Nothing fills you with seizure-inducing nostalgia quite like the Rainbow Road course in Mario Kart 64. That psychedelic pleasure cruise through interstellar space occupied many a Saturday morning for us ’90s kids.
Fortunately Nintendo remembered our passion for Rainbow Road when designing the soon-to-be-released Mario Kart 8, which is already getting great reviews. The good folks over at IGN did us the favor of comparing the N64 Rainbow Road course to the updated version.
Obviously, the game looks gorgeous, especially lined up against its pixely predecessor, but still maintains a cozy familiarity to those who loved the previous versions. That same mix of old and new applies to most areas of the game, including the courses. Sixteen of the courses (including our beloved Rainbow Road) will be familiar to people who have followed the Mario Kart incarnations. There will also be 16 new courses for racers to try.
It’s no secret that Nintendo’s Wii U console has been struggling against competition from XBox One and Playstation 4. Part of the equation has been the lack of games that really excite people enough to make them want to drop $300 on a new system. Could Mario Kart 8 be the game that jumpstarts sales (and rescues profit margins) for Nintendo? The jury is still out on that one. But at least we can say this is the most excited we’ve been for a Nintendo game in a long time. The game will be out on May 30.
H/T IGN | Screengrab via IGN/YouTube