One of the biggest advancements in Mario Kart history is the addition of online multiplayer action that came with the Wii release back in 2008, along with motorbikes and mad stunt jumps. That was added to by last year’s hand held action update, Mario Kart 7, which also featured online multiplayer fun and introduced underwater, propeller driven vehicles and hang glider jumps into the fray.
With the recent announcement at E3 that Mario Kart 8 is on it’s way to the Nintendo Wii U, the long awaited next gen update is on it’s way, but what advances has it got up its sleeve… Hover cars! Yep, that’s right, somehow Mario, Luigi and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom crew have managed to secure a patent for hover technology – probably something to do with Professor E. Gadd from Luigi’s Mansion 2 – making gravity much less of a challenge than it previously was in the Karting Classic.
While hover boards would have been cooler, the cars do open up more possibilities than you might think. Apart from the fact that it brings a fun, new futuristic angle to Mario Kart gaming, it also means that you will be able to go vertical against walled tracks and even upside down to take slightly less conventional shortcuts. Spiralling, twisting and looping tracks suddenly become a possibility, adding even more fun into the karting experience.
As you’d expect, multiplayer online action will be just as much a part of Mario Kart 8 as it was on 7 and Wii. There’ll also be the same Grand Prix, head to head, time trial and battle modes as before. The glider from MK7 will be returning too along with the underwater propellers.
Due for release in early 2014, the game is probably still in production. While the HD, supercharged power of the Nintendo Wii U has given MK8 a big boost forward in terms of graphics, detail and frame rates, it doesn’t quite look like it’s taking full advantage of the technology. Our guess is that the game will be sharpened even further for its eventually release.
In addition to the graphics being worked on, we’ve also got big expectations for some more tracks to build out the game. From the look of the trailer below, we have a mushroom kingdom castle course, desert, haunted mansion, melody road, stone ruins, chocolate plains and San Fransisco Hills tracks to race around, but we imagine that this will just be a taster of the epically amazing array of courses still to come.
There should also be a surprise or two in terms of special items to use on the tracks by the time Mario Kart 8 hits the shelf, as well as a wider than Bowser’s bumper plate character roster to choose from. It’s definitely a sneak preview of a work in progress, but if team Nintendo knuckle down, work hard and try some of their own magic mushroom stew they should produce a pretty epic kart racer for the Nintendo Wii U.
