Mario Kart 8 has been out for a bit, and I'm sure that plenty of people have some issues with the character selection. So my question is: What characters, other than the core, do you think would be better fit the Mario Kart collection instead of babies and metal versions?

My vote is Boo, Dry Bones, and Birdo

african american versions of all the characters

and genderswaps

Link

and Boo and Dry Bones

I agree with what Alex said in his review, they need to branch out and take a Smash Bros. approach to the whole thing. It needs more variety at this point, and sticking to the Mario universe isn't gonna cut it.

Pokemon should never appear in a Mario Kart.

@egg: That could be a hot question on the Giant Bomb gaming minute, if Jeff is still doing those. Should Pokemon be allowed to drive?

Exactly what I want. Especially the latter two. Maybe Bowser Jr and Dry Bowser too.

I never thought I'd say this about a Mario Kart game, but I really hope they offer these characters as DLC at some point... It really bums me out looking at the amount of Koopa kids, metal alternatives and baby racers. That's about half the roster I just don't want to use.

Slightly surprised there isn't four variations of Yoshi...

WarioWare characters. Seriously, why haven't characters like Jimmy, 9-Volt and Mona entered a Mario multiplayer game yet? If Funky Kong from DKC can make it into Mario Kart Wii, why not some WarioWare characters?

How about some Paper Mario characters?

Might be weird to animate but i'd be fine with interpretations and not paper-based people.

Realistic suggestions: Boo, Kamek, Dry Bones, Birdo, Hammer Brother

Crazy suggestions: Mallow, Boshi, Thwomp, Cheep Cheep

@egg: No. @doctordonkey: I disagree, Mario Kart has a certain type of lookand feel that adding other Nintendo characters would destroy that feel. @jinx1: The Koopa kids are fine although not integral and the inclusion of numerous baby and metal versions of characters drags down the selection.

Geno, Mallow, Sir Grodus, Shadow Queen, etc

I thought Mario Kart Wii had a good selection. Get rid of the babies, metal characters, and koopalings.

Diddy Kong & Dixie Kong.

What the fuck is pink-gold peach? Why does that exist? So weird.

@toowalrus said:

My guess? To have a "for girls" character in the upper weight class.

To have all the koopalings was a neat idea but in practice a lot of them are just really similar to one another and together they take up so much of the roster. I also kind of hate all the baby characters. That aside there's really no one in particular I'm missing. I think it's cool that Shy Guy and Rosalina is in the game and that's enough for me.