generally included with a console, but Nintendo will throw one in anyway just by purchasing Mario Kart 8 with a console or standalone.
Nintendo have announced that purchasing Mario Kart 8 and registering an included code between launch and July 31st, 2014 will net you one of ten complementary free games. While further details are to be announced soon on this promotion, they were kind enough to share the list of games on offer… and they aren’t bad given their current retail prices:
- Nintendo Land
- New Super Mario Bros. U
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U version)
- GAME & WARIO
- Pikmin 3
- The Wonderful 101
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
- Sonic Lost World (Wii U version)
- Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
- Wii Party U
