5 Things Nintendo Needs To Add To 'Mario Kart 8' Via DLC

Nintendo should release lots of DLC for Mario Kart 8. They should release it regularly over a long period of time, keeping the game alive and fresh long past the expiration date its predecessors faced.

The game is great—quite possibly my favorite Mario Kart—but in a day and age when new content is released after launch all the time, Nintendo has the perfect opportunity to make it even better.

Sure, DLC—or downloadable content—is controversial in many circles. And certainly there are times when it feels like a game maker is simply trying to cash in on a game.

But Mario Kart 8 is already fantastic. It doesn’t need new content to achieve greatness. On the other hand, new content could keep more people playing for longer.

I very rarely purchase DLC. But I would for this game. Here are five things I’d like to see from Nintendo if they do release DLC for Mario Kart 8:

1. More toons.

Mario Kart 8 has lots of playable characters—more than any otherMario Kart game. Unfortunately, the roster isn’t as diverse as it is large.

There are too many Koopa kids, too many baby versions of characters, and even a metal Mario and pink-gold Peach.

It would be nice to see characters like Dry Bones, King Boo, and more of the Kong family, released in a character pack—just to name a few.

In fact, it would be even better if the game bucked tradition and brought in some other iconic Nintendo characters from non-Mario franchises. Star Fox , Link, Kirby, etc. If it can work for Smash Bros. it can work for Mario Kart 8.

2. More tracks and more bikes.

This one’s pretty obvious.

The race selection is excellent in Mario Kart 8—far more diverse than the roster—but once you’ve played each track enough times, even excellent tracks start to wear a little thin. Nintendo should continue to remaster older tracks and release those as downloadable content. Totally new tracks would be nice, too.

Nintendo could even release these in stages. Eight new tracks in the first pack, eight in the second and so forth. There’s no reason gamers should have to wait for a new Mario Kart entry to play new tracks in an age of digital content distribution. Or they could release remastered tracks as free goodies, and charge only for the totally new ones. (I’m not trying to come up with a revenue scheme, here, however.)

The same applies to new bikes, tires, and sails. There are plenty of combinations of these already, but there’s no reason there can’t be more. And I’m not talking about the very weird—unsettling—Mercedes DLC Nintendo has revealed. I’d like to see more zany bikes, three-wheelers, or maybe a whole new class of Kart altogether.

3. Add some actual battle arenas.

I realize that battle mode isn’t that popular, or at least nowhere near as popular as the actual racing in Mario Kart, but the total absence of any battle arenas in Mario Kart 8 was really disappointing.

Battling on regular tracks isn’t fun. It’s harder to find people, harder to have any sort of strategy in the fight, and essentially…boring.

Worse still, using all the neat new features in Mario Kart 8 like hover and underwater mode could make for some really neat arenas. You could have an entire arena inside a giant globe, for instance.

Since the game is now online, battle mode would be even better. This was probably the biggest oversight in Mario Kart 8.

4. A more advanced video editor.

Thanks to Mario Kart TV, Nintendo has already had plenty of MK8 viral videos and screenshots, including the infamous Luigi Death Stare.

As it stands, you can show a replay of the race and tinker with a few settings, focusing on certain drivers and certain types of driving—like drifting, action, and so forth. It’s nice and simple, and it’s perfectly serviceable.

But there have been moments when I wished I had an Advanced version of the editor—being able to adjust camera angles would be great. Just being able to really dig into a race and highlight exactly what you want from exactly the angle you want would be amazing, so long as it was optional. It would also be a great tool for kids to learn more about video editing, so…educational!

5. 200cc

There’s nothing wrong with 150cc, the fastest and most challenging setting inMario Kart 8.

But I want to go even faster. I want 200cc.

Sure, you can always amp up the challenge by racing against real people online, but a really fast mode could be a blast, especially for those of us who aren’t super fans of online matches.

I think it would be even better if they had some sort of hardcore mode that made small changes to maps. Think of Toad’s Turnpike in Mario Kart 64. In “mirror mode” all the cars come at you instead of going in the same direction. That’s missing from Mario Kart 8′s version of the track.

Some sort of ultra-fast or ultra-hard mode would be a great way to spice up old tracks and provide new challenge for players.

And that’s all I have. Mario Kart 8 is one of my favorite games of 2014 so far, and some of the most fun I’ve had with a video game in a long time. I wouldn’t want to change it much, but I think added variety can only ever help.

Anything else you’d like to see added or removed from the game?