Nintendo announced at the latest Nintendo Direct that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be receiving several new courses in the future thanks to DLC. While not the Mario Kart 9 announcement that several had been expecting, it is still big news for fans of the series. This expansion will provide Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with plenty of new content to excite fans.
The Booster Course Pass DLC will release six waves of new tracks, with each wave introducing two new cups. With each cup introducing four tracks each, the game will have added 48 new tracks by the end of the pass. With releases scheduled through 2023, the game will be seeing regular updates over the course of two years, periodically adding new tracks. Considering that Mario Kart 8 went two years without updates until recently, this new expansion coming so quickly afterward is a pleasant surprise.
This is the most expansive long-term DLC plan that a Nintendo property has received since Super Smash Bros Ultimate's Fighter passes, and it shows that Nintendo considers Mario Kart to be one of its priority franchises. With Mario Kart 8 Deluxe already being the most expansive game in the series with the possible exception of the mobile-only Mario Kart Tour, the end result is going to be a truly massive racing game. The final product may be comparable to Super Smash Bros Ultimate in another sense, containing the best from across the series' history. Although some argue that Mario Kart should only feature new tracks, there is no denying that retro tracks are a big draw for players, and the Booster Course Pass is providing those in spades.
Mario Kart 8's Booster Pass Will Bring It To 96 Courses Total
At the time of writing, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has 48 tracks. 32 were in the base game, while 16 more were DLC for the Wii U version that were free with the base game. Once everything in the Booster Course Pass has been added, the game's course count will be doubled to 96. That is even more courses than Mario Kart Tour. Although the courses will be slowly trickling in over the next two years, the sheer amount of new content that this will bring to the game is astounding. Mario Kart's fanbase is very dedicated, with a new SNES Rainbow Road record recently being celebrated, and the new tracks will surely provide a welcome challenge.
Most of the courses from the Booster Course Pass are going to be remastered versions of classic tracks, with one of the tracks in the first wave being the fan favorite Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii. With this revelation, there is plenty of hope that a lot of the DLC will be devoted to adding popular tracks from past games that didn't make the initial cut into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Another point of excitement is that some tracks that were previously exclusive to Mario Kart Tour will be included in the DLC as well, with the first wave including Paris Promenade, Tokyo Blur, and Ninja Hideaway. Thanks to Mario Kart Tour's habit of basing courses on real-world locations, such as the recent Sydney track on the Australia tour, this is the first time that real-world locations will be featured in a mainline Mario Kart title.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already one of the series' biggest titles, and the Booster Course Pass will really make it live up to the "Deluxe" part of its title. As the biggest Mario Kart yet, it will surely keep players satisfied as they wait for the next installment. With a final count of 96 courses, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will sit proudly as the series' biggest title to date.