So you would ONLY going to be playing 8 player battle mode were that an option, eh? There ARE many other multiplayer modes, plus I doubt you're ever going to have 2 TV's, 2 Gamecubes, 2 broadband adaptors, 2 copies of the game, 8 controllers and 7 friends in one place often enough to ever get the functionality out of that. And even if you DO, you can still play normal races, with twice as many people no less.