Mario Kart 8 Animal Crossing DLC Pack Brought Forward to April, More amiibo Outfits on the Way

Expected to see much more of this in the Direct.

Animal Crossing level looks nice I guess, but we need to see the others.

Characters, vehicles and costumes are irrelevant. Just show us the tracks.

Still no Pikachu amiibo support? Bummer. Looking forward to this nonetheless.

Surprised we didn't see anymore tracks. At least now they'll be a surprise.

Nice. More DLC is always welcome.

Loved the seasonal changes on the Animal Crossing track. Was really hoping for more course reveals.. The 200cc came out of no where though and was a really cool surprise! I can only hope that someday they open a quick select mode with online play that let's us choose 100cc, 150cc, or 200cc rather than dealing with custom games.

A big part of Wii Ugaming in April? Isnt it the only part?

Already posted my reply to this in the 200cc thread, they did save the best for last. (Kind of surprised you guys split this, so so much to cover as it was, though I suppose not everyone is/has bought the DLC.)

Pleasantly surprised by all this. I'm sure we'll see more of the tracks week by week leading up to the 23rd.

Nice to see a date move closer, of course!

Love the pacman helmet. I don't think I'll be buying a Pac-man amiibo to get it. When will those cards come out?

Animal Crossing track is looking spectacular! That remix of the New Leaf theme brings back a lotta good memories.

Cool to see it in April. May was packed already.

More GBA tracks. That's all I ask.
The lack of recognition for Super Circuit is really getting bothersome lately.

@AlexSora89 Agreed.

And the worst part is, that some GBA tracks would work with the antigravity stuff.

Like Ribbon Road or Broken Pier.

It's really cool that the Animal Crossing Track has different looks, I wonder if it's either random or is affected by the Wii U system settings.

Aw yeah! Just got a sonic amiibo and now I can use it more.

Heck yeah! I'm happy about this. I'm a little rusty now with Mario Kart 8 seeing as other games had my attention. Looks like I'll be pulled away from MKX for a bit with this update coming!

Oh heck yeah!!!!!! megaman!!!! I never expected him in mario kart, that is awesome!!

The seasons will change "every time you play" (according to Iwata), not depending on "real-world" seasons. You know that different parts of the world have different seasons at the same time, right?

This was an awesome surprise. I can't wait! I wish I had some of those amiibos.

With this free update and additional dlc maps I think it is fairly safe to say that this is the best Mario Kart they have released.

Wow that music is amazing!

I hope MK8 actually becomes fast now. It's so damn slow.

So when I finally beat all this, will I get my three stars to show up online? Also, I wonder if you Kojima your system (change the date) and play offline if you can experience any season of your choice.

Except I can't find half of these amiibos. In fact I've never seen the Super Mario line in stores.

@Luffymcduck

Uhh, no. On 150cc it's already faster than previous Mario Kart's. With this 200cc mode it will be blazing fast compared to other games in the series.

200cc... Wow, Nintendo, just wow... I feel the key to success is knowing how to power slide and use the brakes. The right analog may suddenly become useful as full throttle for 100% of the race likely won't cut it anymore. The massive MK8 update can't happen soon enough!

@AlexSora89 Both the MK8 Direct and the 200cc trailer both ignore Super Circuit's existence so I'm not holding out hope. Super Circuit on Wii U VC is probably the closest we'll get.

@CosmoXY That's what I want. It would sell the rest of the remaining Pikachu Amiibo, and would be awesome.

I wonder what song K.K. is playing? I wonder if it will be THAT song?

@VR32F1END It would be cool if you could change the date and play online and have Mr Resetti get cross at you.

MK8 getting new suits, new tracks, new characters, new vehicles, new difficulty --> if it wasn't already, MK8 is now officially the best Mario Kart game.

200cc came out of nowhere, no one could have predicted that.

Love the look of the Animal Crossing track, I can tell that track will look good but will it play well? It looks too basic from what I saw.

I'm crying out for more GBA tracks also, it's been so long since I've played it but it's only because Europe don't have the VC release yet.

Awesome to see more amiibo outfit support. I wish they would support all currently released amiibo figurines though (considering that the costumes wouldn't require much work to produce).

@Iggly : I believe a season will be chosen at random for the Animal Crossing track. This is to keep the level feeling fresh and surprising every time you play it.

200cc is pretty cool, but the main benefits for me are the sped up release date of the next dlc packs, and new Amiibo costumes! I already own the Sonic and the Mega Man Amiibo so I'm going to be riding in style! This just makes Mario Kart 8 that much better.

200cc is perhaps the best news of the whole Direct for me. Just what I need!! I'd like some of the amiibo suits too but know its going to be a struggle getting hold of Megaman etc...

In the AC track, the seasons changing every time you play is a nice touch - I hope the ice and wet leaves etc impact the handling.

BTW, I’m surprised that the Nintendo broadcast didn’t show the Mute City DLC at 200cc. Or was it so fast that I missed it?

@vio
Uhh, no. There are faster Mario Kart's like 64. When Mario Kart becomes fast like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and has more interesting track design, I might get interested again.

Yay my Mega Man has more uses now lolz

So 4 seasons in the Animal Crossing track...does that mean 4 laps?

@Captain_Gonru Yeah, but Mario Kart is not Animal Crossing. I don't want to wait a whole year just to see the track change. It's fine in Animal Crossing though, because it adds to the experience. It wouldn't add much in a racing game, I think.

@Oubie No, every time you play this course, a different season will appear.

@CosmoXY
I'm disappointed too. Pikachu is the only Amiibo I have and he doesn't do enough yet for me to bother opening his box.

@StarDust4Ever: Agreed! 200cc is the biggest MK8 news from yesterday's direct, IMHO. Hoping it may make other karts/characters more competitively viable. Plus, I cannot wait to go really fast : )

@Captain_Gonru Maybe you'll get to choose a season before starting the race, just like Yoshi's colour or a Mii's face.

200cc mode? I thought getting gold on 150cc on all courses was hard enough!!

@Luffymcduck

MK 64 is NOT faster than MK 8. And more creative track design? Are you serious? It has the most creative design of any game in the series! Sure, there's a few "meh" tracks, but overall, the design is fantastic.

Sonic Racing is quite good and all, but the physics are crap and the online community, well, there is no online community! The lobbies are ghost towns. The support for the game is terrible. No more updates, no DLC. MK 8 is simply the better game overall.

@vio
The tracks are so easy in MK8, the easiest one to point out is the Rainbow Road. MK7's Rainbow Road was just so much better, not to mention the overall track design. Antigravity tracks had so much potential from my experiences in F-Zero GX (and even some tracks in Sonic) but MK8 missed that by making the tracks too easy. There's a corner, you make a slide boost and then drive in straight line, then another slide boost etc. Not too exciting. I guess the 200cc will fix the speed issue and at least make the F-Zero track and few others are more fun to play then. What future Mario Kart games need is overall better and more challenging track design and more exciting jump boost mechanics like in CTR and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (in which you can move the car in the air for better shortcuts or the amount of tricks you perform in the air gives you bigger speed boost).

I reckon pokemon and Donkey kong DLC will arrive. Suspicious that no pokemon Amiibo are outfits... yet!

Can't wait to get my Rosalinda & lumaMan, Villagerman, and toadman suits!

Amazed 3 3rd party suits made the list, This is basicly smash kart at this point.

Now please give me a 200cc mirror mode and maybe 300cc/300cc mirror