At last week's Nintendo Direct, plenty of surprises were announced including Booster Course Pass DLC a brand new set of DLC tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which - as far as surprises go - is the easiest route for Nintendo to have chosen, but a smart one for the company. The news of these tracks was especially surprising because there had just been a recent announcement that Mario Kart 9 was in development, and fans were surprised to see the only Mario Kart news at the event focused exclusively on the old game. It feels hard to complain when Nintendo’s offering so much new content, but while it's a business-savvy move for Nintendo, it’s not Mario Kart 9 and feels like the laziest possible effort that Nintendo could have made.

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass DLC (quite a mouthful!) features 48 tracks from throughout the history of Mario Kart. For a one-time cost of $24.99 - or at no additional cost for players that own the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership - players are entitled to all four dozen tracks as they release. The tracks will be released in six waves, with the first wave of tracks coming in March and the final wave coming at the end of 2023. Confirmed additional tracks in Mario Kart 8's first Booster wave include Toad Circuit from Mario Kart DS, Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64, and the Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii.

Related: Mario Kart 8 Highlights Nintendo's Roster Problem

This is a lot of additional content for an extremely popular game, but the disappointment is that many were really anticipating a Mario Kart 9 announcement by Nintendo. In fact, in the weeks leading up to the event, numerous leaks had led fans to believe that a Mario Kart 9 reveal would be part of February's Direct. The rumor mill seemed to think that such a game would turn out to be a sort of Mario Kart "Ultimate", following in the vein of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Smash Ultimate included all 74 past Super Smash Bros. fighters as well as almost every stage from the past decade of Super Smash Bros. entries. What the release of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course DLC Pack shows is that Nintendo had a truly ridiculous number of legacy Mario Kart tracks at the ready to build into a new experience, but instead, Nintendo chose to support this existing game.

Nintendo Takes A Shortcut With Mario Kart 8 DLC

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Pass DLC is a genius move for Nintendo but a lazy one.

The laziness of Nintendo's move becomes almost overt when factoring in that this is the third time that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is being expanded upon. Mario Kart 8 was released as a Wii U game first in 2014, which, to be fair, didn’t see as much action as it could have because of the poor sales of the Wii U. In 2017 Nintendo released the enhanced version of the game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for Nintendo Switch. 5 years later, players are essentially getting a third version of this same game. It feels like Nintendo is taking a page out of Rockstar’s handbook, which continues to support and re-release GTA 5, 9 years after its initial release, with a 3rd version of the game coming out for next-gen consoles (and GTA’s third console generation since launch) later this year. This strategy could be a misfire for them, as fans aren’t too pleased that this all means Rockstar is in no rush to get GTA 6 out any time soon and likely means the same with Nintendo, Mario Kart 9's release date won't be soon either.

This is a huge level of support for a beloved game, but taking a closer a closer look at the tracks, concerns about the quality and effort with which these new additions were treated is coming under scrutiny. Fans quickly took to Twitter to point out the smooth, under-detailed textures to the DLC race track’s environments that don’t quite match ups to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s initial lineup of racetracks. The game's original roster of courses brought a heightened level of details to the tracks that had not been seen before in a Mario Kart game, and the DLC's additional levels don’t appear to have been upscaled to the quality of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at all.

Mario Kart 8 DLC is For Great For Nintendo But Not For Fans

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Pass DLC is a genius move for Nintendo but a lazy one.

While players may be dubious of the amount of effort put into this expansion by Nintendo, from Nintendo’s perspective, it’s an absolutely genius move. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling racing game in US history, with over 43 million copies sold to date. As far as Nintendo sees, that’s 43 Million people that will either pay $25 to get the new tracks or become new subscribers to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Making it available for Expansion Pack owners also incentives sales of that service, which already supports DLC for Animal Crossing and entitles the service's subscribers to select DLCs for games moving forward. With the additional Mario Kart 8 Deluxe offerings, Nintendo both extends the longevity of a game that is several years old, pulls more money out of the game’s existing players, and even potentially reels in new players with the legacy tracks as nostalgia bait.

Related:  Why Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Is Getting DLC Instead Of MK 9 Releasing

The incremental release strategy that Nintendo has chosen for the Booster Curse Pass DLC mirrors the waved releases of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighter Pass, which released in 2 volumes valued at $24.99 each and brought 11 new fighters to the game over a three-year period. This process had fans eagerly anticipating Nintendo Direct showcases and seeing what new character to experience would be joining the fight. It was often enjoyable to see what hopes might come true, especially when a fan-favorite character came to the game. Nintendo just released the final DLC character for Super Smash Bros. on October 18, 2021, and it seems like the new wave of incremental releases for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is meant to create a fresh hype cycle now that the Fighter Passes are complete.

The path that Nintendo chose is absolutely a win-win for the company. It gets to rake in more money without the cost of creating any brand-new content, all while appearing to be dedicated to offering fans more experiences while it continues to hold off on delivering a new game. There is fortunate news, however, that players will have the opportunity to play the DLC courses without buying the Booster Pack, at least online. Considering the new DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be releasing periodically through 2023, it now seems the chances of a sequel coming any time soon are slim, and it will be interesting to see what path Mario Kart 9 takes now that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has become the "Ultimate" experience that fans were anticipating from a future game. At least for those hungry for additional Mario Kart content, there’s no shortage for the foreseeable future, but only one question truly remains: will Mario Kart 8 ever get a Double Dash mode?

Next: Mario Kart 8's Booster Course Pack Is Basically MK9

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC's first wave of tracks launches on March 18.

Source: Twitter