Topic: Mario Kart 8 - OT

The way I look at this, Mount Wario is the most varied track, Bowser Castle feels like it should be the end of the Nitro Cup, and Rainbow Road is really good eye candy. That said, Rainbow Road (N64) certainly picks up the slack, being both a blast from the past and an exciting thrill ride. If only they hadn't made it seem so short.

Either way, it all looks incredible, so I'm not complaining, anyways.

Ok, this thread has treaded far too deep into spoiler territory. I understand this is a thread about a game gearing up for release and that discussion about said game will likely be about the gameplay that has already been revealed by people who have played the game.

That's fine, but I just don't want people to ruin the magic when I play for the first time and going into several aspects of the game with my mind already made up because of someone else's opinion. Personally, I find a game much more fun when I don't already know everything about it.

Continue to go about your business, you guys did nothing wrong. I'll just be sitting out ths thread until the game releases.

Bowser's Castle is pretty awesome, but wow, Rainbow Road is ridiculously short and looks easier than most of the past ones. I was expecting something more along the lines of 7's, a long, challenging one lap course and that they would do more with the space station idea and antigravity. What an anticlimactic way to close out an amazing game.

Making it shorter would be an improvement. The original was a big borefest that was too dang long

The new Bowser Castle and Rainbow Road look awesome anyway

They didn't really need to do that, the problems with the original were that it was too barebones and it was visually bland and hard to figure out where you were going (you couldn't tell how long it was or where the track was heading because of the draw distance). All of which were limitations of the N64 that were fixed in the remade version. But it does fit the one lap, three sections structure, so I see no problem with it.

the crazy look and the laugh he does when he hits someone make me wanna main him, but ...

i love this guy, and larry

Rainbow Road is sorta depressingly easy and short :/

Depends on your definition of "easy". If you play online, we'll make it harder for you

True lol

While it doesn't necessarily look that difficult, the new Rainbow Road does have a pretty long section with virtually no railings, so in a hectic 12 person race against good competition, it could be pretty easy to fall/get bumped off the edge.
Well, maybe not bumped off so much considering it seems to be mostly anti-gravity, but there'll sure be a lot of spin boosting going on I'd imagine so that could make things interesting.

So, are we gonna try and set up a launch-week Nintendo Life MK8 tournament?

Having long sections with no railings is pretty standard for a Rainbow Road at this point, not exactly surprising.

I just created a fake Club Nintendo account and linked it to a fake UK NNID account on my WiiU. Does anyone know if this will allow me to download content from the UK eShop? (I'd like to make use of the "one free game" Mario Kart offer)

I have no problems entering the eShop or anything like that. I'm just wondering if any problems will occur once I actually download something.

Yes, I am aware of that.
Just saying that it might not end up being quite as easily as it initially looks when there's a lot of congestion going around all those anti-gravity curves, which I'm yet to really see in any footage.
I'll look forward to trying out the track myself, hopefully it could be fun even if it is rather short for a Rainbow Road.

All right, so here's how I'd design Rainbow Road (it could probably stand to be fleshed out a little more with trick ramps, multiple paths, and antigravity obstacles, but this is basically how I'd do it). It would basically be a one lap course divided into three sections, like 7 and N64's is.

Section 1: The existing design for this course would make a good first section more or less, start with the figure 8 antigravity section, then glide into the space station. Cut out the Metal Star Rings, they'll be encountered later in the course, just head straight to the split paths with the turns (which would probably have to be changed slightly so they don't lead back to the starting line). Instead, you will simply reach the first checkpoint at the entrance to another space station, which leads to Section 2.

Section 2: At the beginning of this next space station section is another circular room, this time with a giant centrifuge in the middle of it which is rotating very fast. You have to circle around the room while dodging the centrifuge. You can either play it safe and take the outside path, or try to pass through the centrifuge's rotation and take the inside path (which is of course, shorter). At the end of each path is an antigravity section where you're inside of a narrow glass tube system which takes you to another part of the station. Both paths converge at this point, and continues along the walls of this section (not really sure exactly what to put here in terms of obstacles or pathways). Eventually, you would go back outside along this narrow pole which turns and starts spiraling around it and ends with a gliding section through some Metal Star Rings (like the one in the actual course). After landing, the track sharply turns straight down and you would reach the second checkpoint, signaling the beginning of Section 3.

Section 3: You continue heading straight down and there's a giant rocket silo staring you in the face in the distance. It fires rockets at you which are obstacles you must dodge. When you reach the bottom of the track, it suddenly whips upside down and you start heading back up on the underside of the track you were just on, and then eventually turns and flips right side up again. You then approach another space station, with rockets firing across the track. There are a couple of trick ramps that you can use to reach some Metal Star Rings that will give you a boost, but you would have to be careful of rockets flying above you while doing this. Once you reach the inside of the space station, you would turn and head up the left side wall. Here is another centrifuge section, but this time, the centrifuge is an antigravity obstacle, so you can hit it to Spin Boost. At the end of that you exit the space station, and then you must glide across a large pit full of rockets constantly firing upwards. There will also be a few Metal Star Rings in the level to give you a boost through this section. After that, there may be a few more turns for good measure, and then you would reach the finish line.

I'm not entirely sure why you'd need fake accounts, but regardless, it seems like it should work out fine. Not that I've tried. I have an account linked to my own NNID and I don't live in the UK, either. It doesn't seem like there should be any issues, though.