Zelda And Animal Crossing Packs Are Mario Kart 8's First Paid DLC

[Steven Bogos]

Zelda And Animal Crossing Packs Are Mario Kart 8's First Paid DLC

Mario Kart 8's first two DLC packs will cost you $8 each, and will be released this November and next May respectively.

Ever since we saw that bizarre Mercedes Benz/Mario Kart promo [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135581-Mario-Kart-8s-Mercedes-Benz-DLC-Coming-to-The-US], we knew that further DLC for Mario Kart 8 was inevitable, and now, Nintendo has raised the curtain on two upcoming "Add-on Content" packs for the game. The first pack has a Zelda theme, and the second is based on Animal Crossing (though they will both contain some additional Mario universe content). The two packs will release in November 2014, and May, 2015 respectively, and will cost $8 a piece (or $12 if purchased together).

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Meanwhile, that Mercedes Benz GLA kart, along with two additional karts (the W25 Silver Arrow and the 300 SL Roadster) will be made available for all users as a free download on August 27, as part of an update to the game. August 27 is also when pre-purchases will open up for the two paid packs, and players who buy the packs before they are released will receive 8 bonus color swap skins for Yoshi and Shy Guy, which they will be able to use straight away.

The Zelda pack contains three additional drivers - Link, Tankooki Mario and Cat Peach - along with four new karts, and two cups (one Zelda-themed, one Yoshi themed), each containing four tracks. Meanwhile, the Animal Crossing pack contains the Villager, Isable and Dry Bones Bowser as new racers, an additional four new karts, an Animal Crossing-themed cup, and a Mario-themed cup.

Both packs combined require more than 2.0 GB of storage space, so those of you running low on storage space may need to get yourself an external hard drive.

Source: Nintendo [http://mariokart8.nintendo.com/dlc/]

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[Sould1n]

Having had an displeasing time with the Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii entries of the Mario Kart series, and having come across the more enjoyable to me Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing series, I passed up on purchasing Mario Kart 8.

This DLC though... this DLC makes the game very tempting, I will admit. Thankfully Kirby wasn't one of the announced characters, my resistance would have been futile then.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Wow, Nintendo embracing DLC. Even if it is just a little bit, what a time we live in, eh?

It all looks good to me. I'll for sure be picking it up when it becomes available.

 

[Xman490]

Ha! Paying money for mere unmarketable customization options is so...
Wait. The packs come with 8 extra tracks each? Shut up and take my money!

Leave it to Nintendo to do DLC properly.

 

[Sylocat]

So, is Mario Kart 8 going to slowly turn into Super Crash Bros.?

I'm on board with this.

 

[Akiraking]

It is amazing how all the comments on Nintendo sites seem to be offended by the idea of non Mario characters being able to be played with. I would think this would be a Nintendo fan's greatest wish come true.

Also it is amazing how some people are getting mad that they will have to pay for this. Yes DLC can suck but this stuff is worth the price. Well as long as the price is max fifteen dollars and not twenty or thirty. I would hope ten bucks each. Maybe a deal that you can buy both at a reduced price.

 

[Verlander]

Ha! Paying money for mere unmarketable customization options is so...
Wait. The packs come with 8 extra tracks each? Shut up and take my money!

Leave it to Nintendo to do DLC properly.

I was thinking that, clicked on the article expecting some cosmetic upgrades, only to find that each comes with 8 new tracks? Wow. It shouldn't shock us when DLC actually expands the game, but sadly it has.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

It is amazing how all the comments on Nintendo sites seem to be offended by the idea of non Mario characters being able to be played with. I would think this would be a Nintendo fan's greatest wish come true.

Also it is amazing how some people are getting mad that they will have to pay for this. Yes DLC can suck but this stuff is worth the price. Well as long as the price is max fifteen dollars and not twenty or thirty. I would hope ten bucks each. Maybe a deal that you can buy both at a reduced price.

I think it's $8 each but you can get both at $12 and get a bunch of Yoshi and Shy Guy recolours. It says so in the article.

 

[JoJo]

I don't really care much about the new characters (Come on, Cat Peach?) or karts but sixteen tracks between them for pocket change? Consider this a day 1 purchase.

 

[Shinsei-J]

They're some pretty solid bundles too.
If I had a Wii U I'd be ecstatic about buying these.

 

[Hazy992]

Now THAT's how you do DLC without being a complete bastard to your customers! The tracks alone make it a good deal, but the additional characters and tracks make this a steal. Hats off to Nintendo, when I get a Wii U I'll be picking these up.

 

[Dark Knifer]

This is a good model for dlc. Hopefully this continues for as long as nintendo sticks with dlc.

 

[Fasckira]

Still not enough to justify a WiiU yet.... really want to play Mario Kart, but theres simply no other games out there yet that Im overly keen on.

 

[Maze1125]

This is DLC done right. And instant buy for me!

 

[LittleMikey]

Does anyone else find it odd to have a Zelda DLC... without Zelda? I mean, come on, Cat Peach?

 

[major_chaos]

And don't forget, its Nintendo DLC, so expect store navigation to be pain, the download to take roughly 30x longer than it should, and to have to rebuy it if you replace your WiiU or play at a friends house. Because Nintendo is still going "daqfaqu is this inter-nets thingy? meh, I'm sure it'll never catch on, lets just half-ass it.

And because I haven't already painted enough of a giant target on my head, I'll ask what makes 8+ nearly identical mario cart games so OK that people want to buy the map packs just to show gratitude, but yearly CoD is "OMG LITERALY WORSE THAN HITLER!1!!1". Or for that matter why is 3+ plus maps for 15$ almost always reviled, but Nintendo farts out 8 zero effort race tracks and its the salvation of the industry? Just more examples of how amazingly selective gamer outrage is.

 

[Akisa]

Ah I remember when skins and maps were free.

 

[youji itami]

Wow buy 1 DLC pack to bring Mario Kart 8 to the same number of tracks as Mario Kart Wii what progress /s

Talk about cutting up the main game for DLC as normally a new game should have more content not less content.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

everyone likes to claim that Nintendo is behind the curve, but then you realize WHY they take their time: it's so they can do it right. When consoles became plugged to the net and DLC was possible, we suddenly had a TON of devs doing it the WRONG WAY. Nintendo instead observed the trends and realized what to do in order to make DLC worth it. Another example was all the Fire Emblem DLC. Now what they need to do is put in Samus as a playable character and make a Metroid themed track

 

[144_v1legacy]

Wow buy 1 DLC pack to bring Mario Kart 8 to the same number of tracks as Mario Kart Wii what progress /s

Talk about cutting up the main game for DLC as normally a new game should have more content not less content.

From whose ass are you pulling that untrue statement? MK8 had the same number of tracks as MKWii out-of-box. This would bring it to 150% the number of tracks as that game (or MK7), or triple the number of tracks of any other MK game.

Ah I remember when skins and maps were free.

I don't ever remember that. I remember a time when games could be considered "complete" with only one purchase (which MK8 does), but I never remember the existence of free DLC.