The flag is up and the drinks are downed as our reporter sees what happens when she gets behind the virtual wheel while intoxicated.
Mario Kart 8
Hot on the heels of Mario Kart 8‘s collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, Nintendo has announced that players can now preorder two more DLC expansion packs, which will include Zelda and Animal Crossing characters and maps.
Luigi’s competitive dark side was discovered back in May with the release of Mario Kart 8. Dubbed “Luigi’s Death Stare,” the character achieved meme status after appearing in a multitude of fan videos on YouTube. Nintendo, perhaps intentionally, included Luigi’s now signature look in a recent Japanese Mario Kart commercial.
Luigi has always played second fiddle to his brother Mario and it seems all those years of pent-up jealousy and anger have surfaced in Nintendo’s eighth edition of Mario Kart. Scores of English-language sites have already reported on what many are calling “Luigi’s Death Stare,” and all that news coverage has finally made it over to Japan, inspiring a multitude of comments by surprised Japanese gamers.
We have to admit that we may have lost a little faith in Nintendo over the past couple of years. The Wii U is a curious piece of hybrid hardware that has yet to see any truly groundbreaking titles, and the company’s uncharacteristically zealous foray into the world of 3-D technology with its most recent portable took us off guard. But 2014 is shaping up to be a good year not just for Nintendo but for Wii U owners.
Unveiled a few months ago, Mario Kart 8 looked to be more of the same and left many wishing Nintendo would stop adding wacky accessories to its cartoon go-karts and just give us classic Mario racing like we had on the SNES, but videos taken at the recent Gamescom event in Cologne show just how nicely the game is shaping up to be, with beautiful tracks and karts as well as brand new game dynamics. Suffice it to say, our interest has most definitely been piqued.
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