Nintendo racing fans are in luck because a whopping 48 additional courses from throughout the gaming company’s huge franchise is coming as a new downloadable content for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, dubbed the “Booster Course Pass.”
The game was originally released on the Wii U back in 2014, but its re-release on the Switch in 2017 breathed new life into the title and it continues to be a best-selling game on the platform to this day.
Though some fans may have been hoping for a Mario Kart 9 announcement at Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct, it’s still a welcome sight to see an entire game’s worth of levels — albeit from past games — coming to what many consider to be the ultimate Mario Kart experience. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
Eight courses will be rolled out at a time over six waves, with all waves expected to be available to download by the end of 2023.
According to the announcement, that will include levels from SNES’ Super Mario Kart, Game Boy Advance’s Mario Kart Super Circuit, GameCube’s Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, 3DS’ Mario Kart 7, and the mobile title Mario Kart Tour.
Sure, it’s not a full-blown next installment, but any excuse to fire up the family-friendly title puts a smile on our face.
The “Booster Course Pass” is available for $24.99 as a stand-alone purchase, with the first wave of eight courses to be on March 18, including Wii’s “Coconut Mall,” N64’s “Choco Mountain,” and Tour‘s “Tokyo Blur.” However, subscribers of Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, a paid service that already includes access to Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games, can receive the new levels at no extra cost. The courses will be available to play both locally and online, with pre-orders starting Wednesday.