Mario Kart 8

Mario Kart 8  is a kart-racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It is the eleventh installment in Nintendo's Mario Kart franchise, the eighth in the main series, and was released on May 30th, 2014.

Gameplay
Mario Kart 8 takes the glider and underwater mechanics as well as the coins mechanic of its predecessor Mario Kart 7. The bikes from Mario Kart Wii  also make a return. Though they have been changed to act more similarly to Karts; wheelies are now purely cosmetic, though some have inside drifting. 12 player races have also made an return. In addition. The main new mechanic is the anti-gravity transformation which will allow racers to drive along the ceiling and walls of courses allowing more different paths then regular race tracks.

Roster
These are in order they appear on the character select screen
 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Peach
 * Daisy
 * Rosalina
 * Metal Mario
 * Yoshi (8 Alternate costumes are unlocked by purchasing both DLC packs at the same time)
 * Toad
 * Koopa
 * Shy Guy (8 Alternate costumes are unlocked by purchasing both DLC packs at the same time)
 * Lakitu
 * Toadette
 * Baby Mario
 * Baby Luigi
 * Baby Peach
 * Baby Daisy
 * Baby Rosalina (New)
 * Pink Gold Peach (New)
 * Bowser
 * DK
 * Wario
 * Waluigi
 * Iggy Koopa (New)
 * Roy Koopa (New)
 * Lemmy Koopa (New)
 * Larry Koopa (New)
 * Wendy O. Koopa (New)
 * Ludwig von Koopa (New)
 * Morton Koopa Jr (New)
 * Mii

DLC
In each DLC pack, 3 characters are added. In the 1st DLC pack, there are: In the 2nd DLC pack, there are:
 * Tanooki Mario
 * Cat Peach
 * Link (Legend of Zelda)
 * Villager (Animal Crossing)
 * Isabelle (Animal Crossing)
 * Dry Bowser

Downloadable content
Two different DLC packs have been released for Mario Kart 8.

By purchasing both DLC packs, the purchaser received eight alternative colours for both Yoshi and Shy Guy.

Egg Cup

 * GCN Yoshi Circuit
 * Excitebike Arena
 * Dragon Driftway
 * Mute City

Triforce Cup

 * WII Wario's Gold Mine
 * SNES Rainbow Road
 * Ice Ice Outpost
 * Hyrule Circuit

Characters

 * Tanooki Mario
 * Cat Peach
 * Link

Animal Crossing x Mario Kart 8
Releasing on April 23, it includes for $7.99

Crossing Cup

 * GCN Baby Park
 * Wild Woods
 * GBA Cheese Land
 * Animal Crossing

Bell Cup

 * 3DS Neo Bowser City
 * Super Bell Subway
 * GBA Ribbon Road
 * Big Blue

Characters

 * Villager
 * Isabelle
 * Dry Bowser

Vehicles

 * City Tripper
 * Streetle
 * P-Wing
 * Bone Rattler

Mercedes Benz

 * GLA
 * W 25 Silver Arrow
 * 300 SL Roadster

Items

 * Golden Mushrooms
 * Stars
 * Fire Flowers
 * Bob-Ombs
 * Mushrooms
 * Triple Mushrooms
 * Red Shells
 * Triple Red Shells
 * Green Shells
 * Triple Green Shells
 * Bananas
 * Triple Bananas
 * Lightning
 * Bloopers
 * Blue Shell
 * Boomerang (New)
 * Piranha Plant (New)
 * Super Horn (New)
 * Crazy Eight (New)

Customization
Customzation returns from Mario Kart 7, now with alternative Bikes and ATVs in addition to Karts as the main body. Except for the golden parts and DLC, they are randomly unlocked through getting multiples of 50 coins.

Karts

 * Standard Kart
 * Pipe Frame
 * Mach 8
 * Steel Driver
 * Cat Cruiser
 * Circuit Special
 * Tri-Speeder
 * Badwagon
 * Prancer
 * BiddyBuggy
 * Landship
 * Sneeker
 * Sports Coupe
 * Gold Standard
 * GLA (DLC)
 * W 25 Silver Arrow (DLC)
 * 300 SL Roadster (DLC)
 * Blue Falcon (DLC)
 * B Dasher (DLC)
 * Tanooki Kart (DLC)
 * P-Wing (DLC)
 * Streetle (DLC)

Bikes

 * Standard Bike
 * Comet
 * Sports Bike
 * The Duke
 * Flame Rider
 * Varmint
 * Mr. Scooty
 * Jet Bike
 * Yoshi Bike
 * The Master Cycle (DLC)
 * City Tripper (DLC)

ATV

 * Standard ATV
 * Wild Wiggler
 * Teddy Buggy
 * Bone Rattler (DLC)

Tires

 * Standard
 * Monster
 * Roller
 * Slim
 * Slick
 * Metal
 * Button
 * Off-Road
 * Sponge
 * Wood
 * Cushion Tires
 * Blue Standard
 * Hot Monster
 * Azure Roller
 * Crimson Slim
 * Cyber Slick
 * Retro Off-Road
 * Gold Tires
 * GLA Tires (DLC)
 * Triforce Tires (DLC)

Gliders

 * Super Glider
 * Cloud Glider
 * Wario Wing
 * Waddle Wing
 * Peach Parasol
 * Parachute
 * Parafoil
 * Flower Glider
 * Bowser Kite
 * Plane Glider
 * MKTV Parafoil
 * Gold Glider
 * Hylian Kite (DLC)

Battle Mode
The battle mode seems akin to earlier Mario Karts except the battle courses are based on the race tracks albeit modified for a Battle purpose.There are 8 courses used for Battle including
 * Mario Circuit
 * Toad Harbor
 * Moo Moo Meadows
 * Toad Turnpike
 * Sherbet Land
 * Donut Plains 3
 * Dry Dry Desert
 * Yoshi Valley

Mario Kart TV
This is a robust replay editing system that even supports both Miiverse posting and direct-to-Youtube upload. The system can take 15 second, 30 second, 60 second highlights or full race and pot them on Miiverse. Unfortunately, the Youtube upload function has disabled full race for it.

Amiibo
The Amiibo functionality is racing suits of the character for the player's Miis

Here are Amiibos supported With an update in April, 9 more are supported
 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Yoshi
 * Peach
 * Donkey Kong
 * Link
 * Kirby
 * Samus
 * Fox McCloud
 * Captain Falcon
 * Pac-Man
 * Mega Man
 * Villager
 * Sonic
 * Rosalina
 * Toad
 * Bowser
 * Wario
 * Olimar

Development
Development for Mario Kart 8 started in 2012. Some ideas that were scrapped in Mario Kart 8 included a drill that made drivers drive into subterranean depths. The idea was scrapped because the developers thought it was not as interesting as the anti-gravity idea. The anti-gravity concept stemmed from the Wii U being a powerful console, and with the upgraded hardware, the developers wanted to make courses with a 3D plane in mind rather than the 2D plane as the other tracks in the Mario Kart series.

The title, Mario Kart 8, is chosen to represent the anti-gravity mechanic as the "8" used in the official logo resembles the Möbius strip from Mario Circuit. Mario circuit was in fact the first course for the game

Select tracks will be orchestrated, making this game the first Mario Kart game to feature orchestrated tracks. According to the developers, this game pushes some limits of the Wii U, but there is still potential.

On August 27, 2014, the first patch was released. This added DLC to game, allowing the player to download the Mercedes cars and prepurchase the DLC and unlock 8 alternate costumes for Shy Guys and Yoshis. They also revamped the online rating system, added an option to view map on screen and rearranged the race finish menu so Next Race was the first option instead of Replay.

On November 13, 2014, the second patch was released. This added amiibo functionality which is different costumes based on the amiibo. It also integrates the new DLC launched on the same day.

On April 23, 2015, the third patch was released. This added 200cc, more amiibo functionality and the new DLC released the same day.

Marketing and Promotion
The game had a Nintendo Direct dedicated to describing all the new features. In this Nintendo Direct, they also reveal a special Wii U Bundle for America and Europe, which included a Deluxe Black Wii U Console, a physical copy of the game, a Wii Remote Plus, a Wii Wheel and Mario & Luigi hats. Europe had a special limited edition with a T-shirt and a Blue Shell Figure. There was a special promotion in that if the consumer registered the game on Club Nintendo, the consumer could a free game. In North America, there were 4 games, each with a $40 value; Wii Party U, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Pikmin 3. In Europe, in addition to the games listed for America, they also got; Sonic Lost World, Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, The Wonderful 101, Game & Wario, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and  Nintendo Land. Japan got a slightly difference deal where they could select 2 game and there would be free for a month and then get the games for 1/2 off after the trial.

Nintendo also did a series of commercials demonstrating the new items and the anti gravity in a quality testing format with the tag line "Flippin' Fun". They started airing on TV 2 week prior to release and was shown before movies in theaters.

In September 2014, they started putting out new Wii U bundles.

Reception
The game was received very well. On Metacritic, the game received an 88 and on GameRankings, it got a 88.22% with the lowest score it received being a 7/10 from the Toronto Sun. Famitsu gave the game a 36(8,9,9,10) out of 40.

While it is currently unknown how exactly well the game has done so far, the game seems to have caused numerous stores to run out of Wii Us and selling most of their stock of the game. Amazon confimred that Mario Kart 8 has passed PS4 sales on the website. . According to Nintendo, the game sold 1.2 million over its release weekend becoming the fastest selling Wii U game to date. Most of the Wii U's sold around the time of the release were the special edition Mario Kart 8 Wii U. In Japan, the game sold 325,892 units according to Media Create and is the third best Mario Kart launch, behind Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7. In the UK, the game was the best Wii U game launch and the 3rd best selling SKU behind Watch_Dogs PS4 and Xbox One. In America, the game sold over 400,000 in its opening weekend, also not far behind Watch_Dogs in the May NPD. In France, the game sold 74,755 in its opening week. It was confirmed at the June Investor meeting that the game has sold over 2 million worldwide in just under a month. In the October Investor meeting, it was revealed that the game has sold 3.49 million worldwide with 2.74 million outside Japan.

Gallery
See: Mario Kart 8/gallery