Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass announced

A new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe paid expansion has been announced, including 48 new courses.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass will provide 48 DLC tracks across 6 waves. The first wave will release March 18, 2022 and will cost $24.99/£24.99.

The courses will include remakes of classic tracks from across the series from games such as Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart Wii, as well as handheld entries and the mobile game, Mario Kart Tour.

Eight courses, split across two cups, will release at a time across six waves, which are set to release throughout 2022.

Wave 1 will include the Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii, Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64 and Tokyo Blur from Mario Kart Tour.

The full Wave 1 courses are:

• Paris Promenade (Tour)
• Toad Circuit (3DS)
• Choco Mountain (N64)
• Coconut Mall (Wii)
• Tokyo Blur (Tour)
• Shroom Ridge (3DS)
• Sky Garden (GBA)
• Ninja Hideaway (Tour)

The DLC will be included as part of Nintendo Switch Online’s Expansion Pack at no additional cost.

Speaking recently in a GamesIndustry.biz article Dr. Serkan Toto speculated that a sequel to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would release this year.

“I am aware Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still selling very well on the Nintendo Switch, but Mario Kart 9 is in active development (and comes with a new twist) and Nintendo could tease it this year,” he said.

The last mainline entry in Nintendo’s racing series, Mario Kart 8, was released for Wii U in 2014.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, an enhanced version of the game for Nintendo Switch, was released in April 2017, the month after Nintendo’s latest console launched.

To date, Nintendo has never released more than one mainline Mario Kart game on a single console.

The platform holder said in November 2020 that Switch had shipped almost 93 million units and that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had officially become the franchise’s best-selling entry ever with nearly 40 million copies sold.