Mario Kart 8 DLC

[Lil Frier]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/26/6071823/mario-kart-8-link-animal-crossing-dlc

The first pack of the two adds Link, cat-suit Peach and tanooki-suit Mario, as well as four vehicles and eight tracks. It will be available in November of this year.

Pack 2, available in May 2015, adds Animal Crossing's Villager, Isabelle from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the skeletal Dry Bowser, four vehicles and eight tracks.

Both packs are listed for £7. In the U.S., Nintendo confirmed that packs will be available separately for $7.99, or as a bundle for $11.99.

Those who purchase both DLC packs will receive additional content as well: eight new colors each for Yoshi and Shy Guy. Those who pre-purchase those packs gain access to the new colors immediately.

Finally, DLC I can get on-board with! $12 for 6 characters, 8 cars, and 16 tracks: A 50% increase over the launch course count. It's apparently live right now to pre-order the DLC, and doing so gets you 8 additional skin colors each for Yoshi and Shy Guy.

Oh, and today is the launch of the Mercedes Benz DLC as well. You get 3 free Mercedes Benz vehicles in-game, and they're adjusting the post-race menu to put Next Race above Watch Highlight Reel, which I'm glad to see, because we always had a bit of an issue of my impatient sister's pressing the A button too quickly.

Here is the link to both DLCs: http://mariokart8.nintendo.com/dlc/

 

[Dumac]

Seems like a pretty good deal. I'll probably get it.

 

[futurefields]

should be free like all dlc as a means to add value to a product and brand

sad to see nintendo going in this direction

 

[Lil Frier]

I went ahead and played some at my sister's (my Wii U's home) tonight. The Mercedes aren't amazing, but they're decent. The GLA blows, IMO, while the other 2 are better, as they seem (I can't remember the stats, just how I felt while driving) to accelerate faster, and they were better for long drifts.

I also pre-ordered the 2-pack DLC, and got the Yoshi and Shy Guy skins instantly. You got 8 colors added, making 9 the total count, with the options being: Red, Green, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Black, White, Orange, Pink, and Yellow. I played as Black and Orange Yoshi, while my sister was Light Blue Yoshi in one cup. They look pretty nice.

Now, the long wait to the November DLC. Sure, free is best, but at least it's a LOT of content (50% more tracks, over 40% more Karts, and over 25% more characters) for only 20% of the original game price. Mario Kart 8 launched with a quantity of content in-line (mostly more) with the rest of the games in the series, so I can get on-board with paid DLC, as it truly feels like add-on content, not payment to get content withheld from the release.

 

[lamedude]

I'm worried about fragmentation though. If I can't play the new tracks online it loses some value.

 

[Lil Frier]

It hasn't said that we can't, we'll see though. It's a concern, but I survived playing CoD and Halo without it.