Holy shit, those are some really good DLC packs!

Mario Kart 8 Pack 1 - Released: November 2014

Pack 1 includes:

• 3 Characters: Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, Link
• 4 Vehicles
• 8 Courses

Mario Kart 8 Pack 2 - Released: May 2015

Pack 2 includes:

• 3 Characters: Villager, Isabelle, Dry Bowser
• 4 Vehicles
• 8 Courses

As a bonus for purchasing both packs - as a bundle or separately - you can get eight different-coloured Yoshis and eight different-coloured Shy Guys that can be used right away.

http://store.nintendo.co.uk/wii-u-ddc/the-legend-of-zelda-x-mario-kart-8-aoc-pack-digital-download/10991121.html?utm_source=Affiliate&utm_medium=Tradedoubler&utm_campaign=VigLink%20UK

Weird.

Holy shit, my wallet!

Sweet. I was really hoping they would go a more Super Smash Bros. direction by adding non Mario related characters.

I'm actually pretty fucking happy about this, 16 more tracks? Fuck yes.

We still don't have Boo, or Diddy Kong or Funky or Petey Piranha, maybe we'll get 16 more in the future with Captain Falcon.

None of those are Waluigi. Why would ever NOT want to be Waluigi?

Well, count me in. Looks like that'll probably run at 10 bucks USD, and I'm assuming that price is per pack rather than for both. Since it mentions a bundle though, hopefully there will be a way to shave a couple bucks off that price. I'd definitely pay for all that up front if the bundle was discounted. MK8 has been a pleasure thus far, and I like the idea of tracks from other franchises even if the inclusion of characters from other franchises doesn't really interest me.

Perhaps my biggest concern is potential fragmentation of the online community. Hopefully that doesn't cause any issues.

Got dedicated battle mode courses? Because if you do I will break out my wallet right now. HELP ME MAKE BAD DECISIONS NINTENDO

Fuck battle mode. It's always been shit, the lack of real battle mode courses only made it slightly more shit.

Fuck it, let's just Smash Bros. everything now. Put some Pikmin in there while you're at it. Maybe I can run over that Duck Hunt dog in the next DLC pack.

Dry Bowser is the creepiest shit.

You sound like you wouldn't want to given the chance.

That is a super bonkers long time to wait to release DLC for a game. I guess the courses are more significant, but characters and vehicles wouldn't take that long. What non-PC game releases DLC like a full year after it came out?

Fuck it just put fzero cars into it already

Thoguh that would be the worst kind of fucking tease

I'm hype.

That's a surprising amount of meaningful content, and I'm happy to finally see some non Mario-verse Nintendo characters making their way into Mario Kart.

You're so wrong. It's always been shit since Mario Kart 64. The original battle mode was god damn epic, son.

Game came out May 29, first pack is November. That's only like 5+ months, second one is 6 months after that. Plenty of games have DLC release schedules similar to that. Mass Effect 3's final single player DLC was like a year to the day after the game came out, Skyrim's last expansion was well over a year after release.

@ripelivejam: You may want to take another look at what Luigi is driving in that top set of screenshots.

Wait, another 16 courses? That's no joke. Also Link should have a kart/bike that looks like a horse. Just sayin'

I wish I had access to the family Wii U.

Where's Diddy? Have they added Diddy yet?

Gaaaaahhhhhh, cat peaaach. I must have it. Oh yeah, also 16 new courses isn't bad.

Pretty awesome. I think it should've been Toon Link though.

Is Birdo one of them? If not, then I am still angry with Nintendo.

... so I guess F-Zero is well and truly dead, huh...

Does this mean Mario Kart 9 is gonna be Super Kart Bros?

@ll_exile_ll said:

True, but a mini-campaign for a big budget RPG understandably takes quite a few months of development (see also: Burial at Sea for Bioshock Infinite). While I don't think the content is like a "rip off" in terms of value or anything, each pack just seems like the kind of thing that would take far less than 6 months, especially if you assume they started some preliminary work on them before the game launched. I could see the tracks taking some time to design and then have the artists make them, but the cars in MK8 aren't exactly Forza, and while there is a little more to the characters, all you really have to do is animate them holding a steering wheel and animate the handful of "tricks" they do off of jumps. It doesn't seem like that much work.

@arbitrarywater said:

OBVIOUSLY

I'm preeeeety sure it's called MKX, not MK8.

@defe: gah didnt pay attention when posting. Ninty why must you twist the knife?? :(