Topic: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

So has it been confirmed that there are no new race tracks? If this is the case and no imminent DLC, will be cancelling my pre order immediately

@gcunit It's not so much the coin system itself, rather they're basically the worst thing you can get out of an item box. In this case they serve no purpose in attack or defence and leave you vulnerable. However...

Much like the blue shell, I feel that coins as an item is a sort of necessary evil to keep races interesting. Without them, the guy in 1st can just get a steady stream of defensive items with impunity, making the only reliable items that can hit him or her either triple reds or a blue, and even the latter is not as reliable as before since it is both weaker and the Super Horn exists.

A real battle mode basically makes this impossible to pass up. If this game has missions like in Mario Kart DS, it will hands down be the best MK.

@rallydefault I don't think we need a Mario Kart 9 on Switch at all, save it for the Switch's successor (or put it on the 3DS successor if that's not Switch related).

@Grumblevolcano There's way too much money in it for Nintendo not to make a Mario Kart 9. To me the words Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is essentially another way of saying Game of the Year Edition. They may do some kind of DLC, but I still expect a brand new entry in the series, otherwise it will be the first home console since it launched on the SNES not to have one.

Totally agree. This seems to be the best and most complete MK in history. Only (very little) disappointment is no new tracks for racing

@FragRed Well Wii U was the first Nintendo console not to have its own Zelda game. Wind Waker was GC with HD remaster on Wii U, Twilight Princess was GC/Wii with HD remaster on Wii U and Breath of the Wild is Wii U/Switch. So there's always room for patterns to be broke.

@Grumblevolcano True but Mario Kart is a far larger franchise in terms of sales than Zelda. Plus the new Legend of Zelda is a very different development process to that of a racing game so the 5 years of active development it took to produce and localise Breath of the Wild is acceptable, whereas it shouldn't take anywhere near that long to produce a new Mario Kart title.

And if they truly expect the Switch to sell tens of millions, why wouldn't they want a new title to launch a couple of years down the road? Again, easy money.

@FragRed
I just worry that, honestly, a Mario Kart 9 won't even be as good as Mario Kart 8. Or meaningfully different, at least.

MK8 just got so many things right, most importantly just the "feel" of the driving. And like I said, with the recent additions you can pretty much call this the most complete Mario Kart we've ever had. It's really just missing something like the 2-racer setup from Double Dash, if you were a big fan of that. Otherwise, it pretty much has everything the other games have.

Where do they go from here? They've done water, flying, mirror, zero-grav, partners, insane items, etc. I just worry that they may try to really force some kind of new "gimmick" into a MK9 that just won't work, and runs the risk of tarnishing something good they have going right now.

MK9 is going to happen, for sure, I just hope they wait awhile.

Useless item that provides almost no benefit to a race.

@Ralizah Coins provide some kind of balancement, or whoever is in 1st place can get every item a defensive one. Good luck sorpassing him in that case...

@rallydefault I understand your fears about Mario Kart 9 but the 9th instalment WILL come along at some point, so your concerns about whether it is as good or not will have to be realised.

I always look forward to what ever new idea they introduce to the series with each new title, like the use of anti-gravity in the current game (though I feel it wasn't used to it's full effect).

@FGPackers Uh, you are aware that coin items weren't in the majority of Mario Kart releases, right? In fact, I'm pretty sure they haven't appeared since the original SNES game.

Also, not all non-coin items are defensive in nature.

Also, blue shells.

@FragRed
I did say, "MK9 is going to happen, for sure." Not sure if you saw that.

Anyway, here's to hoping MK Deluxe gets a year or two on the Switch with more DLC. Then we'll see what they can cook up for MK9. But I think their time would be better spent getting some other franchises that haven't seen games on the Wii U back up to speed.

coughMetroid

Anyway, I'd be fine with not seeing MK9 for a few years, I still haven't played 8 due to not having a Wii U, so it's still new to me. And considering how many more don't own a Wii U than do, they can easily get away with it.

When you're in first, then yes, everything you get serves as defence. What do you prefer: the occasional dud item and rare, counterable blues, or no dud items but more frequent, powerful and near unstoppable blues? Coins were re-introduced as items BECAUSE the blue shell was nerfed, and it's even more important now that two items can be held.

Getting coins in first is really no different from being blued in any other Mario Kart; it's designed so that the best players don't necessarily win every time. Clamour for skill being the sole determinant of race outcomes all you want, the only way that happens is in an item-less race, which is about as dull as it sounds.

IF Nintendo go ahead with Mario Kart 9, then it will most likely recycle MK8's engine with and feature an all new set of tracks (and feature some new items). I can't see Nintendo designing a completely new engine from scratch for the next Mario Kart. I think MK9 will need a new novelty too (a la Double Dash) to differentiate it from MK8 (lest it be dismissed as "samey" a la Splatoon 2).

One of the challenges for Nintendo going forward is that many of their franchises will plateau this generation, at least on a technical/aesthetic level. I mean, how much more can the Mario Kart franchise possibly improve at this point? It's pretty much peaked graphically as this isn't exactly the sort of franchise that demands photorealistic graphics, and how much better can a game with Splatoon's visual style possibly look?

This is true. That's probably why they should Majora's Mask some of these series if we get another one on the Switch. Do some crazy, weird idea.

@AlliMeadow

yeah, exactly, my Wii U Mario Kart 8 purchase is tied to my Nintendo account, so they should offer at least 50% off the purchase of Deluxe, in my opinion.
Its possible they could offer some solution for physical (post your disk and a cheque, get Deluxe a week later) but even if its just for Digital , they should do it ...

(anyone moaning because they bought physical ... well, how many times do we see people on forums 'not understanding' why anyone would go digital, when the price is the same - this (purchase tied to account) is one good reason - a number of my PS3 games were free on PS4, because I got them digital ... )

Exactly. Though MK8 sold "gangbusters" on the Wii U, only 13 million of us had Wii U's lol.. .so... lots of people haven't even played this game. An MK9 too soon is going to be a waste. That's really what my driving point here is.

@sillygostly
And yea, if MK9 releases in the next year or two and simply reuses the MK8 engine but with more maps: what the heck was the point? They already have an ultra solid "base" with MK Deluxe that they can just build on for a couple years. Geez, they can probably add entirely new modes through DLC these days, too, if they really wanted.