Mario Kart 8 has a lot of new features, such as 'Anti-Gravity'. There is gliding areas as well as underwater areas! The game looks very 3D, mostly because of the Wii U. 

  With 'anti-gravity' races can drive upside down! It made the courses more closer than they were before. On the picture to the left, Mario's kart wheels are blue and they are horizontal. That happens when a racers get past the blue line on the track such as the one on the right. Also, if the car has 'anti-gravity' already, the wheels will change back to normal. And if you do a drift during anti-gravity, the glowing blue lines will change to orange if you drift long enough just like past games.

  The official release of the game is May 30th 2014. Nintendo's Mario Kart 8 official website gives the release date and it allows people to pre-order it.

  There is 30 characters in the game in total. There is Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Pink Gold Peach, Yoshi, Toadette, Toad, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Rosalina, Wario, Waluigi, Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, Metal Mario, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, Baby Daisy,Baby Rosalina, Latiku, Wendy Koopa, Roy Koopa, Morton Koopa, Ludwig Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Larry Koopa and IggyKoopa.

  Since the Koopalings are all here, Bowser Jr. must be here too. What happened to him? He is the smallest of the gang. It would be a total surprise if he isn't there.

  

Mario Kart 8's loading screen. It has 'MARIOKART' written at the bottom in black bold letters that match the game's logo. There's 6 random characters driving past the bottom in black.

As usual, there are light weights, medium weights and heavy weights. But this time, they are a little different, they have more levels of weight. There's feather, super light, light, medium, cruiser, heavy and super heavy. The characters in each group are in the listed below.

  1. Feather: Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, Baby Daisy, Baby Rosalina and Lemmy.
  2. Super Lights: Toad, Toadette, Shy Guy, Koopa Troopa, Latiku, Wendy Koopa and Larry Koopa
  3. Light: Princesses Peach & Daisy with Yoshi.
  4. Medium: Mario, Luigi, Ludwig Von Koopa and Iggy Koopa.
  5. Cruiser: Donkey Kong, Roy, Waluigi and  Rosalina 
  6. Heavy: Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach
  7. Super Heavy: Bowser, Wario and Morton.

And there is also the Mii, it's weight size is determined by it's size.

As you can see, the Mii has a new outfit. 

As usual, there is a lot of new items in Mario Kart 8. This time, there are 4 new items. They are: Crazy 8, Super Horn, Boomerang Flower and Piranha Plant.

There is also a lot of returning items, they include: coins, star, mushroom, triple mushroom, golden mushroom, green shell, triple green shell, red shell, triple red shell, banana peel, triple banana peels, fire flower, bob-omb, blooper, bullet bill, spiny shell and thelighting bolt.

And of course, you can get those items from an item box. Which is this one shown below. You can find these on the road, they are usually in a group or in a line, a horizontal line. Coins can also be found along the road. Just like past Mario games, if you get hit by an item, you lose some coins. 

As usual, there are many courses. There are 8 cups, they include: Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, Special Cup, Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup and Lightning Cup. The courses in each cup will be listed below.

  1. Mushroom Cup: 'Mario Kart Stadium', 'Water Park', 'Sweet Sweet Canyon' and 'Thwomp Ruins'
  2. Flower Cup: 'Mario Circuit', 'Toad Harbor', 'Twisted Mansion' and 'Shy Guy Falls'
  3. Star Cup: 'Sunshine Airport', 'Dolphin Shoals', 'Electrodrome' and 'Mount Wario'
  4. Special Cup: 'Cloudtop Cruise', 'Bone Dry Dunes', 'Bowser's Castle' and 'Rainbow Road'
  5. Shell Cup:'Wii Moo MooMeadows', 'GBA Mario Kart Circuit', 'DS Cheep Cheep Beach' and 'N64 Toad's Turnpike'
  6. Banana Cup:'GCN Dry Dry Desert', 'SNES Donuts Plain 3', 'N64 Royal Raceway' and '3DS DK Jungle'
  7. Leaf Cup:'DS Wario Stadium', 'GCN Sherbet Land', '3DS Music Park' and 'N64 Yoshi valley'
  8. Lightning Cup: 'DS Tick Tock Clock', '3DS Pihanta Slide', 'Wii Grumble Volcano' and 'N64 Rainbow Road'

The following pictures are in order.

As usual, there's also battle courses. This time, the battle courses are 'Wii Moo Moo Meadows', 'GCN Dry Dry Desert', 'SNES Donut Plains 3', 'N64 Toad's Turnpike', 'Mario Circuit', 'Toad Harbor', 'Sherbet Land' and 'Yoshi's Valley'. 

That is the official Mario Kart Direct. Enjoy!

If you want to see more information, check out Nintendo's official site at YouTube! 

For the analysis, check out GameXplain at YouTube!