Nintendo has released a new trailer for Mario Kart 8, along with the floodgates for journalists' previews. Here's a quick list of what to expect from the new entry in Nintendo's main racing franchise:
NEW ITEM: Piranha Plant This item's inspiration clearly comes from Super Mario 3D World, in which players could sometimes pick up a pot with a Piranha Plant in it and watch as its gaping maw jerked forth to munch whatever it could reach, enemies and friends alike. The item will work similarly in Mario Kart 8, with every jerk giving the player a speed boost. Seems like a 7th to 12th place item to me.
NEW ITEM: Boomerang This one also has a history, one that began with Super Mario 3D Land, which introduced the boomerang power-up that allowed players to, you guessed it, throw some boomerangs around! And again, this is much the function it will have in Mario Kart 8. The player who receives the item will be able to throw it 3 times, backwards or forwards, and watch as it slips other racers up as it goes and comes.
RETURNING ITEM: Coins At first, I thought this must be a new item, but apparently it's a returning item from Super Mario Kart, the series' very first entry. Picking coins up off the track will be familiar to anyone who has played Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS, but now an item box may grant you a couple of coins as well. Coins give small speed boosts, but the most important thing about them is to collect them: once a player has reached the maximum number of coins, they also reach the maximum speed for their chosen kart (10 is the max in MK7, probably in MK8 too).
12-Player Online Races Mario Kart 8 will feature online races that support up to 12 players. Yay!
Anit-gravity Sections Ever since the anti-gravity idea was introduced in a trailer who knows how long ago, I've been slightly skeptical of the idea. Now that things have been cleared up, I couldn't be more excited to try anti-gravity myself when Mario Kart 8 comes out: the effect causes racers to get speed boosts when they bump into each other or certain elements on the track. It also looks like anti-gravity will allow for some seriously awesome track designs.
GamePad Features The GamePad will include a little horn that players can sound at the touch of a button, plus players can touch tiles on the screen to activate other modes: one tile activates off-TV mode, another displays a map on the touch screen, and the last one activates motion control. This implementation is not half bad, but it certainly could have been better.
And those are the highlights! Check out Nintendo's latest trailer for Mario Kart 8 below:
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