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'Mario Kart' Hot Wheels cars arrive next summer
Not every Mario Kart fan has the means to move their obsession into real life by flying to Japan and checking out a Mario Kart ride at a theme park or tearing around the streets of Tokyo in a go-kart while dressed as Yoshi. Mattel will soon offer something a little more modest with branded Mario Kart Hot Wheels cars.
'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' update adds Link from 'Breath of the Wild'
Is Link your favorite racer in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Good news! A new version of the Hylian hero has been added to the game. It's based, unsurprisingly, on the wonderful Breath of the Wild that was released for Wii U and Switch last year. You can play as Link in his Champion's Tunic and jostle for position, if you like, on the Master Cycle Zero that featured in the Breath of the Wild DLC Champions' Ballad. The update also includes some Ancient Tires and a new glider based on Link's handy paraglider.
The best Nintendo Switch games
The Nintendo Switch is an excellent game console. If you don't want to quit collecting Power Moons in Super Mario Odyssey but need a change of scenery from your living room, that's entirely doable. Simply take the tablet out of its dock, slide your Joy-cons back on and you can pick up right where you left off, regardless of venue. But there's so much more to play on Switch. The problem is, aside from the games you can buy at retail, they can be hard to find, because Nintendo's digital storefront isn't very well organized. Which is what our list of the best Switch games is for. Simply search for these games by name in the eShop and you're guaranteed to have some fun.
The best game consoles and accessories for your dorm room
Not all of your college fun will involve keggers or games of ultimate frisbee. As the weather gets colder, you might have difficulty tearing yourself out of your dorm, in which case your entertainment options are limited: Host an in-room dance party, Netflix and chill or settle in for a little gaming. In addition to our favorite consoles (no, we couldn't choose just one), we've selected a handful of accessories and must-have titles for our back-to-school guide. Enjoy, and may you do a better job making friends with rival fanboys in real life than you do online.
'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' on the Switch is basically perfect
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is poised to be the next must-have Switch game. Regardless of the last Mario Kart title you played -- our experiences vary from Mario Kart 64 to DS iterations to the Wii U's original Mario Kart 8 -- Nintendo is aiming to make this the most definitive Mario racer yet. To start, there are 48 courses and 42 characters (including some Splatoon additions), as well as an upgraded 1080p mode when you're playing it docked from the Switch and some auto-steering help for younger gamers (or grown-ups who should know better). Those Joy-Con controllers double as mini-controllers for two-player battles on the go, while a fully fleshed-out battle mode, with several arenas and play modes, form the biggest gameplay addition to the original that launched on the Wii U. Now, you probably knew most of that already, but how does it play? Four editors share their thoughts after a week of racing, while one colleague swears he won't buy the remake, regardless of how good it might be.
'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' gets new racers and revives old modes
Without any hint that a new version was in the works, it was pretty clear that Mario Kart 8, one of the best reasons to own a Wii U, would be ported to the Switch. This is good news for the record-breaking legions of folks who bought the new console and want a great first-party racing experience that's been retooled and expanded. The Switch version, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, includes all current DLC and several new characters to zoom around your favorite tracks. And Rainbow Road, if you're that person.
JXE Streams: Engadget vs. Upright Citizens Brigade in 'Mario Kart 8'
Mario Kart 8's brand new 200cc races are fast. Very fast. Indeed, they are so damned speedy that they almost made our own Joseph Volpe throw up while he was having an insanely good time playing. Since we're always up for a bout of stomach churning fun, the JXE Streams posse is diving back into Mario Kart 8 to check out the new 200cc races as well as the new downloadable characters. We're also going to share the love with Mike Still, our very special guest from Upright Citizens Brigade.
Mario Kart 8's super-fast 200cc class almost made me puke
It could've been the latent heatstroke setting in from the three days I spent tut-tutting millennials under my breath at Coachella, or the five coffees I'd drunk to sustain some form of consciousness. But when I finished playing a demo of the new 200cc level in Mario Kart 8 with some folks from Nintendo on Monday, my eyes felt looser in their sockets and a barely containable feeling of nausea lingered in my gut for about an hour. It was as if I'd come off a roller coaster -- like one of those daring, metallic serpents from Six Flags or Busch Gardens in the '80s that jolted you just a bit too much and gave the impression you'd nearly avoided whiplash. All of which is to say, 200cc is not for the weak. It is stupid fast and stupid good.
'Mario Kart 8' is about to get absurdly fast
How big of a difference do those extra 50 cubic centimeters in Mario Kart 8 make? Well, Iwata and Co. have a video showing the current fastest/most difficult setting (150cc) side by side with the 200cc level the outfit announced last week. The trip around Piranha Plant Slide starts out slowly enough, but it isn't long before the differences start to show. There's roughly a five second gap between when Mario passes the first eponymous flora on the 200cc speed and 150cc, for instance, and the lead only grows from there. By the end of the lap, the lead is almost 15 seconds. That's quite a bit! Anywho, the video, along with a few others, is just below and the free update hits April 23rd -- see you on Rainbow Road.
'Mario Kart 8' adds 'Animal Crossing' DLC earlier than expected
The next round of downloadable content for Mario Kart 8, a pack featuring tracks and items from the Animal Crossing series, will hit the Wii U on April 23rd, Nintendo announced today. The DLC pack was originally scheduled to launch in May. Hooray! Also heading to Mario Kart 8 on April 23rd is a free update that adds a 200cc speed class, meaning players who have mastered the existing races get a brand new challenge. That's bananas! The update also adds support for more amiibo, Nintendo's Skylanders-style action figures.
Nintendo's new 'Mario Kart 8' add-ons put Link and Luigi on the same track
Nintendo has taken a few steps to modernize its gaming experience, but downloadable content (DLC) is still a sore point; even New Super Luigi U is more of a separate (and fairly expensive) title than a proper booster pack. Today, though, there are signs that the company is getting serious about improving its less-than-stellar reputation with add-ons. Nintendo has offered a sneak peek at a Mario Kart 8 expansion that adds The Legend of Zelda's Link, F-Zero's Blue Falcon ship and eight new courses, among other things -- that's a lot of goodies to keep you coming back. It should arrive in November for $8, and Animal Crossing-themed DLC due next May will add similar numbers of cars, characters and tracks.
The gaming industry is booming and Sony's lead is growing
Earlier this week Sony announced that it'd sold over 10 million PlayStation 4s to date, but that isn't the half of it: the company's latest gaming console is once again dominating the sales charts overall. As Sony tells it, July marks the seventh consecutive month that the PS4 outsold Microsoft's Xbox One. Hardware isn't the only area Sony is trumping its rival either, as The Last of Us: Remastered led software sales last month by a "considerable" margin ahead of number-two-seller Minecraft on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The gaming sector as a whole is incredibly healthy, too. The NPD Group reports that even though software sales are down overall for July (something it attributes directly to the lack of an NCAA Football release this year), hardware is picking up the slack. Comparing life-to-date numbers of the PS4 and Xbox One to their predecessors, the new consoles are outselling the PS3 and Xbox 360 by almost a whopping 80 percent. That puts this July ahead of last by 13 percent in terms of total money spent in the area, according to NPD.
'Mario Kart 8' couldn't save Nintendo from a $97 million loss
Mario Kart on the Wii U is really good. Unfortunately it's just one game -- and it looks like it won't be enough to rescue the Wii U's sales. Nintendo apparently agrees, stating that its 9.9 billion yen loss was due to a lack of hit titles outside of the flagship racer. Matter-of-factly, Nintendo said: "The operating loss was 9.4 billion yen because total selling, general and administrative expenses including fixed expenses exceeded gross profit. " Which is, well, exactly how you work out an operating loss. The company is now betting on the power of Super Smash Bros. as well as the best-selling Pokemon series to improve results later this year. Wii U console sales have improved in the Americas and Europe: 510,000 units were sold worldwide in the last three months, compared to 160,000 in the same period last year. In Japan, however, Wii U sales have decreased year-on-year. Revenue was 8.8 percent higher than the same period last year and Nintendo is hoping its plans for a series of console-connected toy figurines along the lines of the hit Skylanders series will help to improve that bottom line.
Playdate: We're livestreaming Mario Kart 8 for Wii U! (update: game over!)
Welcome, ladygeeks and gentlenerds, to the new era of gaming. The one where you get to watch, and comment, as other people livestream gameplay from next-gen consoles. Because games! They're fun! Mario Kart 8 isn't actually the eighth Mario Kart game. Disappointing as that may be, the game itself is a blast. Heck, we'd go as far as to say it's a good reason to buy a Wii U. The game launches today in North America and Europe, so we figure it's a good time to give people a thorough look at the Wii U's next big game. Join myself and everyone's favorite goomba, Tim Seppala, right here at 3PM ET (well, after the break), as we throw red shells, drop banana peels, and smear ink in each other's eyes -- all virtually of course. Oh, and the profanity and shouting definitely we're bound to do isn't serious. OR IS IT?
What's on your HDTV this week: Watch Dogs, The Life Aquatic, Wil Wheaton, Mario Kart
With Memorial Day come and gone and the temperatures rising, it's time to get ready for our summer TV schedule. The NBA and NHL are almost ready to enter the championship rounds of the playoffs, and most of the winter TV shows are out of the way. That means we have a few new entrants this week to take their place, including The Wil Wheaton Project, Crossbones and Undateable. HBO's Silicon Valley is also wrapping up with a season finale, but don't worry it will be back. For now, it will be replaced by AMC's new series Halt and Catch Fire, which focuses on a group trying to reverse engineer IBM's PC in the 80s. Also this week, NBC News will interview NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Movie and game fans have a lot of good options, lead by Watch Dogs, Mario Kart 8, and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Blu-ray from Criterion. Still, Game of Thrones watchers are probably focused entirely on Sunday night's episode, and with good reason, while soccer fans can tune in to all of the 30 for 30: Soccer Stories flicks on Netflix, and catch up on the US National team (suddenly without Landon Donovan) with ESPN's documentary series update on Thursday. Check after the break for a list of what's new this week plus a few trailers, and drop in the comments if you see any highlights that we've missed.
Joystiq Weekly: 'Mario Kart 8' in review, co-op 'Killzone' and a new Jurassic tour
Welcome to the Joystiq Weekly wrap-up where we present some of the best stories and biggest gaming news from our sister-publication.
Nintendo bundling Wii U with two games and an extra controller for $330 on May 30th
You don't have a Wii U yet, right? You're forgiven, and far from unique (in that respect, anyway -- you're a unique snowflake otherwise). Should the eighth entry in the Mario Kart series pique your interest, Nintendo's got a pretty fantastic bundle arriving at the end of May with a copy of the game, an extra Wii Remote Plus gamepad, and a free download of one of four games. All that stuff comes together in one box for $329.99 -- a pretty great deal considering the Wii U system in the box costs $300 by itself! Head below for a new trailer for Mario Kart 8, as well as more on why Nintendo would offer a brand new game for free alongside its console.
Mario Kart 8 launching on Wii U in spring 2014 (video)
At Nintendo's E3 presentation that's not actually happening at E3, we've heard the next installment of the Mario Kart series is coming to the Wii U sometime in spring 2014. Mario Kart 8 doesn't stray too far from what fans expect of the casual racer, but there is one new twist. Courses now have 3D aspects to them, allowing you to "defy gravity, racing up vertical walls and upside down." Features like air gliding, underwater racing and the option to ride motorcycles have been included from previous games, but apart from that, it's standard red-shelling carnage. We didn't hear much about online multiplayer, but we're told it "will have deep integration with Miiverse." Head past the break for the E3 trailer. Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub. %Gallery-191042%
