We go through some of the neat little Easter eggs and references hidden in Mario Kart 8.
This goes without saying, but as the first Mario Kart game in HD, Mario Kart 8 is dense with detail. Nintendo’s developers have seen it fit to litter the game with all these little things, either as references to other games or aspects of Mario lore, or just to use the Wii U’s power just a bit. We’ll just list them for you below:
- In Cloudtop Cruise, there is a beanstalk you fly down onto with your glider, that starts off as a giant question block. The block basically looks like the block from the side scroller Mario games.
- In previous Mario Kart games, you usually see only Lakitu on top of the spotlight, and not much else. However, some stages have different race startup animations. For example, Bowser’s Castle stage starts with the gates opening up as the lights blink. In Twisted Mansion, the door creaks open for you.
- Mario Kart TV features prominently as faux advertising all throughout the tracks. As the game’s exclusive broadcaster, you can even see their trucks littered throughout the track to provide live coverage. The cameramen will move to follow you, as you will notice if you stop racing to approach them. As a neat little touch, even their trucks have the Lakitu cloud insignia on their front bumpers.
- In Royal Raceway, you can actually see the Toads flying in those hot air balloons as you glide by them. If you keep a sharp eye out, you can even occasionally catch them burning fuel for the balloons to go up.
- Yoshi Valley has become a Wild Yoshi Sanctuary. This is reflected not only in the logos throughout the stage, but in all the different Yoshis and eggs you can see in the game. But that’s not all: the berries in the trees are the same ones Yoshi loves to gobble up, way back in the sidescroller Mario / Yoshi games.
- In Toad’s Turnpike, you race at night in Toad City. The devs went the extra mile to make Toad City seem realistic; there is a sign indicating what is apparently a highway advisory radio station. Of course, the frequency is set to 64 MHz, referencing that this course started in Mario Kart 64.
- Finally, in Sunshine Airport, there’s a crazy detail you can only catch where you’re at the part of the course where you’re dropping down to land on the airport. At the far top right, there is an island in the distance with rock formations shaped like Koopa Troopas. Their shells have even been filled in with grass to complete the look. These are reminiscent of the Koopa Troopa statues in Koopa Troopa beach track in Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart 7.
Do you guys think you’ve seen a Mario Kart 8 detail we reporters have missed out on? Feel free to share what you’ve found in the comments below.
Mario Kart 8 is coming May 30 to Wii U. Check out our source video below.
