Mario Kart 8

MARIO KART 8

And now we come to the end of our run of mainline Mario Kart games, with the most recent entry in the series, Mario Kart 8. This blog will focus solely on Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U specifically, and it's DLC, not on anything added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. All of that will come later. Now, on to the game. One specific detail of note is that this game introduces the concept of Zero-Gravity, allowing the racers to cover all sorts of terrain at all kinds of insane angles that they wouldn't have been able to before. This might factor into the final character model's mobility, but probably not that much into the moveset specifically.

Our roster this time around brings back all of our main eight and Koopa, plus Daisy, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Waluigi, and Toadette from Double Dash, Shy Guy from DS, Baby Peach, Baby Daisy, Rosalina, and Mii from Wii, and Lakitu and Metal Mario from 7. Sadly missing a bunch this time, like regular favorites such as Bowser Jr., Birdo, and Diddy Kong. In their place, we instead see the long awaited introduction of all seven Koopalings, plus Baby Rosalina and . . . Pink Gold Peach? What even is . . . never mind. At least seven of them are awesome. The DLC also brings in Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, and Dry Bowser and special guests Link from Legend of Zelda, and Villager and Isabelle from Animal Crossing, as well as several color variants for Yoshi and Shy Guy.

The Lakitu Ref also appears, of course, alongside regular and bone Piranha Plants, Boos, Chain Chomps, Deku Babas, Dry Bones, Fire Snakes, Freezies, Goombas, Keese, Mechakoopas, Mr. Resetti, Pokeys, and Thwomps as background and obstacles. New items to the game alongside old items include the Boomerang Flower, which lets you throw a boomerang at opponents; the Piranha Plant, which holds the plant out in front of you and lets them bite at opponents who get to close; the Super Horn, which you hold up and blast when someone gets too close to send them spinning, and the Crazy Eight, which is just the Lucky Seven all over again but with one more item in the mix.

The game once again follows the old tradition of having sixteen new tracks and sixteen retro tracks. The new ones this time are: Mario Kart Stadium, our standard generic starter; Water Park, a half-submerged amusement park; Sweet Sweet Canyon, remember Sugar Rush from Wreck-it Ralph? That; Thwomp Ruins, a huge ancient temple made of Thwomps; Mario Circuit, the standard track surrounding Peach's castle but specifically designed to show off the whole anti-grav thing; Toad Harbor, a San Francisco-esque port; Twisted Mansion, a haunted house level; Shy Guy Falls, a desert mine and canyon with a waterfall you can drive up; Sunshine Airport, an airport; Dolphin Shoals, a water level that lets you drive on the back of an Unagi; Electrodrome, sort of like Music Park but for techno music; Mount Wario (I'm sure Mona would love to), a huge snowy mountainous ski track; Cloudtop Cruise, a sky level with an airship included; Bone-Dry Dunes, a desert level; and finishing off with our standard Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road as always.

Really not much to talk about with the Battle stages this time. Someone at their development team must have taken a sharp hit to the head and decided what people really wanted to battle on was the tracks from the game, just without Lakitu telling you you're going the wrong way. Crazy, right? Glad someone stepped in and said that probably wasn't a good idea before it could make it to the final game. Dodged a bullet there. Could you even imagine?

Our DLC tracks came with sixteen more tracks, this time a huge mix of old and new, not divided by cups. The new ones here are: Excitebike Track, based on the Excitebike games; Dragon Driftway, a huge swirling serpentine track; Mute City, based on the F-Zero games; Ice Ice Outpost, an icy level; Hyrule Circuit, based on the Legend of Zelda; Wild Woods, a twisting forest track; Animal Crossing, based on Animal Crossing; Super Bell Highway, a subway based on Super Mario 3D World; and Big Blue, also based on F-Zero.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario Kart: drive, brake, jump, turn, skid, etc., Banana Peel, Green Shell, Red Shell, Feather, Mushroom, Star, Ghost, Coin, Lightning, Egg, Fireball, Poison Mushroom, Triple Mushroom, Super Mushroom, Fake Item, Banana Bunch, Triple Green Shells, Triple Red Shells, Spiny Shell, dual driver, Blooper, Bob-Omb, Bullet Bill, Mega Mushroom, Thundercloud, POW Block, parasail, swim, Super Leaf, Lucky Seven, anti-gravity, Boomerang, Piranha Plant, Super Horn, and Crazy Eight.

Mario: fireballs

Luigi: fireballs

Peach: heart

Yoshi: giant egg

Bowser: Bowser shell

Donkey Kong Jr.

Toad: golden mushroom

Koopa: triple shells

Donkey Kong: giant banana

Wario: bob-omb

Daisy: heart

Birdo: giant egg

Baby Mario: Chain Chomp

Baby Luigi: Chain Chomp

Toadette: golden mushroom

Paratroopa: triple shells

Diddy Kong: giant banana

Bowser Jr.: Bowser shell

Waluigi: bob-ombs

Petey Piranha

King Boo

Dry Bones

ROB

Shy Guy

Baby Peach

Baby Daisy

Rosalina

Funky Kong

Dry Bowser

Mii

Metal Mario

Honeyqueen

Wiggler

Lakitu

The Koopalings

Baby Rosalina

Pink Gold Peach (but still no Kamek, huh?)

Fursuit Mario

Cat Peach

Dry Bowser

Link

Villager

Isabelle

Toadsworth

Kamek

Boo

Piranha Plant

Cheep Cheep

Monty Mole

Thwomp

Chain Chomp

Penguin

Mr. Blizzard

Bob-Omb

Hammer Bro

Little Mouser

Mechakoopa

Pianta

Goomba

Pokey

King Bob-Omb

Wiggler

Spiky Topman

Tiki Goon

Deku Baba

Keese

Mr. Resetti

Bosses:

Big Bully

Eyerok

Goomboss

King Boo

King Bob-Omb

Chief Chilly

Wiggler

Stages:

Mario Circuit

Donut Plains

Ghost Valley

Bowser's Castle

Choco Island

Koopa Beach

Vanilla Lake

Rainbow Road

Luigi Raceway

Moo Moo Farm

Koopa Troopa Beach

Kalimari Desert

Toad's Turnpike

Frappe Snowland

Choco Mountain

Mario Raceway

Wario Stadium

Sherbet Land

Royal Raceway

Bowser's Castle (64)

DK's Jungle Parkway

Yoshi Valley

Banshee Boardwalk

Rainbow Road (64)

Peach Circuit

Shy Guy Beach

Riverside Park

Mario Circuit (SC)

Boo Lake

Cheese Land

Luigi Circuit

Sky Garden

Cheep Cheep Island

Sunset Wilds

Snow Land

Ribbon Road

Yoshi Desert

Lakeside Park

Broken Pier

Bowser's Castle (SC)

Rainbow Road (SC)

Big Donut

Block Fort

Double Deck

Skyscraper

Luigi Circuit (DD)

Peach Beach

Baby Park

Dry Dry Desert

Mushroom Bridge

Mario Circuit (DD)

Daisy Cruiser

Waluigi Stadium

Sherbet Land (DD)

Mushroom City

Yoshi Circuit

DK Mountain

Wario Colosseum

Dino Dino Jungle

Bowser's Castle (DD)

Rainbow Road (DD)

Cookie Land

Block City

Nintendo Gamecube

Pipe Plaza

Luigi's Mansion

Tilt-a-Kart

Figure-8 Circuit

Yoshi Falls

Cheep Cheep Beach

Luigi's Mansion (DS)

Desert Hills

Delfino Square

Waluigi Pinball

Shroom Ridge

DK Pass

Tick Tock Clock

Mario Circuit (DS)

Airship Fortress

Wario Stadium (DS)

Peach Gardens

Bowser's Castle (DS)

Rainbow Road (DS)

Nintendo DS

Twilight House

Palm Shore

Tart Top

Luigi Circuit (Wii)

Moo Moo Meadows

Mushroom Gorge

Toad Factory

Mario Circuit (Wii)

Coconut Mall

DK Summit

Wario's Gold Mine

Daisy Circuit

Koopa Cape

Maple Treeway

Grumble Volcano

Dry Dry Ruins

Moonview Highway

Bowser's Castle (Wii)

Rainbow Road (Wii)

Block Plaza

Delfino Pier

Funky Stadium

Chain Chomp Wheel

Thwomp Desert

Galaxy Colosseum

Toad Circuit

Daisy Hills

Cheep Cheep Lagoon

Shy Guy Bazaar

Wuhu Loop

Mario Circuit (7)

Music Park

Rock Rock Mountain

Piranha Plant Slide

Wario Shipyard

Neo Bowser City

Maka Wuhu

DK Jungle

Rosalina's Ice World

Bowser's Castle (7)

Rainbow Road (7)

Honeybee Hive

Sherbet Rink

Wuhu Town

Mario Kart Stadium

Water Park

Sweet Sweet Canyon

Thwomp Ruins

Mario Circuit (8)

Toad Harbor

Twisted Mansion

Shy Guy Falls

Sunshine Airport

Dolphin Shoals

Electrodrome

Mount Wario

Cloudtop Cruise

Bone-Dry Dunes

Bowser's Castle (8)

Rainbow Road (8)

Excitebike Track

Dragon Driftway

Mute City

Ice Ice Outpost

Hyrule Circuit

Wild Woods

Animal Crossing

Super Bell Highway

Big Blue

Thanks for reading! Next up, we will cover our old characters in one big bundle (no need to go through them all one by one) before starting in on our two brand-new characters!