Nintendo Thread: Nintendo Direct Mini 03/26/2020

Which Pokémon game will you be buying?

  • Let's Go Pikachu!

    Votes: 13 46.4%

  • Let's Go Eevee!

    Votes: 3 10.7%

  • Both!

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • None!

    Votes: 8 28.6%

  • O.0

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .
Show All
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New previews for Mario Golf: World Tour are starting to land. We’ve rounded up details from Polygon and Nintendo Life’s reports below.
- Can pick from realistic courses or more off-the-wall levels
- Each character has a slightly different playstyle
- This mainly pertains to their power
- Players can choose to putt as a Mii
- Miis can mirror the abilities of Mario characters, depending on their gear
- Can simultaneously take your shots, rather than wait for friends to line up their moves in multiplayer
- While you progress, small icons appear which allow you to measure their ball’s progress against your own
- No voice/text chat options
- Can send emoticons to other players
- Game includes online competitions
- Players can simply set their rules, play a course and submit their score
“You also have the ability to join special communities that will have tournaments with special rule sets. People can really play the game however they want. Some people want to play Mario Golf with realistic courses, no items, basically really limit things to more of a traditional kind of golf setting. Other people want to have the craziest — all the items on, just completely bananas.”
- Stepping onto the course only requires simple shot selection and timing
- With Auto mode, you only need to choose a direction and use A (or the touch screen) to initiate and time a shot
- Can switch to Manual mode at any point, even between shots
- The initial swing in Manual mode brings in the standard three-button-press to initiate the swing, set power and then determine the accuracy
- As the shot gauge moves on its final route you can apply the final press with the A or B button, setting up four potential combos
- Tap again quickly after the shot is initiated to add topspin, super topspin, backspin or super backspin
- Multiple shot types and club selections
- Can also deliberately manipulate your shot to fade or draw
- Quick Round: series of modes where you can play as various Mushroom Kingdom characters or your customised Mii
- Match Play: take on a computer opponent
- Speed Golf: attempt to rattle through holes as quickly as possible
- Point Play: converts your scores from strokes into points
- Lots of customization in each mode
- Can choose the number of holes from 3, 6, 9 to 18
- Add quirky Mario-style ideas such as a slot machine that limits available clubs and items
- Items are activated as a “special” shot type with various effects
- Bom-ombs prompt your ball to explode high into the air
- Fire flower will allow your ball to burn through trees
- Boomerang can add unlikely swerve
- Tricky challenge holes task you with collecting Star Coins while also making par
- Activities help you accumulate currency
- Use coins to buy clothes, accessories, more clubs
- Enhance your primary stats of Sweet Spot and Control, increase drive distance and play style of your Mii as well
- 8 categories of outfits and accessories
- Play as a Mii: Castle Club is where you buy items and is an area where you run around with your Mii
- Castle Club has tips from characters, rooms to explore, tournaments/challenges
- Start in a building and eventually venture outside to where much of the action is to be found
- Early stages start with a “practice round” on one of three initial courses to set a handicap
- You’ll then enter tournaments and gradually progress to Championship rounds
- 18-hole round takes about 30-45 mins
- Game also includes challenges that cover drives, approach shots and putting at multiple difficulty levels, useful for accumulating coins and perfecting technique
- Mii characters registered on the system gather to celebrate your score after each hole
- Large Nintendo mascots such as Bowser and Donkey Kong raggedly swinging the club with one hand
 
Mario Golf Preorder for $29.99 Amazon product ASIN B00CFR7UC2
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/preview_mario_golf_world_tour
 
While it's too early to say whether Mario Golf: World Tour has a fully immersive RPG-lite experience  to suck us in for months on end, we can say that  the potential is undoubtedly in place.
Click to expand...
Beyond buying items, however, the Castle Club is the area that will dominate most play time. It's a sizeable, colourful place in which you run around with your Mii, and to a degree has a slight vibe of Animal Crossing: New Leaf — from the quirky running animation of your avatar to the characters standing around happy to exchange a few words, it creates a peculiar but delightful environment to explore. Aside from some minor tips from obliging characters, you're left to explore rooms, trying different doors and staircases to stumble across areas with no aim other than to provide some charming context, and others that house tournaments and challenges.

Beginning in a building, you eventually venture outside to where much of the action is to be found. Our time-to-date has taken us through early stages, beginning with a "practice round" on one of three initial courses to set a handicap — from that point you can enter tournaments  and gradually progress to Championship rounds. A typical 18-hole round takes us between 30-45 minutes, and consistently developing skills, tweaking clothes and items and learning courses takes away any sense of repetition. Beyond rounds on courses there are also extremely useful challenges that cover drives, approach shots and putting at multiple difficulty levels, useful for accumulating coins and perfecting technique. We feel like we've barely started to see what's on offer, only catching hints and question mark teases of an expansive and substantial set of unlockable treats and courses.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Get a Mario/Luigi Wii U bundle for $260 from Newegg on eBay
Posted under News, Wii U
37 minutes ago by Brian (@NE_Brian)

Newegg has a new Wii U deal available – this time for the Mario/Luigi bundle. Through eBay, consumers can get their hands on the console for $260. You can place an order here.
This isn’t the first time Newegg has slashed the price of a Wii U bundle. Towards the end of January, gamers could pick up a Zelda: Wind Waker HD bundle along with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge and The Wonderful 101 for $270.
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Thats a pretty good deal for the Wii U. I want to say $250 was the price point I was looking toward mines
 
Will this work for pre-orders? Only thing I really want that's currently out is Bravely Default
 
CenTex HOGG said:
Will this work for pre-orders? Only thing I really want that's currently out is Bravely Default
Click to expand...
Hope so I may use the deal to preorder super smash bros 4 for the Wii u and 3ds
Also I keep hearing more Mario kart news this week
So be on the look out
 
Embargo for those who have been invited by Nintendo to test the new April demo of MK8 will be lifted on Thursday April 3rd morning
 
ALL NEW INFO LEAKED TODAY


Mario Kart 8 Introduces Expanded Item Customization
by Chris Pereira & Jose Otero APRIL 3, 2014

The limited amount of item customization seen in Mario Kart 7 will be expanded in the upcoming Wii U sequel, Mario Kart 8, according to director Kosuke Yabuki.

"There was some item customization in Mario Kart 7, in that you could choose to have a mushroom-only race or shell-only race. We're going to have that plus a little bit more, actually, in Mario Kart 8," Yabuki said during a roundtable interview at GDC last month.

"I think we're going to be able to answer that feeling of, 'I don't want to race with items.' Well, OK, then no items. Or, 'I only want to have bananas.' Well, OK. I think we're going to be able to provide a system to answer that desire this time around."


Mario Kart 8 producer Hideki Konno reiterated what Yabuki said without sharing any specifics, stating, "We're going to have some rule customization for folks who want to be able to go in and set that up for themselves." But he also stressed that a lot of thought goes into what items are available to players by default.

"Game balance is a really important element of Mario Kart that we look very, very closely at and place a lot of value on," Konno explained. "I think that item balance, from the time we start working on development, a thousand times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance while we're playing. At the end, we come up with what we hope or feel is a really good balance. It's our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them."

The Mario Kart team is aware that some people claim that winning in Mario Kart, thanks to items like the notorious Blue Shell that seeks out the player in first place, is all about luck. However, Konno claims there is more thought that goes in to things like the Blue Shell than people may realize.

"That feature is not random. It just doesn't happen," he said. "There is a lot of adjustment, and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. So I would hope people would understand that as well.

"One of the things we actually hope for is that if you're just playing on an off day, and you've lost a race or two. We hope that you step away going, 'Oh well, I just didn't feel it today. My luck wasn't with me. Whatever the cause, it just wasn't my day, but I'm going to come back and play again.' And that's sort of what we're aiming for. We want people to feel that way when they step away, that they want to come back."





Mario Kart 8 is Gorgeous, Fast, and Incredibly Fun
The next Mario Kart looks absolutely amazing, but the latest build only hints at its potential.
by Jose Otero APRIL 3, 2014

My last race of Mario Kart 8 came down to the wire. We sped through a remake of DK Jungle, a stage previously introduced in Mario Kart for 3DS. My opponent slipped into first place. I was down in fourth, recovering from a poorly timed accident. I knew the stakes and had to race cautiously to secure a win. After power-sliding into third, I picked up one of Mario Kart’s shiny item boxes. The next ramp transformed our karts into gliders, and we swooped past three Screaming Pillars. As the familiar item roulette wheel spun in the top left corner, only one thought crossed my mind: “If I get a red shell right now, this race is done!”

This type of high stakes situation happens all the time in Mario Kart. The red shell appeared; I won the race. But according to Producer Hideki Konno, the outcome shouldn’t be attributed to luck. Regardless, Mario Kart 8 is the best looking game on Wii U so far. Its vibrant vistas stand apart thanks to both incredible attention to detail and great art direction. Its high speed tricks feel faster. Its framerate is locked at an impressive 60 fps (even in two-player split-screen mode).

The build of Mario Kart 8 I played wasn’t complete, but it showed enough ideas to sell me on its potential. I raced on 16 of the expected 32 courses from the final game, and I couldn’t help but admire how gorgeous it all looked and played. While I didn’t have access to the smaller arenas of Battle Mode or Coin Runners during my demo, the cups and courses I saw showcased a stunning kart racer that can stand up to anything on competing platforms.

Mario Kart 8 doesn’t rewrite the rulebook of kart racing, but it tosses in enough fresh ideas to kick-start it past the last two incarnations on Wii and 3DS. Jumps off of ramps helped me gain small bursts of speed, and familiar vehicle transformations morphed my kart into a glider and an underwater craft. The new hotness this time around comes in the form of anti-gravity, a liberating and fun mechanic that allowed me to race on walls and other surfaces. The angled camera angle during this stomach-flipping wall trick unconsciously caused me to tilt my head, as I was totally immersed by everything happening on screen.

Each of the eight new tracks I played tossed in this fun new mechanic but also constantly switched things up. Water Park oscillated between underwater sections and an amusement park-themed gauntlet on land. Mario Kart Stadium delivered the spectacle and thrills of a huge event alongside a dizzying set of anti-gravity sections. The giant rolling stone wheel in Thwomp Ruins eventually collapses a special section of walls to reveal a potential shortcut after the first lap.








Meanwhile, the eight retro stages I played took a conservative approach to fiddling with Mario Kart 8’s new tricks, but it helped to distinguish these retread courses. Cheep Cheep Beach, originally from Mario Kart DS, completely skips the anti-gravity flair in favor of tight turns and a fun spread of boost pads and ramps. Mario Circuit 4’s remake has a fancy, elevated anti-gravity U-turn in one corner of the race, but still preserves a faithful high-definition tribute to the Super Nintendo original. The remake of Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 adds anti-gravity walls lined with booster pads and jumps to help speed racers along, but also tosses ramps and pads onto the backs of other large moving vehicles. From the rain-soaked roads of Donut Plains 3 to the hilarious golden temple of the banana gods in DK Jungle, these remade stages look and feel impressive.


As Mario Kart 8 skewed between new and old ideas, Nintendo’s cohesive art direction managed to stand out even when it came to the items themselves. Old reliable favorites like the deadly Red Shell homing projectile and thunderous Bullet Bill made return appearances next to two new items. The Piranha Plant from Super Mario 3D World can reach out and chomp on nearby racers. It also provided an incremental boost for small durations, as it yanked forward in search of something to munch on. The Boomerang from Super Mario 3D Land also makes an appearance as a re-useable item. I could toss this curved weapon up to three times and, with the right timing, it could hit enemies on the trip to and from my hand.

But just because Mario Kart 8 benefits from life in the high-def fast lane doesn’t mean it can pull a fast one on me. The limited features of this demo left some slightly awkward questions. While the GamePad allowed me to switch between off-TV play, a helpful map, and motion controls seamlessly using a simple set of touch panels on the display, Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed took this second screen to the next level: Sega provided local play for up to five players and support for separate views between the GamePad and television. It even featured it as a rear-view display in single-player. The build we played of Mario Kart 8 only mirrored what was on screen, so my opponent and I shared the display in a two-player race no matter where I looked. Producer Hideki Konno made it clear in a roundtable interview afterwards that the GamePad features I saw were all from the final shipping version of the game.


Even though I had a thorough hands-on experience with Mario Kart 8, there’s still plenty I didn’t get access to. I was only allowed to play multiplayer in two-player split-screen mode, the final game will support up to four. Twelve players can race online, but it wasn’t available during my demo. And then there’s the addition of Mario Kart TV, a feature that will setup sharing brief highlight films on Miiverse, but we still haven’t seen it in action. But regardless of the looming questions, one thing was clear after my demo: The core racing experience at the heart of Mario Kart 8 isn’t only intact; it’s better than ever. And it benefits from a steadfast approach to carefully preserving old ideas while blazing a trail forward with new ones.






Two Mysterious Unannounced Items in Mario Kart 8
Nintendo has at least two more items for this year’s highly anticipated installment of Mario Kart.
by Jose Otero APRIL 3, 2014

Nintendo announced two new items for Mario Kart 8 at a recent preview event in San Francisco. The Piranha plant (from Super Mario 3D World) and the Boomerang (from Super Mario 3D Land) will be part of the rotation when Mario Kart is released on May 30. But we didn’t realize that Nintendo has at least two more items to share in the near future.

Below are two images captured from footage Nintendo provided to IGN for our preview coverage, and they show two unannounced items for Mario Kart 8.
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What could these two items possibly do in Mario Kart 8?
What could these two items possibly do in Mario Kart 8?

We don't know what these items do, but we have a few theories. The one on the left resembles the cannon or light box from Super Mario 3D World. The other on the right could draw inspiration from Mario Kart 7's Lucky 7 -- a combination of seven items that a player could activate individually (or in some cases accidentally) during a race.






Mario Kart's producer explains why difficulty has prevented track-creation features from being included.
by Chris Pereira & Jose Otero APRIL 3, 2014

Allowing gamers to create their own courses is an idea that intrigues Mario Kart 8 producer Hideki Konno, but the difficulty involved in doing so is the main reason that functionality remains only an idea for the future.

Providing gamers with the tools to design Mario Kart tracks is "a fun feature" and something Konno has "been interested in for a long time," he said during a GDC roundtable last table. "However, with Mario Kart, course creation is key to the series, and it's really tough."


Konno continued, "This is the eighth game in the series and when we work on a Mario Kart title, we work on courses and we create them and then we work on them again, and again, and again, and we revise until we come up with something that we think is going to be fun for everyone to play over and over again. So we have a lot of confidence in our ability to do so, but we understand what a tough challenge it is to create those courses."

Beyond the challenge of designing courses is the matter of allowing players to do so in a rewarding way.

"I just don't know that at this point we're able to do that at a level that would satisfy anyone, myself included, or the customer," Konno said. "Someday, if we can come up with a solution and implement in a way that makes everyone happy, or we think will make everyone happy, we'll come back to that issue and maybe re-address it."

Konno added some extra hope to the prospect of seeing such a feature in the future, stating, "We're always optimistic and thinking about what we're going to do in the future."






Mario Kart: Double Dash's Dual Racers Haven't Been Forgotten
Nintendo is open to the possibility of a future Mario Kart game featuring two or three racers per kart.
by Chris Pereira & Jose Otero APRIL 3, 2014

While it may not have been implemented in any Mario Kart game outside of Double Dash, the idea of having two racers per kart has not been forgotten by Nintendo -- and it may be seen again in the future.

When asked during a GDC roundtable why Double Dash's most noteworthy innovation has been left out of subsequent entries, Mario Kart 8 producer Hideki Konno explained it wasn't a matter of disliking the idea.

"It wasn't just a simple case of, 'Hey, we're not going to do that again,'" Konno said. "We really think the two racers together in one kart of Double Dash was really unique, and we thought it worked really well."


What it comes down to is needing new ideas with which to make use of the two-racer setup. "We've got that in our pocket, so if we come up with any new, cool ideas that utilize having two players racing together, we will definitely grab that and possibly bring it back out," Konno continued.

There's also the technical side of all this, as Konno mentioned one of the the challenges involved with having multiple racers per kart that isn't apparent on the surface.

"Having two players racing together, it does have a pretty high cost in terms of processing power, so that is an obstacle," Konno said. "That being said, if we could come up with some ways around that processing cost, we may have two players, maybe even three players, racing together. If we could come up with some cool ideas, we'll definitely use them."







Mario Kart 8 – retro track comparison








Mario Kart 8 – “New Courses and Items” trailer





Nintendo Minute – Mario Kart 8 New Course






Lots of Mario Kart 8 details

Nintendo has lifted a new embargo on Mario Kart 8, and several press previews are now starting to arrive.
- Retro tracks have been given a noticeable upgrade
- 16 returning tracks
- 16 new courses
- Largest selection of playable characters
- Confirmed characters:
Mario
Luigi
Peach
Daisy
Yoshi
Bowser
Donkey Kong
Toad
Toadette
Koopa Troopa
Wario
Waluigi
Rosalina
Baby Mario
Baby Luigi
Baby Peach
Baby Daisy
Larry Koopa
Morton Koopa Jr.
Wendy O. Koopa
Iggy Koopa
Roy Koopa
Lemmy Koopa
Ludwig von Koopa
Metal Mario
Shy Guy
Lakitu
- Retro courses feature anti-gravity sections
- Glider and underwater additions return
- Toad’s Turnpink, Moo Moo Meadows, Mario Circuit are back
- Toad’s Turnpink features ramped lorries that flip you onto new vertical track sides and let you storm past swaths of traffic hazards
- Moo Moo Meadows now has an elegant skybox, dynamic lighting and lush green fields
- GBA Mario Circuit has been altered so that part of track is tilted to a 45 degree angle
- Split screen with up to 4 players
- 30 FPS in split-screen
- At least 2 new weapons
- Piranha Plant item from last year’s Super Mario 3D World included
- The pot will gobble up passers-by
- Mario’s Boomerang Flower power-up is included for the first time as a three-shot weapon with homing abilities, able to pick off anyone in a large radius
- Earn coins from item boxes
- Up to 10 to collect in a race
- Can no longer pick up additional items while holding a weapon behind your kart
- Horn is still present on the GamePad
- Options to toggle between a live view of the main screen, a map of the track layout and a list of the current player rankings
- Edit Highlight Reel option at the end of each race
- Select parameters to automatically generate a video of your playthrough
- Choose the clip length, specific characters for the camera to follow and a focus on key racing moments such as item use or stunt jumps




New items, characters and courses make for gravity-defying fun in Mario Kart 8
Piranha Plant and Boomerang Flower items join the fray across original and reimagined courses
3rd April 2014 – Nintendo today revealed new information on Mario Kart 8, the latest instalment in the fan-favourite racing series launching exclusively for Wii U on 30th May – in stores and on Nintendo eShop. For the first time in HD, Mario Kart 8 introduces original course designs that highlight the game’s new antigravity feature, which allows players to race upside down or up vertical surfaces. Racers will also enjoy a variety of series-favourite features including the return of 12-player online competitive play*, four player lo cal multiplayer, hang-gliders, underwater racing and motorbikes.
New features include:
Spin Turbo: While racing upside down or on walls, players can bump into other racers or certain course obstacles to get a speed boost. Spin Turbo fundamentally redefines the way that players compete, and makes antigravity racing even more exhilarating.
Returning characters: In Mario Kart 8, players can race with returning characters Metal Mario, Lakitu and Shy Guy. These newly revealed returning characters join a host of previously announced favourites including all seven of Bowser’s minions, who are playable for the first time in Mario Kart history.
New items: Two new items join the fray in Mario Kart 8. First, the Piranha Plant attaches to the front of the players’ kart and chomps at other characters, banana peels on the course or even shells thrown by other characters. Each time the Piranha Plant lunges forward to bite, the player receives a brief boost of speed. The second new item is the Boomerang Flower. After acquiring it, racers can throw a boomerang at opponents to stun them, and its arc allows players to strike multiple opponents with a single toss. The boomerang can be thrown three times, forward or backwards.
New courses: Remixed classic courses make a return in Mario Kart 8 with favourites such as Moo Moo Meadows from Mario Kart Wii, Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 and Donut Plains from Super Mario Kart, among others. The graphics and layout of these courses have been redesigned and reimagined. For example, Toad’s Turnpike now allows players to drive up certain walls in antigravity mode. The game will include 16 new courses and 16 remixed classic courses.
Live recorded music: For the first time in the Mario Kart series, select courses in Mario Kart 8 feature music recorded by live performers.
Control scheme: Mario Kart 8 will support a variety of control schemes including the Wii U GamePad, the Wii U Pro Controller, the Wii Wheel, and Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The game can also be played in off-TV mode using just the Wii U GamePad.
When Mario Kart 8 launches on 30th May, fans can also get their hands on the Mario Kart 8 Limited Edition software bundle, which comes complete with a Spiny Shell Collector’s Item alongside a physical copy of the game.
The Mario Kart 8 Limited Edition bundle is also available at the Nintendo Store, and will be available to pre-order whilst stock lasts.



ALL NEW VIDEOS



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pi3oaNsp_sQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NztqCTJVazw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MK1J1O13Ddk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NcpK0_f1whs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C8E0qbMsrGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s8CYRXx-mwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sYCNMqlZ7o4









More Mario Kart 8 details, including expanded item customization

Below are even more details regarding Mario Kart 8:
- Gain small bursts of speeds by jumping off ramps
- Water Park: oscillates between underwater sections and an amusement park-themed gauntlet on land
- Mario Kart Stadium: huge event alongside a dizzying set of anti-gravity sections
- Thwomp Ruins: giant rolling stone wheel eventually collapses a special section of walls to reveal a potential shortcut after the first lap
- Cheep Cheep Beach from Mario Kart DS completely skips the anti-gravity flair in favor of tight turns and a fun spread of boost pads and ramps
- Mario Circuit 4’s remake has a fancy, elevated anti-gravity U-turn in one corner of the race
- Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 adds anti-gravity walls lined with booster pads and jumps to help speed racers along, but also tosses ramps and pads onto the backs of other large moving vehicles
- Donut Plains 3 returns
- DK Jungle back
- Can toss the Boomerang item up to 3 times
“There was some item customization in Mario Kart 7, in that you could choose to have a mushroom-only race or shell-only race. We’re going to have that plus a little bit more, actually, in Mario Kart 8. I think we’re going to be able to answer that feeling of, ‘I don’t want to race with items.’ Well, OK, then no items. Or, ‘I only want to have bananas.’ Well, OK. I think we’re going to be able to provide a system to answer that desire this time around.” – director Kosuke Yabuki
“We’re going to have some rule customization for folks who want to be able to go in and set that up for themselves. Game balance is a really important element of Mario Kart that we look very, very closely at and place a lot of value on. I think that item balance, from the time we start working on development, a thousand times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance while we’re playing. At the end, we come up with what we hope or feel is a really good balance. It’s our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them.” – producer Hideki Konno
“That feature is not random (Blue Shell). It just doesn’t happen. There is a lot of adjustment, and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. So I would hope people would understand that as well.” – producer Hideki Konno
“One of the things we actually hope for is that if you’re just playing on an off day, and you’ve lost a race or two. We hope that you step away going, ‘Oh well, I just didn’t feel it today. My luck wasn’t with me. Whatever the cause, it just wasn’t my day, but I’m going to come back and play again.’ And that’s sort of what we’re aiming for. We want people to feel that way when they step away, that they want to come back.” – producer Hideki Konno
- Konno said the developers’ main priority was creating interesting courses that encourage new and different ways of playing
“One of the things you’ll see with the later courses is antigravity being given to the player as an option, so you’ll be driving on the course, and now the course branches off and you can either continue driving on the ground, or maybe go into the antigravity area to avoid an enemy or pick up an extra block. You might decide you want to take a different route that has a boost that allows you to take off and use your glider. So with the addition of the antigravity feature, we’ve been able to add more variety to the course design, and it fundamentally changes the player’s strategy.” – Konno
- When players collide with each other while in an antigravity zone, they will receive a speed boost
- Yabuki anticipates that many players will use this feature strategically
“One thing that’s always happened in previous Mario Karts is if you’re racing a light character and you bump into a big character like Bowser, you were at a disadvantage. However, with the antigravity section, and again the ability to give a speed boost from actually running into someone, even the lighter characters are able to strategize around using the antigravity sections to either keep the playing field even or to give them an advantage. So it does alter the strategy.” – Yabuki
- Risks usually outweighed the benefits, so players usually didn’t want to collide
- With the antigravity sections of Mario Kart 8, Yabuki believes players will find ways to use collisions to their advantage
“The speed boost you get from colliding with a character while you’re in the antigravity portion of this course alters the paradigm [of risk outweighing benefit]. So we may see some new strategies come out of this — some that maybe even we’re not aware of.” – Yabuki






Even more Mario Kart 8 videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W4wxCtCvXO4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dBWNAypzUEg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m6TksRNqzDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KaugSQo3ESU





Mario Kart 8 devs talk game’s graphics and using Wii U’s power, balance, original Rainbow Road is “really spectacular”, more

GameSpot has published a series of articles featuring commentary from Mario Kart 8 producer Hideki Konno and director Kosuke Yabuki. During a roundtable session held at GDC last month, the two touched on the game’s graphics, balance, brand new Rainbow Road course, and more. You can find the Q&A roundup below.
Konno on the game’s visuals…
“We’re working with HD for the first time, and we really wanted to take advantage of that. The last console version was Mario Kart Wii, which was released in 2008, so it was about six years ago. And during those six years, we were able to incorporate a lot of technology in our development process, but especially on the graphics side. So we put a lot of effort into making this a good looking game–it’s a very pretty game.”
“This time with the power of the Wii U we really made an effort to keep that graphic quality high regardless of how many ways we were splitting the TV into.”
Yabuki also talking about the game’s graphics…
“We’ve also been able to show movement on the [karts and bikes] that we haven’t seen before. We’re seeing bounding, we’re seeing different parts of the kart move, we’re seeing dirt on the tires, we’re seeing skidmarks left on the course–again I think we’ve done a good job of utilizing that graphical power.”
“Using the power of the Wii U, we were able to create a Mario Kart title that feels right, and the controls feel like they’re perfect for this game.”
“We were able to harness the power of the Wii U to get a huge polygon count, and we were able to make courses that involved a lot of undulating, moving surfaces. We’ve also done a lot of work with the character animations. If you look at Mario and the Koopalings and all the characters, you’re seeing a level and range of animation that you’ve never seen before.”
Konno on how the team went to great lengths to ensure that Mario Kart 8 is a well-balanced game…
“Game balance is also another really important element of Mario Kart that we look very closely at and place a lot of value on. From the time we start working on development, thousands of times, maybe even tens of thousands of times, we adjust that balance when we’re playing. At the end we come up with what we hope and feel is a really good balance. It’s our strong hope that folks would want to play with the items as we have balanced them.”
“We do hear, and a lot of people out there say it, that Mario Kart is all about luck. That if you’re at the front then you’ll get hit with a blue shell, so it’s all about luck. That feature is not random–it doesn’t just happen. There is a lot of adjustment and there is a lot of thought and effort put into that system, and developing it in a way that actually promotes game balance. I would hope people understand that as well.”
Yabuki on how there are two Rainbow Road courses (one is a remake of the N64 course)…
“Rainbow Road of course is a classic course. This time we actually grabbed Rainbow Road N64 version in addition to the current iteration of Rainbow Road. So we hope you look forward to racing on both of those courses.”
“One thing I do want to mention is Rainbow Road, that final course. We really want you to look forward to what we’ve done to it this time because it’s something else. It’s really spectacular.”
Konno on how Nintendo’s ambition for Mario Kart 8 was to create a game that captures the essence of every entry in the beloved series that has come before it…
“We really wanted this game to be a representation of all the games that came before it. We wanted to summarize and bring together all the elements of the series into this title.”
Konno on the game’s different features…
“The race courses themselves is one of the most important–if not the most important elements–in the series, so with Mario Kart 8 we really wanted to divide up the things we could do and make sure we’re really using them effectively. So we have underwater sessions, we have flying sessions, we have anti-grav sessions, and we use all of these in a way to create really interesting and fun to drive on courses.”
Konno on the idea of a track editor for Mario Kart…
“With regards to course editing, and letting users create and edit their own courses, it’s something that I’m interested in, and I’ve been interested in for a long time. It’s a fun feature. However, with Mario Kart, courses are key to the series, and it’s really tough. This is the eighth game in the series, and when we work on a Mario Kart title, we work on courses, and we create them, and then we work on them again, and again, and we revise until we come up with something that we think will be fun for everyone to play.”
Konno talking about how you gain a speed boost when bumping into another player during anti-grav sections…
“When you look traditionally at Mario Kart, colliding with other characters was not something you wanted to do. The risks outweighed any benefits you might get from doing that. However, the boost that you get when colliding with a character in an anti-grav section of a course alters that whole paradigm. So you may see some new strategies come out of this that even we aren’t aware of. For example, you may see some folks that may be a little down in the pack actually run into each other on purpose to give them a little extra speed so they can close the gap with whoever is in first.”
“We have a lot of confidence in our ability to do so, but we understand what a tough challenge it is to create those courses. I just don’t know that at this point we are able to do that to a level that would satisfy anyone, myself included. Some day if we can come up with a solution and implement in a way that would make everyone happy, we’ll come back to that issue and readdress it. But I do think it would an interesting idea. We’re always optimistic and thinking about what we would do in the future.”
Yabuki on how the anti-gravity sections will sometimes be an optional path…
“Some of the things you’ll see in courses is anti-gravity being given to players as an option. You’re driving on a course and now the course branches off, and you can either continue driving on the ground or go on anti-grav route and go up on the wall. With the addition of the anti-grav feature, we’ve been able to create course designs that fundamentally alters the strategy and gives players more options when racing.”
 
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The B2G1 free at Traget starts next week, right? Anybody know if you'll be able to use it to pre-order games?
 
Yea it start next week and I want to say if you can get Best Buy to match the deal you should be able to pre order games
 
Suberzat1 said:
 
Yea it start next week and I want to say if you can get Best Buy to match the deal you should be able to pre order games
Click to expand...
So Target will not let you B2G1 for pre-orders but as long as BB price matches then you can use the B2G1 free?

Sorry if that is confusing, just trying to make sure I understand.
 
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