Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 1 Switch Review
With so many rumours swirling around the Internet about Mario Kart 9 being announced soon, I think it was safe to say that people expected Nintendo to announce this in their February 2022 Nintendo Direct. Instead, what I believe shocked fans was the fact that Nintendo announced in that Direct that they were bringing downloadable content to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch’s most popular game, and one that has been in its library since a month after the console launched. This is something I expected to see back when the Deluxe version of Mario Kart 8 launched in 2017. While it had minimal changes from the Wii U version, I was thinking that Nintendo would extend the game’s life by supporting it with additional content. That never happened… until now. I sure did not think this would be happening at the start of 2022 – it is a crazy world we live in, but maybe this is a sign that the Switch’s successor is not coming just yet since the Switch itself is still selling millions.
The downloadable content is dubbed the Booster Course Pass and is split into six release waves throughout 2022 into 2023. The whole package is a rather generous offer, as what you get for £22.49 is access to 48 new tracks split across 12 new cups. These tracks are not original creations, but remastered courses from previous games. It seems every Mario Kart is on the table, which is exciting to see what might appear in the future. Within the first wave of content, we have tracks returning from Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart Tour, Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart Wii. This means that no doubt some of your favourite tracks will be hitting the game at some point in the future.
One thing to note is that the texture detail of these tracks are not on the same terms as the ones that were featured in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This is because most of them are taken from the mobile game, Mario Kart Tour, which featured a more cartoonish style than the Switch entry. Coconut Mall and Shroom Ridge seem to be built from their respected platforms, as these do not appear in Mario Kart Tour, but again, do not touch the amazing presentation of the main tracks. That said, I actually think some of the tracks suit this style because it makes them reminiscent of the games they have come from, making you know these are retro. There is something clean and simple about the style used that gels well with the game. At the end of it all, this still plays like Mario Kart 8, which means it is a brilliant game. These retro tracks have some tiny tweaks to them, but nothing out of the ordinary. You will use the glider occasionally over jumps, but the anti-gravity mechanics are nowhere to be found here. This is mostly sticking to its classic roots.
The Golden Dash Cup is made up of four tracks from four different Mario Kart titles. These are Paris Promenade (Tour), Toad Circuit (3DS), Choco Mountain (N64) and Coconut Mall (Wii).
Paris Promenade (Mario Kart Tour)
Having never played Mario Kart Tour, I had no idea how the tracks were for the mobile game. Paris Promenade starts the first wave off strong. This is a combination of all three Paris Promenade variants from Mario Kart Tour, offering multiple routes to take, even switching the course for its final lap to make the track different from the previous two laps. It is one of the better courses in this pack and looks the best due to the colour and thematic Paris feeling it gives off. The music is rather nice as well. Out of all the tracks in the game, the Tour tracks are the ones that seem to be doing the most exciting things with the map design, as you will see with Tokyo Blur and Ninja Hideaway.
Toad Circuit (Mario Kart 7)
Toad Circuit feels like it should have been the first track in the Golden Dash Cup since it is based on the first track in Mario Kart 7. There is nothing wrong with the conversation, it looks clean and colourful, but in essence, this is a tutorial track. This is a simple design to get people new into the game, but feels like a wasted slot for downloadable content because fans already know the gliding mechanics, so why was this selected? At least make it the first course in the cup, because right now it seems such a contrast in design from the dynamic Paris Promenade into something so bare-bones. Toad Circuit is the weakest track in the first wave.
Choco Mountain (Mario Kart 64)
A classic from Mario Kart 64, Choco Mountain returns looking sharp and better than ever, but seems to have lost its danger since its 1997 release? I’m not sure if it has been enlarged to fit in more karts, but it felt so easy to dodge the dangers in this release. It ends up losing some of its personality because of that issue.
Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii)
Coconut Mail…probably the best track in Mario Kart Wii? It made a shopping centre the pinnacle of exciting racing. Make sure you pick the right escalator or be prepared to be left in the dust by everyone who did. Coconut Mail has a nice flow to its lap, and I’m happy to see it return, it certainly deserves to be brought into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, now with added glider jump, to close off the Golden Dash Cup. This track has been given some added cosmetics since its reappearance in Mario Kart 7‘s retro tracklist as if the mall has been reborn to welcome racers for a chaotic time.
The Lucky Cat Cup is made up of four tracks from three different Mario Kart titles. These are Tokyo Blur (Tour), Shroom Ridge (3DS), Sky Garden (GBA) and Ninja Hideaway (Tour).
Tokyo Blur (Mario Kart Tour)
Another solid cup opener. As with Paris Promenade, Tokyo Blur follows the same principle by making each lap one of the variants from Mario Kart Tour. This means that each lap is different, visiting such landmarks as the Rainbow bridge, the Tokyo Skytree and Asahi Beer Hall, to bring Tokyo to life with a bright and colourful glee. The layout is more straightforward than Paris Promenade, and I feel they could have thrown in some of the Tokyo Express for some added traffic danger.
Shroom Ridge (Mario Kart 7)
Ah, so this is where the traffic from Tokyo Blur went to. While the design itself is straightforward, the dangers of traffic are what gives this track character. The opening of the cliffside towards the end of the traffic makes for a nice place to knock off opponents in between the direction signs. As with Coconut Mall, the lack of this track being in Mario Kart Tour means it has been given some visual tweaks, such as fog in the forest area. The track is slightly easier too because both lanes of traffic are going the same direction as the racers, rather than one side coming towards them.
Sky Garden (Mario Kart: Super Circuit)
The third track in the Lucky Cat Cup is the one with the biggest changes from the original simply due to the fact that the GBA courses were flat, but this has been given some elevation towards the end, with a jump leading down to the start line. The layout is another one that is straightforward and short, with a few turns that can spawn off shortcuts. It is these shortcuts over the leaves that give it flavour. This should probably be the first race in the Lucky Cat Cup rather than Tokyo Blur due to its simplicity.
Ninja Hideaway (Mario Kart Tour)
It seems Nintendo was saving the best till last, and once again it is content from Mario Kart Tour that stands out (it helps that I did not play it). This is the first wave’s most complicated track design. Ninja Hideaway is a busy track to understand what is going on when you first visit this colourful housing, and very tricky to find the best route. Unlike the last two tracks from the mobile game, this one is the same design for each lap, but a lap has multiple routes, which made it hard to see where I could go. You can glide into the rafters of the castle, go under the stairs, drive on top of multiple levels of the roofs or visit a trip to the sewers. This is the only track where I felt it would take a few races to find the ideal route. A banging closure for the first group of downloadable content.
The selection for Booster Course Pass Wave 1 shows that Nintendo is happy to throw in a variety of tracks, no matter how simple or complex they are, from any Mario Kart game. This is great news because there is still another 40 tracks to come. I might be a little biased with future content wishlists because I’d like them to keep adding all the Tour tracks that currently do not exist in any other game. This is simply for the fact that I know once a mobile game dies, there is no way to play all that content, and from what I have played in this DLC, it is fair to say that the track designs range from solid to brilliant when it comes to Mario Kart Tour.
It is a promising start for this huge expansion, with a varied selection of tracks, some straightforward, some complex. It does seem weird the order they are in when it comes to the cup progression, and I do question why we need tracks that are designed as openers in the old games. If Booster Course Pass Wave 1 is the opener, I’d imagine as we get further into the release schedule, those selected will begin to showcase the bigger, larger and more complex tracks, and that makes me stoked. The expansion itself is easily worth it for Mario Kart fans. We are talking about doubling the number of tracks that were in the original Mario Kart 8 Deluxe release, meaning that we get to experience the fantastic Mario Kart 8 gameplay across a whole game worth of new tracks. With the price being as cheap as it is, it is a no brainer that Mario Kart fans should pick this up. A good first wave, so let’s see what Booster Course Pass Wave 2 brings.
