Wii U owners, start your engines. Mario Kart 8 is finally here and in this episode of the Random Nintendo Podcast, we share our full impressions of the anticipated title. We’re also racing closer to this year’s E3, which means an onslaught of news and speculation await. We start the episode with an unusually heavy amount of pre-E3 Nintendo announcements, including first details on Hyrule Warriors, the latest on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS and its multiple E3 events, as well as the surprise of a new Pushmo game coming to Wii U. We then focus on what Nintendo didn’t discuss, assessing the company’s E3 plans as we know them and anticipating what may be at the show, before turning our attention to third-party news. The episode concludes with our promised Mario Kart 8 impressions, plus we go hands-on with the upcoming Tomodachi Life for 3DS.

This episode is just the start of our full E3 coverage. Throughout E3 next week, we’ll be covering every announcement and every event with a special bonus episode of the podcast in the middle of the week, along with Extra articles that take you to Best Buy’s Smash Fest and hopefully the Smash Bros. Invitational tournament itself at LA’s Nokia Theater. You won’t want to miss any of it, so be sure to follow us on Twitter @RandomNintendo and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

In the meantime, enjoy Episode 71! As always, we’ve included links below for more information on the games and news discussed in this episode. Each link also lists a time stamp so you can easily jump to the segments that most interest you.

News

Games