We have some new details on Mario Kart 8. In light of rumors of a downloadable home demo, we have almost eighteen minutes of the game’s sixteen tracks.

We have two separate sources who were told in Wondercon that Nintendo is planning to release a playable demo for Wii U owners before the release of the game. One of them was also told that players will now be able to choose gyroscope and joystick controls when they started up the game.

Now, we do have to point out that research exists claiming that demos can actually lower game sales. Is Nintendo placing the kart before the horse here?

Possibly, but it might also turn out OK. As one of our sources also points out, fans often draw long lines to demo Nintendo games, and the lines get even longer for Mario Kart. This could be seen as a possible solution to that issue, with fans getting even more of an opportunity to try out the game for much longer. Of course, Nintendo has also placed the 30 trial function on those demos.

However, let me include a 3rd possibility here. As we know, Mario Kart 8 will be one of Nintendo’s 1st major online games on the Wii U. Of course, we have seen online functionality in some way before, and there’s Miiverse, but this will have online multiplayer, as fans always ask of Nintendo. Nintendo may enable online multiplayer in the demo, just so they can test their servers out prior to launch. Of course, in this case, a fully open beta might be a better idea, but Nintendo might have once again unwittingly constrained themselves with Wii U’s design, so that they could only do a demo.

Or maybe they will also do a public beta. Wouldn’t that be great? The demo alone would feel like a reward to Wii U early adopters as is.

Finally, before we show you the demo, let me outline for you the tracks that appear in this video, which correspond to the order the tracks appear, at least in the demo press have received so far.

1. Mushroom Cup

· Mario Kart Stadium

· Water Park

· Sweet Sweet Canyon

· Thwomp Ruins

2. Flower Cup

· Mario Circuit

· Toad Harbor

· Twisted Mansion

· Shy Guy Falls

· Moo Moo Meadows

3. Shell Cup

· Mario Circuit

· Cheep Cheep Beach

· Toad's Turnpike

4. Banana Cup

· Dry Dry Desert

· Donut Plains 3

· Royal Raceway

· DK Jungle

You can enjoy the preview of the 16 tracks below. Mario Kart 8 comes out May 30 on Wii U.