Sunday, June 29, 2014

DLC for Mario Kart 8 might be DLC done right

... except for that ugly Mercedes kart, that's just unasked for. But it's free, so whatever...

My point is that so far we haven't seen or heard anything about DLC for Mario Kart 8, while there clearly is demand. Imagine a Kong Pack with Diddy Kong, Dixie Kongy, Cranky and Funky Kong! I would pay for that... or a "Scary Pack" with Dry Bones, Dry Bowser, King Boo and Kamek.

But it doesn't look like they planned any big DLC in advance. They might have left out some fan favorite characters like Diddy or Bowser Jr. on purpose, but it's not like they're rubbing it into your face "hey, you want to play with Diddy? then you have to pay extra". It would be more like something that they added in advance, because the fans were asking for it. And if they make it free, it would be even better.

It's the opposite of that Mario Golf game for 3DS. There they announced DLC with new characters and courses on day 1. It's clearly something they planned to do, before the game got released. And that's a huge no-go, but also a disturbing trend in the gaming industry that finally found its way to Nintendo. Jokes like on-disc DLC were common in the past. You should never rip off your customers like that. But I wouldn't want to play golf without a Wiimote anymore, so I'm not buying this game anyway. The rip-off DLC is just another turn-off. Of course with Mario Kart 8 it could be that they don't plan any DLC at all or otherwise they probably would have done it similar to Mario Golf.

These are the golden rules for DLC:
  • It should be new content, not content cut from the game.
  • It should be something that keeps the game fresh.
  • It should be free or at least very cheap.

So, where am I getting with this? After all this is a Zelda blog... and yeah, one of my problems with Hyrule Warriors is that they already prepared three DLC packs in advance... sure, with the Treasure Box edition you get them all for "free", but what if they make more? If I really like a game, I want everything available for it. I want all the addons and stuff. Even if it's just some costumes. And Koei Tecmo can be pretty extreme with that. Dead or Alive 5 had costume packs worth of around $120! That's twice as much as I would pay for the game. And it's only costumes! Not new characters or stages or anything that actually might give a fresh gameplay experience... let's hope they keep it more moderate and interesting with Hyrule Warriors.

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