Mario Kart 8 Nintendo Direct announces Wii U bundle, free bonus game

[Breegullbeak]

Seeing as I didn't grow up with Super Mario Bros. 3 I never cared for the Koopalings and never even carred for there names. Even in New Super Mario Bros. I still have no idea what there names are. to me they all sort of blend together.

[Turd Ferguson]

Ugh. I've got a 400 dollar tax return and I can't decide whether I want to get a Wii U or a PS4 with it. And since I'm going to be moving into an apartment with my buddies, I might get more use out of the Wii U

[Mandolin]

Originally Posted by Breegullbeak

Seeing as I didn't grow up with Super Mario Bros. 3 I never cared for the Koopalings and never even carred for there names. Even in New Super Mario Bros. I still have no idea what there names are. to me they all sort of blend together.

They're in Super Mario World too, did you have that one? In New Super Mario Bros. Wii order, their names are Larry, Roy, Lemmy, Wendy, Iggy, Morton, and Ludwig.

Older Mario fans (Jesus, do I qualify as an "older fan" of something now?!) love these characters, and as far as I've seen, they've been very well received in Mario Kart 8. I'm sure you'll grow to love them too if you give them a chance. In any case, they disappeared for eighteen years and I'm sure you'll agree Junior is a poor substitute for seven distinct, classic characters with their own gimmicks and personalities. I'm delighted to see them make regular appearances in Mario games again, and so do many, many other fans who grew up in the NES and SNES days.

And Junior didn't gone away. I like it when nobody's fans get screwed.

[TRBB]

I just came back from a small vacation and I just found out about this Mario Kart 8 Direct. Here are my reactions:

Tournaments

Allows you to set up tournaments for specific times, days and with customization rules. This includes setting speed class, teams, items, vehicles, control methods, frequency of tournament (such as weekly) and who can take part.

This is a really cool feature even though I don't play online very much. I wonder if Super Smash Bros. Wii U will have something like this too?

Ghost Data

Download data to race against, including friends, the top 10 players in the world or the development team; beating the latter will reward you with stamps.

Unlock Stamps for playing Time Trial mode? Either one of two things will happen in my case: One - The Stamps will actually push me to play Time Trial mode as I've never cared about it...ever. Two - I might end up ignoring it again.

New Characters

Baby Rosalina

I saw this coming a mile away and she looks exactly like I expected her to look. People need to remember that Rosalina is the "Shadow the Hedgehog/Blaze the Cat" of the Mario universe: a character that no one really expected to be popular, but for some reason became extremely popular with the fans. (Baby Wario and Baby Waluigi when?)

Pink Gold Peach

Holycrapthoselifelesseyesareterrifying. I love it. I don't know why, but I do. Why is Nintendo adding all these Metal Characters in rosters recently? It all started with Mario Tennis Open...Does one of the employees just have a weird fetish? Is it popular with kids today? I don't get it.

So...no Birdo, Dry Bones, Honey Queen, Bowser Jr., Diddy Kong, Wiggler or R.O.B. (Mario Kart DS is the best) I will gladly take any of those characters (Keep Funky Kong out) over Lakitu/Metal Mario/Pink Gold Peach. My guess? DLC. Mario Golf World Tour was testing the waters, but it might easily happen for Mario Kart 8.

Edit: Anyone else find it odd that Nintendo has revealed every character, nitro and retro courses? There has to be DLC, there's no other reason to spoil all of the unlockables before the game comes out right?

[Esteban Colberto]

So the entire soundtrack for this game is on Youtube and it sounds pretty good.

[DementedSun]

Uhm, where is Dry Bones? He was one of my favourite racers... (Here's a thought, what if we can unlock alternate skins for the characters, like Koopa>Drybones). I mean, that would leave something to discover. I feel like there will be another row of unlockable characters too, so don't count out your favourites yet. And Diddy Kong is in .

[Masked Hero]

Originally Posted by DementedSun

Uhm, where is Dry Bones? He was one of my favourite racers... (Here's a thought, what if we can unlock alternate skins for the characters, like Koopa>Drybones). I mean, that would leave something to discover. I feel like there will be another row of unlockable characters too, so don't count out your favourites yet. And Diddy Kong is in .

I doubt that there will be skins. If there were skins, wouldn't they have made Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach skins?

As for my thoughts, Pink Gold Peach and Baby Rosalina are just ridiculous. All of the babies are, really, except for maybe the baby Mario bros.. They were at least playable characters in Partners in Time. I still feel they're a bit strange. Pink Gold Peach is such a ridiculous name. I mean, why? I like the Koopalings though!

[DementedSun]

Well, the metal classes are all heavy weight. Dry bones would be the same as koopa, like Dry Bowser would be the same as Bowser, Birdo/Yoshi. Unique characters like ROB could still have their own spot, there would be room in the menu for them if it moves the icons up slightly in the final game.

[qwertykins76]

Originally Posted by Esteban Colberto

So the entire soundtrack for this game is on Youtube and it sounds pretty good.

My favorite course got in and remade. Not only that, but they did the old music justice. It sounds like they played it on real instruments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb7Z...rekmI-6ejIAQPU

[The Banjonator]

I believe the entire soundtrack is orchestrated. So yeah

[qwertykins76]

So awesome.

[Mandolin]

Originally Posted by TRBB

(Keep Funky Kong out)

Why? Funky's a great character! I get that he's only in Mario Kart Wii because he's an easy reskin of Donkey Kong, but now that we have amazing HD graphics, they could give him a unique model and animations that really bring out his fun mannerisms.

I wouldn't mind losing Funky if it meant gaining Dixie and King K. Rool (and regaining Diddy, obviously, but I don't think they're going to cut him permanently; Waluigi sat out Mario Kart 7, after all). They're a perfect slice of Donkey Kong's neck of the woods and certainly more fun than the babies. For that matter, I can't be the only one who'd like to see some Wario characters, like Captain Syrup or Mona.

Seriously, the Mario universe is broad and full of fun characters. There's no need for babies and metal clones. They needed a lightweight and a heavyweight, so why not, say, Lubba and Professor E. Gadd?

[TRBB]

Hey guys, what do you think of my Super Smash Bros. Mario Kart 8 roster?

But on a serious note, has anyone else noticed there only seems to be three weight classes again? Mario Kart 7 introduced the Feather and Cruiser classes, why introduce two new weight classes only to get rid of them in the very next installment?

I know people hated Queen Bee, but at least she's a heavy weight female character. Where's King Boo and Petey Pirahana? E. Gadd and Wiggler? (I loved it when she turned red when she got hit) Replace Metal Mario with King K. Rool, a heavy weight villain. Replace generic Koopa with Dry Bones (a zombie) and bring back R.O.B.! Add Nabbit or Noki to the roster while you're at it!

How did Waluigi not make the cut in 7, yet Birdo didn't make the cut in 8?
If they responded on MK7 fan mail, I'd like to see their response on MK8 fan mail.
(Look for KingBooWarioSir's post near the bottom.)

Originally Posted by Mandolin

Why? Funky's a great character! I get that he's only in Mario Kart Wii because he's an easy reskin of Donkey Kong, but now that we have amazing HD graphics, they could give him a unique model and animations that really bring out his fun mannerisms.

Because that's all I saw him as, a DK re-skin. The reason he got in is the same reason Metal Mario/Pink Gold Peach is in: laziness. They're trying to rush the game out on store shelves as quickly as possible. (Which will most likely happen anyways)

I also found Funky Kong's voice annoying because they just reused his voice clips in DK Barrel Blast.
(An underrated racing game in my opinion)
It was annoying to hear him say "OLOLOLAY!" every single time you boosted/hit an opponent or barrel. (4:17)
At least he wasn't as bad as Lanky Kong in that game.

Edit: I know they shouldn't cut a character based only on their voice, but come on: Dixie and K. Rool needs some love.
In case you're wondering, I do like his slight change in fur color and voice in Tropical Freeze.

[Mandolin]

Oh man, Mario Super Sluggers had the right idea. Didn't Namco make that game? It gives me a wee bit of hope for Dixie and King K. Rool in Super Sm4sh Bros.

[Grey Jinjo]

Wasn't going to buy Mario Kart 8.

Saw Baby Rosalina.

Buying Mario Kart 8.