Just like Nintendo promised, the first batch of Mario Kart 8 DLC goodness has finally arrived today. And boy does it look exciting.
I’ve only just managed to get my Wii U properly updated and ready to race, by Mario Kart players have been posting breathlessly about the new stuff since the earliest hours of Thursday morning. People really seem to enjoy playing as Link from The Legend of Zelda. In the words of one Reddit user: “Oh my god, Link is so good.”
Shocking, I know. But if you still aren’t a Zelda believer, maybe this GIF will help you see the light:
Oh my god, you guys. He’s doing his little sword-slicing animations on boost jumps! He’s even making that cute half-grunt, half-bark sound he makes in all the Zelda games!! This is actually happening!!!
OK, OK, OK. I need to slow down before I get carried away. I almost confused a standard green shell attack with a new melee move this morning:
Chalk it up to wishful thinking on my part.
Mario Kart 8’s new DLC is bringing some other great-looking stuff to the table in addition to Link and his trusty new steed, so let’s not forget about that either. There’s also two other characters — Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach — and 8 new racetracks.
GameXplain has a great (albeit lengthy) video showing all the stuff new content in action:
For those of you who aren’t YouTube-compatible at present, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered too, thanks to this gorgeous imgur album by insectanalyst:
Dragon Driftway looks cool:
The return of Excitedbike has got Cat Peach pretty…excited:
I know exactly how you feel, Cat Peach.
Here’s the Hyrule-themed track:
The colours!
The F-Zero track looks particularly delightful:
Somehow this game is bringing even more Rainbow Road realness:
Of course, Wario’s looking pretty cocky now that he’s got a whole ‘nothing racetrack to his name:
OK, I can’t take it anymore. I’m gonna go start playing. I’ll have more to say this afternoon.
Comments
12 responses to “Link Is Now In Mario Kart, And He Brought A Sword”
Why did I choose to go to work today of all days!
The DLC hit Australia about 8pm last night eastern time, so I had a chance to give it a burl last night.
Initial impressions are good. Link seems to be another cruiserweight, in the same class as Donkey Kong and Rosalina, which means he’ll be pretty powerful when used online.
I absolutely love Ice Ice Outpost. So twisty and sprawling. 😀
Awesome! Will this automatically download on my Wii U? I did notice the light had turned orange sometime last night, indicating it was accessing the internet.
Also, this is the second (soon to be third) Link on the Wii U without a proper Legend of Zelda game. The new one can’t some soon enough
There’s two downloads – the 3.0 patch and the dlc. I’m guessing the 3.0 patch got pushed automatically, but you might have to download the (approx. 650MB?) dlc seperately. Just open the game and it’ll prompt you.
I’m not even a big Legend of Zelda fan, but Hyrule Castle is a killer track. And SNES Rainbow Road? Heaven. I know you kids with your fancy next-gen Rainbow Roads think it’s flat and boring, but the updated soundtrack is so great I could have a blast listening to that and just watching paint dry.
Almost every track added is phenomenal – the only course that’s a bit meh (but still ok) is Wario’s Gold Mine. The Excitebike course is a surprise favourite of mine so far (jump-boost-jump-boost-jump-boost-jump-boost-driiiiiift). I’m pretty floored by the quality of all the content – it doesn’t feel like DLC, at that’s awesome.
SNES Rainbow Road and Hyrule Castle…omg so good!
Link handles like shit though. I’ll stick with my Toadster. 😉
Yeah, I don’t like the way Link handles – though I admit I haven’t tried the Link/MasterCycle/Shield Glider combo yet. I DO like the (Blue) Yoshi/Blue Falcon/Monster Wheels combo though 🙂
The Blue Falcon is ok, but I haven’t tried the Master Cycle with anyone other than Link yet.
Got it at 8 pm yesterday and I was waiting for Kotaku to report on it already! Cat Peach in the F-Zero Kart is my new favourite combo!
The new courses are great, so much attention to detail.