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During today's E3 Nintendo Direct broadcast, Satoru Iwata confirmed Mario Kart 8, the Wii U debut of the karting series. It picks up various ideas from its Wii and 3DS predecessors, yet surprisingly won't be available this year — it's been given a release window of Spring 2014.

The footage shown was certainly impressive, showcasing a variety of Nintendo favourites rushing around tracks and taking each other on. It'll feature Cars and Bikes, while the trailers also showed off the stunts that were introduced in the Wii iteration. In terms of new ideas, the big change looks set to be in track design and vehicle transformations. As well as vehicles being able to glide and drive underwater, they also shift shape to enable anti-gravity abilities, allowing for 3D track designs not previously seen in the series. Satoru Iwata also promised extended online options and Miiverse integration.

The footage certainly looked impressive, with the only downside being the 2014 release, so it won't make the vital Holiday period. Let us know what you thought of the reveal in the comments below.