After the Mario Kart World Direct finished airing this morning, YouTube served me a surprising recommendation. Thanks to the unassailable algorithm, YouTube figured I might want to watch the Mario Kart 8 Direct from April 30, 2014 — a month before the game debuted on the ill-fated Wii U. I actually wrote about the presentation over a decade ago, but when I rewatched it today out of curiosity, I was fascinated by what I saw.
Looking back to April 2014, Nintendo was undoubtedly in a state of panic at this point. After the record-breaking success of the Wii, the Wii U was floundering, and Mario Kart 8 was Nintendo’s last chance to right the ship. It ended up being the console’s biggest game launch, and remains the system’s best-selling game, but it couldn’t save the Wii U.
Instead, Nintendo fast-tracked the Switch (then known as NX), and the rest is history. Ironically, the best-selling game on the Switch would be the re-release of the kart racer, titled Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is also now one of the best-selling games of all time.
History lesson aside, I was struck by just how different the tone was in a 2014 marketing video from Nintendo versus what we saw today. Despite the Wii U’s struggles, the Mario Kart 8 Direct is proudly and unabashedly silly. In fact, I’m willing to bet Nintendo spent more time on the gags and jokes in this video than it did on compiling gameplay footage. I mean, the first minute of the presentation is dedicated to a sleepy man eating cereal in the dark.
In 36 minutes, Nintendo squeezed in pro wrestling introductions for the Koopalings, a parody of an infomercial, a Mythbusters-like segment about the speed of the game’s bikes, and footage of musicians performing the game’s theme. Oh, and former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé even says the word “reggie-mendation.”
It’s loaded with personality, and while traces of it remain in some of Nintendo’s consumer-facing content, Nintendo is far more professional and buttoned-up in 2025. Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo until his death in 2015, clearly played a major role in keeping the childlike spirit alive during his tenure at the company.
For a blast from the past, check out the Mario Kart 8 Direct in full below:
For comparison, here is the relatively sterile, short Mario Kart World Direct that Nintendo shared this week for its upcoming Switch 2 launch game:
For as much attention as the price Mario Kart World is receiving (understandably so), I think I might be more concerned about the slow and steady disappearance of Nintendo’s identity. Not every video presentation needs to be a comedy festival, but I’d like to see some of the flavor of the mid-2010s return to the company’s public persona. Put more human beings in front of the camera to remind us you aren’t just a faceless, money-printing behemoth.
