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Fawfulthegreat64 said:I'm saddened that people would rather have characters who have never appeared in a canon Mario game over ones relevant to that universe.
I get that you like the characters but why push for their inclusion in a game where they don't belong?
I'm being completely and honestly curious right now. Why do people support the decision to make this a crossover?
Anyway, I've seen people complain that "omg it's Mario Kart" whenever someone discusses about Link, Isabelle, and Villager make it playable instead of "RPG dude #7" or whatever. I'll say, no, these guys should be able to have some business in Mario Kart.
First, this isn't the first Mario Kart game that stars nonMario characters. Mario Kart Arcade GP games have Namco characters like Blinky, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Mametchi, and Don-Chan. But these guys are more like the exception rather than the rule, because the MKAGP games are developed by a third party, Namco, and wildly deviates from Mario Kart. But even barring those games, Mario Kart also featured R.O.B., a guest character who is playable only in Mario Kart DS. Miis also cross the line of nonMario characters, but we'll let that slide since they are apparently a system feature that some people enjoy racing as their Mii alongside Mario characters.
Mario Kart is a highly popular franchise: it's still strong in its 8th installment, as popular as ever and helped bump the Wii U up a notch when it comes to sales. Mario Kart 8 is also the first game to deal with DLC, an entirely new concept for Mario Kart (Mario Kart 7 had a patch but it doesn't count). DLC is usually viewed as a bonus; you don't necessarily need it to get more enjoyment out of a game. Because it's an extra side thing, you'll get extra side characters. See, these characters are not in the game by default and you don't need them to enjoy the game. So it's perfect fodder to add some guest characters, right?
NonMario characters are highly requested but the Mario Kart team director was hesitant to add them at first. They obviously changed their mind post Mario Kart 8 production. It's like, hey, DLC is an optional bonus, maybe we can convince people to buy the DLC. Link is a hyped up character to add. And a revolutionary idea! Link comes from a highly popular franchise, also by Nintendo, so they don't have to get any rights. Link is a fairly popular character. He's probably more of a favorable choice to race as to the general Mario Kart audience than *obscure Mario character here*, simply because he's a well-known character that many people would probably love to race as. Villager and Isabelle also fall in the same vein, but not as much as Link. Coming with that also opens the opportunity to make other Nintendo tracks, which opens for experimentation and variety, not to mention fanservice for the general Nintendo fans.
Not to mention other video game franchises are open to guest characters, which is totally fine. Sega Racing, for example, features platform specific characters. The PC version of Sega Racing has Team Fortress characters playable. In a Soul Calibur game, Darth Vader is playable, alongside Link, characters who shouldn't have any business in these games but were included to draw fans in. I may be ignorant of what other franchises do, but it's silly to bash Mario Kart for including nonMario characters in this game when other games have been doing something like this far before Mario Kart has done anything of the sort.
I'm not justifying the lack of Mario characters but this is my thoughts on why "it's MARIO kart" argument is weak and has flimsy reasoning.
tl;dr nonMario characters in Mario Kart are ok and expect more of them in the near future.