Video: These Hacked Mario Kart 8 Runs Show Tracks in a Whole New Light

the game looks so beautiful!

The level of background detail in those courses is STUNNING! True Nintendo quality.

Wow, those are pretty! They should add some sort of Lakitu mode where you can fly around the tracks!

These are the types of hacks I can sort-of get behind, since these simply show off more of the beautiful job done on this game.

That slimy cheat was using fire hopping!

That's cool

@Beetlejuice Is that what fire-hopping is? that's not that bad! I though fire-hopping was when you go along the course in a zig-zag to get more skid boosts.

Interesting that they put that much detail in the surrounding area, the game really is stunning in motion and a treat for the eyes. The sunshine airport part makes me wish we had another Pilotwings (I mean 3DS got one) and Yes N64 Rainbow Road is to short in MK8 even two laps would have been great.

It is not stunning in motion compared to the PC version of All Stars Racing Transformed (Exact same TV but Anti Aliased and 1080p).

The jaggies ruin the look.

The first two laps are a waste of time I think all courses should have one lap other than N64 Rainbow Road and Mount Wario (Which are ok as they are.)

I just... That was amazing, some of that scenery is far enough away they could've just as easily gotten away with less details, some of it isn't even observable from any of the angles the track allows and yet they continued to carefully sculpt it. Heck, in that Wario Stadium track I was sure the crowd would be vague silhouettes up close (if even that, I couldn't see the crowd from the track), but every seat had a toad, all jumping at different times. Bravo, Nintendo.

It would be amazing to have multi-player air battles with the gliders and all items!

@DiscoGentleman The music in the first video is an OverClocked Remix. I heard the second one a while ago, too- it's a remix of Rock It from Crash Bandicoot 2- but I don't know which one.

Mk8 Does Pilotwings!

Cheating *&%$£%^'s that's how they got such fast times on time tracks.

Pretty dam cool...

@Nicolai That's snaking.

Great, now consider for a second...

This is a racing game and they put that much attention to detail into realising these backgrounds in full 3D stretching way beyond the actual track section that the characters race on...

Why couldn't they have done something similar for Super Mario 3D World, a game that's actually supposed to be about Mario running and jumping through Mario's WORLD, and had fully realised full 3D backgrounds and vistas stretching out beyond the boundaries of the actual playable parts of the level...?

Just saying, because having those basically floating assault courses in Super Mario 3D World always felt like a bit of a cheap cop-out to me (It's called 3D WORLD) and it's one of the few reasons I have for it not ranking in my top few Mario platform games of all time, because as far as I'm concerned it's not been fully realised.

@mystman12 best idea ever! Just like a "ghost mode" for when you're waiting to join an active race

Let's all take a moment to appreciate how complete all of those locations are that each of those courses had an entire landscape built around them despite being so arbitrary to the non hacked game.

@whodatninja I could see it being a Lakatu mode. You could either have the camera locked on a certain racer, or you could just fly around in the track

@Kirk I think that was a design decision, they don't want you to meander in the 3D World levels. The point is to get to the goal as quickly as possible. If they had made it these vast open worlds people would get lost, waste time wandering, and eventually die because time ran out. Having restricted exploration forces you to focus on getting to the goal post.

What you are wanting seems to be a Mario 64, Sunshine or Galaxy style game. If one of those come to Wii U, I fully expect that they will make Mario Kart 8 look like child's play in the level of detail.

@Kirk wait until they make Wii Us true 3d mario game, with 120 stars to collect and all those things...3d world is like a secondary series.

@PvtOttobot
+1

@Darknyht

I mean as backgrounds, just like in these Mario Kart tracks, not parts of the level you can actually go to.

I have no problems with the actual levels themselves in terms of what you play through but more the way they are basically just floating obstacle courses that really makes them far less impacting and impressive. They just look and feel small in vision and execution because of the way they are presented. Mario Kart 8's tracks are just totally linear courses but they often look and feel much grander, like part of an actual living and breathing Mario World, because they sit inside a fully 3D world that goes on beyond them.

Super Mario 3D World really needed that sense of scale and grandeur imo, so it didn't feel just "small" and kinda unimpressive, even if the actual parts of the levels you can run through stayed exactly the same.

@rbmoura85

The thing is, I actually liked the more focused design of the levels in Super Mario 3D World, over the other 3D Mario games, because they usually overcame the inherent issues with fully 3D platform games that have fully controllable 3D cameras etc, something I'm not the biggest fan of (I think the 2D games do a far better job of having tight controls and intuitive platforming game design), BUT it just needed those levels to look like they weren't pretty simple floating obstacle courses...and having fully realised 3D backgrounds and vistas like we can see in Mario Kart 8 really would have helped with that imo. It would have just made the entire game feel more grand, more real and just left a much better overall impression imo. Like you actually did just run and jump your way through an actual Super Mario WORLD.

Get me?

I would like to try this out for myself
It always seems like just when the video is about to get to a more interesting part of the level, it cuts to another track ah well.

@Luna-Harmony as someone who takes time trials incredibly seriously, this comment is pretty rude. Nobody cheats on time trials.

Goes to show how far graphics have come; if you did this on an N64 racer you'd mostly be looking at nothing but an empty void in the 'skybox.'

@Kirk I get what you are saying, but at the same time I am not sure if I agree fully. It could have been sold better by making the 3D World levels look similar to the world map.

I see it more like Super Mario 3 (or to a lesser extent Super Mario 2 and World) that we are looking at a staged performance. It is just that the stage is now 3D versus 2D. Again, they could have done a better job of selling that presentation choice also. Instead they seem to be sort of in between.

@Kirk I agree. That's why that level with the snaking Piranha Plants was one of my favorites. It wasn't just a bunch of floating platforms.

@NintyMan Or a beach.

Yep, 3 laps woulda been nice.

Also, nice to see someone get close to Peach's Castle, almost like MK64!

Beautiful but I hope that Nintendo can keep this blocked or they don't make it public, I don't want more cheaters in my online or local games.

That's so crazy. Funny how much of the landscape you don't usually see, and it's much harder to take in the views when driving upside-down.

It's highly impressive how much detail went into these tracks. I also love that invincibility theme remix.

I love seeing these videos. My favorite one was the air view of the SNES retro track. Something about the simplicity of it, yet placing what looked to me like a cottage in with the trees far off from the track was very cool.

Bizarre!

NEW DLC; PILOT WINGS MARIO KART 8...

@Darknyht

I understand you thinking there's maybe some kind of intentional visual relation/connection between how the world looks in SM3DW to say SMB3 but the effect of it looking like some kind of stage play is not there at all in SM3DW and it was not intended to be there in the first place imo. Nintendo's designers and artists simply failed to fully realise the full 3D world they were trying to create as far as I'm concerned and the main reason I can see is that they figured they could get away with taking a shortcut in this area, saving a bit of dev time and money, and ultimately they did. For me however they ended up with something lost somewhere in-between looking like some kind of themed concept (a theatre stage look), which would have given some reason/basis for a more limited 3D look, and a fully rendered 3D world as seen in most other 3D platformers. It was to the detriment of the game to a degree imo because it didn't feel as vast and fully realised a world as it could have and that lessened the grand feel and overall impressiveness of the game. It felt small and limited in scope instead of blowing you away with it's scale and sense of being a living breathing part of the Mario "world" as it were. Something which the original Super Mario World absolutely did better despite being fully 2D.

what is the point of this? i never understood people who do this?

@Ryo_Hazuki-san
The point of looking around? Because it's interesting

@Kirk
3DWorld (and Land) uses an enclosed stage, yes. It's not a failure, it's an obvious design choice. Mario64 veered much away from Mario's typical A to B design due to it's wide exploration. Which was great in it's own right, but didn't really allow for that classic 'platformer' feel.

I agree with Darknyht that 3DW is very SMB3. You don't really run through it like "classic mario", and you don't really explore to the extent of M64 or Sunshine. You scour each small enclosed area then move to the next. It's another gameplay variety that's becoming a bit of a spin off series. Personally, I love it's simplicity and concise play-areas. Though I also enjoy the other quite different gameplay in the other varieties of Mario game.

In my opinion, a clear design brief for each game is a huge part of Nintendo's mastery. A game that tries to do everything usually becomes a mess in it's lack of focus.

@pubjoe

Quite a few of you it seems aren't getting what I'm talking about here.

I'm not on about the actual playable area of the levels needing to huge, expansive and open like say Mario 64. I'm simply on about the BACKGROUNDS giving the APPEARANCE that the world goes on and exists beyond the areas that you actually play through. To create the sense of scale, grandeur and of a world that exists beyond the boundaries of what comes across like simple floating obstacle courses for the most part.

Having these levels and worlds floating in basically empty space just makes them seem far less impressive, grand and less like these real living and breathing parts of Mario's world/kingdom; except where that makes sense like in Mario Galaxy because they are in fact in space. They end up feeling like simple floating assault courses which for a flagship Mario game, especially one called Super Mario 3D World, is just totally underwhelming and disappointing in that particular aspect imo.

The general look, feel and gameplay of the levels I don't really have any problem with for what they are. I just think Nintendo sold them a little short by the way it copped-out on any backgrounds and full modelling of the rest of the world beyond the main level areas you can actually run and jump through.

If we use Mario Kart 8 for comparison; it's as if you guys think I'm suggesting Nintendo should let the player jump [drive] all over the background areas too. NO. I'm suggesting that just like in Mario Kart 8, Nintendo should actually bother to model these areas beyond the main level sections in the first place. It can artificially place things like high rock faces, high walls, fences, thick forests and whatever else to stop Mario from physically going to the background areas but I think VISUALLY the whole background "Mario World", or Mushroom Kingdom or whatever, beyond the levels needs to be represented to some degree, if these games are to be done any real justice in terms of the graphical presentation and not feel like simple little underwhelming obstacle course floating in basically empty space (regardless of how fun they are to play through).

Note: I actually prefer the really concise and pixel perfect precision of the 2D games (no issues with 3D cameras or slightly fiddly jumping on enemies in 3D perspective etc) but even those usually have a proper full visual representation of Mario's kingdom stretching out in the distance beyond the layer the player physically jumps around on, at least enough that you get the sense there's a whole living and breathing world outside of the little slice that you're running and jumping around on, and that's all I expect from these 3D games too. I just want a proper aesthetic representation Mario WORLD and not perceivably simple Mario OBSTACLE COURSES floating in most empty space.

@Kirk
Ok fair point. Brings to mind the endless miles of repeated sea on the Bowser levels.

I do think in a game like this visuals should be more bold than intricate, but it's a balancing act and a bit more visual depth wouldn't hurt.

Too much is a greater danger though. Explorative Mario games often expertly tantalise with glimpses of interesting obstacles that can and will be visited in the near future. I suppose they didn't want to confuse the player with similar far off places that couldn't be reached. Whereas in a racing game, such barriers to the world are accepted. For this reason, I still think the design was carefully considered. But maybe in some cases, they should have broken up the void a little bit.

@pubjoe

Ok. Good to see I've made what I'm saying now clear at least.

Also, there is kinda a way to maybe slightly "cheat" with these full 3D backgrounds and that's by using sections from other levels as the background in the current level. So, for example, there might be a level where you run around a 3D representation of Peach's castle (like the start area in Super Mario 64) and what they could do is have that same castle and outside area as the full 3D background for another level that maybe takes place in some hill and countryside type environment that is supposed to be just on the outskirts of the castle. I can't think of any specific level design from Super Mario 3D world of the top off my head but I'm sure a few of them could be used like that.

They could even kinda almost build all the levels as one big open world with all the levels actually within one huge interconnected layout VISUALLY, still having each particular level section/area basically enclosed and self contained however, and then wherever you are specifically playing whatever level you are in you'd still see the full 'Mario World' represented beyond that too. Additionally, they could then maybe even use a zoomed out version of that larger "open world" view as the actual Map Screen that you navigate around to select the levels.

I dunno; something like that.

@Kirk
I think your last paragraph would be taking it too far. Trees and subtle details are one thing but seeing walled off playfields would be misleading.

@pubjoe

Well ok, maybe not literally seeing the other levels fully visible in the distance but just parts of them being used as the background elements (mountains, hills, castles, trees, landscapes, maybe some of the larger chunks of the other levels but without any of the actual objects like the blocks and stuff so they just like like big land masses in the distance etc). The actual levels would still work/look as they do now except the backgrounds would look like an extension of the world beyond the area you are in (more than just a few trees) but not directly visually connected to and flowing into it so you don't actually expect to be able to go there.

Actually, to be honest, this is why I wish they'd just go with a proper fully 2.5D game (ala Kirby's Return to Dreamland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHsOm6ZmkLE) because then they could have the best of both worlds without any real problems; really tight classic Mario platforming, no problems with 3D cameras, no slightly finicky trying to jump on enemies or smaller platforms in full 3D, lovely 3D vistas stretching off into the distance but without any expectation from the player that they should be able to go backwards into the screen to explore those areas in the background AND there's still scope for utilising the full 3D camera in the cutscenes and a few other places etc.

You know, I like the Rainbow Road track in general but I don't like the specific design of the track barrier, the star ring things that you drive/fly through and the larger ring that wraps around the track. There's just something a bit twee and weak about them, like they don't really belong there. They look like jewellery and decoration for a Princess' crown or something which just looks wrong imo.

@pubjoe I know it's old post but my sentiments exactly. In Sunshine, you could see the other areas of the game by walking up to the boundaries of the area you were in. It gave it a sense of grandeur like Mario really is on a giant Island.

While I would love for another 3D Mario game to get a centralised theme, it seems Nintendo is more focused on making Marios a continuous obstacle course / jungle gym with no real connection from one world to the next.