Mario Kart 8 Trailer: Updated Rainbow Road, Antigravity Tracks & 16 New Courses [Video]

A new Mario Kart 8 trailer shows some of what's to come in the upcoming game.

The two-minute clip shows both familiar and new features. There's a mix of different locations showcased, such as on the beach, on the streets and on Rainbow Road. The colorful road looks slightly different, but still offers the same challenges.

Many of the characters will return, but according to VG 24/7, there will also be new ones included. There will be a total of 32 courses, half of which will be entirely new. The other half are remakes.

But perhaps the most exciting part of the game is the antigravity tracks. They can help a player get a better standing as well as can throw an opponent off the course, said Kosube Yabuki, the game's designer, and Hideki Kono, the producer, notes Polygon.

The developers wanted new, interesting courses, so the antigravity section gives the player a new way to play. In the antigravity sections, the kart's wheels will turn up and to the side, and then players can race up the walls, upside down and even go through waterfalls without the wheels touching the ground.

Players will be able to force one another into antigravity sections.

"One of the things you'll see with the later courses is antigravity being given to the player as an option, so you'll be driving on the course, and now the course branches off and you can either continue driving on the ground, or maybe go into the antigravity area to avoid an enemy or pick up an extra block," Kono said.

Kono continued, "You might decide you want to take a different route that has a boost that allows you to take off and use your glider. So with the addition of the antigravity feature, we've been able to add more variety to the course design, and it fundamentally changes the player's strategy."

If you bump into another player in the antigravity areas, you will get a speed boost. Colliding has never been something you'd want, so this game will change the way players approach strategy.

"The speed boost you get from colliding with a character while you're in the antigravity portion of this course alters the paradigm [of risk outweighing benefit]," Yabuki said. "So we may see some new strategies come out of this - some that maybe even we're not aware of."

The game will be released on May 30.