Other Franchises in Mario Kart - Should they keep adding more in the future or not?

[Anacybele]

As a lot of us saw in the trailer for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Inklings from Splatoon were added, and the DLC for Link and the Animal Crossing characters is included in the game as well.

This makes three different non-Mario franchises that have been put in Mario Kart now. And once in awhile, I see people asking for yet more franchises to join.

Personally, I do not want this at all. I'm fine with Link and all, don't get me wrong, even if I have zero interest in Splatoon and Animal Crossing doesn't really look like my kind of thing (though it does have elements I like, such as animals and simulation). But if you keep adding more franchises to Mario Kart, it won't be Mario Kart anymore and it might as well be called Nintendo Kart instead. Mario Kart has always been Mario Kart and I don't really want that to change. Plus, I feel like some franchises, such as FE and Pokemon would be entirely out of place and silly. I felt Link was a bit out of place too, but even he isn't as silly-looking on a kart or bike as those two would be, imo.

You guys get what I'm saying here?

[Acacia Sgt]

It's actually four, as F-Zero has two courses, even if no racer to go with them as the other three.

Personally, I would agree on the idea of a Nintendo Kart, instead of adding more non-Mario series to Mario Kart. To me, it doesn't matter if some franchises don't really mesh with the whole racing thing. It could be like Smash and exist in a "vaccum", so to type.

[Anacybele]

Oh yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of playable characters, so I forgot that F-Zero courses and such existed.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Be it adding more non-mario series or just making a "Nintendo Kart" would be much better as there is more creative freedom with character additions and courses. Yes to more F-Zero courses.

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

Be it adding more non-mario series or just making a "Nintendo Kart" would be much better as there is more creative freedom with character additions and courses. Yes to more F-Zero courses.

Depends on the series IMO. Squid and Villager are not schoking with Mario, but I don't see Marth or Ike on a bike. That would look so weird haha.

[Magical Glace]

It's better than making up things like Pink Gold Peach for the sake of padding out the roster.

There's more to select from, and I am COMPLETELY GAME with Link in a Go-Kart, so I'm fine with it.

Also don't forget Excitebike had a course as well.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Glaceon Mage

[Anacybele]

Wow, this thread was a bad idea. I'm really shocked at how many people said yes. I figured a few would, but not nearly everybody.

I don't like the idea of things like Pink Gold Peach either, though.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Anacybele

[Water Mage]

Personsally, I welcome it. I love crossovers, especially when there's clash of sytles and settings.

I mean, one of the most interesting things in crossovers is seeing characters in a different setting. So what if Ike or Marth would look strange and out-of-place in kart race? That what makes it interesting!

I certainly hope more characters from different franchises appear in Mario Kart.

[Light Strategist]

I do see where you're coming from.

It would alienate the title of the franchise but if for example they add Fox, Kirby, Samus and Pokémon Trainer Red into a Mario Kart entry alongside Mario's main cast and Link, they could start a divergence.

On one-hand, founding Nintendo Kart and on the other Mario Kart returns to its roots with gentle nods like the Blue Falcon still be present.

That way characters could be brought together for two reasons and courses would take more drastic/interesting turns. A Dream Land course after including Kirby would be cool to see.

I daresay Mario's been around the block a few times with collaborations so using that iconic status to focus on a new product seems like a logical move to me.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Wow, this thread was a bad idea. I'm really shocked at how many people said yes. I figured a few would, but not nearly everybody.

I don't like the idea of things like Pink Gold Peach either, though.

Ahahahahah that's hilarious. "I created the thread, voted on a poll choice and because people disagree with me, this thread is a bad idea!"

Depends on the series IMO. Squid and Villager are not schoking with Mario, but I don't see Marth or Ike on a bike. That would look so weird haha.

Perhaps. Luckily there is more to Nintendo than Fire Emlem.

[Shin]

I actually really like the idea. So far, the vast majority of characters and tracks are Mario themed, but it's a nice touch to add a couple from other series. The F-Zero tracks were nice and although Link was an odd choice, I'm pretty OK with him existing. If the entire FE13 crew appeared as characters and got an entire cup dedicated to them, it'd be weird but the odd track and character is something I like!

[Anacybele]

Ahahahahah that's hilarious. "I created the thread, voted on a poll choice and because people disagree with me, this thread is a bad idea!"

lol, you're the one that's funny. Since that's not what I said. At all.

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

Perhaps. Luckily there is more to Nintendo than Fire Emlem.

Yes, I'd definitely see Kirby, Ness, Olimar, Samus, even Fox and Bayonetta, but not characters like Pit, Shulk, etc. I mean more "human-sized" and "war-themed" characters would seem out of place. Even Link looks kind of weird for me.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[Randoman]

I'd rather Mario Kart stick with Mario, though having a few Donkey Kong series characters is okay since they've been in since Super Mario Kart and Mario and Donkey Kong did debut in the same game (the arcade Donkey Kong). I'd be okay with Mario Kart and Nintendo Kart becoming separate franchises, though.

Overall, I don't like guest characters in games, period. Part of what makes rosters fun for me is seeing both the popular and unpopular characters of a game series/company (depending on the scope of the game. Eg: Mario Kart is the former, Smash Bros. is the latter) getting spotlight and focus, especially the unpopular/lesser known characters. When you start including guests, they usually consist of popular/iconic characters, and the focus starts leaning towards "shove in as many popular characters as you can", rather than "this game focuses on this one company/game series, and we're going to show the rich cast that this company/game series, from the most known to the least known." And with how many rosters stick in popular guest characters,to me it feels like a waste of an opportunity to bring back the spotlight on characters who could really use it. I mean, imagine if in Melee, they stuck in Sonic characters and never used Marth and Roy. Fire Emblem likely would've never been released internationally. Or if Pit wasn't put into Brawl, we very likely would've never gotten Kid Icarus Uprising. Focusing on lesser known characters and bringing back their popularity generally does that series much more good, than a series that's promoting already popular characters. I mean, would making a slightly bigger percentage in sales from Melee featuring Sonic, be worth Fire Emblem not being released internationally? Sure, promoting someone like Pauline in Mario Kart may not give as big an impact as Fire Emblem's international release, but if Daisy's revival in Mario Tennis 64 is anything to go by, it still helps raise the popularity of a character who could really use it. Plus with characters like Yoshi, Captain Toad, and Wario getting their own games/game series after playing a side/non-playable role in their debut games, I'd say that's more than worth losing a slight percentage of sales from an already popular game series, just because of not featuring a guest.

Plus, it would get pretty boring if the same popular guest characters just kept getting featured in games constantly. I mean, imagine if Mario, Sonic, and Crash kept getting featured in every cartoony spinoff game. People would sure get sick of it, and quite a lot of people would get pretty angry if those guest characters stayed in new installments while certain fan favourites who weren't guests were kicked out (like how quite a lot of people were ticked that Mewtwo wasn't initially in SSB4 while Sonic was). Constantly putting in whatever guests characters are popular would likely degenerate into a cycle where popular characters keep getting attention and lesser known characters keep becoming more obscure and unknown. Even if putting guest characters over obscure puts in extra sales and money, it kills off the potential for the lesser known characters to get their own games or series (Wario was actually in the boat of being obscure during his debut in Super Mario Land 2, and look at where he is now with his multiple game series in Wario Land and WarioWare). In addition, it gets pretty monotonous and repetitive when it's the same popular characters constantly being promoted both in their own and other games where they feature as guests. Plus, it's not like guests in Mario Kart and Smash Bros. increase the sales percentage that much, since they're already such big selling games without guests in them (not to mention that sales from the aforementioned "lesser known characters getting their own games" could easily make up for/surpass that). And would you honestly stick in characters like Elsa or Anna (whose merchandise sells like hotcakes even 3 years after Frozen's release) into everything and anything just because "it sells more that way" and "it'll appeal to a bigger audience"? Not to mention by including guests characters in games for the sake of selling more, it really doesn't look good in the eyes of the fans who like the base game series/company featured in the game (Scorpion being featured in Injustice over other heavily requested DC Universe characters comes to mind, especially with how many DC fans felt sold out by Ed Boon. Sure, Scorpion sold the most, but was it worth angering a lot of DC fans? Especially when the DC Universe characters hardly get any fighting games while Scorpion's series does?).

I'll leave the guest character/outsider rant at that, and I'm not going to discuss it any further, since I don't want to turn this into a cancerous Smash Bros. level discussion.

And keep in mind guys, characters like Pink Gold Peach are done to pad the roster with as little effort as possible, and not because of "running out of character ideas". There's still plenty of Mario characters to include without resorting to outside franchises, like Kamek, E. Gadd, Pauline, Nabbit, Wart, Mouser, and Fawful.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Randoman

[Quintessence]

It's better than making up things like Pink Gold Peach for the sake of padding out the roster.There's more to select from, and I am COMPLETELY GAME with Link in a Go-Kart, so I'm fine with it.Also don't forget Excitebike had a course as well.

Wow, this thread was a bad idea. I'm really shocked at how many people said yes. I figured a few would, but not nearly everybody.

I don't like the idea of things like Pink Gold Peach either, though.

P-Pink Gold Peach is my favorite character in the roster and I will totally crush you in the Deluxe edition with my classy GORUDO KĀTO (Gold Kart).

Anyways, I think it is fine to add more characters from other series, because having Ninento Kart and Mario Kart would be kind of redundant, since peopl most likely will buy one of the two options rather than both.

After all, isn't Mario Kart a spin off itself? I think that justifies adding extra characters to the roster, although I'd like it to be through DLC as MK8 did rather than being in the base roster.

[Anacybele]

It's still called MARIO Kart, it's not Nintendo Kart. It wouldn't make sense to call it Mario Kart if it's really just Smash Bros. in kart racing style. And there are still notable enough Mario characters who have been left out, like Professor E. Gadd, Birdo (she even used to be in the series), etc.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Anacybele

[Quintessence]

I get your point. I'll be fine with having base Mario characters and adding extra characters from other series via DLC. For instance, I think Kirby, Pikachu and Fox might mesh well. Samus might join with her space ship mildly levitating on the road, etc.

However, I think that if they want to make some sort of smash kart I prefer Mario Kart to transform effectively into Nintendo Kart rather than having both titles harming each other.

[Randoman]

Well, I suppose I can post on the "Nintendo Kart" topic, since it doesn't specifically pertain to the guest character arguments I was wanting to avoid like the plague.

Actually, who says it has to be Nintendo Kart? It could be made completely different from Mario Kart if we allowed different vehicles like Starfox Arwings, Kirby characters on Warpstars, and F-Zero vehicles. A potential Nintendo racing game could work with totally different vehicles/track types/rules from Mario Kart (with all the vehicles being normalized to a certain speed range, to keep things balanced and fair), and can even involve different attacking systems/mechanics that don't involve collecting items, but instead having each vehicle/character tied to their own attacking style/type that requires recharging after use (so as to not make things like Arwing shots too cheap. For example, we could make long range attackers like Arwings require a longer recharge time after attacking, while someone like Link on a horse could attack repeatedly with a short charge time, to balance out putting himself in danger with melee attacks when quite a few characters have projectiles). It could even involve tracks/levels being like Star Fox in terms of not being laps, but a course that's only travelled through once with a giant boss at the end, differentiating it greatly from practically every racer out there (I mean, what other racer has giant bosses that needs to be battled at the end of a track?). The rules could even make it so that although placing as close to first as possible is one of the main goals, dealing enough damage to the boss at the end can make you place first, even though you didn't do well in the race segment. So essentially, your racing prowess, talent in attacking other racings and slowing them down, and skills in dealing the most amount of damage to the boss at the end are what'll determine the victor.

Overall, if Nintendo can have multiple racing IPs like Mario Kart, F-Zero, and Kirby's Air Ride, I'm sure they could come up with a way to make a potential Nintendo Racing Game unique from its existing racing games.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Randoman

[Anacybele]

You know, I think you're right, Rando. I never thought of it like that! Even if horses realistically can't go as fast as vehicles, who says Nintendo has to be perfectly realistic? Plus, Link can just take his Master Bike from Mario Kart instead anyway. :P

[Ema Skye]

Nintendo Kart honestly feels like the future of the series, so I welcome it with open arms. I'll never forget the reaction to "Link is in Mario Kart!" when it was shown off. Nothing Mario Kart can do from this point on can top that.

It doesn't even have to be unique. People will buy it just because Charizard and Samus can race each other. That's why crossovers work.

The non-Mario characters in the game have been incredibly popular, and I feel like there isn't a way to top it. Like sure some people might go "Hey Kamek is finally in Mario Kart" but the vast majority of people are going to do "When is Link going to be announced in Mario Kart 9?". I know a few people that didn't even buy Mario Kart 8 until they saw that Link was in the game. It's why they advertise Link and the AC characters on the Mario Kart Wii U bundles, because they know it'll sell more with how prolific these characters are. The average gamer has no clue who E. Gadd is, but they know Animal Crossing.

[spoiler=huge boxart image]

The boxart captures exactly what I mean here. King Boo, Bowser Jr. and Dry Bones are new Mario characters in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but they aren't on the box art. But you know who are? Link. Inkling. and Isabelle.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Ema Skye

[solrocknroll]

I want more crossovers, but only from completely first party series with a focus on EAD.

So no Pikachu or Kirby or Marth.

Stick to Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Zelda, Xenoblade, F-Zero, Star Fox, and Splatoon. Add Olimar, Shulk, Fox, and Falcon and then stop since there would then be eight guests (those four, Link, Villager, Isabelle, Inkling)

I still want Kamek/Nabbit/Luma/Birdo to go with the Deluxe additions, and then the Mario side would be complete.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Freyjadour

[Anacybele]

Even if some guest characters may sell it for some people, I doubt that's the case for the majority, honestly. And I still don't think the Mario "side" would be complete without Professor E. Gadd because he's fabulous.

[Shin]

I'm not going to lie. Before I googled him, I had no clue who Professor E. Gadd was.

[Anacybele]

He's not the most well known character, but hey, that didn't stop Birdo from being in some of the games. I think E. Gadd's been in more non-party/kart/sport games, in fact. He's got both Luigi's Mansion games and at least one Mario & Luigi game appearance. He also was the one who made FLUDD in Sunshine.

[Ema Skye]

Even if some guest characters may sell it for some people, I doubt that's the case for the majority, honestly. And I still don't think the Mario "side" would be complete without Professor E. Gadd because he's fabulous.

The majority of gamers know who Link is.

This is not true for any Mario character that has yet to be in Mario Kart.