Mario Kart 8, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Blue Shell

Games
1

New thread for new MK.

First off, I’m assuming that folks know that NoA and NoE have purchase deals: buy the game, get another free as a digital download: http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7127/~/club-nintendo-mario-kart-8-free-game-offer-faq

I’m also wondering about items: I’ve been searching for info on this & haven’t found confirmation, but apparently in this version you can completely turn items off, making it more of a skill-based racer than the previous I’m-in-first-place-and-will-now-lose-because-of-that-damned-blue-shell mechanic allowed it to be. Any news on that? There’s no new F-Zero on the horizon, so this might be as close as I can get for a while.

2

I’m surprised this is the only thread for this game. I have it ready to be delivered on Friday. I will be having a party at my house on Friday, as well.

3

My whole family is excited for this game to arrive. We will all be playing this Friday night.

@ Alan, I hope that’s true. I would love a mode that allows items to be turned off. Long overdue for this series.

4

Glad to see people are excited about a wii u title.

My 5 year old used to be everything Mario for the past two years… It seems he has moved on… It is all about marvel superheroes now…

5

Not out till the 30th in the UK, which sucks as I have friends coming round for some boardgaming today and was hoping for a bit of Mario Kart action too.

6

I think removing only the blue shell would really make the game more enjoyable. all the other items generally improve the game and have some semblance of counter play, but the blue shell is just really annoying and doesn’t even benefit the person using it.

7

Our family will be Mario Karting in the 30th! I was really pleased with the online portion of Mario Kart 7 and this new version looks to be even better.

8

They added a horn item which can counter everything including the blue shell.

9

My house is on countdown as well.

10

Tom’s review: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2014/05/28/mario-kart-8-just-darn-irresistable/

11

Why isn’t it showing on the front? It was for a minute.

12

On the one hand, I hate race for the sake of racing games. On the other hand, this looks like it has enough cute, whimsical combat, and polish to be a solid party game choice. Hmmmm. This might be my first WiiU buy in awhile. The free other game (Mario Bros, Pikmin, or Zelda HD remake) with registration also sweetens the deal nicely.

13

Tom, can you turn off items entirely? Inquiring minds want to know!

14

The wife has this on preorder, so I’m excited. I love me some Mario Kart.

15

You can. You can also set it to use only certain particular items. Not quite as flexible as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where you can flip the switches on a list of every single power-up, but close enough.

-Tom
16

Is there an option to only use blue shells? That would make for some great replays.

This is also a good sign: “When did it happen that I cared enough about Mario Kart 8 to upload highlights because I placed second in an online race?”

17

Thanks, Tom. I very much appreciate it! Now, time to clear off some room from the WiiU internal memory…

18

You can do shells only, bananas only, mushrooms only, bob-ombs only, no items, no items or coins, and something called frantic mode, which throws in the traditional catch-up mechanics more often. This is all super easy to set up for local split screen, but it isn’t part of the normal jump-in-and-just-play multiplayer. Instead you can set up tournaments which are kind of like hosted servers where you set whatever parameters you want.

 -Tom
19

Is splitscreen and online possible at the same time? Had a hell of a time trying to google that.

20

I had no idea about this deal. Sold.