Mario Kart 8 Preview

At E3 in 2013, Nintendo announced the development of MarioKart8 for the Wii U. They showed a trailer or a teaser of a race(s) within the game. The trailer showed different characters, vehicle, maps and some new cool features. One feature that had a lot of people amazed was the fact that they saw the vehicles floating on the road whether it was upside down, straight alongside a wall or even in a twisting and winding road. This feature was later announced, on the Nintendo direct for MarioKart8, as anti-gravity. There are a few cool things about anti-gravity that affects the overall gameplay and how each player will now play the game. One of which is the new spin boost which occurs when a player bumps into another player or specified item on the course. Normally people try to avoid contact with others to keep up their speed and to prevent from losing coins. Now this will throw that out the window because Nintendo created this feature to encourage players to hit and smash each other to get farther ahead. To enter Anti-gravity one must cross a blue strip which is pretty hard to miss.

Nintendo also created new courses and even remastered a lot of old ones. Some of which are: 3DS DK Falls, N64 Toad Turnpike, and the all time favorite Rainbow Road. Nintendo does a great job at bringing out all the power that the Wii U can handle because these maps look amazing and look fun to drive. There were also a lot of places that held the demo for the game such as Gamestop. I personally played the demo and from what I can see I think the game will be a hit. The controls are smooth and accurate, the customization of the vehicle with each different part is awesome and depending on the character that you pick you would need to customize the vehicle to balance it off. Speaking of vehicles and characters, the vehicles list includes bikes, Karts, and ATV’s. The customization aspect of it is that a player can pick the vehicle, the type of wheel and the glider for each race. As for the new characters there are the Koopalings, baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach. Pink Gold Peach is the new metal character in the game which some fans were hoping for a new one, me included.

There is always the usual worry about the bikes being faster than the karts again, we all know that everyone picked the bikes in MarioKart7 for a reason. Well this has been fixed guys, Nintendo has made it so that bikes and karts are balanced depending on the track. Now I say “depending on the track” for a reason, each track has different turns and different terrain in which certain parts and vehicles are better at. Bikes are better at the turning aspect as handling and speed is concerned but the karts are better at the straight roads than the bikes are. This test was shown on the Nintendo direct with the MarioKart8 director Kosuke Yabuki. As far as new items go we have quite a few to mention. They are the Boomerang Flower, Piranha Plant, the Crazy 8 and the Super Horn. The Boomerang flower is exactly what it sounds like, a Boomerang. It can be thrown at enemies and will come back to the player and if you miss on the initial throw you have a chance to hit them on the way back. The best part of it though, is that you can use it three times. Next the Piranha plant will automatically nom on any player or item in front of it such as the bananas. Then the Crazy 8 will give a player eight items at once and they will be a huge factor in the middle of a race. Lastis the biggest one of all, the Super Horn. This horn is powerful but rare, it will blast a wall of sound at nearby enemies and incoming items. It will even break the Spiny shell that everyone hates.

Last but not least is the online mode which features some nifty things. Nintendo made it easier for people to connect via internet by giving us 4 options: Online, Local, Friends and Tournaments. The first three are straight forward but the tournament option looks fun. Players around the world can host their own tournaments as well as join currently existing ones. The tournament options allow players to customize the race as well as the date and time for this race. They also included a new race speak or chat to where people can speak to each other via headsets. Then there is the new MKTV or MarioKartTV, which allows players to post their replays so them and other people can view them. Now the most interesting part of this though is that you can post your replays directly to Youtube. There is one thing though, the second you do this they will automatically do a copyright claim in which you cannot monitize it for the people planning on doing videos on the game.

This game has had me in its grasp the moment I saw it and I cannot wait to get it. The new anti-gravity, the new items, maps, characters and functions all got me excited for its release. Look forward to a great game guys.