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2) Nintendo Kart
Mario Kart 8 (Wii U, 2014)
It finally happened: Nintendo mixed its other characters and series into its Mario Kart soup. As recently announced, Link, Villager, and more are headed to Mario Kart 8, much to the delight of those who have wanted to see Nintendo’s classic racing series branch out beyond the confines of the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s debatable whether the inclusion or exclusion of other Nintendo franchises from Mario Kart was the right move to make on principle, but from a creative standpoint there’s no denying the sheer creative explosion that will result. With courses based off of F-Zero and Animal Crossing, it’s clear that Nintendo’s designers are having a great deal of fun reinterpreting those games into race tracks, with more to come down the road. Special shoutout to Mario Kart Arcade GP, though: Pac-Man was the first non-traditional Mario Kart character to ever appear in the series!
Hmmm.. This list has me pondering the differences between “crossovers” and “cameo appearances” due to number 5.
That being said, thanks for the great read Robert!
Depending on what we’re talking about here, my own personal list might include NES Remix, as well as those bizarre Mario appearances on the Gamecube EA Sports games (“SSX On Tour” and “NBA Street V3”) Having Mario, Luigi and Princess play hoops against Carmelo Anthony and other NBA stars on an urban basketball court is just strange. Very unique and surreal.
In my defense, I will say that I did note that “key cameos” would be on the list, lolol. Glad you liked it! I thought about those appearances, too. I also weighed Mario and Sonic Olympics, but Smash felt like the better one to represent that intermingling.
My bad for not noticing your “key cameos” comment on your intro. That’s just sloppy on my part. Apologies! Again, Loved the list! Not sure how you manage to consistently churn out so many great features. Nintendojo is better for it.
Thanks OG! I’m just lucky I work with such great people here, I think we all feed off of each other’s energy and it makes us write better. Keep reading, and we’ll keep trying to do a great job for all of you.