Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (April 2017)

[Zippo]

For those wondering why Deluxe doesn't have much new content, it's because a majority of the Mario Kart 7 and 8 team are busy working on the new Nintendo IP Arms. The director of Mario Kart 7 and 8 is directing that game as well. It's safe to say that after Arms is released in the Spring, production on a brand new Mario Kart for Switch will start.

[JaidynReiman]

11 hours ago, Zippo said:

For those wondering why Deluxe doesn't have much new content, it's because a majority of the Mario Kart 7 and 8 team are busy working on the new Nintendo IP Arms. The director of Mario Kart 7 and 8 is directing that game as well. It's safe to say that after Arms is released in the Spring, production on a brand new Mario Kart for Switch will start.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Its debatable. Maybe they'll instead consider different racing game by another team and that team will do something else.

[Zippo]

43 minutes ago, JaidynReiman said:

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Its debatable. Maybe they'll instead consider different racing game by another team and that team will do something else.

I don't see that happening. Nintendo knows Mario Kart is one of their biggest sellers, there's absolutely no way a Nintendo console is not going to have a new, original installment of Mario Kart. MK8D is just a stopgap until a new one for Switch is released. Nothing more. Given how Arms is just now finishing production, it'll be awhile, but I absolutely believe MK9 will be released on Switch in a couple of years.

[DarkRula]

Ever since Mario Kart DS, each new game has released three years after the last.

2005, 2008, 2011, 2014.

Deluxe is launching 2017. I wouldn't be surprised if the next game after Deluxe is released 2020. In fact, I'd expect most Nintendo series releasing this year to get another game three years or more down the line.

[Marcello]

To be honest, I'd rather have had this game simply be Mario Kart Switch and it being updated with DLC throughout the life of the Switch. With this being 8 Deluxe, I have to assume a new one will be coming out in the near-ish future.

[Zippo]

4 hours ago, Marcello said:

To be honest, I'd rather have had this game simply be Mario Kart Switch and it being updated with DLC throughout the life of the Switch. With this being 8 Deluxe, I have to assume a new one will be coming out in the near-ish future.

While that would be great, I'm sure Nintendo finds it much more economical to make an original Mario Kart for the Switch and then sell you DLC on top of that.

[Doctor MK]

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe trailer - "Play anytime, anywhere"

It's official: the number one reason to buy a Switch is so you can play Mario Kart while you poo

[Forte-Metallix]

Thought I'd bump this topic with some major updates:

-Gold Mario (UGH) is unlocked by beating all Cups on 200cc

-It seems Deluxe is adding a third level of drifting

-8 Battle Courses include: 

• Battle Stadium (New)
• Sweet Sweet Kingdom (New)
• Dragon Palace (New)
• Lunar Colony (New)
• Wuhu Town (MK7)
• Luigi's Mansion (MKDD)
• Battle Course 1 (SMK)
• Urchin Underpass (Splatoon)

-5 Battle Modes:

• Balloon Battle
• Shine Thief
• Coin Runners
• Bob-omb Blast
• Renegade Roundup (New- Basically cops-and-robbers with Potted Piranha Plants; chase renegades as a "cop" with a Piranha Plant, or evade cops as a "renegade")

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Renegade Roundup is the best looking thing ever I need this game

[MegasonicZX]

I'm really hoping that if they did nerf the speed in 200cc like derrick said, I hope that brake drifting is still a prominent thing and that the speed change isn't too noticeable. 

And gold mario has to be the most insulting reward you could possibly give anyone for completing the game at its hardest.

[Your Vest Friend]

So there's a weird thing where you can select an antennae thing and it prevents you from falling off the track. Seems to be for novices [It's called Smart Steering]. 

You can brake while drifting now, also there's a new drift mini-boost, confirming the GameXplain speculation.

[MegasonicZX]

On 3/10/2017 at 4:26 PM, VEDJ-F said:

So there's a weird thing where you can select an antennae thing and it prevents you from falling off the track. Seems to be for novices [It's called Smart Steering]. 

You can brake while drifting now, also there's a new drift mini-boost, confirming the GameXplain speculation.

You could always brake while drifting (it just wasn't optimal in anything below 200cc) unless your talking about something else.

[Mystwalker]

You could brake while drifting in the Wii U version, yeah. In 200cc the devs even changed the engine to allow braking to control your speed more easily during a drift. 150cc and below you'd need extra care tapping those brakes because one tap too long could take you out of a drift quite easily, but yeah, it's doable, just doesn't see much use here.

 

I noticed someone on a Mario Kart 8 Discord server pointed out that kart stats seem to be wildly different this time around. Take a look at Mario here in a full standard set for instance:

I thought the game was just going to be Wii U MK8 with added sprinkles on it, but this picture makes me think they've gone an extra mile to rebalance parts of the game too. Maybe lightweights and heavyweights will see stats that are better geared towards their affinities and disadvantages now? Probably not enough to stop you from using an heavyweight with acceleration and handling parts as before, but we'll see either way.

[G-Force]

Looking at those stat spreads, I'm suspecting that they might have tweaked the weight classes more than anything else.  I remember that Mario was essentially a "heavy-medium" before, so he slightly favored speed and weight, but now his stats are just perfectly balanced.  I'm crossing my fingers that they've cut things down to just five weight classes.

[Blue Blood]

Pre-order at the Nintendo UK Store, get a Death Stare Luigi shirt.

Can't believe they actually made this. I want it so bad.

[Teoskaven]

Memetendo riding the tide once again.

[JezMM]

That is INCREDIBLY cool though I have to admit the meme loses it's instantaneous recognisability when you don't have Luigi from the same angle of the original video.

[blueblur98]

the only game releasing on blueblur98 appreciation day/arbor day

also i think i have a luigi death stare shirt somewhere

[Pawn]

This is some fun marketing:

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh sweet, there's some DLC coming for this! I can't wait to anticipate what they chose while doing my jobsearching, 2017 was rough but I should be good to go soon!

...Wait I got a job four years ago what--

 

[DarkRula]

This is certainly a good move. Why make a new game when this one still sells so well? We might be missing new tracks (well, the Tour ones will feel new to anyone who hasn't played that), but it's still an entire games worth of tracks for half the price of a full game game.

[Red Hot Jack]

I was thinking, it looks like they are porting a lot of stuff from Tour, not everything but still, it's an excuse to port old content that was already remastered in Tour.

So why not characters, vehicles and skins?

With a super number like 96 tracks by the end of 2023, it would be really lame to leave the game with a shitty roster, and a limited vehicle count, because let's face it, the roster was arguably the shittiest and most criticzed aspect of MK8. 

They would be smart to capitalize on that and add a character/skin/parts DLC along with the courses, I really don't see them doing free updates though. They can do the same and port some of the Tour stuff. I really hope so...

The one thing that makes this unlikely is they eventually want to save some stuff for MK9 on the next console? Including new characters, but if they wanted to make MK8D the Ultimate Mario Kart in content, it would be nice to add more characters, just saying.

[DaBigJ]

They absolutely are porting Tour content to Deluxe....and they aren't even hiding it. 

 

It's, in my opinion, an absolutely shameful miss-mash of the beautiful graphics of Mario Kart 8 and literally upscaled mobile game assets and the fact they're unable to make the courses at LEAST mesh well with the base game courses is absurdly lazy.

And people complained about Pokemon reusing assets. Give Game Freak credit, it at least all meshed well and nothing looked out of place.

[JezMM]

Now that footage is out, I'm pleased to see that against all odds (honestly, I was really pessimistic about this!) the music has been re-arranged and brought up to MK8 standards, even if the visuals aren't 100% there.  That was my dealbreaker, so I think I'll be grabbing this as soon as I can find a decently priced second-hand copy of the game.

[mayday2592]

Eh, the new tracks are a mixed bag IMO. I was really hoping they'd do a bit more to shake up the tracks besides improved visuals, similar to what they did with the GBA tracks in the previuous DLC.  At least the console tracks are still fun and it's cool to see the added detail to Choco Mountain. The Tour tracks aside from Ninja Hideaway are just dull and forgettable, even with the layout changing on the last lap. That being said, Ninja Hideaway is one of my new favorites. Its multiple routes the flesh out the environment so it feels like you're  driving through the castle instead of a track happens to go through the castle.