Mario Kart 8 - Review thread

MK8 ads are great. Today I saw a new Wii U ad that actually advertised the console, it showed footage of MK8, SM3DW and DKC:TF and even mentioned that the games were in beautiful HD.

Probably the first Wii U ad I've ever seen lol.
 
MK8 ads are great. Today I saw a new Wii U ad that actually advertised the console, it showed footage of MK8, SM3DW and DKC:TF and even mentioned that the games were in beautiful HD.

Probably the first Wii U ad I've ever seen lol.

I just saw an as well, the waterfall test one, and came away impressed at it featuring mostly gameplay after seeing CGI Watch Dogs trailers all over the place.

I've never been that great at Mario Kart games, and the last one I dipped into was the one for the DS. But I'll hopefully pick this up in the near future, even if I have to wait for my kid brother to ship my Wii U system to me.
 
MK8 ads are great. Today I saw a new Wii U ad that actually advertised the console, it showed footage of MK8, SM3DW and DKC:TF and even mentioned that the games were in beautiful HD.

Probably the first Wii U ad I've ever seen lol.

This is really awesome to here.
Man, I'm so pumped for this game. I wish it was releasing this Friday or something. I'd love to put everything aside, and play it all weekend.
 
Oh lord that Youtube comment.

It's actually the main reason why I absolutely don't like the GT franchise. Haven't played Forza that much, so I can't anything about that. But collecting stuff in GT is so tedious. It's boring. It doesn't help that I find the series extremely dull as well. If Mario Kart would ever do something as stupid GT, I'd be done with the series.
 
Did he beat all staff ghosts? If not then it can't be considered 100%. Especially now that they give stamps. I'm sorry GameSpot guy.
 
Has Nintendo commented at all about Battle Mode? I know they aren't usually ones to get out and make comments publicly regarding gamers concerns, etc. but figured I would ask.

Does Nintendo have a community manager or something like that? It seems like every game out there, once a concern is brought up on the internet, there is some official comment trying to address it. Never seems to happen with Nintendo though.
 
Has Nintendo commented at all about Battle Mode? I know they aren't usually ones to get out and make comments publicly regarding gamers concerns, etc. but figured I would ask.

Does Nintendo have a community manager or something like that? It seems like every game out there, once a concern is brought up on the internet, there is some official comment trying to address it. Never seems to happen with Nintendo though.

Mario Kart 8 director on why arenas were replaced with tracks in Battle Mode

“We’ve changed the style of Battle mode for Mario Kart 8 to use circuits that lots of people can play on. Players won’t know when a rival will appear from around a corner, which will bring a new sense of excitement and strategy to this mode. In terms of rules, we designed it for playing with 12 players, including the CPU. In the beginning, you have to defeat the CPU players and earn your score, and towards the end it becomes a battle between just human players. That’s the real thrill of it! It should also be a fresh experience for users to be able to race backwards around the circuits they are familiar with. I’m sure there will be a few people who aren’t so sure about us moving away from how we’ve done things previously, but I hope they try it out for themselves first. I’m sure it will be a new experience for everyone, [and] like no other battles in Mario Kart before.”
 
Mario Kart 8 director on why arenas were replaced with tracks in Battle Mode

“We’ve changed the style of Battle mode for Mario Kart 8 to use circuits that lots of people can play on. Players won’t know when a rival will appear from around a corner, which will bring a new sense of excitement and strategy to this mode. In terms of rules, we designed it for playing with 12 players, including the CPU. In the beginning, you have to defeat the CPU players and earn your score, and towards the end it becomes a battle between just human players. That’s the real thrill of it! It should also be a fresh experience for users to be able to race backwards around the circuits they are familiar with. I’m sure there will be a few people who aren’t so sure about us moving away from how we’ve done things previously, but I hope they try it out for themselves first. I’m sure it will be a new experience for everyone, [and] like no other battles in Mario Kart before.”

Translation: we wanted the game out sooner.
 
Mario Kart 8 director on why arenas were replaced with tracks in Battle Mode

“We’ve changed the style of Battle mode for Mario Kart 8 to use circuits that lots of people can play on. Players won’t know when a rival will appear from around a corner, which will bring a new sense of excitement and strategy to this mode. In terms of rules, we designed it for playing with 12 players, including the CPU. In the beginning, you have to defeat the CPU players and earn your score, and towards the end it becomes a battle between just human players. That’s the real thrill of it! It should also be a fresh experience for users to be able to race backwards around the circuits they are familiar with. I’m sure there will be a few people who aren’t so sure about us moving away from how we’ve done things previously, but I hope they try it out for themselves first. I’m sure it will be a new experience for everyone, [and] like no other battles in Mario Kart before.”

They should comment on why they didnt want to make new battle mode courses, wether its an arena, or a circuit.
 
I still wonder how the hell circuit battle mode even works. Does everyone simply hang area at the start of the race? What incentive is there to actually travel through the entire track?
 
can't wait for this game. I pre ordered the wii u mk8 bundle for this game(and smash!). I'm pretty disappointed that they cut my favorite characters(Dry bones and Dry Bowser), heck the roster this time around is actually really disappointing but the tracks make up for it(after all, we play these games for the tracks not the characters!).

Also I'm going to pick Pikman 3 as my free game, I've never played a Pikman game so I hope its good.
 
Weird that Mario Kart 8 on Amazon.com doesn't show its metacritic score.

In other depressing news, more than 20% of the 27 questions on the Mario Kart 8 listing is some form of the question "Can I play this game on my original Wii or do I need a Wii U?"
Although glass half-full people might say "Well at least they recognize that the Wii U is a different console."
 
There hasn't been an Iwata Asks in months.

He probably thinks it doesn't look good for him to be out there hosting Directs or interviewing developers when they're unprofitable.

They can do a "someone thats isnt iwata asks"??

I want (NEED!!) to hear the developers. PLEASE They cant stop doing them...
 
Tbh they should have just cut the battle mode. It seems as though they don't even like working on them in the first place.

Also, I've never understood the appeal of kart racing "battle modes" anyway. Constantly driving around in circles trying to hit your opponents with tons of inaccurate wildly rolling/sliding weapons never felt very good to me. :P
Create more interesting racing modes or something.
 
From the comments:

Youtube delivers. Every single time.

It's funny that I addressed his point directly in his review. I don't play Mario Kart because of unlockables; I play because it's fun. It's sad that people forgot that you don't need bribes to keep playing. Oh well, his loss.
 
Tbh they should have just cut the battle mode. It seems as though they don't even like working on them in the first place.

Also, I've never understood the appeal of kart racing "battle modes" anyway. Constantly driving around in circles trying to hit your opponents with tons of inaccurate wildly rolling/sliding weapons never felt very good to me. :P
Create more interesting racing modes or something.

Lies! Clearly you have never experience a Block Fort stalemate where the bottom floor is a death trap of green shells and all roads are laced with banana's.
 
Lies! Clearly you have never experience a Block Fort stalemate where the bottom floor is a death trap of green shells and all roads are laced with banana's.

This is a perfect response. Sitting stop the blue fort with banana hazards insulating from an invasion...sitting directly inside an item box and throwing every item I got immediately. Those were the days.
 
Even though I am excited for this game, I still feel like I won't put much time into the online mode because I just know it will be flooded with hackers/cheaters sooner or later. I only say this because of the recent news about the Wii U SDK being leaked online. Here's hoping Nintendo actually does ban cheaters/hackers to combat some of it but then again this is Nintendo after all.
 
Even though I am excited for this game, I still feel like I won't put much time into the online mode because I just know it will be flooded with hackers/cheaters sooner or later. I only say this because of the recent news about the Wii U SDK being leaked online. Here's hoping Nintendo actually does ban cheaters/hackers to combat some of it but then again this is Nintendo after all.

This is a much different situation from the Wii, though. Cheaters can be effectively banned, consoles blacklisted, and the game/OS can require updates for online play.

Some might weasel their way in over time, but it's not going to be the kiss of death that it was on Wii if they keep their shit together.
 
I wrote to Prima to ask if their guide will feature hidden stats as it did for MK7. They said yes :)

Also, in MK7 there were 20,230 possible combinations of characters/bodies/wheels/gliders.

In MK8 there is the potential to be 154,440 possible combinations! We'll know when the hidden stats are out.
 
http://www.gonintendo.com/s/228663-retro-staff-reconfirms-their-non-input-on-mario-kart-8

Eric Kozlowski is a Retro dev...
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There are special thanks to some Bandai Namco guys and the Metroid Prime composer though.
 
It really is a shame that they didn't attempt to implement a more interesting single player mode this time. Going for gold cups is fun, no doubt, but there could be more to this. Whether you love it or hate it, the approach Sumo took with Sonic Racing Transformed was absolutely magnificent and massively improved the single player experience.

I would love to see Nintendo create world maps, not unlike Mario, with branching paths, secret areas, and different types of events.

It's still the best Mario Kart game I've played but it could have been even better.
 
I've been reading on these past pages of the thread,and I'm on mobile so I can't quote everything...anyways:

- That thing the devs say about Battle Mode letting players "have the opportunity to race the tracks in reverse" is complete BS. One,the game was rushed and Battle Mode was affected by that, and Two, that reverse thing was possible on Konami Krazy Racers on the GBA, so bitch please Nintendo.

- And by the way, reverse driving SHOULD BE Mirror Mode. It makes more sense than that Twilight Princess Wii Effect they put on all games...

- The possibility of having "mature" characters like Samus or Link is perfectly possible. MGS's Ninja was in Konami Krazy Racers and Ryo Hazuki was in Sonic ASR. Coherence is not really a thing to worry about.

- Lastly, that YouTube comment... totally proves how tasteless many gamers are now. Mario Kart is about racing with mechanics and dynamics that you don't need to unlock. Having to spend hours unlocking stuff to actually have fun is NOT fun.
 
If Smash Bros. is a celebration of the characters of Nintendo, then Nintendo Racing could be a celebration of the levels and worlds of Nintendo.

Look at Mario Kart tracks themselves. The tracks actually based on in-game locations are a vast minority compared to the ones that only exist to be Mario Kart tracks. Also, look at the character line up, that refuses to acknowledge Mario's spin offs or even Wario's games. I don't think Mario Kart's developers are really interested in some "all star" line up of racers and tracks.
 
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