"The other notable omission is in the cast of characters’ diversity. After 30 years there are still zero Mario characters of color, a problem that Mario Kart 8 highlights by lining up all the characters on a single screen. When it comes to human characters, Mario Kart 8 is overwhelmingly white. Of the 29 drivers, 14 are human (including Toad and Toadette), and every single one of them is white. While it’d be atypical of Nintendo to introduce new characters into a Mario Kart game, it’s also where the deficit is the most obvious, and during play I found myself disappointed that Nintendo’s stable of characters so painfully fails to reflect the diversity of its audience."

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/05/mario-kart-8-review-wii-u.html

Japanese developers making Italian plumbers and friends with Mushroom people, a Green Dinosaur, Turtles, a Gorrila, and what ever the hell Shy Guy is, is totally the place to talk about Racial Diversity. Also, Toads are apparently counted as humans now too according to the reviewer. Finally, isn't that what Mii characters are for!?!

I could understand saying the roster isn't the best (babies and metal characters are meh), but this is crazy.

Update (Reviewer's Response to Backlash):

"Some people (I use the term loosely [sick burn, bro {thanks dude}]), have taken offense at the following excerpt from my review of Mario Kart 8 - 

(Quote from above)

All these comments are laden with confusion as to why I’d bring this up in a review of a video game. People have ascribed a bunch of political motives to me, or claimed I’m part of the “Social Justice Warrior trend” in games journalism, or that I bring it up for “click bait,” or for a hundred other reasons. While the people in the comments of that article are mostly, frankly, monsters, I thought that maybe some non-monsters were wondering the same thing, so here’s why I chose to bring up the issue of race in Mario Kart 8.

Because when playing the game, I noticed it, and I had an opinion, and my job as a reviewer is to share my opinion. 

No grand conspiracy, no ‘white guilt’ - I was playing the game, and when all 30 characters were unlocked, they appeared on screen at once, and I was struck by how the overwhelming majority of them were white. After the recent conversation surrounding Tomodachi Life and after reading this article on race in Animal Crossing, maybe this stuff was on my mind, but I thought about what I saw on the screen, and formed the opinion “Nintendo can do better than this.”

And I said so, because my only job as a reviewer is to give you my opinion. 

If you see the screenshot above, read those articles I linked, and think, “Nintendo shouldn’t have to do better!" then, well, I don’t know what to tell you dude (you are most likely a dude). We just disagree, probably fundamentally. If you can’t handle an opinion you disagree with, good luck going through life just in general! But as far as video game reviews go, you’re welcome to read someone else’s instead."

http://caseymalone.com/post/85867484499/a-note-on-the-mario-kart-review

lol ok reviewers are stupid, ITS A FUDGE EEEEENG GAME! PLAY IT OR DONT! NO ONE GIVES A RATS TAIL WHETHER OR NOT THERE IS A FEMALE LEAD, A BLACK MAN, A HOMOSEXUAL LEAD, PLAY THE GAME AND HAVE FUN AND DONT SPEND YOUR LIFE WORRYING ABOUT THE FACT THERE ARE NO BLACK PEOPLE, OR BROWN PEOPLE.

If the fact there are no black dudes or dudettes offends you, dont play the game, i cant see why it would offend me. OMG NO BLACK LEAD CHARACTER IN HARRY POTTER! Because the story that the person who CREATED the novel didnt have a black lead. Similar to games, we are gamers we PLAY THE GAME, WE HAVE FUN and does a few pixels of color of HTML color #000000 affect your enjoyment, no, if anything IT TURNS REVIEWERS WHO JUST LOVE DEM AD SENSE GOOGLE MONEY INTO CRAZY LOONEY TOONS.

PLAY THE GAME (OMG sackboy is brown eww)

Wow, people just fucking complain about anything and everything these days don't they?

Racism in a game where one of the characters is a green dinosaur.  Also shyguy be offended.

... First Tomodatchi and now this? God, people are way too entitled nowadays. Though like others have said, people look for anything to complain about

It's just Mario Kart, who the hell cares about that in Mario Kart.

what about donkey kong ?

It is racist to think that all white people are of the same race.

I hate reviews that nitpick like this... Not every game has to include all races... Heck, the fact that Mii's are playable means that all races are included in this game... Just holy fuck these stupid "game journalists", they should either find something legit to whine about or go to Africa, find an elephant, take its penis and shove it up their ass until they do (This goes for all games and not just Mario Kart)

None of these characters were created by a white person