Here’s a marketing partnership I bet you didn’t see coming.

Nintendo has announced that it is riding shotgun with Mercedes-Benz to bring more horsepower to Mario Kart 8 in the form of three new karts modeled after a Mercedes-Benz GLA, a 1950s 300 SL Roadster and a 1930s Silver Arrow. Each ride will be able to outfit with different gliders and wheels like any other kart in the game, while the GLA will offer special wheel options of its own.

The Mercedes-Benz DLC is set to release August 27th, the 22nd anniversary of Super Mario Kart‘s original launch in Japan, as part of an update bringing new features and enhancements to the core Mario Kart 8 experience. On the same day, a “Mercedes Cup” online tournament will begin featuring the new Mercedes-Benz karts. The tournament is set to last until September 23rd.

In addition to the Mercedes-Benz DLC, the Mario Kart 8 update will add the following upgrades:

• Drivers will now have the option to display the course map on the TV screen during races.
• The order of the menu after each race will be changed to “Next Race”, followed by “Watch Highlight Reel”.
• The game will remember the most recent kart options that were selected, even if the Wii U system was powered down.
• Users will be able to change options of other players’ Mario Kart TV downloaded highlight reels, such as changing the focus to different characters or actions.
• A score screen will be added so players can see how many coins they’ve collected, the win-loss record of their online battles and their frequently used characters.
• Improved the stability of the online connection to enhance user experience during online battles.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that ALL of this content is free? Well, it is! Who’s ready to cruise around the Mushroom Kingdom in pure luxury?

As Mario Kart 8 races toward a May 30th retail finish line, Nintendo revs up the pre-launch hype with new details, footage, and pics from its first ever HD anti-gravity mascot kart racer for the Wii U.

Wanna know about new mechanics like the Spin Boost? How many tracks will the game have? Are there any more new or returning characters to look forward to? And how about those new weapon power-ups like the Piranha Plant and Boomerang Flower?

These questions and more will be answered if you just keep on reading. Stick around long enough and you’ll even get to see an updated look at Mario Kart 8 in action, glorious Rainbow Road footage included!

• Spin Boost: While racing upside down or on walls, players can bump into other racers or certain track obstacles to get a speed boost. The Spin Boost fundamentally redefines the way that players compete, and makes anti-gravity racing even more exhilarating.

• Returning Characters: In Mario Kart 8, players can race with returning characters Metal Mario, Lakitu and Shy Guy. These newly revealed returning characters join a host of previously announced favorites, including all seven of Bowser’s Koopalings, who are playable for the first time in video game history.

• New Items: Two new items join the fray in Mario Kart 8. First, the Piranha Plant attaches to the front of the player’s kart and chomps at other characters, banana peels on the track or even shells thrown by other characters. Each time the Piranha Plant lunges forward to bite, the player receives a brief boost of speed. The second new item is the Boomerang Flower. After acquiring it, racers can throw a Boomerang at opponents to stun them, and its arc allows players to strike multiple opponents with a single toss. The Boomerang can be thrown three times – forward or backward.

• New Courses: Remixed classic courses make a return in Mario Kart 8, with favorites such as Moo Moo Meadows from Mario Kart Wii, Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 and Donut Plains from Super Mario Kart, among others. The graphics and layout of these courses have been redesigned and re-imagined. For example, Toad’s Turnpike now allows players to drive up certain walls in anti-gravity mode. Mario Kart 8 will include 16 new courses and 16 remixed classic courses.

• Live Recorded Music: For the first time in the Mario Kart series, select courses in Mario Kart 8 feature music recorded by live performers.

• Control Scheme: Mario Kart 8 will support a variety of control schemes, including the Wii U GamePad, the Wii U Pro Controller, the Wii Wheel and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The game can also be played in off-TV mode using just the Wii U GamePad.

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Go-kart racers, start your engines!

The eighth numbered Mario Kart is currently in the Wii U dev shop getting geared and tuned up by Nintendo’s top mechanics for the series’ first HD home console release. Upgrades from recent games will be reinstalled, such as underwater racing and hang-gliders from Mario Kart 7, and motorbikes and midair tricking from Mario Kart Wii.

This time on the track, Mario and his mascot pals will be able to shift gears into antigravity overdrive, racing their karts along walls and completely upside down through Princess Peach’s castle, Boo’s haunted mansion and other Mushroom Kingdom locales, all at a crisp 60 frames per second. Players will even be able to share their favorite antigrav racing moments with the Miiverse using a new highlight video sharing feature called Mario Kart TV.

Toss in 12-player online racing and the return of Waluigi and Toadette, and all the components are in place for the deepest, craziest Mario Kart experience to date. Watch for Mario Kart 8 exclusively on Wii U in spring 2014.

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Nintendo has more Mario games coming up soon for Wii U. Surprise!

OK, so it comes as no great shock that Nintendo is well underway developing a new 3D Mario title (from the team behind Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D Land) as well as the next installment in the Mario Kart franchise, both destined for the company’s shiny new GamePad-powered console. Seriously, did you think they would just stop with New Super Mario Bros. U? Ummm… I don’t think so!

Again, like most of the Nintendo Direct announcements today, specifics about the games are still to be disseminated. What is important to note however is that the Wii U’s Mario Kart and 3D Mario titles will be appearing at E3 in playable form, which means both games should be fairly far along in development and hopefully close to release by the second half of this year. Of course, there’s still plenty of time between now and E3 so we’ll see what happens.

Back with more as soon as anything of greater substance is announced. Stay tuned, y’all!

Bundles, bundles, and yes, more bundles. This holiday season, like others before it, is full of them, because nothing says Merry Christmas like a game and video game machine all snuggled up together inside the same package.

Nintendo’s already offered one 3DS bundle for Black Friday, but this next one pairs the extra-large 3DS with a completely different Mario game.

Starting December 2nd, $199.99 will get you a Blue/Black Nintendo 3DS XL system pre-installed with a digital copy of Mario Kart 7, the excellent kart racer which updates the series with aerial gliders, underwater racing, kart upgrades and sparkly 3D effects.

Read our Mario Kart 7 review from last holiday season to see why you’ll want to take it for a spin, whether bought separately or in this shiny new bundle.

The big red “7” in the title of the latest Mario Kart offering—as opposed to, say, a more obvious choice like “Mario Kart 3DS”—gives the impression there’s something unusual under the hood of Nintendo’s long-driving series as it crashes headlong onto Big N’s not-so-new handheld. Those who’ve spun a kart wheel and hurled their share of red and green shells know better. Like its garagefull of predecessors, this Mario Kart sticks to the basic formula it’s been rocking for years.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Every Mario Kart crashes or surges based on its tracks. A whopping 32 tracks comprise the lineup here, a strong mix of the new and the remastered-for-3D. Although I’m not thrilled to have not one, but two of the eight Cup events in Grand Prix mode end with the frustrating/momentum-killing Rainbow Road, I have to say that overall, the selection is generally awesome. Even familiar tracks from the series’ two most recent entries, like Waluigi Pinball from Mario Kart DS and Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii, feel fresh and interesting when rendered with a shiny coat of 3D. And while some of the new tracks are a little simplistic and stylistically familiar–the new DK Jungle isn’t that far removed from the re-rendered Gamecube track Dino Dino Jungle–others, like the re-imagined Bowser’s Castle, are deviously difficult to navigate, even without Toad dive-bombing a shell off your fender at exactly the wrong moment.

3D’s not the only new trick tucked in Mario Kart 7’s tank. The glider attachments can be a great way to literally leapfrog the competition by going airborne—or, if you’re clumsy with your wind angles and landing approaches, to smash into a cliff and plummet into seventh place. Three new items improve the magic-box selection, including a lucky “7” that arms you with a spinning ring of awesome items to wreak havoc. The Tanooki Tail is supposed to serve as a defensive measure, but unless you can grow eyes in the back of your head, it’s actually more effective at swiping Bowser and Koopa over the frigid edge of DK Pass.

Extended underwater sequences are also new. At first, it seems a pointless addition designed simply to showcase some more 3D trickery—hey,look, fish!—but a few watery laps start to showcase the strategic value of diving deep, especially in a level like the remastered Daisy’s Cruiser, where aquatic shortcuts are the key to success on the higher-cc circuits.

Collecting gold coins—which can look an awful lot like banana peels when you’re drifting the curves at top speeds—are the key to unlocking kart upgrades, making it useful to try to finish each race with a full complement of ten. Good luck with that, by the way—getting smacked with opponent’s items, a turn of events guaranteed to happen at least once in every race, will cause you to drop most of your loot.

Other Mario Kart mechanics remain remarkably—and in some cases, annoyingly—the same as they’ve ever been. Even after seven iterations and five platform generations, cheap blue spiny shells and last-minute lightning bolts from the also-ran gallery can and will still ruin your perfectly driven race. The character lineup, meanwhile, is as puzzling as it is shallow. Collecting gold in all the cups unlocks our own Miis and Metal Mario (?), but no Shy Guy or Dry Bones? I’d love to believe these MIA faves might be made available in a future expansion pack, but as fans of the series know all too well, Nintendo doesn’t do expansion packs for Mario Kart. (Or anything else, for that matter.)

Dinging Mario Kart 7 for its shortcomings is like complaining about a Big Mac or a Michael Bay flick: You know exactly what you’re getting when you step behind this wheel, and the driving action is as satisfying as it ever was. Besides, we’re better served focusing on the bigger picture. In the course of a few weeks, the 3DS has landed two must-have titles. Guess Mario Christmas came a little early this year. Jam the pedal to the floor and enjoy it.

Pros:
+ It literally is what it is—a racing formula that still shines, even after seven games
+ New items are entertaining and useful without upsetting competitive balance
+ 3D effects are awesome, even adding a great new sheen to classic tracks like Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress

Cons:
– The list of “new” additions isn’t that long
– Rainbow Road. Twice. Really?
– Even after seven iterations and five platform generations, cheap blue spiny shells and last-minute lightning bolts can still wreck your race to the cup

Affiliate Links:
Buy from Amazon or eStarland

Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 12/4/2011
Genre: Racing
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Players: 1-8
Source: Review copy provided by publisher

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I want to start this review by mentioning that I am probably the biggest fan of the Mario Kart series that you’ll ever meet. I’ve been playing these games for well over 15 years and have participated in a number of tournaments across the country. So of course I went to the midnight launch back in late April and was one of the first to pick up Mario Kart Wii. The next day I spent playing through the single player mode to unlock new racers and vehicles, along with trying my hand at the online multiplayer and have been playing this game exclusively for the past two weeks. During that time, I’ve not once regretted making this purchase.

When you get down to it, Mario Kart Wii is basically just an extension of Mario Kart DS (with better graphics of course) with four major exceptions: The Wii wheel, improved online multiplayer, and an altered mini-turbo mechanic, and motor cycles. Let’s hit each one of these before we dive into the main game itself.

If you want a more in-depth review of Nintendo’s Wii wheel, check out this article that Matt posted last week. I’m going to keep this focused on my thoughts, and also those of my wife as she often plays Mario Kart Wii online with me. As I can imagine most people did the first time they played Mario Kart Wii, I busted out the included Wii wheel and tried my hand at it. Upon starting the first race in the 50cc mushroom cup, I found myself weaving back and forth across the road as if I were drunk. I immediately stopped the game, hooked up the nunchuck, and proceeded to play Mario Kart Wii as I had these past 15 years: with my thumbs. I’m going to assume that many players coming to Mario Kart Wii with a similar background as myself will more than likely opt for the controller play style (be it GameCube, Classic, or Wii Remote + nunchuck) over the wheel simply because it’s what they’re most familiar with and can begin enjoying the game from the beginning without having to learn a brand new way to control their kart.

Interestingly enough, my wife (whose only Mario Kart experience consisted of playing a few rounds back on the Nintendo 64) actually prefers the Wii wheel over any other control method. When I asked why, she said it felt more natural than steering with a stick. Plus, because she drives, using the Wii wheel is almost second nature. Obviously Nintendo is banking on the inclusion of a wheel with Mario Kart Wii to get more newcomers to purchase the game since driving is natural to most of the general public.

Regardless of whether you prefer the wheel or the standard controller, you’ll be using these to steer your vehicle around each track. Notice how I said “vehicle” instead of kart. This is because Mario Kart Wii has introduced motorcycles into the fray. Starting out, players can select from three go-karts and three motorcycles and eventually unlock another three of each vehicle type by playing through the single player grand prix mode and unlocking expert staff ghosts in time trials. While the karts and the motorcycles perform very similarly, there are two differences which set each apart: motorcycles can perform wheelies which increase your speed in straightaways while the karts have two levels of mini-turbos instead of the motorcycle’s one. After trying my hand at both, the addition of motorcycles is a fairly benign change as both vehicles perform equally well.

Now that I’ve mentioned mini-turbos, I might as well get into one of the most controversial changes in Mario Kart Wii: the overhauled mini-turbo system. Since the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Kart, players could gain a speed boost by drifting through a corner and wiggling the control stick back and fourth. This lead to a phenomenon known as “snaking” where a skilled player could travel down a straightaway, doing quick drifts back and forth just to travel down its entire length using mini-turbos. In order to combat this tactic, Nintendo altered the drifting/mini-turbo mechanic so that turbos are granted as you turn while drifting. So for example, drifting around a sharp corner will net you quicker mini-turbos as opposed to cornering a gradual bend in the road. While some long-time Mario Kart players are taken aback by this change, this new method isn’t necessarily bad, as it takes just a few races to get used to, and it also bridges the gap between Mario Kart pros and newcomers.

This can be seen no better place than online during multiplayer matches. This is Nintendo’s biggest change to the Mario Kart franchise, and one that I’ve been looking forward to the most once it was announced. Where as Smash Brothers was a fairly great example of how to not implement online play on the Wii, Mario Kart is the complete opposite. You can join in on regional or worldwide races or battle modes and can typically find a full group of racers and be participating in a lag-free race within 30 seconds. While friend codes once again rear their ugly head, Nintendo relieved a little bit of the strain of trading codes by allowing players send messages to individuals that are already on their Wii’s friendlist and let them exchange codes that way instead of having to do so in person. Also, a feature that I enjoy is that if you see a friend playing online, you can join their group and race/battle with them and the other random people that they’re playing with at the time. And while you can still create a custom room which only your friends can join, unlike Smash Brothers Brawl Nintendo isn’t alienating you from participating in online play if you don’t happen to know that many people that have Mario Kart Wii.

To expand on Mario Kart Wii’s online features, it actually has its own channel which you can install onto your Wii’s dashboard to access at any time, regardless of whether or not you have the game in your disk drive. Entering this channel grants you access to your friends list, along with checking the time trial rankings of anyone on that list, in your region, or even the entire world. You can also download ghost data from any individual and see exactly how they reached a time that was 30 seconds better than your own. Finally, you can also participate in tournaments that Nintendo creates which are slight variations on the normal levels. For example, Nintendo’s first tournament wanted players to obtain the fastest time on Mario Circuit, however they introduced roaming Chain Chomps onto the course, and repositioned the course’s wandering Goombas and the item blocks.

Now with those four major points out of the way, I’ll focus on the typical Mario Kart content which changes between every iteration. Like the DS version, Mario Kart Wii features both original tracks, and throwbacks from Mario Karts of yesteryear. While all of the older tracks translated perfectly to the new game, I’m really impressed by all of the original tracks. There isn’t a single one that I despise, unlike the older games (I’ll always hate you Baby Park!!!). Twelve racers can participate in a single race now, which at times gets somewhat frustrating as shells, the new POW block, and lightning bolts get thrown around more often than before. Oddly enough, blue shells, which seek out the current leader and eliminates them in a blue explosion, actually occur less than in Mario Kart: Double Dash, which some players may find as a relief.

Graphically the game is a slight improvement over Double Dash but when compared with other games on the system, like Smash Brothers Brawl, they’re just okay. Also, it seems that Nintendo told the voice actors to come up with some of the most annoying clips ever to record for the game. This is most apparent when you play as your Mii as every few seconds mine yells “GO GO GO!” or “YEEEAAAHH!” in a nasally, high-pitched voice. Honestly that’s partly the reason I’ve switched my main character to Dry Bowser as listening to him growl is at least tolerable.

One thing I do want to mention before I finish up this review is that long-time players of the series may find the “rubber-band” effect to be more noticeable in Mario Kart Wii than any other game in the series. In other words, the game handycaps those players in the lead while favoring those in the back of the field. While this doesn’t seem to happen as often when playing on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect, it’s painfully obvious in local multiplayer as the game seems to generate more items which keep players grouped together rather than allowing any one to take a substantial lead.

Even with its faults, Mario Kart Wii is definietly a must have title. Mario Kart fans will find the game challenging, yet easy to adapt to while individuals that are intimidated by games should see it strangely inviting with the allure of the Wii Wheel. Additionally, this Mario Kart has more replay value than any previous iteration as the challenge of playing other racers using the Wi-Fi Connect service will keep you coming back for more races long after you’ve mastered the single player game and unlocked everything.

Pros:
+ Multiple control methods allow many options for both novice and veteran Karters.
+ Added Wi-Fi Connect online play adds a huge amount of replay value.
+ All tracks, both new and old, are fun to play.
+ Tournaments give players new scenarios to complete offline and upload their performance for rankings.

Cons:
– Graphics aren’t really showing off what the Wii is capable of, especially compared to Brawl or other first-party titles.
– Annoying voice acting.
– More “rubber-banding” than in previous Mario Kart titles.

Game Info:
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 4/27/08
Genre: Kart Racing
Players: 1 – 4 locally, 2 – 12 on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect

If you’re still in search of a unique (and really fucking cool!) gift item for the gamer on your holiday shopping list this season, head over to Firebox.com and pre-order the Mario Kart Go! slot racing system. Mario Kart Go! is fully licensed by Nintendo and comes with 1:43 scale versions of Mario’s B Dasher and Wario’s Brute, two speed controllers (obviously) and over 20 feet of track to race on for $89.95. Stock is currently out, hence the need to pre-order, but I’ve been told more should be in by the end of next week. Any gamer geek would be thrilled to unwrap this sucker Christmas morning, so you better act fast if you’d like to nab one in time.

I was actually able to find a full arcade version of MK Arcade GP at the GameWorks in Columbus, OH. After playing it for about five minutes, I can easily see why a sequel of this game was made. Not because of the easy controls or great graphics, but because you had to pay to continue racing each course in a circuit regardless of if you won or not. That’s a lot of money in Namco/Nintendo’s pockets.