I was thinking about this while recording yesterday's podcast...

Since we know the Nintendo team isn't afraid of changing some retro tracks to utilize the new ideas and features of a Mario Kart game... I was wondering how they will apply this mentality to the new Mario Kart 8. We saw a few retro tracks in the trailer and I fully expect these to use anti-gravity in some kind of way.

So while you may not have a true belief in what you post below, lets think of some ways that they COULD do this... Lets be creative.

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We saw a few Retro Tracks in the trailer? ..Really?? Where??

@Mr_Mustache You wouldn't notice, they were from Mario Kart VII. They'll be new to you!

@Mr_Mustache

Both the ones I noticed were from the 3DS version, so understandable that you didn't notice them, heh.

Totally man!

Mop it up said:

@Brook The trailer showed Music Park and Piranha Plant Slide from Mario Kart VII, so there are "retro" tracks. How many remains to be seen, but I wouldn't expect anything less than the 50/50 split we unfortunately always get.

Mop It Up said it but here's an example of Music Park.

I suggest we call tracks from previous Mario Kart games "classic tracks" to avoid confusion (after Retro Studios created tracks for Mario Kart 7)

Anand and I were talking about this yesterday. It seems like we will either get a lot of retro tracks with "alternate" routes that use the new upside-down / etc. stuff, or they will have to do some massive remaking of some of these tracks to make them wrap upon themselves in lots of crazy ways.

@Jargon But that's why capitalization matters!

Retro tracks versus retro tracks.

Of course, if you start the sentence with it, it will always be capitalized.

Retro tracks versus Retro tracks.

Retro's retro tracks.

Retro Retro tracks.

@Zero

Well, it's capitalized in the title. And I think my solution leaves less room for confusion.

@Zero
@Jargon

Jargs is right on all counts. The capitalization mid-sentence suggests a Proper Noun.

*changes title to get this thread on topic*

Maybe in a classic rainbow road you'll be able to drive on the top of the road or the bottom. That could be cool.

@Jargon

Funny you say that. This is brought up on the podcast coming soon. It'd be neat for a track in general where you just couldn't tell who was winning till it was over because of branching paths and constantly passing each other on translucent tracks.

It's probably a stretch, but a modified Baby Park would be a cool addition--particularly in battle mode. Instead of just the oval, add a wall all the way around (with boosts so it would match up time-wise with the flat track). Have the blue transfer things all the way around so you can shift at any point between the side walls and the floor. Then it could be a little, mayhem-filled death trap with items coming from literally anywhere. It might also make for some neat other strategies other than just power-slide as close to the center as possible.

It would be neat if they had a transparent track, half of the racers on the top side and half on the bottom side. They could introduce a power up called a "screw" that goes right through the track and shows up on the other side. Of course this type of item would only be useful with transparent tracks.

I could imagine something like Toad's Turnpike, when you go into the tunnels, you could maybe drive up the walls to avoid traffic.

Or Wario's Gold Mine from MKW, I'm sure there are lots of opportunities for them to have us going up and down the walls.

Also, I didn't catch it, but are the halfpipes back? I don't think I really missed their exclusion from MK7, but wasn't paying attention at all.

A battle track that takes place entirely inside a hollow doughnut would be cool, I think.

Koopa Cape on MKWii comes to mind. Get in that tunnel and ride the walls.

I'm...not thinking of many more. This is why I'm not a designer. But I trust Nintendo to make them awesome because they succeeded on Mario Kart 7 with them.

@Cubed777

Baby Park with twelve racers would be utter chaos, and I'd love it.

They should have at least one "tube" level, like in old F-Zero 64 where you could drive on any surface and lots of boosts scattered around. And then at the end I remember you weren't sure which way was up, and if you were upside down oh well, bye bye.

I only hope that if they insist on including more SNES or GBA tracks, they make them not flat and boring.

Mop it up said:

I only hope that if they insist on including more SNES or GBA tracks, they make them not flat and boring.

Agreed. The SNES tracks are the WORST.

@GameDadGrant@Mop it up

I have mixed feelings about those..

Sure, they are usually the tightest when it comes to drifting and the most rewarding on succeeding that, which is awesome for players like, say, Mikey (Anonmastermind), Canonj or me since it gives us natural advantage to get some easy VR points.
On the other hand, there isn't much eye candy there (music is still great, though) and the nostalgia card does not appeal to me at all, since I got to start gaming some years after the SNES era, not to mention the many, many kids who are not giving a crap about getting any old tracks at all. I would not blame the developers if they remade some more early tracks, but we could at least see them a bit more 3D-ized and with richer backgrounds to have that legit "wow" sensation when comparing the old and remade versions.

All in all, the Retro-SNES tracks could have been better represented and they do suck, comparing to all others.

More Double Dash, please.