In today's much anticipated Nintendo Direct, CEO Satoru Iwata announced that Mario Kart 8 will officially be launching on 30th May in both NA and EU; this follows the late January confirmation that it was to be a May release.
Iwata-san also announced that a few new "unexpected" characters will be added to the game's roster. For the first time ever in the series all seven of Bowser's minions will be playable drivers.
Check out the new trailer below to see Iggy, Larry, Lemmy, Ludwig, Morton, Roy and Wendy in action! Are you happy with these new additions?
Comments 95
I could not be happier about this!!! My jaw dropped when I saw that trailer.
That was a nice surprise.
But why the end of May? Might as well release 1st of June...
Finally, my dream has come true!
They're actually not his children, but I literally screamed when they were announced. So happy.
...is it May 30th yet?
Hell to the yeah!
This is SUCH an awesome announcement. My interest in the character roster was a bit low before today. Thought it'd be the same ol' same ol' with baby versions added. But NOW, my hype level is through the roof! I couldn't possibly imagine a better addition than the Koopalings. I'm driving as Iggy and Lenny!
Every race is going to be filled with koopas now >_>
I prefer this over Waluigi and the babies. Larry is my favorite.
Cool, only ever liked Morton and Lemmy. The rest for me are meh. I still won't get this on release date considering I still have games from 1-2 years ago I still need to get.
Yeah I think this is cool but will they take up all the hidden character slots? Is Bowser Jr. going to be excluded? Hmm with 7 characters you have a potential to have a Koopaling cup with a character facing all the Koopalings with cheating AI naturally.
I want Bowser Jr. with the face scarf and paint brush too!
I hope we see some more unique new characters besides them. 7 characters is a lot. I'm still hoping Professor E. Gadd gets a spot in the roster.
Definitely a nice surprise! Hype for this game went through the roof after watching that trailer. I'm glad the Koopalings are getting a bit of the spotlight. It's about time!
I'm LOVING the idea of the Koopalings being playable! I'll still mainly play as Yoshi, but I'll occasionally pick Larry and Iggy now as well. Aside from good ol' Koopa Troopa~
Really happy to see some more retro tracks revealed, especially Grumble Volcano and DK Jungle. Adding the Koopalings was surprising but it's always good seeing some new characters.
Interesting. I somehow have a weird feeling that they could be a story element in the game involving them. Only time will tell.
Aw man. This is like the best thing ive seen in a while! What a surprise
Will definitely buy a wii U with this and smash bros when the time is due. Cant wait!
I've always wanted to play as the Koopalings~
Mario Kart 8 is lookin' great!
great character choices!
Kinda cool, but it seems like a weak attempt to add more characters.
yawn I just want Pauline.
All the Koopalings would have filled out 87.5% of the character roster of one of the older Mario Kart games. The selection of drivers sure has come a long way.
I very well expect to see this game have a character roster containing three times the number that would fit in a race, even though several characters will probably be quasi-reskins like in Mario Kart Wii.
Everyone online will still just pick their Miis though. Or whoever has the highest hidden speed stat.
awesome and i hope they didn't get rid of drybones i always used him but damn there going to be alot characters in this game nice.
Awesome! That's a whole bunch extra, makes me excited to see if they're gonna add more characters than every other Mario Kart game combined. & whether they'll all be accessible from the start like on MK7 or if you'll have to work to unlock them like in MKWii. I'm pumped!
Kinda lost interest in MK8 now. Oh well
Better them than Baby Rosalina, Baby Wario, Baby Toad, Baby Waluigi, Baby Koopa Troopa, Baby Shy Guy, and Baby Dry Bones.
I'm glad to see the roster is getting better again since Nintendo realized they have so many characters to choose from.
@SparkOfSpirit
Urgh, I know! Baby Daisy was absolutely not a character who needed to enter the Mario universe. I think she existed only so there would be a line of four babies on the character select screen, mirroring their adult counterparts.
Wish they would add Bowser Jr.!!!
@BearHunger That's why I hated mario kart wii with all my might, everybody picked rosalina and funky kong, you could see in a single race like 4 of each one. I really hope nintendo doesn't make the same mistake here because mario kart 7 was the breath of fresh air the series needed so much after the wii installment, I really hope it plays like it.
Pretty excited about this. I do love me some koopa kids.
@SparkOfSpirit
Well said.
For whatever reason, I was almost certain he'd say Nabbit.
Meh, I was hoping Nabbit, I don't mind these, but a bit to many. Has to be a story element, Mario Kart always needs one of those.
It's great to see these crazy guys again! Nothing like old child hood pains (Super Mario World mainly) showing up again, only now I can play as them.
This game seriously looks top-notch. I am not normally a huge Mario Kart fan but this game looks like a system seller to me!
They add a little of variety and are a nice idea for new characters, but there are too many of them occupy too much character slots. It would have been better to have them all in the clown car, using only 1 character slot. There are much more new and varied characters Id like to see like a Pianta, Wart, Captain Syrup, Mona, Prof E. Gadd, Nabbit, Pauline, more Kongs or Kremlings and the return of DK Jr.
This was a nice surprise, but I would of preferred more than 16 courses..
That's not enough variety for 7 whole roster spots to me, I'm not very impressed by this... Definitely would've picked other characters to replace these.
I could care less about these bozos now that Little Mac is in Super Smash Bros.!
@XFsWorld Ya know...they always do this, "releasing in spring" - one day before the Summer month. At least it will be a fun summer.
Oh yeah, my secondary is Wendy! Fa sho! I'm ready for this. I'm not sure if my other 2 current gen consoles will be getting any play for a LONG time. I love Mario Kart and now that the online (still shoddy, but much better than the Wii's) is more stable, it's going to be ON! I just hope Nintendo does a planned maintenance before the release to ensure the online will be good and ready so I can play all my U.S. and U.K./EU friends.
Of course I'd have to leave for class in the middle of the Direct and miss out on seeing this live. . . . On the other hand, this is awesome news, so I guess it's okay.
I don't know which one to pick! Lemmy or Roy...
Ludwig's my guy!
They better not replaces our favorite characters, like Dry Bones, Birdo, King Boo, Dry Broswer, and etc. > _>
@CaptainSquid Worry not about character slots. I can already tell, this game is going to be bulging from the sides with the amount of content they manage to put in it. I mean, look at Kid Icarus Uprising & Super Smash Bros Melee. More content than ever imagined.
I'll never use any of them, but they look ok I guess. It's always nice to have more options. I was just hoping for some other franchise characters like kirby or captain falcon, but I guess that would ruin what makes smash bros so speical.
I hope that this game is balanced. With so many characters it would be easy to make it unbalanced.
That's great, but SO MUCH EVIL TURTLE NOW! How about some evil frog, as in Wart? He's been ignored for far too long now (as in over 25 years). It'd be such a surprise, and a pleasant change of pace, to bring him into Mario Kart 8, or Super Smash Bros.! Birdo from SMB 2/Doki Doki Panic has been all over the place, so why not big, bad Wart and his bubbles of death. Bring back Mouser, while you're at it.
Aside from that, dang this is looking incredible! I'm going to put some money down on it in the coming days, as I don't want to wait a day later than 5/30 to get my race on!
These are very good Mario Kart roster additions, just reminds me of how bad MK7's roster was.... Queen Bee
We need goombas
@hiddenstampede Seriously... I want my Boo dang it!
I can't wait to get and record for this game! When I was the Koopalings, I was super excited to see them appear jn the trailer along with some new and familiar track as well!
Iggy, Larry and Lenny are the 3 most people can't remember
So happy I'll finally be able to play as Iggy!
Maybe I'm excited for MK8 after all...
Nintendo has crafted the perfect kart racer. Or atleast that's what the video i just watched suggests
@Ailingforale
yea and piranha pete too, maybe Nintendo might get smart and release additional DLC for it and we get more characters,hey we can only hope
I was disappointed by the May release window, but May 30?! That's not even a Spring release! Maybe this is for the better, though. It'll be better to play MK8 with my little brothers when they're out of school rather than distract them from their homework.
Hahaha, just a day before summer, that's spring release.
Haha, nice. The whole koopa gang is all here. Also, i believe Bowser Jr will still be around. I mean, he was in Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii. Why would they take out characters for he Wii U version?
I'm digging this; I can very much do without Baby-Mario, -Luigi, -Bowser, et cetera.
Hmm, not much here impressed me. Firstly, a May 31 release date? That barely qualifies as a May release, leaving me over 3 months between DK and MK8. Also, I must be in the minority who doesn't care about the Koopalings (why do people love them so much?) so seeing 7 whole roster spots taken by them annoys me. Hopefully there's plenty more characters in the roster. The game still looks beautiful though!
Ca-ching! 7 more characters! That means we get quite a big roster, or am I wrong?
This is awesome news!
Yay! A LARGE ROSTER! Now I just want cool use of the GamePad....
Roy is in MK8...
They could have just given us boring generic boom-boom and pom-pom, but what we got was 3-and-a-half times better!
Did anyone else think that when Iwata said there are going to be some characters that you would not expect, they would reveal characters from other franchises?
Did anyone else think that when Iwata said there are going to be some characters that you would not expect, they would reveal characters from other franchises?
@Bizzyb True. In fact Lemmy Koopa is forgotten about so much that some people even call him Lenny!
@XFsWorld
Such a stupid comment. Why not june 1st bla bla.
@allav866
Who cares about spring release? People really needs to get some life here. OMG such a weird comment. That's the date they are planning to release it period!
MAY 30TH?!?! Oh My. That's after my school's second semester ends...I hope it sells well and gets the Wii u back on track.
Thank you Nintendo
They have really gone to town on this game ,looks very impressive
and I'm sure there will be many more surprises to come ..
can't wait !!
The Koopalings were originally Bowser's offspring in SMB3 and Mario World. Also, it's LeMMy, not Lenny...
How are people complaining about this announcement? Bore off
I was really looking forward to an announcement of Spongebob Squarepaints as a playable character. (lol jk although some on Miiverse are...) But no seriously, this game looks fantastic. I played it last year at Best Buy and well, the graphics looked to have been increased a ton. I can't wait and I'm stoked for the Koopalings.
oh GOD! Finally I can race as Ludwig!! ( didn't get a wii u yet )
Don,t forget.
L O C A L
M U L T I P L A Y E R
G R A N D
P R I X
wow.......you just can't make some people happy. Why do some of you whine so much? Back in the day you couldn't even save your progress on a game! Now there's whinning because you can't play as a non-Mario world character?
Really looking forward to the game, trax, and characters. Thankful Nintendo added the koopalings!
koopa kids are nasty
The online multiplayer will soon be busy upon release. Good times ahead!
Aww what about Dry Bones?? I like that Character They could add Shy Guy and Nabbit as well.
@XFsWorld You're going down, i will win lol
@Alucard83 hush. It's called "sarcasm".
@OmegaAndres lol, we'll see.
However, the Koopalings are not Bowser's children.
Yes, they are. I can provide a scan of the NES Super Mario Bros. 3 instruction booklet that confirms it.
I must be in the minority who doesn't care about the Koopalings (why do people love them so much?) so seeing 7 whole roster spots taken by them annoys me.
Oh? And which other game can you play as the Koopalings? Name one and you may have a point. If not, then you don't and they deserve those seven spots.
Woooooooooo !! 30th may it is can't wait holding back a month before pre-order just incase special extras come out or game yet again gets a keyring or something.
The Koopalings aren't his kids. Nintendo retconned it a while ago and said that Bowser Jr was his only kid.
Even the returning stages are beautiful!
How has this taken so long?
@BAGBOY said," I really hope nintendo doesn't make the same mistake here because mario kart 7 was the breath of fresh air the series needed so much after the wii installment, I really hope it plays like it."
Completely agree! And I have a great feeling that it is going to play like it! With the added anti gravity courses of course! Along with the coins that are sooo underestimated in MK7!
Since MK DS, I've usually just stuck with one player, one cart combo and never change. I picked R.O.B. in MK DS. Koopa Troopa on Wii. Lakitu on MK7. So, wonder who I'll choose this time around? It's looking like they're going for a huge roster and I'm all for it!
@idork99 I don't know why, maybe it was retro studios involvement in mk 7 but that game felt so right, everything was perfect and I loved each track on that game. My personal favorites are music park, neo-bowser city and bowser's castle, it was amazing what they achieved with a portable game.
The wii game was pretty good if you had friends to play with, but the single player experience was HORRIBLE, simply put, I got so frustrated with the AI in that game that it remains the single mario kart game where I haven't unlocked everything or get a triple star rank in any of the cups, the AI just destroys you no matter what. It also didn't help when you went online and everybody picked either funky kong or rosalina, glad mk7 balanced everything out.
I might pick ludwig this time around, I usually stick with koopa troopa and yoshi but that little barsteward just has such cool hair it is near impossible to ignore him.
YES!!!!!!!!!!! IM GONNA ALWAYS PLAY AS LEMMY!
hopefully they make it for 3ds as well
@ChoppedLiver I belive they have have been working on it for about a year.
@Lemmy_Koopa Your name made it hard to belive!
"They could have just given us boring generic boom-boom and pom-pom"
Actually, I would like that!
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