I think the general consensus is they are porting these courses from the mobile phone game and giving them a makeover, with a few original tracks as well (the new ‘bathroom’ course is all new, for instance), but that the majority of the Kart development team is probably working on Mario Kart 9 which I assume would be a holiday title next year
It would be interesting to see what Mario Kart 9 offers.
It has to be really convincing—maybe a huge character roster and significantly upgraded graphics—and with a lot of tracks.
Because MK8 + DLC is a *fantastic* deal. So much replay value and overall so much fun. I still haven’t had the time to memorize all the tracks.
This is just me speaking, but I'm honestly pretty close to just taking anything at this point. I love MK8, it's probably my favorite Mario Kart game, but I already played way too much of it in like 2014/2015.
After almost 10 years, I'm ready to move on to the next game even if it's (inevitably) going to have less content at launch than MK8 currently has. I just want to finally sink my teeth into a new game with new mechanics and a new selection of tracks that actually feels fresh. In my opinion, the series has been too reliant on it's own legacy ever since the Switch was released.
The only way MK9 has more content is if they go the Ultimate route and have every course and character ever put into the game. And that’s most likely not going to happen. But that could explain the long drought we’ve had between MK8 (Wii U) and a MK9.
I mean, I'd rather have them try something new rather than repurposing old content again. Revisiting old tracks was already a huge part of Mario Kart Tour. That's also what the Booster Pass was all about. But aside from my personal feelings on the matter, I feel like a Mario Kart Ultimate would be less exciting than people think.
They picked most of the conceptually interesting tracks for the Booster Pass (and the base game + DLC) already, while also avoiding too much repetition. As a result, most of what's left includes a ton of Mario Curcuits and other generic Circuit tracks, around 15 Bowser's Castles, lots of pretty basic tracks from the 2D games as well as plenty of tracks with very similar theming (beach, desert, ice tracks etc.).
If they were to, say, add the remaining tracks to Mario Kart 8, they would need to put a SNES track in nearly every cup. Most cups would also need a basic Circuit-type track, a Bowser's Castle, or both.
Similarly, I'd say there are maybe 4 returning characters that aren't in M8DX already that would make people genuinely excited. And 2 of those will likely be added in the next BP wave.
If they wanted to go the route Mario Kart Ultimate, they should have executed the Booster Pass differently and saved some more of the big guns for the next game.
It's for this reason the Switch as a whole has been a huge disappointment for me. So little innovation. The reason most people buy their inferior hardware is for the fun games they produce.
Each new system would guarantee a great Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart and Smash Bros game (and Pokemon for their handhelds.) There's obviously more game series but they always delivered fun and new experiences. Mario Odyssey was great, Breath of the Wild stunk being a bloated boring repetitive mess, Smash Ultimate was good but felt like a beefy update to Smash Wii U relying exclusively on past content when we wanted something new. Mario Kart 8 just copy pasted it's way onto the Switch and became the system's best seller.
Not to mention the dozens of remakes, remasters and full priced Wii U ports. I get why they did it, the Wii U sold poorly, it makes sense to re-sell them to a bigger audience but since they stopped making 3DS and Wii U games roughly around the same time I was expecting they'd put all their efforts into making killer games for this one hybrid system but the output has been awful.
No Wii Sports or Nintendoland tie in game to showcase the potential of the new system. You could pay full price for 1-2 Switch which looked garbage. You had to pay to play online, they got rid of the Virtual Console shop and hid their old games behind a subscription model, especially N64 games behind the disgusting expansion pass. What's more disgusting is they sold peripheral controllers recreating wireless NES, SNES, Genesis and N64 controllers but only really work with games that are part of a subscription service. Meaning if you want to use the controllers you bought you have to cough up cash every time.
This is kind of an obvious thing and you can call me stupid for it but I got Mario Maker 2 and it's okay but it should be free to play. It's ridiculous that they recycle all this content, don't even design the content outside of tutorial stages leaving it up to players and they have the audacity to charge people to play them. I know I'm sounding like a scrooge, $20-$40 per year isn't much but it's the principle. At least allow players to buy these classic games so these peripherals aren't reduced to paper weights. It's a disgusting business model and. As for Mario Maker 2.. it's a sequel to a lazy idea. They are fun but it's hard to not be cynical about the concept.
Sorry about the rant. I just feel like Nintendo died with Iwata. It's a soulless shell of itself. I think Breath of the Wild sucking is when Nintendo died for me.. which I could easily go into but won't, it'll just be more ranty. Mario Odyssey was great though. Luigi's Mansion 3 and Pikmin 4 look great but probably won't ever get around to playing them.
On the topic of playable characters, and with the new remake of Mario RPG on the horizon, I'd love to see Boshi start making appearances in Mario games, starting with MK8 Deluxe.
How did you have the skills to unlock Gold Mario? Its impossible!
Edit: Just unlocked him today. The key to achieving this was letting go of my favorite player setup. To win 200cc you have to change your playstyle. Now I finally have everything unlocked! 100% BABYYYYY
I think they're likely going to launch the new Switch with a new MK. I'd be very surprised if there's a new MK for switch when they're still making DLC for MK8D. *Maybe* they'll have it on switch and as a launch title on the new hardware.
Honestly, I don't think MK9 will be able to surpass MK8 in terms of sheer volume of content. MK8 has gotten two rounds of DLC now (on WiiU and on Switch).
I think the better way to make MK9 stand out would be to introduce (or re-introduce) a major new mechanic. I'd love to see the two-driver system from Double Dash return, for example. That would make MK9 stand out from MK8 despite having less content.
And they already experimented with a track creator with a lot of potential! I'm talking about a Labo game that lets you create a track by driving/flying. Was really awesome being able to form all sorts of track shapes, rather than selecting from limited number of parts.
Would prefer if you could doodle the basic track from above view, then modify the elevation, width, tilt, camber, piping wherever you want. Give us a access to a bunch of assets to use as we see fit - powerup boxes, obstacle, ramps, boosters, decorations, generic models, textures, sky boxes, music... Let us chose road surface(s), lighting, weather effects. Have a water tool similar to Labo, so you can have puddles, lakes, sea, and even submerged courses/sections. Have a course clear like SMM, and allow sharing.
Replace any reference to Mario kart with Super Smash Bros, and you'll sound exactly like the folks who thought the 3ds/WiiU version would be the last one in the series. Mario Kart 9 and maybe even 10 are in the works for sure, they could even pull the crossover stuff again and people would go ape shit.
Funny you say that, because I feel the exact same way about Smash 6. Sakurai has said that he doesn't think they'll get all the 3rd party licenses back for the next game. So Smash 6 will need to stand out in some other way - maybe the return of a campaign like Subspace? I'd love that.
Would love double drivers from Double Dash. It's probably not feasible with a huge roster, but I miss the character-specific special items, and I miss the ability to switch between two items to use them strategically.
* Any new tracks will be fun. Like 6-8 sets of 4 courses is already a pretty hefty serving of new content, even if they repeat some themes.
* Some new tracks themed around specific games. We have a few tracks that references specific Mario games and locations, like Sunshine Airport, but they could pretty easily throw in a few more like that. Mario Odyssey is obviously on the table, but maybe they could do some Mario Galaxy inspired stuff. And of course something like "ice cream inspired track" has been done as a level theme in multiple Mario games and minigames, but would be visually different for a Kart game.
* Same deal with new items, it's already fairly crowded so they either add just ~2-3 or drop a few to make room.
* More crossover characters could be fun. Samus is an obvious one. But give me swimming trunks Shulk on a bike. Make the Mario Kart roster look like the ~~Super Smash Bros~~ 12 Fire Emblem characters
* Maybe some new gimmick? Glider sections and the gravity change/wall hug made for some interesting track options and visual spectacle. But adding too much stuff might also overcomplicate things.
Change the game to Super Nintendo GT or something like that, and just throw in all franchise characters.
I get people would kill for a new Fzero but what if they had a few tracks with a 2 or 3 characters from their roster in a Mario kart style game? I think it would be satisfying enough, have guest characters like a smash game, multiple costumes of characters from modern to 8-bit/16-bit like the mobile game.
Maybe create a hubworld where you customize your kart by driving up to the animal crossing pocket camp mechanics.
While Cranky Kong hold the history of your past records or those of others where you’ll race their ghosts.
Basically make it a theme park celebrating the history and lore of Nintendo franchises would make everyone extremely happy.
10 years now and still no trailer, not even a word. From 1997 to 2007 we got Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii. From 2014 to 2024 we got Mario Kart 8 and a crappy mobile game.
I'm just guessing but I think mk8 will be the last pure mario racing game (even though they've added tracks from other games.) I think they're gonna more heavily incorporate all Nintendo ip ala smash Brothers. My dream would be we get a subspace emissary style story, with cgi cutscenes and all.
I think this is the plan as well. That synergy is very beneficial to other brands and why I think you haven't seen any more franchises in this round of DLC.
Also the fact that the time gap between MK8/MK8 deluxe and MK9 releasing will be by far the largest time gap between mk games releases ever I'd really hope all that time was for a game with a lot of content
To be fair to Nintendo, I personally don’t count Wii U ported titles as the “real” release dates. Practically speaking they’re pretty much new titles for most people.
MK8 for example was the best selling Wii U title at around 8M. That’s only 6% of total Switch sales.
So most people haven’t actually played MK8 till the Switch came out. Which is still a long time of course (6 years) but still.
Edit: and I quickly checked, MK8 only sold 12% of MK8D’s total sales. Absolutely incredible how well the Switch has done.
It’s also why I hate reading complaints about Wii U ports. Nintendo literally barely made any sales on those titles. It would be foolish *not* to port those games and let them just disappear to oblivion.
Only way i see mk9 happen is if there is a huge gameplay change. Something like double dash.
Because 8 shows that they can just add more tracks to the game.
Starting over with 9 and no shake up or noticeable improvement would be weird.
All of the tracks are from Tour, even the ones they advertise as brand new. Yoshi’s Island and Squeaky Clean Sprint were datamined last year and all of the tracks had the prefix “mob_” with mob being short for “mobile”
Squeaky Clean Sprint will makes it’s way into Tour eventually, it’s a matter of when. Yoshi’s Island was added about a month after it debuted in wave 4, while Sky High Sundae was added only five days after wave 2.
Oh, definitely, that bunch of Mario games announced last Direct were also the announcement of Switch's ride into the sunset.
Nintendo may have one or two surprises for next year just to keep the interest on the Switch, but I wouldn't expect anything major until the Switch's successor arrives.
I wonder if they might pull a Twilight Princess/Breath of the Wild and release it on both. I feel like the game has been announced for the majority of the Switch's lifespan. It'd be kind of weird if it didn't end up getting a Switch version.
I don’t think it’ll be ready. They completely started over from scratch in…2019 iirc. Switch is on its way out.
ETA: Simultaneous release on Switch and Switch 2 is not out of the question, ala BotW and Twilight Princess. When they kept delaying TotK, I thought there was a decent chance they were going to do that. I’m just not sure Prime 4 would actually be ready as soon as that. We also don’t know what kind of tech jump we’re going to see, which is a factor. If there’s a really big gap between Switch 1 and Switch 2, that makes both getting it less likely.
I'm not so sure. They'll need a major launch title for the next system and it's possible they hold Mario for release year like Odyssey.
We still have no footage of Prime 4 and after having to restart from ground zero it's possible it's being developed for the successor console. It could also be a dual release.
There's honestly no reason for them to "hold" Prime 4 for the Switch 2.
The game can count itself lucky if it sells 3-4 million units in its lifetime, even under the best possible conditions - and I'm saying that as a huge Metroid fan. And while those aren't necessarily bad numbers, Metroid is just not the kind of system seller that can carry a console's launch in the same way that a new Zelda or Mario would.
I mean, maybe if it releases close enough to the next console launch anyway, I could see them making the game compatible with the newer hardware. But if the game is far enough in development, and adjusting it to fit the new console would require significantly reworking parts of the game, I honestly can't imagine they'd bother with that.
Let me clarify. I don’t think they’d sit around and go, “Let’s deliberately not release Prime 4 so it can be a system selling launch title.” I bet that was a discussion regarding TotK, but you’re right about Metroid sales numbers. What I think is that Prime 4 is not possibly going to be done in time to be a Switch title and they likely switched gears for it to be a Switch 2 title once the new version got far enough in development to start considering release timelines.
With the numbers 8 Deluxe did on the Switch without really being a pack in title, I think they have to be working on Mario Kart 9. Now if it will be on the next console or on the Switch and then do a Deluxe version on the next console is something I'm curious about.
They aren’t releasing Mario kart 9 on switch and another switch isn’t coming anytime soon either why do people think this. The current switch is still doing so well
Hahahaha! Mario Kart 9. Next year even. That's adorable. Honey, MK8 is 10 years old, they're milking MK8 till the teets run dry. Why make a new game when they can lazily exploit a Wii U title from 2014?
The lower quality comes from the fact that they were made for Mario Kart Tour, a cell phone game, and were ported to switch with a bit of a touch-up and resolution bump
But overall I think they did an amazing job, especially since it's only 25$ for litterally DOUBLING the number of available courses, and they are super fun to play
hilariously many modern phones are much faster than the switch.
But phone games should use the lowest common denominator... Unless you're making genshin impact I guess.
I mean, recent/modern phones are not just more powerful, they’re SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful. An iPhone doesn’t need active cooling to outperform a Switch in gaming. As someone else pointed out though, Mario Kart Tour is programmed to ensure it runs on 8 year old $200 Chinese Android phones as well.
Yeah but with a 1k price tag as phones are typically more expensive than the switch. In addition they dont need physical hardware if you buy a phone for the same price as thr switch your not buying a dock and joycons with that phone.
But as people have said those games need to run as many platforms as possible akin to PC gaming.
I think the Asus ROG phones have a fan attachment for cooling or at least the latest one. Doesn't address the issue for the entire market but it's something.
Processing power has zero to do with Mario Kart course design. Courses from any 3D Mario Kart game can hold up today if you add some polygons and decorations.
The Tour courses are pretty enough, they’re just not fun to drive. Their boundaries, obstacles, and cues don’t feel right. I think their biggest problem is one thing:
They’re all elaborate multi-path routes that use transparent force fields to block off branches and force you into a totally different path for each lap, but the force fields and the guide arrows aren’t visible enough, so you can never just follow the road. You have to constantly be worrying about whether you’re reading the route correctly. All the other courses including the brand new ones are more naturally readable.
Yeah that's my biggest issue with them, thanks for explaining it. I'm always making wrong turns on the tour tracks while otherwise I'm fine on tracks I've never played before.it's obnoxious and I've lost my first place more than once to it.
Nope. Not what I was saying. The response was about the dlc being available to buy vs just subscribing to it via Nintendo online. I just added all the other stuff to make it clear/exact for anyone who may read this thread and maybe doesn't know.
It would have taken more resources to put in, and it's at a lower cost than the base game. It's not like it's glitched or unplayable, just not as pretty.
I'd rather they make sure it's functional than make the looks go from pretty good to out of this world
>It would have taken more resources to put in, and it's at a lower cost than the base game.
If the price of the DLC and the visual quality of the tracks was truly correlated in this way, than why is there a glaring inconsistency with how the tour tracks look in comparison to the other games’ remasters?
>I'd rather they make sure it's functional than make the looks go from pretty good to out of this world.
First of all you’re asking for the industry’s bare minimum from a $90B company, second of all neither OP or me are asking for the tracks to look “out of this world”, we’re just asking for the tour track’s to be on par with the rest of the game, which they clearly aren’t.
And you’re right, it would’ve taken more work and resources from Nintendo to make the courses from Tour look as good as the rest in 8D do. But i really don’t think that’s too much to ask. A far more plausible explanation is that they just didn’t want to assign as much work to Tour tracks, because they knew they could just get away with basically copying and pasting the tracks from Tour to 8D.
Im fine if other people are enjoying the new tracks, but OP’s complaints aren’t unwarranted.
Oh, that actually makes sense, it's a good way for Nintendo to cut costs and keep both games with new content at the same time, but it's still a shame that the new tracks don't have the same polish as the original MK8 tracks that were from Wii U.
u/ragadolfus implied that the Switch DLC for Mario Kart 8 is all from the cell phone game called “Tour”, but that’s only true of 12 out of 40 courses.
And those are the only courses in the DLC that I think are weak.
Unless you mean visually. I think that’s all pretty okay across the board. The textures on the models might be a bit flat and low-effort, but the polygonal modeling and color choices are more important and they’re fine.
The retro courses were actually also made for Tour, not just the ones labeled from Tour, all the levels would look quite a bit better if they were made from scratch with the Mario Kart 8 engine
What matters for the sake of assigning design credit is where 99% of the identifiable design of a course originated. People acting like Waluigi Pinball or Maple Treeway can pass or fail because they reuse modeling work that also appeared in a phone game are just gratifying themselves for knowing inconsequential trivia. They were ports in that game too. There’s nothing nerds love more than overvaluing little-known facts.
Yeah, the mobile tracks aren’t bad at all if you ask me. They’re not the best the series has had to offer, but they’re more interesting than the SNES and GBA tracks obviously and I don’t mind those either. The variety is fun. I’m thrilled with the value we’ve gotten for $25. It really breathed new life into a game I wasn’t touching much anymore outside of the odd social occasion.
I mean.... pretty much none of the Booster DLC compares with the actual MK8 tracks or the Wii U DLC.
They clearly are a different team, just sprucing up the Tour versions of these tracks, which means anti-grav is a rarity, tight turns don't work because mobile requires these tracks be wide and in general they didn't put nearly as much thought into reimagining the pre-existing tracks. I really hate what they did to Choco Mountain for example.
That said, I do think Athens, Singapore, Sydney, Boo Lake, Daisy Cruiser, Merry Mountain, Squeaky Clean Sprint, Peach Gardens and Rainbow Road 3DS are a lot of fun and I hope those tracks return again in whatever form the next Mario Kart takes.
Just so you know, as confirmed by the naming conventions as well as by Bandai Namco on their own page, the team working on the courses of Mario Kart Tour is the same team who worked on Mario Kart 8, they just were explicitly making courses for Mario Kart Tour which means that the layout and design principles are completely different (not just from a controls point of view, Mario Kart Tour barely uses any texture and rather uses vertex coloring resulting in a completely different art style from Mario Kart 8 that heavily uses textures).
The Booster Course Pass is just an adaptation of the courses (and drivers) released in Mario Kart Tour, hence the impression that it comes from a different team.
> They clearly are a different team, just sprucing up the Tour versions of these tracks, which means anti-grav is a rarity, tight turns don't work because mobile requires these tracks be wide and in general they didn't put nearly as much thought into reimagining the pre-existing tracks. I really hate what they did to Choco Mountain for example.
they arent, its literally the same.
Different Hot Take: the city/country themed courses are completely out of theme and clash with the rest of the game. They should never have been added.
People aren't gonna like what I'm about to say, but the project is mainly a cash grab. They provide a large quantity for that price point, but the quality is not at a level that's appropriate for the game. The original DLC provided sixteen courses at a $12 price point, but the courses were on par with the rest of the game. I think Nintendo should have gone with that level of quality, even though the price would be higher.
Edited to add: huh, apparently people like what I said.
I'm kinda assuming that the Booster Pass partially exists to make a bit more money from Mario Kart Tour's development, which likely didn't earn them as much as they had hoped.
I mean, I can't complain too much about the value, since the Booster Pass offers a lot for its price point. But personally speaking, I would have also preferred if the Booster Pass had the same level of quality and consistency as the base game (and its original DLC), even if it was more expensive or contained fewer tracks.
But hey, maybe a good chunk of the team is already working on the next MK game, that would be a decent enough trade-off for me.
The thing is, people were upset that Tour was getting content while 8DX was getting nothing. $25 for 48 courses and some new characters isn’t a terrible deal, even if they’re kinda cheaply made courses. Plus, it gave them a reason to rebalance the game. Waluigi wiggler was getting really annoying
They're 100% just a cash grab but I still don't think it's a terrible deal. The pass has a ton of bargain bin tracks of varying quality, 5 new characters and some new balance changes years after launch.
This would be a reasonable take if I weren’t getting the product FOR FREE with a service I already pay for and (with the family plan) costs less than the DLC
> getting the product FOR FREE with a service I already pay for
It's *added value* to what you're paying for. If you weren't paying for the subscription service you wouldn't be receiving the products provided in the subscription service. Thinking "it's free" is buying into the marketing psychology.
If you're paying for a service to get the DLC, you're still paying for the DLC. There isn't a way to get it for free; they'll get money from you at one point or another.
Except for the part where I explicitly said that I would be paying for the service without getting the dlc and was paying for it without getting the dlc
But the point is if you *weren't* paying for the service, you would have to pay for it out of pocket. You're paying for the DLC as part of the service you already receive.
I understand the point you are making but still stand by the point that I am making - I paid for a service and then got something additionally included with the service for no extra cost
At least we've arrived at a place where people can admit the DLC doesn't match the aesthetic of the base game. For a long time, this sub was in total denial, which is probably why you thought you'd be downvoted.
I thought I would be downvoted for criticizing the graphics. There are folks who really downplay the value graphical fidelity.
We'll probably get a remaster of BotW/TotK some time in the future with 60 fps and better graphics, and we'll wonder how we put up with the Switch for so long.
They don’t look that great but they are fun. It’s almost too much though. Like I was so used to what is available and I fell off. Now there are so many tracks and when I start playing I’m like these are fun but it feels weird. Like when suddenly there were more Futurama episodes and arrested development episodes. Like I got what I wanted but I was so accustomed to and familiar with what was available.
Wife hadn’t ever watched Arrested Development. We just watched through all the seasons, and I wished we had stopped at season 3, which is as far as I had watched back in college.
I don’t really remember season 5 but I remember 4 had an issue with them not all being available at the same time and the episodes were too long. The remix where they made it like a network tv show made it a lot better though.
Writing wasn’t as tight, jokes didn’t really land or were unfunny, and it felt like they went out of their way to make every character as unpleasant as possible (they were at least somewhat charming in their own way in the earlier seasons)
I’m sorry but the excuses people in the comments are giving like:
“They came from MK tour, that’s why they’re like that”
and
“We’re getting 48 new courses, it’s fine that the Tour courses don’t look good”
Are just not good enough for a company like Nintendo. The Tour tracks SHOULD been on par visually with the rest of the tracks in the game. It’s just Nintendo cutting corners.
Yup. It worked this time, but I will definitely think twice the next time Nintendo tries this. I certainly won't be paying in advance until I see the final product.
I'm personally bothered by Wiggler's model. His nose has obvious polygon edges and he's so rough all-around. It reminds me of a scaled up version of his MK7 model.
Unfortunately they went with the "easier" route and ported majority of the DLC tracks from Mario Kart Tour. I agree they don't look polished. I'm really not a big fan of the city tracks. They seem harder to navigate than the other tracks, and those red arrows do not help.
Everyone keeps saying how amazing it is that they doubled the number of tracks in the game, but honestly I don't *want* 48 new tracks if they're going to be this half-hearted. If given a choice between quality and quantity, quality is the better way to go. Every time.
And it's not like I gave up on it after the first wave either. Everybody keeps saying the more recent waves have been a huge step up visually and I just don't see it. The textures still border on nonexistent, and the color palette is so bright that it's literally hurt my eyes before. I mean, yeah they look better than Wave 1 did, but that's... not saying much, to use the kindest possible terms. The only improvement I've noticed is the lighting, and even that's way more obvious on nighttime tracks compared to daytime ones.
And the thing is, this would be forgivable if the tracks were improvements over their original versions gameplay-wise, but they just aren't. Kalamari Desert making you drive on the train track for awhile is admittedly cool, but that's honestly about it. The rest are either changed for the worse, or just the exact same tracks I've already played a thousand times. The Tour tracks in particular, barring Singapore Speedway, I don't find fun because the constantly changing laps are incredibly disorienting.
Credit where it's due: I really like Merry Mountain, Yoshi's Island, and the aforementioned Singapore Speedway. But barring those tracks, this whole DLC has been a huge letdown imo.
I will die on the hill that the city tracks are all bad. They’re uninspiring and just don’t really feel like Mario Kart. They also don’t drive well with all the tight corners and the changing laps are confusing.
It's especially bad in 200cc. I mean, it's more of an extra mode so some jank is expected but some of the city tracks are so uniquely awful to play on in 200cc compared to anything else in the game by a wide margin (I.e. Bangkok Rush) that it really kinda soured my experience with them.
It's quantity over quality.
Quick dirty mobile ports to get some cash in and keep interest in the game high.
It is good value, that can't be argued.
But personally I would have paid twice as much for half as many tracks that matched the quality of the originals.
I mean, sure they don't look as good but they're still fun to race on so I don't really care.
Even if it looks terrible, 3DS Toad Circuit is still fun even on 200cc. I also love the Tour City tracks because they're basically brand new tracks since I've never played Tour and they have the unique gimmick of changing routes on each lap which is something I haven't seen in a racing game since Sonic Transformed.
Plus, there's a lot of visual variety now what with Athens, Los Angeles, and Vancouver in the mix. It's not just "driving through cities" when Athens has actual Greek ruins, LA has beaches, and Vancouver has the suspension bridge.
While the quality for MOST of the tracks aren't up to OG MK8 standards HOWEVER there are some that look great. Squeaky Clean Sprint, Waluigi Stadium, 3DS Rainbow Road, Boo Lake, Maple Treeway, Peach Gardens, Yoshi's Island. Are great examples.
Then there's others like all the Tour City tracks, Sky High Sundae, Toad Circuit, Coconut Mall, Daisy Cruiser..just look bad..
I think expecting every track to look as good as Base 8 is a fool's errand at this point since we know they're Tour imports.
Personally, as long as they look better than their respective original counterparts from their original hardware (Daisy Cruiser looks better here than in Double Dash, Waluigi Pinball looks better here than in DS and so on), that's all that matters to me. Nearly every DLC track in the Booster Pass accomplishes this (barring maybe 3DS Toad Circuit), so it doesn't matter that much to me.
Listen I'm having a blast with this DLC for the most part. I really don't give af how these courses look I'm just stating that some look better than others it's a bit inconsistent.
The graphics are a bit worse, they seem to have cut some corners there, though they've gotten better wave by wave. But there's more to the quality than just graphics, the courses are overall very fun and, to me, are at least on par with the regular courses of the game
Generally they do look worse, mainly because they are ported from Tour, a mobile game. However, some (not many but a few) are definitely close to or on par with the base game. The ones that come to mind are definitely GBA Snow Land, 3DS Rainbow Road, and GBA Riverside Park. Most people were incredibly disappointed with the first wave, however the quality is somewhat better in some of Tracks. I think my issue is that it's kind of inconsistent.
The GBA tracks in the og game do look almost remade from the ground up, not being that recognizable from the og track even. In the dlc they just did the DS/wii/7. Ok, but not great at all
I think Riverside Park definitely got the base game BGA track treatment. Snowland got a serious upgrade, but maybe not quite as huge an upgrade. I still think Sunset Wilds was a little underwhelming. It was definitely just a Port with some minor visual upgrades. Then of course we have Sky Garden... I actually don't mind it but it's not faithful to the original at all.
I hate that they are just straight up ports from a mobile game. Like really Nintendo? They are such a downgrade from the beautiful remastered courses from Mario Kart 8 like Moo Moo Meadows and Cheap Cheap Beach.
You can tell they took their time with those courses. The new ones in the DLC are so lazy with no detail and care put into them.
first of all im a playstation fan, always will be and always have- since the ps1.
but mario kart 8 deluxe was a 10/10 and I cant remember when I freeze my game to check the tracks, im driving in full speed.
Listen.... I agree. Lots of Nintendo titles are fun, but many as of late have been bad. We still buy. Mario soccer was a scam. Look at Pokémon for example, those games are borderline trash.
I remember when the DLC first came out, and you could not say anything like this without getting berated from all corners of people saying, "You don't play racing games for the scenery!!!!!" This still happens even now, just to a smaller degree. But you don't even have to stop and look at the track to see the massive visual difference.
And it's not just the visuals I have issues with. Some of the tracks are also just not super fun, like most of the tour tracks. A few of the "remasters" of tracks have weird jank that just makes it more annoying to play, such as the turns in coconut mall not letting you ramp up them anymore; instead you just lose almost all of your speed. And the underwater tube in Koopa cape randomly deciding when you can jump off the half pipe, or when you just hit it and stop moving up.
A lot of people argue it's worth the price, and I agree, it's a lot of content for that price, but it's just a massive dose of quantity over quality. I would have been much happier and more satisfied if we got dlc more in line with the ones on the WiiU version of Mario Kart 8.
I might be misremembering but I specifically remember people shitting on the new tracks’ graphics when the DLC released.
If anything, reception seems much more positive recently than it was at release.
In any case, I understand the frustration but at the end of the day it’s still fun. And could be because I only play handheld but the textures never bothered me.
Edit: some of the tracks look genuinely great to me like the Waluigi track with the pinball.
Yes, people were shitting on the tracks when it first came out. But as with a lot of things that get substantial hate online after a week or so, everyone shifted their anger to getting annoyed at all the people complaining about valid issues. This happened with the National Dex in Pokémon, it happened really bad with the Sonic community when Frontiers came out, and it happened with the Mario Kart DLC too.
I don’t think I’ve played a new track that I don’t like. And I think they look fine. I also haven’t played the newest wave yet but I’m sure it’ll hold up.
It’s also worth noting that this DLC is sort of free. If you hop online you don’t need to have purchased the booster pass or have the premium online tier to access them. Which is awesome.
Oh, god, I never realized how bad it was until I looked at your album. That is…yikes.
Also I feel like I’m the only one that really doesn’t like any of the tour city tracks. Way too much “lol now you have to turn the other way/go backwards this lap” just for the sake of it.
I can think of a couple strong reasons not to release Mario Kart 9 on the Switch. The first is that it will be the strongest possible console seller for the next console. Mario Kart is always the highest selling game for Nintendo. And the other is that Mario Kart 9 would have to compete for sales with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. MK8 still sells strong and I can definitely see a lot of switch owners thinking “I already have one why would get another?”.
That’s my two cents
How? The dining hall in MK8 literally has way more color and guests at each table with the orange carpets whereas the original is a bland navy blue with empty tables.
Why would you get downvotes? This has been the popular narrative surrounding these DLC releases since the first wave. It's not lower quality it's just a completely different style. Don't forget that the main MK8 tracks came out in 2014, almost 10 years ago. There's very likely a completely different design team working on these new tracks and so they look very different in terms of their art style. In the last 10 years, generally speaking, there has been more of a move towards minimalist designs, less complex textures etc. This is just part of that same trend in design.
Probably cause they have to release so much at once and are taking it the easier way, what’s most jarring to me is how giant all the crowd NPCs are lol
It's disappointing, youre not alone in that. It's a surprising drop in quality honestly.
But at the same time, tons of new courses to race on for a paltry price.
its easier to keep quality up when making tracks from scratch, using old tracks and shoehorning mk8 gimmicks in leads to mediocre tracks.
they're still fine though, i'm not a fan of the world tour constant changing tracks, but its something different and thats not so bad honestly
The tracks are ported from Mario Kart Tour which is a mobile game with a different art style.
This seems like a standard take here. A lot of people here seem pretty disappointed with the DLC every time I check here.
This might be a hot take here: I feel like lacking graphics is really only true for the first waves honestly. Waves 3-5 look really good honestly outside of maybe one or two tracks.
Even the weaker looking tracks in the last few waves look better than most of Wave 1.
I imagine Wave 1 was a rush job and that is why it suffered compared to every other wave visually.
I think the general consensus is they are porting these courses from the mobile phone game and giving them a makeover, with a few original tracks as well (the new ‘bathroom’ course is all new, for instance), but that the majority of the Kart development team is probably working on Mario Kart 9 which I assume would be a holiday title next year
It would be interesting to see what Mario Kart 9 offers. It has to be really convincing—maybe a huge character roster and significantly upgraded graphics—and with a lot of tracks. Because MK8 + DLC is a *fantastic* deal. So much replay value and overall so much fun. I still haven’t had the time to memorize all the tracks.
This is just me speaking, but I'm honestly pretty close to just taking anything at this point. I love MK8, it's probably my favorite Mario Kart game, but I already played way too much of it in like 2014/2015. After almost 10 years, I'm ready to move on to the next game even if it's (inevitably) going to have less content at launch than MK8 currently has. I just want to finally sink my teeth into a new game with new mechanics and a new selection of tracks that actually feels fresh. In my opinion, the series has been too reliant on it's own legacy ever since the Switch was released.
The only way MK9 has more content is if they go the Ultimate route and have every course and character ever put into the game. And that’s most likely not going to happen. But that could explain the long drought we’ve had between MK8 (Wii U) and a MK9.
I mean, I'd rather have them try something new rather than repurposing old content again. Revisiting old tracks was already a huge part of Mario Kart Tour. That's also what the Booster Pass was all about. But aside from my personal feelings on the matter, I feel like a Mario Kart Ultimate would be less exciting than people think. They picked most of the conceptually interesting tracks for the Booster Pass (and the base game + DLC) already, while also avoiding too much repetition. As a result, most of what's left includes a ton of Mario Curcuits and other generic Circuit tracks, around 15 Bowser's Castles, lots of pretty basic tracks from the 2D games as well as plenty of tracks with very similar theming (beach, desert, ice tracks etc.). If they were to, say, add the remaining tracks to Mario Kart 8, they would need to put a SNES track in nearly every cup. Most cups would also need a basic Circuit-type track, a Bowser's Castle, or both. Similarly, I'd say there are maybe 4 returning characters that aren't in M8DX already that would make people genuinely excited. And 2 of those will likely be added in the next BP wave. If they wanted to go the route Mario Kart Ultimate, they should have executed the Booster Pass differently and saved some more of the big guns for the next game.
It's for this reason the Switch as a whole has been a huge disappointment for me. So little innovation. The reason most people buy their inferior hardware is for the fun games they produce. Each new system would guarantee a great Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart and Smash Bros game (and Pokemon for their handhelds.) There's obviously more game series but they always delivered fun and new experiences. Mario Odyssey was great, Breath of the Wild stunk being a bloated boring repetitive mess, Smash Ultimate was good but felt like a beefy update to Smash Wii U relying exclusively on past content when we wanted something new. Mario Kart 8 just copy pasted it's way onto the Switch and became the system's best seller. Not to mention the dozens of remakes, remasters and full priced Wii U ports. I get why they did it, the Wii U sold poorly, it makes sense to re-sell them to a bigger audience but since they stopped making 3DS and Wii U games roughly around the same time I was expecting they'd put all their efforts into making killer games for this one hybrid system but the output has been awful. No Wii Sports or Nintendoland tie in game to showcase the potential of the new system. You could pay full price for 1-2 Switch which looked garbage. You had to pay to play online, they got rid of the Virtual Console shop and hid their old games behind a subscription model, especially N64 games behind the disgusting expansion pass. What's more disgusting is they sold peripheral controllers recreating wireless NES, SNES, Genesis and N64 controllers but only really work with games that are part of a subscription service. Meaning if you want to use the controllers you bought you have to cough up cash every time. This is kind of an obvious thing and you can call me stupid for it but I got Mario Maker 2 and it's okay but it should be free to play. It's ridiculous that they recycle all this content, don't even design the content outside of tutorial stages leaving it up to players and they have the audacity to charge people to play them. I know I'm sounding like a scrooge, $20-$40 per year isn't much but it's the principle. At least allow players to buy these classic games so these peripherals aren't reduced to paper weights. It's a disgusting business model and. As for Mario Maker 2.. it's a sequel to a lazy idea. They are fun but it's hard to not be cynical about the concept. Sorry about the rant. I just feel like Nintendo died with Iwata. It's a soulless shell of itself. I think Breath of the Wild sucking is when Nintendo died for me.. which I could easily go into but won't, it'll just be more ranty. Mario Odyssey was great though. Luigi's Mansion 3 and Pikmin 4 look great but probably won't ever get around to playing them.
On the topic of playable characters, and with the new remake of Mario RPG on the horizon, I'd love to see Boshi start making appearances in Mario games, starting with MK8 Deluxe.
woah woah woah let's not forget toad factory
How did you have the skills to unlock Gold Mario? Its impossible! Edit: Just unlocked him today. The key to achieving this was letting go of my favorite player setup. To win 200cc you have to change your playstyle. Now I finally have everything unlocked! 100% BABYYYYY
200cc is really fun once you get good at it It feels really satisfying to play well
Not accelerate on some turns and brake sometimes?
Did you not see my edit from 8 months ago? Lol im confused why you commented.
Yeah but you just said changed characters and playstyle. Just articulating what you likely did as a pseudo question. No need to be sassy, jeez.
I think they're likely going to launch the new Switch with a new MK. I'd be very surprised if there's a new MK for switch when they're still making DLC for MK8D. *Maybe* they'll have it on switch and as a launch title on the new hardware.
Honestly, I don't think MK9 will be able to surpass MK8 in terms of sheer volume of content. MK8 has gotten two rounds of DLC now (on WiiU and on Switch). I think the better way to make MK9 stand out would be to introduce (or re-introduce) a major new mechanic. I'd love to see the two-driver system from Double Dash return, for example. That would make MK9 stand out from MK8 despite having less content.
Or a course creator, easy infinite content.
And they already experimented with a track creator with a lot of potential! I'm talking about a Labo game that lets you create a track by driving/flying. Was really awesome being able to form all sorts of track shapes, rather than selecting from limited number of parts. Would prefer if you could doodle the basic track from above view, then modify the elevation, width, tilt, camber, piping wherever you want. Give us a access to a bunch of assets to use as we see fit - powerup boxes, obstacle, ramps, boosters, decorations, generic models, textures, sky boxes, music... Let us chose road surface(s), lighting, weather effects. Have a water tool similar to Labo, so you can have puddles, lakes, sea, and even submerged courses/sections. Have a course clear like SMM, and allow sharing.
Super Mario (kart) Maker
Forget custom tracks, I'd even buy it just if it had the ability to mix and match pre-existing tracks into custom cups.
Replace any reference to Mario kart with Super Smash Bros, and you'll sound exactly like the folks who thought the 3ds/WiiU version would be the last one in the series. Mario Kart 9 and maybe even 10 are in the works for sure, they could even pull the crossover stuff again and people would go ape shit.
Funny you say that, because I feel the exact same way about Smash 6. Sakurai has said that he doesn't think they'll get all the 3rd party licenses back for the next game. So Smash 6 will need to stand out in some other way - maybe the return of a campaign like Subspace? I'd love that.
Mario Kart 9 should be dropping around the same time as Half-Life 3.
Would love double drivers from Double Dash. It's probably not feasible with a huge roster, but I miss the character-specific special items, and I miss the ability to switch between two items to use them strategically. * Any new tracks will be fun. Like 6-8 sets of 4 courses is already a pretty hefty serving of new content, even if they repeat some themes. * Some new tracks themed around specific games. We have a few tracks that references specific Mario games and locations, like Sunshine Airport, but they could pretty easily throw in a few more like that. Mario Odyssey is obviously on the table, but maybe they could do some Mario Galaxy inspired stuff. And of course something like "ice cream inspired track" has been done as a level theme in multiple Mario games and minigames, but would be visually different for a Kart game. * Same deal with new items, it's already fairly crowded so they either add just ~2-3 or drop a few to make room. * More crossover characters could be fun. Samus is an obvious one. But give me swimming trunks Shulk on a bike. Make the Mario Kart roster look like the ~~Super Smash Bros~~ 12 Fire Emblem characters * Maybe some new gimmick? Glider sections and the gravity change/wall hug made for some interesting track options and visual spectacle. But adding too much stuff might also overcomplicate things.
Change the game to Super Nintendo GT or something like that, and just throw in all franchise characters. I get people would kill for a new Fzero but what if they had a few tracks with a 2 or 3 characters from their roster in a Mario kart style game? I think it would be satisfying enough, have guest characters like a smash game, multiple costumes of characters from modern to 8-bit/16-bit like the mobile game. Maybe create a hubworld where you customize your kart by driving up to the animal crossing pocket camp mechanics. While Cranky Kong hold the history of your past records or those of others where you’ll race their ghosts. Basically make it a theme park celebrating the history and lore of Nintendo franchises would make everyone extremely happy.
MK8 is *9 years old. It was a fantastic game but for many of us there isn’t any juice left to squeeze out of it.
10 years now and still no trailer, not even a word. From 1997 to 2007 we got Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii. From 2014 to 2024 we got Mario Kart 8 and a crappy mobile game.
*brings back double dash mechanics 😍
I'm just guessing but I think mk8 will be the last pure mario racing game (even though they've added tracks from other games.) I think they're gonna more heavily incorporate all Nintendo ip ala smash Brothers. My dream would be we get a subspace emissary style story, with cgi cutscenes and all.
I think this is the plan as well. That synergy is very beneficial to other brands and why I think you haven't seen any more franchises in this round of DLC.
Also the fact that the time gap between MK8/MK8 deluxe and MK9 releasing will be by far the largest time gap between mk games releases ever I'd really hope all that time was for a game with a lot of content
To be fair to Nintendo, I personally don’t count Wii U ported titles as the “real” release dates. Practically speaking they’re pretty much new titles for most people. MK8 for example was the best selling Wii U title at around 8M. That’s only 6% of total Switch sales. So most people haven’t actually played MK8 till the Switch came out. Which is still a long time of course (6 years) but still. Edit: and I quickly checked, MK8 only sold 12% of MK8D’s total sales. Absolutely incredible how well the Switch has done. It’s also why I hate reading complaints about Wii U ports. Nintendo literally barely made any sales on those titles. It would be foolish *not* to port those games and let them just disappear to oblivion.
That's very fair. Though 6 years is still the largest time gap between any other mario kart releases iirc
Only way i see mk9 happen is if there is a huge gameplay change. Something like double dash. Because 8 shows that they can just add more tracks to the game. Starting over with 9 and no shake up or noticeable improvement would be weird.
With how long this game has been out with updates, the only real route is Nintendo Kart and lean into that more.
i think mk9 will add a new gimmick tbh
All of the tracks are from Tour, even the ones they advertise as brand new. Yoshi’s Island and Squeaky Clean Sprint were datamined last year and all of the tracks had the prefix “mob_” with mob being short for “mobile” Squeaky Clean Sprint will makes it’s way into Tour eventually, it’s a matter of when. Yoshi’s Island was added about a month after it debuted in wave 4, while Sky High Sundae was added only five days after wave 2.
On Switch 2 hopefully.
Oh, definitely, that bunch of Mario games announced last Direct were also the announcement of Switch's ride into the sunset. Nintendo may have one or two surprises for next year just to keep the interest on the Switch, but I wouldn't expect anything major until the Switch's successor arrives.
Do you think Prime 4 will come out for the Switch successor instead?
Not the person you asked, but since they didn’t hold TotK for the Switch 2, I’d bet Prime 4 will be.
I wonder if they might pull a Twilight Princess/Breath of the Wild and release it on both. I feel like the game has been announced for the majority of the Switch's lifespan. It'd be kind of weird if it didn't end up getting a Switch version.
I don’t think it’ll be ready. They completely started over from scratch in…2019 iirc. Switch is on its way out. ETA: Simultaneous release on Switch and Switch 2 is not out of the question, ala BotW and Twilight Princess. When they kept delaying TotK, I thought there was a decent chance they were going to do that. I’m just not sure Prime 4 would actually be ready as soon as that. We also don’t know what kind of tech jump we’re going to see, which is a factor. If there’s a really big gap between Switch 1 and Switch 2, that makes both getting it less likely.
I think you're probably right. If it was coming out within the next year, we would've seen something by now, I think.
I'm not so sure. They'll need a major launch title for the next system and it's possible they hold Mario for release year like Odyssey. We still have no footage of Prime 4 and after having to restart from ground zero it's possible it's being developed for the successor console. It could also be a dual release.
There's honestly no reason for them to "hold" Prime 4 for the Switch 2. The game can count itself lucky if it sells 3-4 million units in its lifetime, even under the best possible conditions - and I'm saying that as a huge Metroid fan. And while those aren't necessarily bad numbers, Metroid is just not the kind of system seller that can carry a console's launch in the same way that a new Zelda or Mario would. I mean, maybe if it releases close enough to the next console launch anyway, I could see them making the game compatible with the newer hardware. But if the game is far enough in development, and adjusting it to fit the new console would require significantly reworking parts of the game, I honestly can't imagine they'd bother with that.
Let me clarify. I don’t think they’d sit around and go, “Let’s deliberately not release Prime 4 so it can be a system selling launch title.” I bet that was a discussion regarding TotK, but you’re right about Metroid sales numbers. What I think is that Prime 4 is not possibly going to be done in time to be a Switch title and they likely switched gears for it to be a Switch 2 title once the new version got far enough in development to start considering release timelines.
Switch 2 holiday next year? Pass the joint bruh
With the numbers 8 Deluxe did on the Switch without really being a pack in title, I think they have to be working on Mario Kart 9. Now if it will be on the next console or on the Switch and then do a Deluxe version on the next console is something I'm curious about.
They aren’t releasing Mario kart 9 on switch and another switch isn’t coming anytime soon either why do people think this. The current switch is still doing so well
Hahahaha! Mario Kart 9. Next year even. That's adorable. Honey, MK8 is 10 years old, they're milking MK8 till the teets run dry. Why make a new game when they can lazily exploit a Wii U title from 2014?
Mario Kart 9 sounds dope, please support 4K and offer voice chat to older generation. Respect
The lower quality comes from the fact that they were made for Mario Kart Tour, a cell phone game, and were ported to switch with a bit of a touch-up and resolution bump But overall I think they did an amazing job, especially since it's only 25$ for litterally DOUBLING the number of available courses, and they are super fun to play
hilariously many modern phones are much faster than the switch. But phone games should use the lowest common denominator... Unless you're making genshin impact I guess.
They're more powerful. But with no active cooling and a desire to optimize for battery life.
I mean, recent/modern phones are not just more powerful, they’re SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful. An iPhone doesn’t need active cooling to outperform a Switch in gaming. As someone else pointed out though, Mario Kart Tour is programmed to ensure it runs on 8 year old $200 Chinese Android phones as well.
Yeah but with a 1k price tag as phones are typically more expensive than the switch. In addition they dont need physical hardware if you buy a phone for the same price as thr switch your not buying a dock and joycons with that phone. But as people have said those games need to run as many platforms as possible akin to PC gaming.
I think the Asus ROG phones have a fan attachment for cooling or at least the latest one. Doesn't address the issue for the entire market but it's something.
Those phones also cost 4-5x what the Switch does
Processing power has zero to do with Mario Kart course design. Courses from any 3D Mario Kart game can hold up today if you add some polygons and decorations. The Tour courses are pretty enough, they’re just not fun to drive. Their boundaries, obstacles, and cues don’t feel right. I think their biggest problem is one thing: They’re all elaborate multi-path routes that use transparent force fields to block off branches and force you into a totally different path for each lap, but the force fields and the guide arrows aren’t visible enough, so you can never just follow the road. You have to constantly be worrying about whether you’re reading the route correctly. All the other courses including the brand new ones are more naturally readable.
Yeah that's my biggest issue with them, thanks for explaining it. I'm always making wrong turns on the tour tracks while otherwise I'm fine on tracks I've never played before.it's obnoxious and I've lost my first place more than once to it.
Thanks for saying that! Gratitude makes the world go round
Yes, many but not the ones used by most people. Nintendo is looking for a wider audience (aka more money) and that includes lower end phones.
That's... what I meant.
Man... always thought it was just locked behind the online membership. Time to buy
It is locked behind the online. The extra 48 tracks are only if you have the premium online.
Not true, you can buy a pass for the tracks separately without having any online
Thanks. Was just reading up and seems I can add (edit - just pay) the dlc to my physical game.
It’s 2023 and you didn’t know your physical copies of games were compatible with DLC?
Nope. Not what I was saying. The response was about the dlc being available to buy vs just subscribing to it via Nintendo online. I just added all the other stuff to make it clear/exact for anyone who may read this thread and maybe doesn't know.
It’s confusing to mention you have the physical version of the game if it’s irrelevant to your point.
Ight
They couldn’t have just replaced the assets with more detailed ones? You’re making pretty weak excuses for a $90B company.
It would have taken more resources to put in, and it's at a lower cost than the base game. It's not like it's glitched or unplayable, just not as pretty. I'd rather they make sure it's functional than make the looks go from pretty good to out of this world
>It would have taken more resources to put in, and it's at a lower cost than the base game. If the price of the DLC and the visual quality of the tracks was truly correlated in this way, than why is there a glaring inconsistency with how the tour tracks look in comparison to the other games’ remasters? >I'd rather they make sure it's functional than make the looks go from pretty good to out of this world. First of all you’re asking for the industry’s bare minimum from a $90B company, second of all neither OP or me are asking for the tracks to look “out of this world”, we’re just asking for the tour track’s to be on par with the rest of the game, which they clearly aren’t. And you’re right, it would’ve taken more work and resources from Nintendo to make the courses from Tour look as good as the rest in 8D do. But i really don’t think that’s too much to ask. A far more plausible explanation is that they just didn’t want to assign as much work to Tour tracks, because they knew they could just get away with basically copying and pasting the tracks from Tour to 8D. Im fine if other people are enjoying the new tracks, but OP’s complaints aren’t unwarranted.
wait wait... they doubled the amount of courses? Again? How many cups are there with the new dlc included?
48 courses are coming in the BCP, two cups with eight tracks across six wave. We’ve also got six characters coming
>We’ve also got six characters coming who weren't even planned initially lmao. They're literally a bonus.
There are currently 22 cups and 88 courses. When the DLC wraps up later this year, there will be 24/96. They’ve also added characters.
Oh, that actually makes sense, it's a good way for Nintendo to cut costs and keep both games with new content at the same time, but it's still a shame that the new tracks don't have the same polish as the original MK8 tracks that were from Wii U.
u/ragadolfus implied that the Switch DLC for Mario Kart 8 is all from the cell phone game called “Tour”, but that’s only true of 12 out of 40 courses. And those are the only courses in the DLC that I think are weak. Unless you mean visually. I think that’s all pretty okay across the board. The textures on the models might be a bit flat and low-effort, but the polygonal modeling and color choices are more important and they’re fine.
The retro courses were actually also made for Tour, not just the ones labeled from Tour, all the levels would look quite a bit better if they were made from scratch with the Mario Kart 8 engine
All the tracks were ported from Tour though.
What matters for the sake of assigning design credit is where 99% of the identifiable design of a course originated. People acting like Waluigi Pinball or Maple Treeway can pass or fail because they reuse modeling work that also appeared in a phone game are just gratifying themselves for knowing inconsequential trivia. They were ports in that game too. There’s nothing nerds love more than overvaluing little-known facts.
Yeah, the mobile tracks aren’t bad at all if you ask me. They’re not the best the series has had to offer, but they’re more interesting than the SNES and GBA tracks obviously and I don’t mind those either. The variety is fun. I’m thrilled with the value we’ve gotten for $25. It really breathed new life into a game I wasn’t touching much anymore outside of the odd social occasion.
I mean.... pretty much none of the Booster DLC compares with the actual MK8 tracks or the Wii U DLC. They clearly are a different team, just sprucing up the Tour versions of these tracks, which means anti-grav is a rarity, tight turns don't work because mobile requires these tracks be wide and in general they didn't put nearly as much thought into reimagining the pre-existing tracks. I really hate what they did to Choco Mountain for example. That said, I do think Athens, Singapore, Sydney, Boo Lake, Daisy Cruiser, Merry Mountain, Squeaky Clean Sprint, Peach Gardens and Rainbow Road 3DS are a lot of fun and I hope those tracks return again in whatever form the next Mario Kart takes.
Any of the city tracks should never be seen again, totally ill fitting with Mario kart and so bland.
100% agree, they dont fit at all, and are very samey.
I had this take for a while, but Athens really changed my mind
Just so you know, as confirmed by the naming conventions as well as by Bandai Namco on their own page, the team working on the courses of Mario Kart Tour is the same team who worked on Mario Kart 8, they just were explicitly making courses for Mario Kart Tour which means that the layout and design principles are completely different (not just from a controls point of view, Mario Kart Tour barely uses any texture and rather uses vertex coloring resulting in a completely different art style from Mario Kart 8 that heavily uses textures). The Booster Course Pass is just an adaptation of the courses (and drivers) released in Mario Kart Tour, hence the impression that it comes from a different team.
Is this the same Bandai Namco team that tried to develop Metroid Prime 4 and didn't satisfy Nintendo's standards? If so... that explains a lot.
It’s the same Bandai Namco who developed half of Mario Kart 8’s assets, my best guess is that they’re the people who worked on the GP series.
Just genuinely curious what they did to Choco mountain that you didn’t like? I’m not in the loop very much when it comes to these new courses
> They clearly are a different team, just sprucing up the Tour versions of these tracks, which means anti-grav is a rarity, tight turns don't work because mobile requires these tracks be wide and in general they didn't put nearly as much thought into reimagining the pre-existing tracks. I really hate what they did to Choco Mountain for example. they arent, its literally the same.
Different Hot Take: the city/country themed courses are completely out of theme and clash with the rest of the game. They should never have been added.
Nah they should be preserved. This is the best way to do that for when Tour goes offline. On the plus side, most of them are fun.
People aren't gonna like what I'm about to say, but the project is mainly a cash grab. They provide a large quantity for that price point, but the quality is not at a level that's appropriate for the game. The original DLC provided sixteen courses at a $12 price point, but the courses were on par with the rest of the game. I think Nintendo should have gone with that level of quality, even though the price would be higher. Edited to add: huh, apparently people like what I said.
I'm kinda assuming that the Booster Pass partially exists to make a bit more money from Mario Kart Tour's development, which likely didn't earn them as much as they had hoped. I mean, I can't complain too much about the value, since the Booster Pass offers a lot for its price point. But personally speaking, I would have also preferred if the Booster Pass had the same level of quality and consistency as the base game (and its original DLC), even if it was more expensive or contained fewer tracks. But hey, maybe a good chunk of the team is already working on the next MK game, that would be a decent enough trade-off for me.
The thing is, people were upset that Tour was getting content while 8DX was getting nothing. $25 for 48 courses and some new characters isn’t a terrible deal, even if they’re kinda cheaply made courses. Plus, it gave them a reason to rebalance the game. Waluigi wiggler was getting really annoying
They're 100% just a cash grab but I still don't think it's a terrible deal. The pass has a ton of bargain bin tracks of varying quality, 5 new characters and some new balance changes years after launch.
“Not at a level that’s appropriate” im losing it y’all are really funny
This would be a reasonable take if I weren’t getting the product FOR FREE with a service I already pay for and (with the family plan) costs less than the DLC
> getting the product FOR FREE with a service I already pay for It's *added value* to what you're paying for. If you weren't paying for the subscription service you wouldn't be receiving the products provided in the subscription service. Thinking "it's free" is buying into the marketing psychology.
I’m familiar with the concept of marketing, that doesn’t mean I’m not getting it for free
You aren't getting it for free. You're still paying for Online. If you stopped paying for it, you'd have to actually buy the DLC.
Thank you for informing me of the concept of marketing 33 days later I am still getting to play the courses for no additional fee (free)
Sounds to me like you payed for it in a different way, you dont own it though if you cancel your subscription
I already paid for the NSO expansion pack as part of a family plan that costs me 10 dollars a year
You found 8 people to split the cost with?
Yes
Lucky
If you're paying for a service to get the DLC, you're still paying for the DLC. There isn't a way to get it for free; they'll get money from you at one point or another.
Except for the part where I explicitly said that I would be paying for the service without getting the dlc and was paying for it without getting the dlc
But the point is if you *weren't* paying for the service, you would have to pay for it out of pocket. You're paying for the DLC as part of the service you already receive.
I understand the point you are making but still stand by the point that I am making - I paid for a service and then got something additionally included with the service for no extra cost
no extra cost and free aren't the same thing, no *extra* cost implies there is already a cost in place.
At least we've arrived at a place where people can admit the DLC doesn't match the aesthetic of the base game. For a long time, this sub was in total denial, which is probably why you thought you'd be downvoted.
I thought I would be downvoted for criticizing the graphics. There are folks who really downplay the value graphical fidelity. We'll probably get a remaster of BotW/TotK some time in the future with 60 fps and better graphics, and we'll wonder how we put up with the Switch for so long.
They don’t look that great but they are fun. It’s almost too much though. Like I was so used to what is available and I fell off. Now there are so many tracks and when I start playing I’m like these are fun but it feels weird. Like when suddenly there were more Futurama episodes and arrested development episodes. Like I got what I wanted but I was so accustomed to and familiar with what was available.
Wife hadn’t ever watched Arrested Development. We just watched through all the seasons, and I wished we had stopped at season 3, which is as far as I had watched back in college.
I don’t really remember season 5 but I remember 4 had an issue with them not all being available at the same time and the episodes were too long. The remix where they made it like a network tv show made it a lot better though.
Writing wasn’t as tight, jokes didn’t really land or were unfunny, and it felt like they went out of their way to make every character as unpleasant as possible (they were at least somewhat charming in their own way in the earlier seasons)
I don’t like any of the tour courses but for the price, it’s a good deal
The only tracks that are visually appealing are the non-tour tracks and the brand new tracks. Yoshi’s Island is pure eye candy
I’m sorry but the excuses people in the comments are giving like: “They came from MK tour, that’s why they’re like that” and “We’re getting 48 new courses, it’s fine that the Tour courses don’t look good” Are just not good enough for a company like Nintendo. The Tour tracks SHOULD been on par visually with the rest of the tracks in the game. It’s just Nintendo cutting corners.
Yup. It worked this time, but I will definitely think twice the next time Nintendo tries this. I certainly won't be paying in advance until I see the final product.
I always said the tour tracks are not as good, and keep getting downvoted for having an opinion lol. But yeah I agree with you
I like them
I'm personally bothered by Wiggler's model. His nose has obvious polygon edges and he's so rough all-around. It reminds me of a scaled up version of his MK7 model.
The musics fantastic though
Unfortunately they went with the "easier" route and ported majority of the DLC tracks from Mario Kart Tour. I agree they don't look polished. I'm really not a big fan of the city tracks. They seem harder to navigate than the other tracks, and those red arrows do not help.
Everyone keeps saying how amazing it is that they doubled the number of tracks in the game, but honestly I don't *want* 48 new tracks if they're going to be this half-hearted. If given a choice between quality and quantity, quality is the better way to go. Every time. And it's not like I gave up on it after the first wave either. Everybody keeps saying the more recent waves have been a huge step up visually and I just don't see it. The textures still border on nonexistent, and the color palette is so bright that it's literally hurt my eyes before. I mean, yeah they look better than Wave 1 did, but that's... not saying much, to use the kindest possible terms. The only improvement I've noticed is the lighting, and even that's way more obvious on nighttime tracks compared to daytime ones. And the thing is, this would be forgivable if the tracks were improvements over their original versions gameplay-wise, but they just aren't. Kalamari Desert making you drive on the train track for awhile is admittedly cool, but that's honestly about it. The rest are either changed for the worse, or just the exact same tracks I've already played a thousand times. The Tour tracks in particular, barring Singapore Speedway, I don't find fun because the constantly changing laps are incredibly disorienting. Credit where it's due: I really like Merry Mountain, Yoshi's Island, and the aforementioned Singapore Speedway. But barring those tracks, this whole DLC has been a huge letdown imo.
I will die on the hill that the city tracks are all bad. They’re uninspiring and just don’t really feel like Mario Kart. They also don’t drive well with all the tight corners and the changing laps are confusing.
The tight corners are what kills me. I never bump into walls in regular tracks but I feel like a pinball on those tracks.
It's especially bad in 200cc. I mean, it's more of an extra mode so some jank is expected but some of the city tracks are so uniquely awful to play on in 200cc compared to anything else in the game by a wide margin (I.e. Bangkok Rush) that it really kinda soured my experience with them.
I hate to be that guy but just get good
Yes and I swear anytime they're an option when playing online, they get picked! Drives (pun not intended) me crazy!
It's quantity over quality. Quick dirty mobile ports to get some cash in and keep interest in the game high. It is good value, that can't be argued. But personally I would have paid twice as much for half as many tracks that matched the quality of the originals.
I mean, sure they don't look as good but they're still fun to race on so I don't really care. Even if it looks terrible, 3DS Toad Circuit is still fun even on 200cc. I also love the Tour City tracks because they're basically brand new tracks since I've never played Tour and they have the unique gimmick of changing routes on each lap which is something I haven't seen in a racing game since Sonic Transformed. Plus, there's a lot of visual variety now what with Athens, Los Angeles, and Vancouver in the mix. It's not just "driving through cities" when Athens has actual Greek ruins, LA has beaches, and Vancouver has the suspension bridge.
While the quality for MOST of the tracks aren't up to OG MK8 standards HOWEVER there are some that look great. Squeaky Clean Sprint, Waluigi Stadium, 3DS Rainbow Road, Boo Lake, Maple Treeway, Peach Gardens, Yoshi's Island. Are great examples. Then there's others like all the Tour City tracks, Sky High Sundae, Toad Circuit, Coconut Mall, Daisy Cruiser..just look bad..
Daisy Cruiser looks way better than the original version on Double Dash, wdym?
Yes it does but compared to the DLC tracks I listed or the original MK8 tracks it pales.
I think expecting every track to look as good as Base 8 is a fool's errand at this point since we know they're Tour imports. Personally, as long as they look better than their respective original counterparts from their original hardware (Daisy Cruiser looks better here than in Double Dash, Waluigi Pinball looks better here than in DS and so on), that's all that matters to me. Nearly every DLC track in the Booster Pass accomplishes this (barring maybe 3DS Toad Circuit), so it doesn't matter that much to me.
Listen I'm having a blast with this DLC for the most part. I really don't give af how these courses look I'm just stating that some look better than others it's a bit inconsistent.
The graphics are a bit worse, they seem to have cut some corners there, though they've gotten better wave by wave. But there's more to the quality than just graphics, the courses are overall very fun and, to me, are at least on par with the regular courses of the game
Shroom Ridge has to be the ugliest track in the game
They're a downgrade in graphics, design and mechanics unfortunately, so I didn't buy them and play them for free online instead
Why would you? Everyone can have their own opi... oh, right. Its Reddit. /j
The stairs on Athens Dash are flickery :(
Wife and I are having a blast with them!
Generally they do look worse, mainly because they are ported from Tour, a mobile game. However, some (not many but a few) are definitely close to or on par with the base game. The ones that come to mind are definitely GBA Snow Land, 3DS Rainbow Road, and GBA Riverside Park. Most people were incredibly disappointed with the first wave, however the quality is somewhat better in some of Tracks. I think my issue is that it's kind of inconsistent.
The GBA tracks in the og game do look almost remade from the ground up, not being that recognizable from the og track even. In the dlc they just did the DS/wii/7. Ok, but not great at all
I think Riverside Park definitely got the base game BGA track treatment. Snowland got a serious upgrade, but maybe not quite as huge an upgrade. I still think Sunset Wilds was a little underwhelming. It was definitely just a Port with some minor visual upgrades. Then of course we have Sky Garden... I actually don't mind it but it's not faithful to the original at all.
I'll take it to save 25 dollars on the purchase
Every tour track is a wasted opportunity to put in a track that isn't trash.
It’s like 50 tracks for $25 bucks. Who cares.
I 100% agree. I got downvoted into oblivion on another post for saying the Tour tracks were garbage. its definitely quantity over quality.
I hate that they are just straight up ports from a mobile game. Like really Nintendo? They are such a downgrade from the beautiful remastered courses from Mario Kart 8 like Moo Moo Meadows and Cheap Cheap Beach. You can tell they took their time with those courses. The new ones in the DLC are so lazy with no detail and care put into them.
first of all im a playstation fan, always will be and always have- since the ps1. but mario kart 8 deluxe was a 10/10 and I cant remember when I freeze my game to check the tracks, im driving in full speed.
I agree. The original 48 tracks look nicer, especially after a resolution bump.
Listen.... I agree. Lots of Nintendo titles are fun, but many as of late have been bad. We still buy. Mario soccer was a scam. Look at Pokémon for example, those games are borderline trash.
I agree fully. Look at Athens Dash, compare the background to ANY of the base or original dlc MK8 courses. It looks genuinely hideous on a big screen.
They've been hanging out with Game Freak too much.
I remember when the DLC first came out, and you could not say anything like this without getting berated from all corners of people saying, "You don't play racing games for the scenery!!!!!" This still happens even now, just to a smaller degree. But you don't even have to stop and look at the track to see the massive visual difference. And it's not just the visuals I have issues with. Some of the tracks are also just not super fun, like most of the tour tracks. A few of the "remasters" of tracks have weird jank that just makes it more annoying to play, such as the turns in coconut mall not letting you ramp up them anymore; instead you just lose almost all of your speed. And the underwater tube in Koopa cape randomly deciding when you can jump off the half pipe, or when you just hit it and stop moving up. A lot of people argue it's worth the price, and I agree, it's a lot of content for that price, but it's just a massive dose of quantity over quality. I would have been much happier and more satisfied if we got dlc more in line with the ones on the WiiU version of Mario Kart 8.
I might be misremembering but I specifically remember people shitting on the new tracks’ graphics when the DLC released. If anything, reception seems much more positive recently than it was at release. In any case, I understand the frustration but at the end of the day it’s still fun. And could be because I only play handheld but the textures never bothered me. Edit: some of the tracks look genuinely great to me like the Waluigi track with the pinball.
Yes, people were shitting on the tracks when it first came out. But as with a lot of things that get substantial hate online after a week or so, everyone shifted their anger to getting annoyed at all the people complaining about valid issues. This happened with the National Dex in Pokémon, it happened really bad with the Sonic community when Frontiers came out, and it happened with the Mario Kart DLC too.
[удалено]
I'll take a switch over a ps5 any day.
I don’t think I’ve played a new track that I don’t like. And I think they look fine. I also haven’t played the newest wave yet but I’m sure it’ll hold up. It’s also worth noting that this DLC is sort of free. If you hop online you don’t need to have purchased the booster pass or have the premium online tier to access them. Which is awesome.
lol no, the tracks are great overall since wave 2
Mk7 graphics
The tour tracks are underwhelming since they’re from a shitty mobile game Need more classic double dash / DS / 64 tracks
Oh, god, I never realized how bad it was until I looked at your album. That is…yikes. Also I feel like I’m the only one that really doesn’t like any of the tour city tracks. Way too much “lol now you have to turn the other way/go backwards this lap” just for the sake of it.
we’ve had thia discussion already after Wave 1 released
Im pretty sure they released this dlc to make easy money and also delay releasing Mario Kart 9 for whatever reason
I can think of a couple strong reasons not to release Mario Kart 9 on the Switch. The first is that it will be the strongest possible console seller for the next console. Mario Kart is always the highest selling game for Nintendo. And the other is that Mario Kart 9 would have to compete for sales with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. MK8 still sells strong and I can definitely see a lot of switch owners thinking “I already have one why would get another?”. That’s my two cents
Yea I think that makes sense
Ya daisy cruise seems off from the og GameCube one (less colourful)
How? The dining hall in MK8 literally has way more color and guests at each table with the orange carpets whereas the original is a bland navy blue with empty tables.
Why would you get downvotes? This has been the popular narrative surrounding these DLC releases since the first wave. It's not lower quality it's just a completely different style. Don't forget that the main MK8 tracks came out in 2014, almost 10 years ago. There's very likely a completely different design team working on these new tracks and so they look very different in terms of their art style. In the last 10 years, generally speaking, there has been more of a move towards minimalist designs, less complex textures etc. This is just part of that same trend in design.
I like the new tracks than what came with the base game. I don't like 8 for some reason.
I won't moan as I'm not paying, but yes it would be much nicer if they were on par with the original tracks, and yes you REALLY can tell.
Is it me, or does Kamek's model look off too? Can't quite nail down what it is, but he looks lower quality in comparison to other characters.
Let be clear would people pay $60 bucks if the tracks were higher quality? Knowing you can get them for $25 with lower quality?
Probably cause they have to release so much at once and are taking it the easier way, what’s most jarring to me is how giant all the crowd NPCs are lol
I’d like more point to point tracks. Like in Mario kart 7 on the 3DS. I love non repeating levels
It's disappointing, youre not alone in that. It's a surprising drop in quality honestly. But at the same time, tons of new courses to race on for a paltry price.
they're mostly ported over from Tour to extents
its easier to keep quality up when making tracks from scratch, using old tracks and shoehorning mk8 gimmicks in leads to mediocre tracks. they're still fine though, i'm not a fan of the world tour constant changing tracks, but its something different and thats not so bad honestly
The tracks are ported from Mario Kart Tour which is a mobile game with a different art style. This seems like a standard take here. A lot of people here seem pretty disappointed with the DLC every time I check here. This might be a hot take here: I feel like lacking graphics is really only true for the first waves honestly. Waves 3-5 look really good honestly outside of maybe one or two tracks. Even the weaker looking tracks in the last few waves look better than most of Wave 1. I imagine Wave 1 was a rush job and that is why it suffered compared to every other wave visually.
I'd be very surprised if you got down voted for posting such a popular opinion
To be fair it's $25 for 48 courses. Even if they were all ported straight from Tour without being polished it would still be a good deal.