Why Doesn't Mario Kart 8 Have Specific Battle Arenas?

Seriously not convinced - they've also removed Coin Runners. Solo battles, great, but these courses seem pretty weak.

I was never interested in Battle Mode, until I saw MK8's take on it. Now I want to play it.

Ever since Nintendo did away with the knockout balloon battle of MK64, battle mode in MK has been crap. Now, they bring it back, then get rid of the arenas that made them so awesome. Block Fort and Double Deck would have been so good in MK8. I don't get Nintendo sometimes. Why scrap something like that completely? I just don't understand why we can't have simple options for things. Of course I'm happy knockout is back - that's how battle should be - but sad the arenas are gone. I guess DLC is possible if people don't like it.

It just sounds like they were lazy and didn't want to make the battle arenas, or didn't have time because they had to have the game ready for release. After all, I don't think battle mode was even mentioned until the last MK direct.  Hopefully they release some arenas as DLC. 

Free DLC I hope.

I'm not too bothered about battle courses as having 12 player battles with the knockout rules should be insanely hectic and fun. I'm hoping that if we don't get proper arenas as dlc, they'll at least add more of the courses to play on because the ones we've got aren't the best.

Yeah, it most likely could have been a time issue to get it out on release. I'm not bothered though personally, racing is were it's at for me.

Plus now that we can add CPU, it shouldn't be too bad with the full 12 players.

Battle mode was great on the N64, but I've barely touched it since then. Block Fort DLC is all I can hope for I guess! I suppose we know everything that will be in Mario Kart 8 by now? No DS-style mission mode?

The lack of proper battle courses, and cop-out characters like Gold Peach definitely indicate that the game was rushed towards the end...