Topic: Would you be okay with Mario Kart having even more non-Mario characters, stages, etc?

I don't know if it's already been stated, but I've always been in favor of a "Smash Kart." I would like to see Nintendo mesh their franchises together for a party kart game. I assume somewhere down the line the Switch will be receiving its own Kart title. It's possible that's where the series is headed.

To add to that, using some locations from those games would also be awesome. And I mean, going all out with it, not just using the Paper Mario desert name with obvious desert enemies and calling it a day.

Nope. The name needs to actually make sense and there are enough characters already from just Mario.

I'd rather have Mario Kart than Nintendo Kart, personally. It's great to have a few guest characters and the occasional Zelda or Metroid-themed track, but taking it too far could ruin everything. Mario Kart is crazy, but it is its own kind of crazy, with an internal logic and a certain feel that not every character fits in with.

Oh yes. Not only felt the character selection a little bit slim in the original mario kart 8 to me but the stages in the dlc showed what is possible if other franchises would be involved. F zero and animal crossing were great. Im all for a broader approach. And the name could still stay mario kart. I wouldnt change it. Maybe add the super again.

I knew about Smash Bros before I discovered Mario Kart. So when I first heard of Mario Kart, I was a little disappointed that it didn't have Nintendo characters from other games.

@skywake Well, in my opinion, they haven't really gotten to that point. They're still testing the waters, with safe characters like Link, who almost everyone will like, Villager, who fits in with the aesthetics, and the Inklings, which was probably to promote Spla2n.

Also, this was just a place to put your opinion on it, no matter if it had happened or not.

@Nintendoer
I think "testing the waters" is a bit of an understatement. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has multiple elements from Splatoon, F-Zero, Zelda and Animal Crossing. In addition to that it has a stage from Excitebike and it has Mii costumes from Kirby, Metroid, Starfox, Pikmin, MegaMan, Pacman and Sonic. And lets not forget Donkey Kong who since the mid 90s hasn't really been "Mario".

Does it have the same level of franchise care that a game like Smash Bros has? No. But there is quite a bit of non-Mario stuff in there. In terms of level and character diversity I don't think there's any other game from any studio other than Smash Bros that's as broad as Mario Kart 8 is.

I want the old Donkey Kong back from the SNES. He was adorable.

@skywake I agree. If Mario Kart 8 is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series I still can't see where else there is to go other than drawing on more tracks and characters from Nintendo's range of IP's. a Pikmin themed track or 2 would be cool.

@DarthNocturnal I liked Transformed's representation of SEGA IPs, there were way too many Sonic Heroes inspired tracks with the original. Even Sonic was better represented in Transformed as you had Classic Sonic era (Sky Sanctuary), Dreamcast Sonic era (Seaside Hill/Ocean Palace, Casino Park) and Modern Sonic era (Starlight Carnival).

(Note: Dreamcast Sonic era is usually considered Adventure, Adventure 2 and Heroes despite SEGA being 3rd party by the time Heroes came out).

I have no problem with them picking up characters from other universes however, my issue lies with this current character roster. Yes it may be huge but loads of them are ridiculous variations of the same character. Where's Dixie and Funky Kong etc? I don't want Peach, then another character as Cat Peach and then another as Rose Gold Peach.

The Mario universe has so many characters to choose from but so has Nintendo's entire catalogue. However, I think its strange that they chose Inkling Boy/Girl and Villager instead of Callie and Marie and Judd and Tom Nook/Gracie etc.

Still don't know why Nabbit wasn't a character in MK8. Finally got a visually distinct character, only to die with the Year of Luigi. So yeah, even if you remove all the Cat Mario, Pink Gold Peach fluff, there are still plenty of other Mario characters that have been ignored so far.