[Wii U] Mario Kart 8 - Talkback

[Jave]

The 8th entry in Nintendo's most popular racing series is finally here! Featuring several new gameplay elements and glorious HD graphics for the first time, Mario Kart 8 promises to be one of the most memorable games on the Wii U. Race on your own or with your friends, whether locally or online, share screenshots and achievements on Miiverse, and post highlight reel videos on Youtube. Mario Kart 8 will definitely give you dozens of hours of fun.

- Information

- Release Date: May 29, 2014 (Japan); May 30, 2014 (America/Europe); May 31, 2014 (Australia)
- Developer: Nintendo EAD Group No.1
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Players: Up to 4 players
- Controllers: Gamepad (allows for off-TV play when solo), Wii U Pro Controller, Wiimote, Wiimote+Nunchuk, Wii Wheel, Wii Classic/Pro Controller.


- Features

Spoiler

- Grand Prix mode allows for four players locally.

- Bikes are back from Mario Kart Wii, but manual Wheelies are gone. They are done automatically now while on turbo.

- Underwater driving and flying are back from Mario Kart 7. Likewise, kart customization is back too, now with more options and unlockables.

- A new feature to this game is gravity, which allows you to race on walls and ceilings. This also includes the spin boost, which gives you a small boost in speed when you bump into another racer.

- Like in Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 7, coins are back as a top speed boost in race and to buy extra custom items.

- Online races can be against friends or random people. You can also create tournaments to your own set of rules. Also, like in Mario Kart Wii, two people can race online from the same console.

- Mario Kart TV allows you to save Highlight reel videos and upload them to Miiverse and Youtube. Videos are of 30, 45 or 60 seconds.

- Battle mode does no longer feature its own tracks. Instead, they are regular tracks that are slightly remixed to fit a battle style better.

- Characters are no longer unlocked on specific terms. Getting a gold cup on Grand Prix (on any difficulty) unlocks a character at random. This allows you to skip 50cc and 100cc if you wish to do so.

- What is unlocked through specific conditions are Miiverse stamps, which you get by beating Time Trial ghosts.

- New Tracks

Spoiler

Mushroom Cup
- Mario Kart Stadium
- Water Park
- Sweet Sweet Canyon
- Thwomp Ruins

Flower Cup
- Mario Circuit
- Toad Harbor
- Twisted Mansion
- Shy Guy Falls

Star Cup
- Sunshine Airport
- Dolphin Shoals
- Electrodrome
- Mount Wario

Special Cup
- Cloudtop Cruise
- Bone Dry Dunes
- Bowser's Castle
- Rainbow Road

- Retro Tracks

Spoiler

Shell Cup
- Wii Moo Moo Meadows
- GBA Mario Circuit
- DS Cheep-Cheep Beach
- N64 Toad's Turnpike

Banana Cup
- GCN Dry Dry Desert
- SNES Donut Plains 3
- N64 Royal Raceway
- 3DS DK Jungle

Leaf Cup
- DS Wario Stadium
- GCN Sherbet Land
- 3DS Music Park
- N64 Yoshi Valley

Lightning Cup
- DS Tick Tock Clock
- 3DS Piranha Plant Slide
- Wii Grumble Volcano
- N64 Rainbow Road

- Characters

Spoiler

Starters:

- Mario
- Luigi
- Peach
- Daisy
- Bowser
- DK
- Wario
- Waluigi
- Yoshi
- Toad
- Koopa Troopa
- Shy Guy
- Baby Mario
- Baby Luigi
- Baby Peach
- Baby Daisy

Unlockables:

Spoiler

- Rosalina
- Toadette
- Lakitu
- Metal Mario
- Pink Gold Peach
- Baby Rosalina
- Mii
- Iggy
- Morton
- Lemmy
- Ludwig
- Roy
- Wendy
- Larry

- Items

Spoiler

Returning:
- Green Shell
- Triple Green Shell
- Red Shell
- Triple Red Shell
- Blue Shell (Wingless)
- Banana
- Triple Banana
- Mushroom
- Triple Mushroom
- Golden Mushroom
- Star
- Lightning
- Fire Flower
- Bob-omb
- Blooper
- Bullet Bill
- Coin

New:
Piranha Plant - Like in Super Mario 3D World, this is a potted Piranha Plant you hold and chomps at racers ahead of you. It also eats items such as bananas and shells to remove obstacles off the road.
Boomerang Flower - An item that can be thrown forward three times and hit other racers, then return to you. The third time it won't return and follow the track instead.
Crazy 8 - Same as the Lucky 7 in Mario Kart 7, but a Coin has been added to the rotating items.
Super Horn - Creates a shockwave around your kart damaging other players and destroying any items nearby, and yes, it includes Blue Shells.

- Toonzone Racing Community

Players! Post your NNID in this thread and I'll add it to this section of the OP. We can race against each other at random matches or any current tournaments (whether organized by us or by Nintendo themselves).

TZ Username - Nintendo Network ID

Jave - Javeman
GWOtaku - HarlockOfArcadia
defunctzombie - defunctzombie
LevyAnime - levyanime
Dragonpiece - therealdp
Daxdiv - Daxdiv
O-chan - Ochan30
Radiant - WoodwindsRock
G1Ravage - G1Ravage
TnAdct1 - ToonAddict
Peter Paltridge - Scudworth

(To be updated)

 

[defunctzombie]

Haleloo, no more unlock hurdles! That's what I hated about the Wii version, and I still haven't unlocked Rosalina.

 

[ShadowGUN]

I always wonder why Mario collected those coins.

Nice ride . Too bad is Japan only.

 

[GWOtaku]

My Nintendo Network ID is HarlockOfArcadia. Looks like I'll have the game on time tomorrow evening.

I've been pretty hyped for this since ever since that one time I posted the video of this really cool Rainbow Road track and got told that was the retro-inspired, *less* impressive one. Like....yeah. This should be one beautiful game.

 

[defunctzombie]

My name's the same here, there, everywhere. Don't have the game yet but feel free to put me on the list.

 

[LevyAnime]

Haleloo, no more unlock hurdles! That's what I hated about the Wii version, and I still haven't unlocked Rosalina.

Yeah, I agree with you, man. You must have not played MK7, though. All you need to do is beat each cup on 150cc to unlock each and every character! I hope they do that with this, as well...

I always wonder why Mario collected those coins.

Nice ride . Too bad is Japan only.

Well, apparently, they're gonna try and release it internationally sometime in the future.

I just hope the future isn't "over a year later" or something like that...

Nice thread, though. My NNID is levyanime and I hope to have some great races (or battles) with you all!

 

[defunctzombie]

No, I haven't played MK7. I just got my 3DS a few months ago and haven't bought many games besides the various Zeldas yet.

 

[Jave]

Everyone please read

Talking about the announced DLC and your impressions of it is fine for this thread, however, in order to not derail ourselves from talking about the game itself, I would prefer that all moral discussion involving Nintendo doing cross-advertisement DLC should be kept in its own separate thread, as it's a can of worms different enough to guarantee it.

If anyone wants to start such a thread, feel free to do so, but this thread should remain to discuss the game itself.

 

[Dragonpiece]

My network id is therealdp

Pretty great game, controls were a bit different than I were expecting them to be, but after a few cups, I'm pretty good with them. Does anyone else have problems with drifting with the motorcycle though?

 

[Daxdiv]

My Nintendo Network ID is... well... Daxdiv, obviously!

Having a bit of a blast with this game. Completed the 50cc to see what I can get and to test out the new tracks and all. Right now, mostly maining as Iggy, kind of cool after all these years to play as the Koopalings.

 

[GWOtaku]

Been going a bit crazy with Miiverse posting. The possible best first impression in Mario Kart 8 comes in Bowser's Castle in the special cup....whoa

Spoiler

I've been taking it easy with the 50cc races just to get a feel for the tracks and take in the scenery and to unlock stuff. The controls feel just like MK7, which is fine by me, though maybe I'll try the control scheme where you can steer by turning the gamepad.

I wonder if it's just the difficulty I'm on...I'm on my fourth cup race but I've been seeing a lot of green shells and coins from item boxes and little of anything else, and some items not at all (no Boomerang yet!). Of course, that doesn't matter much when you're always in 1st place.

I'd thought that playing "Mario Kart" without karts would just feel stupid, but there's actually some novelty in the very large DK and Bowser racing around on motorcycles. Good times.

 

[O-chan]

My Nintendo Network ID is Ochan30.

So far I have play the Mushroom Cup, Shell Cup, Flower Cup and Star Cup in 50cc in that order.
I used Mario and Luigi on their standard karts in the first two. Thanks to the GBA Mario Circuit in improved my learning curve with drift.
I managed to unlock Metal Mario, Ludwig, and Baby Rosalina so far.
I used Ludwig with the Yoshi motorcycle in the Flower Cup and it was a little harder to do drift.
For Star Cup I had the Princess with the Badwagon and it made it harder to drift and turn sharp corner.

Graphic wise this game is gorgeous and Nintendo did an excellent job with the a amount of detail and variation in the courses. The anti gravity feature has a really trippy effect.

I like the highlight reels and the constant random unlockable features.

 

[Looney Turtles]

I just got this game yesterday. I've went through Grand Prix four times now, but I have not yet played any online races. This game probably has my favorite version of Rainbow Road yet.

 

[Mandouga]

I got the game myself yesterday. However, I never seemed to get the super horn while I was in first place. As a result, I kept getting (excuse the hyperbole) assaulted by the blue spiny shell whenever it came. I did get the super horn when I was in second place once. Can anybody confirm whether or not the "you can get the super horn while you're in 1st place" claim was just a rumor?

Also, I really don't like the return of the "coin milestone" method if unlocking parts (complete with the "10 coin limit" during races). I mean, how long is it going to take...how many times will we need to repeat ourselves before we finally unlock all the parts this time...?

Sent from my iPod touch using toonzone

 

[Harmonie]

I think I like the game better than Mario Kart 7 - I find the controls to be much tighter than in Mario Kart 7. Although that may have to do with it having been on a handheld. I never found playing MK7 on the 3DS comfortable at all. I find this game to be quite comfortable on the Pro Controller!

My NNID is WoodwindsRock, because I actually have my Wii U online. =D

 

[Jave]

I can confirm you can get Super Horn on first place since it's happened to me several times, twice in one race, even.

Absolutely loving this game so far, and a major improvement on the previous entries.The AI and RNG is no longer the awful thing that could completely turn around a race in previous games (it can still happen, but is nowhere near as common), as items seem to be a lot better balanced this time around. I definitely didn't see as many blue shells as I did on MK7 and MKWii.

The tracks are lovely and gorgeously designed. The gravity feature was not nearly as gimmicky as I thought it would be, as it feels quite nice and adds a different form of gameplay. I will comment on each track separately later, when I've played each one multiple times.

I think Larry will be my main of the Koopalings. He was always my favorite, and controls quite well, too.

 

[Harmonie]

I don't know... I'm still seeing plenty of the same item nonsense I remember dealing with in Mario Kart Wii. Blue Shells are still very numerous (although noticeably absent in other races), as are the other items. I still can't get over it when I get hit by a green shell, which seems to love to happen right after I get hit by a Blue Shell. >.>

I've seen several Blue Shells pass by me and get 'lost', though, and for the record, I don't remember ever seeing that in Mario Kart games in the past.

 

[G1Ravage]

G1Ravage - G1Ravage

 

[TnAdct1]

For those wanting to friend me via Nintendo ID, mine is ToonAddict (That's pretty much what TnAdct is short for).

 

[defunctzombie]

[video=youtube;Wm3usxOu-yk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm3usxOu-yk[/video]

The Year of Luigi isn't going down without a fight.