Mario Kart 8 – New Trailer and More Goodness

Mario Kart 8 – New Trailer and More Goodness

I have decided that I will be buying Mario Kart 8 and making some much needed use of my Wii U when the racer returns at the end of May. There are two simple reasons for my sudden decision. Firstly, the game looks freaking awesome and I don’t care if I don’t use the multiplayer or video sharing tools. Secondly, after registering the game at Club Nintendo, there will be an opportunity to download a Wii U game for free. Details and videos after the break.

On with my first reason, just take a look at the trailer below. How fantastically fun does that look? I love it! Bright colours and great characters and some awesome looking power-ups, it sounds like my cup of tea. As I said above, I probably won’t dive into the multiplayer in this game as I just won’t be good enough to do myself justice against random racers, and I don’t have anyone on my Wii U friends list as I plain don’t understand how the friends system works on that tiny machine.

Something that I do find interesting to see from Nintendo is the new Mario Kart TV initiative where players will be able to create highlight reels of their races and upload them directly to YouTube from within the Mario Kart TV function. I have long though Nintendo have been behind the curve on this kind of connectivity, so this is a positive step.

The best news on a personal level to come from Nintendo today is the following little tidbit of information that came in a press release:

Whether Mario Kart 8 is purchased at retail or via Nintendo eShop, if you register an accompanying Club Nintendo PIN code of the game with Club Nintendo between 30th May 2014 (10:00 CEST) and 31st July 2014 (23:59 CEST), you will be eligible to receive a free download code for one of 10 selected Wii U games* by 31st August 2014 (23:59 CEST).

There are some more details here but the list of redeemable games is as follows:

– Nintendo Land
– New Super Mario Bros. U
– Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U version)
– GAME & WARIO
– Pikmin 3
– The Wonderful 101
– The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
– Sonic Lost World (Wii U version)
– Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
– Wii Party U

So much choice, I’m torn between New Super Mario Bros and Monster Hunter 3. While I am delighted by this news, it does go to show how Nintendo are starting to do whatever they can to pull the Wii U out of its retail slump. I’m not convinced this will do the job as Super Mario 3D World didn’t achieve their hoped for result. If marketed properly, this could gain some traction, I’ll wait and see. If you want to find out more on Mario Kart 8 though, check out today’s Nintendo Direct presentation:

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