Nintendo Grand Prix

Nintendo Grand Prix is a kart-racing party game developed by Nintendo and released for Nintendo Switch on February 31, 20XX. A rerelease, including all DLC expansions packed in by default, original content, and upgraded graphics, came out on the Nymbus on the game's anniversary, February 31, 20YY. Being a natural continuation of the Mario Kart series, Nintendo Grand Prix features many gameplay elements from those games, including underwater, air, and anti-gravity driving; customizable vehicles; and a wide character selection. However, the game also branches out much further than before, including lots more content from franchises that aren't Mario, new gameplay gimmicks, new battle modes, and a special Marathon Cup. The game also gets free updates with new content to tie into new events in Nintendo games.
The primary franchises represented in the game are Mario (including Donkey Kong Country), Kirby, Star Fox, F-Zero, and Splatoon, but many other franchises- mostly from Nintendo, but with a few 3rd-party as well- also feature playable characters and/or courses in the game.
==Gameplay==
Nintendo Grand Prix features gameplay similar to the Mario Kart series, but with many new twists introduced from other franchises and racing games. A race will usually have 16 racers (although this can be customized in certain modes), and those racers typically complete 3 laps around a course. Some longer courses, however, can have 3 sections in a single lap or 2 laps, and shorter courses can have up to 5 laps.
Item boxes are scattered across every course, which randomly gives racers an item to use to boost themselves forward or slow opponents down. Racers closer to 1st place will usually get defensive items, while in last place more powerful offensive items tend to appear. [item list coming later]
===Controls===
Controls are very similar to the controls in the Mario Kart series, but with slight alterations for the new Kart Forms. Unless otherwise specified, actions are done by holding the button, not simply pressing it.
Button 	Action
A 	Accelerate
B 	Brake/reverse
R, ZR 	Hop (press)
R, ZR 	Drift (hold)
R, ZR 	Slow down (hold; Hovercraft form)
L, ZL 	Use item (press)
L, ZL 	Drag item (hold)
X 	Rearview mirror
Control stick (horizontal)	Steer left/right
Control stick (vertical) 	Control vertical movement (Pilot, Glider form)
Control stick (vertical) 	Control item throw direction
===Kart Forms===
Mario Kart featured kart transformations, allowing the kart to drive underwater, glide, and drive in an antigravity environment. Nintendo Grand Prix continues with this concept, adding several new kart forms that allow for more diverse course environments.
Kart Form 	Description
Drive 	The most basic of Kart Forms, your vehicle stays on the ground with its wheels vertical & touching the ground. You are able to drift & perform Mini-Turbos, and have the best handling, but colliding with anything slows you down.
Swim 	When going underwater, your Kart will gain a propeller and continue to drive. You can still drift & Mini-Turbo, but you have less handling and everything (items and karts) fall much more slowly. Swim form can stack on top of Drive or Hovercraft forms.
Glide 	Launching off of a blue Glide Ramp, a glider will sprout from the back of the kart. You fall very slowly, and gliding over upwards-blowing wind will make you rise. However, you have poor handling, and cannot drift or Mini-Turbo.
Anti-Gravity	After driving over a cyan Anti-Gravity Pad, your kart's wheels will flip to be horizontal, and your kart will hover a few inches off the ground. In this form, you have slightly less control, but you can still drift + Mini-Turbo, and crashing into other characters or glowing blue posts will give you a speed boost. Anti-Gravity disables itself at certain points on courses.
Pilot 	The first new Kart Form, launching off a green Pilot Ramp will have your kart sprout wings and begin to fly. In Pilot form, you can fly a good distance off the ground, avoiding any grounded obstacles, but you fly a little slower and cannot drift or Mini-Turbo. Pilot form disables itself automatically at certain points on courses, or you can end it early by flying down to the ground/into water.
Hovercraft 	Driving over a yellow Hover Pad lifts your kart off the ground, much like an Anti-Gravity Pad. However, the kart automatically barrels full speed ahead, as the A button has no effect in Hovercraft form. You can't drift, but holding the R button instead slows you down to make sharp turns; braking & turning for long enough charges up Mini-Turbos. Hovercrafts have medium handling, and fall very slowly.
Grind 	Orange Grind Rails automatically send your kart into Grind form, retracting the wheels and accelerating at full force like Hovercraft form. You have to be traveling above a certain speed in order to activate Grind form, but immediately before sections of a course that require Grind form will always be an orange Boost Pad. If you aren't going fast enough, you'll just slip off the Grind Rail.
==Game Modes==
All game modes from Mario Kart return, including Mission Mode. Additionally, the game features a Story Mode similar to in Diddy Kong Racing with unique open-world kart-based exploration and various sidequests on your way to winning the Special Cup.
Game Mode 	Description
Grand Prix 	Race in a Cup of 4 courses against others to earn points and win first place overall.
VS Race 	Race against others on one course or a set of courses picked by you to earn points and win first place overall.
Time Trials 	Race by yourself or against a ghost on a single course to try and set a new record.
Mission Mode	Complete 8 missions to unlock a boss fight; defeat all bosses to win a big reward.
Battle Mode 	Battle it out in a free-for-all or on one of two teams in any of several battle modes.
Story Mode 	Explore an open-world environment with built-in missions and racing events for big rewards, and uncover lore about the shared world this game takes place within.
===Grand Prix===
16 racers race on 4 predetermined courses from a selected Cup. Your placement in each race gives you a certain amount of points, and whoever has the most points at the end of the 4 races wins first place for the Cup. Points have been altered from Mario Kart's system to allow for the new 16-racer standard. At the end of the Cup, you are also given a rank, regardless of how you placed. This ranking has also been simplified: it's primarily only based on points you've earned throughout the Cup, but you can also increase your rank 1 level by performing a "perfect run" of a course- no crashing into walls, no going off-road without a speed boost active, no falling off the course, and you can't cross from 8th to 9th place or lower (perfect runs aren't invalidated by starting in 16th place in the first race of the Cup). This allows for up to a 7-star ranking by doing perfect runs, and finishing in first place, on all 4 courses.
Place 	1st 	2nd 	3rd 	4th 	5th 	6th 	7th 	8th 	9th 	10th 	11th 	12th 	13th 	14th 	15th 	16th
Points 	25 	22 	20 	18 	16 	14 	12 	10 	8 	7 	6 	5 	4 	3 	2 	1
At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.	At the end of a race, green plays victorious 1st place music, yellow plays cheerful win music, orange plays neutral music, and red plays disappointed loss music.
Rank 	Points
3 stars	100 points
2 stars	88-99 points
1 star 	80-87 points
A 	72-79 points
B 	64-71 points
C 	56-63 points
D 	48-55 points
E 	33-47 points
F 	4-32 points
===VS Race===
Much greater customization is available for the VS mode in Nintendo Grand Prix than in past Mario Kart games. You can pick any number of racers from 2 to 16, any number of races from 1 to 40, and the option to have more than 2 teams, although the game requires the racer count to be evenly divisible by the team count. The point system scales simply by removing point values off the top of the leaderboard as racer count decreases: 1st place out of 15 gives you 22 points, 1st place out of 14 gives you 20 points, etc. Unlike Grand Prix, there are no rankings at the end of a race set. Perfect runs therefore have a different effect, giving you 5 extra points for each perfect run on a course.
===Time Trials===
This mode also features greater customization compared to Mario Kart. You can store up to 3 ghosts on a course, and race against up to 4, whether that includes your own ghosts, those downloaded from other players online, or staff ghosts. In addition to allowing one set of triple Mushrooms per time trial, items can be turned off entirely or item boxes can turned on, only generating speed booster items. There are two staff ghosts available for each course, a standard ghost that's available as soon as the course is unlocked and an expert ghost that's available once you beat the standard ghost.
===Mission Mode===
Returning from Mario Kart DS is Mission Mode, featuring 8 worlds of 8 courses + 1 boss fight each. [holding off on adding to this section until I finish the courses]
===Battle Mode===
Up to 16 players go head to head in a battle-royale format, or on teams (with the same settings as in VS Race). A wide variety of battle modes are available; some are returning unchanged from previous games, some are inspired by other games featured in NGP, and some are entirely new. [also holding off on battle modes until I finish courses]
==Courses==
Nintendo Grand Prix features courses from a wide variety of game series, sorted into different Cups much like Mario Kart. The base game launched with 16 Cups of 4 courses each, with 2 Cups for each of the major represented series and 1 Cup for each minor/third-party series.
Descriptions of each course layout...
[Note: images are currently placeholders and may not accurately depict the course, or may have extra UI elements/course elements from unrelated games.]
Mushroom Cup 	Mushroom Cup 	Mushroom Cup 	Mushroom Cup
Mario Circuit 	Wii Luigi Circuit 	Peach's Castle 	GCN Daisy Cruiser
Flower Cup 	Flower Cup 	Flower Cup 	Flower Cup
GBA Sky Garden 	DS Waluigi Pinball 	Bowser's Castle 	Rainbow Road
Warp Star Cup 	Warp Star Cup 	Warp Star Cup 	Warp Star Cup
Cookie Country 	AR Celestial Valley	Old Odyssey 	AR Frozen Hillside
Tomato Cup 	Tomato Cup 	Tomato Cup 	Tomato Cup
AR Machine Passage	The Halberd 	Mt. Dedede 	Another Dimension
Arwing Cup 	Arwing Cup 	Arwing Cup 	Arwing Cup
Corneria 	Meteo 	Sector X 	Venom
Wolfen Cup 	Wolfen Cup 	Wolfen Cup 	Wolfen Cup
Krazoa Palace 	Fichina 	Moon Mountain Pass	Aquas
Category:Nymbus Games
Category:Nintendo Switch Games
Category:Fan Games
Category:Mario Kart (series)