[all cups played on 150cc]
While it’s not totally necessary, I’d still recommend reading my MK8DX review if you want to know my thoughts on the base game. It can be found here!
Back in 2022, Nintendo surprised everyone with the sudden announcement that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was getting more content, in the form of the Booster Course Pass! The game had been out for nearly five years by then, and had quickly become the best-selling title on the Switch, so I guess Nintendo finally wanted to capitalize on its success. Anyways, whilst initial reception to the BCP wasn’t great, it does seem like people came around on it as time went on. And now that I’ve played all 48 tracks for myself, what do I think?
Since the gameplay of the Booster Course Pass is basically identical to base Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I might as well start with the most contentious part of the DLC: the visuals. MK8DX had a very polished visual style, using fairly detailed textures to deliver some of the best graphics any Nintendo game’s ever had! By comparison, the tracks in the BCP don’t look anywhere near as good, as their texturing uses flat colours. This is presumably due to the courses being ported over from Mario Kart Tour, where the graphics had to be kept simple due to mobile phones not being as powerful as regular consoles.
Regardless, I think the tracks of the BCP can look nice! Their flatter textures combined with MK8DX’s gorgeous lighting system means that the colours really pop on occasion, and have a sense of vibrancy the base game usually didn’t have (which is fine, those original courses still look lovely).
Despite being ported over from a mobile game, a lot of the tracks are basically untouched in terms of gameplay! In fact, having them in MK8DX’s incredibly smooth engine means a lot of these end up being the definitive versions by default! I also really have to commend Nintendo for picking a lot of the fan favourites, which includes Coconut Mall, DK Mountain, Daisy Cruiser, Waluigi Pinball, 3DS and Wii Rainbow Road, DK Summit and a lot more!
To get more into specifics though, I really like how they handled the courses from Super Circuit. Whilst they’re not all winners (Sky Garden’s layout is really simplified and Sunset Wilds is missing the titular sunset), most of them are fantastic and reimagine these flat tracks with the same level of care as the 3D ones! Boo Lake now has underwater segments, Riverside Park’s got Ptooies and a beautiful sunset, and Snow Land’s atmosphere is lovely!
Since the BCP’s tracks are ported from Mario Kart Tour, it means that nearly all of the original tracks from that game also show up, and they’re… a mixed bag, honestly. The courses you’ll be seeing most often are the ones based on specific cities, which start (and occasionally end) each cup. Reimagining these real-life locations as race tracks is definitely an inspired idea, but their actual layouts can feel very haphazard and irritating to traverse. Despite this, a few of them are pretty fun, with my personal favourites being Sydney Sprint, Amsterdam Drift and Singapore Speedway.
Tour also had a few courses not based on cities, and they’re basically all here too! Whilst Sky-High Sundae and Merry Mountain aren’t the most exciting tracks in regards to their layouts, the rest are fantastic! Ninja Hideaway’s got tons of alternate routes, Squeaky Clean Sprint combines a brilliant concept with some really engaging track design, and Piranha Plant Cove’s an incredibly cool idea that has some fun underwater driving!
Before I get into the criticisms, I really want to highlight two courses in particular, which are some of my favourites in the entirety of MK8DX! The first of these is Bowser Castle 3, an incredible reimagining of a fairly good track from Super Mario Kart! It looks and sounds gorgeous, the unique layout of the original’s kept and expanded upon and it uses antigravity in some very creative ways!
The second course, and my favourite in the game, is a Tour original: Yoshi’s Island. While the layout might be simple and fairly easy, it more than makes up for that with all the fanservice to the game it’s based on! Stilt Guys are wandering around near the start, Poochy makes a cameo, you go through various locations based on the game’s level tropes, and there’s a super cool section near the end where you glide down and can hit a ?-Cloud which spawns a platform that lets you take a shortcut to the finish line!
Alright, now that all my gushing is out of the way, it’s time to critique a few things. For starters, it feels like Mario Kart Wii got a few too many tracks, as over half of it’s originals are present. They’re almost all still fun to race on, but it does feel like there was a bit of a bias towards that game in particular.
Another thing is that some of the choices were just… not very good. Toad Circuit and Mario Circuit 3 are the main ones, but I didn’t care much for Rock Rock Mountain or Rosalina’s Ice World either.
The final thing I’d like to mention is that basically none of the tracks take advantage of MK8DX’s signature antigravity. This might be due to them being ported from MK Tour (a game with no antigrav), but it’s still a bit disappointing. It’s not like the tracks don’t have any antigrav, but it’s never used to the same effect as the base game, and often feels a little bit pointless.
Regardless of the few nitpicks I had, I really liked the Booster Course Pass! The fact it essentially doubles the amount of content for not even half the price means it’s absolutely worth it, regardless of the iffy graphical quality. I think this is definitely going to be enough to hold me over until Mario Kart 9… which will be releasing eventually, maybe…
(oh yeah I had nowhere else to put this, but the new characters the BCP added are very cool, I’m so glad my boy Diddy Kong finally got in)
While it’s not totally necessary, I’d still recommend reading my MK8DX review if you want to know my thoughts on the base game. It can be found here!
Back in 2022, Nintendo surprised everyone with the sudden announcement that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was getting more content, in the form of the Booster Course Pass! The game had been out for nearly five years by then, and had quickly become the best-selling title on the Switch, so I guess Nintendo finally wanted to capitalize on its success. Anyways, whilst initial reception to the BCP wasn’t great, it does seem like people came around on it as time went on. And now that I’ve played all 48 tracks for myself, what do I think?
Since the gameplay of the Booster Course Pass is basically identical to base Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I might as well start with the most contentious part of the DLC: the visuals. MK8DX had a very polished visual style, using fairly detailed textures to deliver some of the best graphics any Nintendo game’s ever had! By comparison, the tracks in the BCP don’t look anywhere near as good, as their texturing uses flat colours. This is presumably due to the courses being ported over from Mario Kart Tour, where the graphics had to be kept simple due to mobile phones not being as powerful as regular consoles.
Regardless, I think the tracks of the BCP can look nice! Their flatter textures combined with MK8DX’s gorgeous lighting system means that the colours really pop on occasion, and have a sense of vibrancy the base game usually didn’t have (which is fine, those original courses still look lovely).
Despite being ported over from a mobile game, a lot of the tracks are basically untouched in terms of gameplay! In fact, having them in MK8DX’s incredibly smooth engine means a lot of these end up being the definitive versions by default! I also really have to commend Nintendo for picking a lot of the fan favourites, which includes Coconut Mall, DK Mountain, Daisy Cruiser, Waluigi Pinball, 3DS and Wii Rainbow Road, DK Summit and a lot more!
To get more into specifics though, I really like how they handled the courses from Super Circuit. Whilst they’re not all winners (Sky Garden’s layout is really simplified and Sunset Wilds is missing the titular sunset), most of them are fantastic and reimagine these flat tracks with the same level of care as the 3D ones! Boo Lake now has underwater segments, Riverside Park’s got Ptooies and a beautiful sunset, and Snow Land’s atmosphere is lovely!
Since the BCP’s tracks are ported from Mario Kart Tour, it means that nearly all of the original tracks from that game also show up, and they’re… a mixed bag, honestly. The courses you’ll be seeing most often are the ones based on specific cities, which start (and occasionally end) each cup. Reimagining these real-life locations as race tracks is definitely an inspired idea, but their actual layouts can feel very haphazard and irritating to traverse. Despite this, a few of them are pretty fun, with my personal favourites being Sydney Sprint, Amsterdam Drift and Singapore Speedway.
Tour also had a few courses not based on cities, and they’re basically all here too! Whilst Sky-High Sundae and Merry Mountain aren’t the most exciting tracks in regards to their layouts, the rest are fantastic! Ninja Hideaway’s got tons of alternate routes, Squeaky Clean Sprint combines a brilliant concept with some really engaging track design, and Piranha Plant Cove’s an incredibly cool idea that has some fun underwater driving!
Before I get into the criticisms, I really want to highlight two courses in particular, which are some of my favourites in the entirety of MK8DX! The first of these is Bowser Castle 3, an incredible reimagining of a fairly good track from Super Mario Kart! It looks and sounds gorgeous, the unique layout of the original’s kept and expanded upon and it uses antigravity in some very creative ways!
The second course, and my favourite in the game, is a Tour original: Yoshi’s Island. While the layout might be simple and fairly easy, it more than makes up for that with all the fanservice to the game it’s based on! Stilt Guys are wandering around near the start, Poochy makes a cameo, you go through various locations based on the game’s level tropes, and there’s a super cool section near the end where you glide down and can hit a ?-Cloud which spawns a platform that lets you take a shortcut to the finish line!
Alright, now that all my gushing is out of the way, it’s time to critique a few things. For starters, it feels like Mario Kart Wii got a few too many tracks, as over half of it’s originals are present. They’re almost all still fun to race on, but it does feel like there was a bit of a bias towards that game in particular.
Another thing is that some of the choices were just… not very good. Toad Circuit and Mario Circuit 3 are the main ones, but I didn’t care much for Rock Rock Mountain or Rosalina’s Ice World either.
The final thing I’d like to mention is that basically none of the tracks take advantage of MK8DX’s signature antigravity. This might be due to them being ported from MK Tour (a game with no antigrav), but it’s still a bit disappointing. It’s not like the tracks don’t have any antigrav, but it’s never used to the same effect as the base game, and often feels a little bit pointless.
Regardless of the few nitpicks I had, I really liked the Booster Course Pass! The fact it essentially doubles the amount of content for not even half the price means it’s absolutely worth it, regardless of the iffy graphical quality. I think this is definitely going to be enough to hold me over until Mario Kart 9… which will be releasing eventually, maybe…
(oh yeah I had nowhere else to put this, but the new characters the BCP added are very cool, I’m so glad my boy Diddy Kong finally got in)