Mario Kart, like Mario Party, Super Smash Bros and Zelda are all Nintendo stalwarts. When there's a new console, they show up in one guise or another, so it's no surprise that Mario Kart 8 is just around the corner for the struggling Wii U. It's got new courses and items to play with, which we can see in full glory in the latest trailer.
There's a new stadium course right off the bat, which is a great way to showcase the new anti-gravity elements of the karts. Switching from horizontal to vertical, the karts are more than capable of keeping pace, but the mind of the driver might have trouble keeping it up as it looks quite mind-bending. Overall, there's 16 new courses and 16 remixed classics to play on.
One of the new items is the pirahna pot, which sits at the front of your kart, taking bites out of anyone that gets close. The other is a boomerang plant, which can be thrown up to three times and is slung in an arc, so you can hit multiple enemies if you're smart.
Some retro tracks, like Toad's Turnpike and Peach's Castle make a return, among others, with much improved visuals and revamped tracks offering more room for racers, lending themselves much more to epic brawls between drivers.
The paragliders make their return from Mario Kart 7 as well, letting you get a bit more distance on the jumps and offering new ways to access hidden shortcuts.
It all looks lovely in 1080P, which we're assured maintains 60 frames per second in two player split screen. However, when extending to three and four players, that number does drop to 30.
Mario Kart 8 launches on May 29th, exclusively on Wii U.