Okay, so we already ran the Mario Kart 8 Koopaling trailer through our analysis machine before
and nearly broke the darn thing with how much it found.
And yet, we still missed out on a few details as pointed out by you guys.
So we're back again with part 2 of our Koopaling analysis, this time using everything you've
found--plus we'll even take a look at some brand new screenshots recently released by
Nintendo too.
But as always, please make sure to check out our previous analysis videos if you haven't
already as we'll only be covering the new things here--you can find links to them in
the description below.
So let's get started with that night-club themed track, that we took to calling Larry
Lights based on the sign her that features Larry Koopa.
Although a bunch of you guys, such as dantemustdie00, thinks it's name may be closer to something
like "Klub Koopaling" due to the fact that Roy Koopa also has a sign nearby.
Plus that enables the whole alliteration-bonus going on too.
And as it turns out, those two signs may not be the only references to those two Koopalings.
Because as Northwest GameHunter points out, the colors of both halves of the split-paths
actually matches that of those same Koopalings.
Check it out: One path is green, which matches the color of Larry's face.
And the other is Pink, which matches Roy.
Hey, that's pretty neat!
So it seems this track may actually belong to both of them--but what about the rest of
the Koopalings?
Might they be lending their names and faces to the other tracks?
Now speaking of those split-paths, Jonathan Crabtree noticed that the colored patterns
on both of those resemble that of a 6-string guitar, complete with frets.
Which further cements this track as being musically based.
And along those same lines, we had previous noted that the speakers and stars could be
seen pounding to the music, but as Sean Dragon points out, so do the words Mario Kart that
circle the disco ball.
And as it turns out, there might be more to that disco ball than we first thought...
So in our previous analysis, we had noted that the racetrack appears to take place in
a city at night, based on the buildings you can see in the background at various points.
And Duds0110 thinks it could be based in Neo Bowser City, like the racetrack from Mario
Kart 7, which was part of the Star Cup.
But let's get back to that disco ball, because Shirehorse7 thinks it might actually be a
reference to the one that appeared inside Bowser's Castle in Super Mario World.
And Argorox takes it even further, pointing out that you can see what appears to be the
wall of a castle in the background of this scene.
And at the risk of looking way too deep into this, we noticed that the diamond pattern
that runs down the center of the racetrack even matches that of the one found on these
panels in Bowser's Castle.
So between the castle wall, the disco ball, and the diamond pattern, could this level
actually be based on Bowser's castle from SMW?
Oh, and then there's the fact that Larry Koopa's castle was also located right next to Bowser's
in the Valley of Bowser.
Hmmmm
Alright, and that covers it for Klub Koopaling or whatever it may be called, so lets move
on to Sub Coaster...or is, is it called Sub Coaster?
In our last analysis, we thought it might be based on the pair of giant signs, and the
fact that most of the track appears to take place on that ride.
But as several of you pointed out, because there are multiple attractions, it's more
likely that the course will be named after the water park itself--which could either
be a generic Water Park, as seen on the garbage cans, or perhaps Waluigi Sea Bed as seen on
this background structure.
Or it could even be called Super Marine World, to match the billboard we saw in one of the
tracks we played at E3.
And while we're on the topic of names, we had previously poihnted out this underwater
attraction where we can see the final few letters of its title--so we guessed it probably
says "Shell" based on the giant shell-vehicles found within.
But AstrixCentral thinks it's probably called Caroshell--you know, instead of Carousal.
It's pretty gosh darn clever.
Now another ride we had pointed out before was the Wario Wheel.
And bowserboy3 thinks that, between that ride, and the Waluigi Sea Bed sign, that this may
actually be their track.
And to support his claim, he noted that Wario's track in Mario Kar 7, Wario Shipyard, also
had a major underwater focus.
Now let's talk a little more about Sub Coaster itself.
First of all, what we referred to before as being a "Museum" is very likely the ride's
themed queue, like at Disneyland, as pointed out by christopherjandriess
Oh, and while we're here, I should point out that the picture in the background of what
we thought might be a reference to Goomboss, may actually just be a run-of-the-mill Goomba,
but it's hard to tell Now, when on the Sub Coaster ride itself,
we had previously pointed out there are submarines that follow the track and suggested they may
be obstacles that needed to be avoided.
But several of you pointed out that it appears the racers are actually emerging from underneath
it, suggesting that the submarines are actually raised high enough off the track to not be
a hazard--or at least, less of one.
Oh, and, remember those Mecha Cheep Cheeps I pointed out before?
Well, as Hemish Naidoo points out, they're not quite as new as I thought, as they previously
appeared ina single level of NSMBU
Alright, and we're done with the Water park, so that means it's time for Shy Guy Falls.
Now Kyle noticed in this water fall scene that it appears that you might be able to
drive around the ramp that leads into the flying section--but what happens then?
Since nothing seems to be below, we're guessing it might be out of bounds and Lakitu might
have to come rescue you
And while we're on this scene, we had previously noted the nest and eggs here.
But as WJKong points out, we can actually see who they might belong, as an eagle can
be seen flying around far below/
Okay, onto our final new course: Dolphin Shoals, which as you may recall we only have a short
clip and a single screenshot of.
Now last time, we wondered what the giant ring here could be for.
But as dantemustdie00 reminds us, they might be similar to the Star Rings in Mario Kart
7's rainbow road, which you could launch through from a ramo for a speed boosty.
In fact,GThing even points out that if you look closely, you can even see an underwater
jump that leads right to it.
He also speculates that perhaps the dolphins may serve as obstacles though , by jumping
into the way.
So as we mentioned last time, there obviously isn't much to go off of in these in terms
of figuring out the track design.
But if you closely here, you can see what appears to a tunnel in the dolphin-mountain
ahead.
And we're guessing after driving through it, you'll turn to the left in order for the track
to join up with the scene from the trailer, where we can see the tracks bend from the
right leading right up to the finish line.
Alright, and that's all the new courses from the Koopalings trailer taken care of, however,
NintendoUK recently tweeted a few images that shine just a little more light on some of
the other new courses we know about.
Such as this one, in which Nintendo revealed the name of the course: Toad Harbor.
But more importantly, we can see that they've swapped out the Galaxy Air ads that bordered
the starting line for Flower Cup signs, which means this tracks' part of the Flower Cup.
And on top of that, we think it may be the Flower Cup's first race, since 2 out of the
3 previous Toad-themed levels have also been the first race of their respective cups.
Unfortunately, there's not much else to glean from these that we haven't already pointed
out, but another one of the pictures does.
This one of Thwomp Ruins confirms what we suspected--that the starting line does in
fact lead right into this tunnel, which we can see here.
And if we look at the other screenshot, we can see that the bird's nest that we previously
pointed out here is missing--weird.
Maybe this means you can interact with it in some way, either by flying into it, or
hitting the column it rests on
Alright, and that covers it for all of the new courses, but there are still a few more
details to note about the returning Retro ones.
And let's start again with Mario Circuit.
So as we noted before, the track's general layout is nearly identical to the original
GBA game...with one key exception.
The U-shaped portion that's now been raised to a 45-degree angle and turned into an anti-gravity
section.
And we even pointed out how that portion is actually being raised by what appear to be
a giant set of Car jacks.
But Nick Jones thinks that those car jacks may be hinting at even more--specifically,
that that portion of the track may actually start flat in the ground, before being jacked
up jacked up in later laps, similar to how the flying-ramp in Toad Circuit in Mario Kart
7 didn't pop up until the second lap.
TheNintendoNerds64 takes this thought process even further, suggesting that other parts
of the track may be jacked up later in the race too.
However, there is one potential snag with these theories, and that's the fact that the
trees and picket-fence along the U-Bend appear to already have been adjusted to stand up-right,
in spite of the angle.
Of course, it is possible that perhaps they respond dynamically.
And speaking of the picket-fence, tpem7777 noted that there are gaps in the picket-fence,
making this a potentially hazardous area if you drive too close to the ledge.
Finally, in our previous analysis we suggested the jump here might be a flying zone.
Well, as Mic pointed out, it clearly isn't, because it's not blue--as all flying ramps
are--and is instead orange, like a normal jump.
Hey, cut us some slack--we recorded that at like 3am.
We may not have been far off, because if we zoom in here, we can just barely see a brand-spanking
new flying ramp has in fact been added, but it's hidden behind the trees.
So it seems like these old courses may be retrofitted with some new alternate paths
And that's it for Mario Circuit, so let's make haste for Tick Tock Clock.
Okay, so we had previously noted that in this scene, where Luigi's racing across the clockface,
that it appears you may now be able to drive over the clock-hands, as opposed to Mario
Kart DS where they'd bring you to a stand-still.
Well, as MonkeyMath1 points out, that's not a clock-hand at all--instead, they're actually
dropping off a ledge they've added to this section.
It's an odd change, and we're not sure why they made it--does the drop-off replace the
clock-hand?
But as we pointed out before, that's not the only drop-off added, as they added one to
this section, following the second pendulum which is also new.
And if we look to the background, we can see they also added one to the first and original
pendulum.
But we ask again--why?
Well, Argorox thinks he has the answer in this case.
Because as he points out, in the original game, the flat track caused the pendulum to
swing through the floor itself--which looks a little odd, so having a drop-off there gives
the pendulum room to swing, fixing that visual quirk
And that covers it for all of the track details that we missed, but there's still a few more
gameplay-related things that you guys noticed.
And a ton of you asked us why we didn't talk about Wario performing a wheelie here--and
that's for good reason.
It's nothing new.
We've known since E3 that wheelies would be returning, but they're purely cosmetic now,
happening automatically whenever you get a speed boost, such as from a mushroom, as with
Wario here, or from the starting line.
So although they look neat, they don't serve any actual gameplay purpose.
Another thing that has changed since Mario Kart is that, as AllMightyKingBowser noticed,
the racers positioning at the starting line are different.
In that game, the 12 racers were in 4 rows of 3, but now they're in 2 rows of 6.
He thinks this could help reduce the advantage that the front-most racers have at the start
over the ones in the back
Another small change, as Scott Harris points out, is that the gliders now have only one
of the character's symbols on them, as opposed to two in the 3DS game.
Now back when we played the game at E3, the draft-mechanic was missing.
But as RoyalUui points out, we can see Mario getting a speed boost from it in this scene,
confirming that they will indeed be back.
And speaking of things that might be back, quite a few of you noticed that it appears
Mario Kart Wii's Inside-Drifting might be returning, based on a couple of scenes from
the trailer.
Now it's hard to tell for sure, but we're pretty confident that Inside Drifting won't
be back, for several reasons.
For one, when you used a bike capable of Inside Drifting in the Wii version, Sparks would
start to fly from the inside of the bike as soon as you started the drift--even before
getting a boost.
But that's clearly not the case in Mario Kart 8.
In fac t, the drifting appears to look identical to how it did back at E3, such as in this
scene with Waluigi using a bike clearly incapable of it.
And then there's the fact that the bikes really do appear to be purely cosmetic this time
around, as so far, none of the bike-exclusive gameplay mechanics from Mario Kart Wii appear
to be returning.
And speaking of cosmetic things, we've talked a lot about how the characters can now be
seen actually holding their items--like in Double Dash.
But in might also indicate another slight change: as Jon Moloney points out, the mushroom
that Bowser's holding appears to vanish as soon as he hits the fire here.
Then as Sir Ted XXI points out, the red shell Yoshi's holding here also mysteriously vanishes
when he gets hit by a red shell himself.
So this raises the question: will getting hit make you lose the items you're holding?
Maybe.
But if we take a look at this scene, as pointed out by Squoki, the green shell that Roy's
holding also seems to similarly disappear as he's performing a stunt--and we're pretty
sure you won't actually lose them in this case.
So it seems that the items may only disappear during pre-set animations, such as when getting
hit, and might return as soon as you get back tot he race.
Finally, a couple of you picked up on some interesting vehicle details.
First up is Cristian Ware, who noticed that the Koopalings appear to all be part of different
weight classes, based on the vehicles they drive, such as Ludwig riding in a Parabiddy,
previously seen being driven by the baby characters, meaning he's likely a light character.
Then there's Roy, who's seen driving the same kart as Peach did previously, making him a
likely medium-weight.
And then there's Morton, who's rides the same trike that Wario has before, likely making
him a heavyweight.
It just goes to show, that despite their similar appearances, the Koopalings won't just be
clones of each other.
Finally, S4Blade noted that Luigi's car here strangely lacks an underwater propeller.
Is this unique to this vehicle?
Or is it just a result of the game not yet being finished?
And with that, we're done covering everything we and you could dig up.
Thanks for watching and stay-tuned to GameXplain.com for more on Mario Kart 8 and other things
gaming too.