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Nintendo’s Exclusive Interview with Mario Kart 8 Director Kosuke Yabuki

Nintendo has interviewed Mario Kart 8 Director, Kosuke Yabuki.

When asked about the ability to drive upside down as well as adding the “spin turbo” feature, Yabuki stated,

In Mario Kart 7 we introduced dynamic gravity to handle sequences underwater or on the moon for example. As the idea developed, it led us on to rethink how we handle gravity in the first place and we eventually came up with the anti-gravity feature of Mario Kart 8.

The Spin Turbo idea comes from Japanese spinning tops. We thought that the sight of spinning tops bumping into each other as they whirl around was perfect for the behaviour of karts in the anti-gravity areas. Players will need to come up with different strategies than those used for racing over normal track sections, so I’m sure that this will create situations never seen before.

Nintendo's Exclusive Interview with Mario Kart 8 Director Kosuke Yabuki

When asked about the challenges of running the game at 60fps in single and two-player mode, Yabuki explained,

Keeping a 60fps frame rate in two player mode while having the best graphics possible was our aim from the start. This was a huge challenge, but we were able to pull it off thanks to all the team members sharing a common goal and working together with the utmost care. Thanks to this smooth frame rate, I feel we’ve been able to create a race experience that feels better the faster you go.

Once you reach the goal, please do make sure to check out the race highlights that will automatically feature the greatest moments of the race. Seeing the race again from a different angle than usual will really let you enjoy the beautiful graphics of this title.

Mario Kart 8 Director Kosuke Yabuki

When asked about what prompted the online modes approach, including Tournaments, as opposed to the Communities from Mario Kart 7, the director replied,

As you will see when playing the game, the Tournaments in Mario Kart 8 are a further development of the Communities in Mario Kart 7. We decided to change the name to ‘Tournaments’ because now it’s possible to specify the dates on which players meet periodically to play, and each session has its own ranking.

When asked about including outside characters in Mario Kart 8, Yabuki replied,

We’re always considering ways to make the Mario Kart games more appealing, but I don’t think that just increasing the number of characters would make the game better. Of course, I’m not ruling out the possibility of such an approach in the future though.

You can read the full interview on the official Nintendo Life website.

Mario Kart 8 releases May 30 for Wii U. Are you looking forward to playing?

Related: Mario Kart 8 Review Scores

Source: Nintendo Life

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