Topic: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

It feels like the chance of DLC tracks appearing online is reduced even though it should be increased (16/64 is larger than 8/56). Currently on a 5 track streak of base game only.

Wait a second, I just remembered that half the franchise has no ghost tracks (Double Dash has none, Wii used SNES Ghost Valley 2 for retro, 7 used DS Luigi's Mansion for retro, Tour used SNES Ghost Valley 1 and DS Luigi's Mansion for retro) so the next DS track is almost guaranteed to be Luigi's Mansion. So I'm changing my prediction to:

• GBA Luigi Circuit
• GCN Mushroom City
• DS Luigi's Mansion
• Wii DK's Snowboard Cross
• 3DS Alpine Pass
• Tour London Loop
• Tour Los Angeles Laps
• Tour Merry Mountain

Here's my initial ranking of the tracks, this may change over time though:

1 - Mushroom Gorge: One of my absolute favorite tracks from the series is back and better than ever. I love the changes made to the mushrooms, it feels a little fairer than the original track, and the addition of the paraglider mushroom is really great. The music is still stellar, the graphics are great (especially the cave section), and, most importantly, it is kept together with what makes it such an awesome track in the first place. It even keeps some of the more obscure shortcuts from the original version!

2 - Waluigi Pinball: This is easily the best rendition of this track yet. The graphics are awesome, the music still rocks (even though it’s repeated from Wario Stadium), and they even added the sound effects from back on the DS!

3 - Kalimari Desert: One of my favorites from N64, although I never really did play that game much. The desert theme is really good, much more interesting and appealing to look at than most other desert tracks in the series. I love how you ride on the train tracks at one point; it feels like a great homage to the easter egg in the first game.

4 - Sydney Sprint: A really fun and past-paced track, with a lot of stuff to take in and trick off of. One of the most visually appealing Tour tracks IMO, with some great music and an unexpected ending sequence as well.

5 - Mario Circuit 3: This track is pretty nostalgic since it was on Wii, and it still is a lot of fun here. It’s really simple, but it has a lot of fun drifting with some absolutely classic music. The graphics aren’t great, though, especially compared to the other SNES tracks in the game.

6 - Sky-High Sundae: Overall, I think this track is really well-made and has great music, but the graphics are almost a little too bright for my liking. It certainly still looks good, but it leans too far into that neon look.

7 - New York Minute: I think the graphics here are pretty good, I like the reflections in the water especially. The layout of the track isn’t anything special, but it has good music and some fun sections still.

8 - Snow Land: Easily one of my least favorites from Super Circuit, but the rendition here is actually pretty good. It’s definitely the most simple track, which is why I ranked it the lowest, but it still is a fun course with some absolutely jamming music.

Overall, I think I’d rate this wave an 8/10. Mushroom Gorge and Waluigi Pinball are absolutely standouts, and most of the other tracks are really fun to play. There are a couple of weaker ones slightly holding it back, but it isn't a huge deal overall. Not the strongest selection one could ask for, but it’s still a lot of fun.

@Fizza @Grumblevolcano @StarPoint @vio @1UP_MARIO @lighteningbolt79 @SViper @Munchlax @WaterKirby1964 There's actually a bunch of changes to the Wave 1 courses aside from the cars in Coconut Mall! The lighting is better with more shadowing and light reflecting off of windows and the glass on the railing of the freeway, as well as a few more off-track objects in Tokyo Blur, Toad Circuit grass has more length in areas, but still no textures 😑. Paris Promenade has better textures on some buildings, better water reflections, and somewhat better lighting overall. Etc.

@TowaHerschel7 Really? I guess I hadn’t noticed. Is there a Twitter post/ YouTube video that shows any changes made?

My rankings of wave 2:
1. Wii Coconut Mall - Not wave 2 but I feel the car changes massively improve the track, honestly I find the donuts better than the movement from side to side in MKWii and MK7.
2. GBA Snow Land - Unlike Sky Garden, Snow Land is a lot closer to the original GBA track which is fantastic. Snow Land is one of my favourite Super Circuit tracks.
3. Wii Mushroom Gorge - Nice mixture between the MKWii and MK7 versions (Wii paths intact while also adding in 7's paraglider mushroom), the track is as chaotic as always.
4. DS Waluigi Pinball - Was a lot of fun in MKDS and MK7, same here.
5. Tour Sydney Sprint - Of the 4 city courses from Tour in MK8 Deluxe, this is my favourite of the bunch.
6. N64 Kalimari Desert - I like the way it changes laps 2 and 3 to go along the train tracks.
7. Tour New York Minute - It's fun though less interesting than Sydney.
8. SNES Mario Circuit 3 - It's pretty much exactly the same as the Wii remake which is good though there's not really any SNES tracks I find fantastic.
9. Tour Sky-High Sundae - The least interesting of the bunch though still enjoyable to play.

That feeling when you are so used to underwater sections you drived right into the hole in Snow land, only to get dragged up by Lakuitu the first time you played it here today...

Waluigi pinball is as great as ever, and I loved what they did with Kalamari desert.
The Tour tracks were fun but not quite as charming as Paris.

Just finished playing on the wave 2 courses at least once! I played them all in Grand Prix (150cc), and a few of them in online multiplayer. I'll go ahead and rank them as well, though I have a hard time ranking stuff in general, especially since every course is so different from each other.

1) Kalimari Desert
This was one of the courses that I wanted for the BCP, and I'm happy with how it turned out here. It's a nostalgic course for me, and I love the old west theme and the train going around! I like how you'd go on the train tracks as well, and the remixed music here is nice. It's definitely the best version of the course, I find - pleasantly surprised with this one!

2) Sydney Sprint
Really enjoyed racing on this course, too. Might just be the best real-world course in the BCP, and I love its visuals and music. It's also surprisingly long for a Mario Kart course, with many turns, but it's not too long I don't think.

3) New York Minute
I must admit that I'm a little biased towards this one, because - fun fact - I'm from the state of New York! I've visited NYC in real life a few times as well. As for the course itself, it's another fun one. Lots of turns of course, and I adore the NYC theme. I will also add that the music is absolutely fantastic - I might even say it's got the best music out of everything from wave 2!

4) Waluigi Pinball
This was one of my favorites from Mario Kart DS, and I'd say it's just as good as it's always been. Love the pinball theme and how it's got its own item roulette sound. It's got the same music as DS Wario Stadium - kinda wish they remixed the music for this one course, but it's no big deal.

5) Mario Circuit 3
A simple, yet classic course with quite a few turns, and I've always loved the SNES Mario Circuit music. I kinda wish they picked Mario Circuit 4 over this one, since that has not been remade for a Mario Kart game, but it'll do.

6) Sky-High Sundae
A pretty solid track overall, and I love the ice cream theme. What's also noteworthy is that it's an anti-gravity course, I think it's the first BCP course to have any sort of anti-gravity section. Kinda odd that the center railings give you spin boosts, and the visuals could be a little less...bright, I guess. I did fall off course in around the second half because of that, I didn't know I would until it happened.

7) Mushroom Gorge
It's not one of my absolute favorites, but it's still a decent one. I definitely like the bouncy mushrooms here! My only real critique is that it seemed to just reuse the original music, though I was told that it's remixed ever so slightly.

8) Snow Land
Again, not one of my favorites, but it's still decent. Just a bit simple, I find. I do like the remixed music at least!

I might like this batch of courses a bit more than wave 1 overall! Looking forward to spending more time with them.

Oh thank goodness the articles and the pitchforks were making it seem like Nintendo gave us some flash games rather than you know, new tracks to play.

Just finished my first races with the new courses....and they seem better? Depends on the track.
Waluigi Pinball, Mushroom Gorge and Kalimari Desert are my favourites, and they probably needed the most work in terms of unique features/animations. The rest seem like ports from Tour with some added spectators copy and pasted around. I suppose they all can't get the same amount of attention.

Whoever is working on this definitely figured out how to do shiny floors though! It's almost too much at times.

I liked this wave, the only stages I didn’t really like were the tour ones but that was because of how cramped they felt, other then that there great!

Also the cpus will screw you over hard if they feel like it, I forgot that.

Next Tour track as expected was Sky-High Sundae, seems to be identical to the MK8 Deluxe version just without antigravity.

The next Mii costumes look like Bowser so perhaps the next track is GBA Bowser Castle 3:

@TowaHerschel7 I interested in bug where I believe in same stage doing certain shortcut you can stuck and need restart stage, because you end up stuck in same position?!

A bit over 6 years ago:

It happened in the end, another one of the Wii U era's mysteries solved!

@Grumblevolcano Wow, I had completely forgotten about that Tweet.

I'm definitely enjoying Wave 2, but is anyone else having an issue with the really bright lights in the launcher tunnel in Waluigi Pinball? I never had an issue with the original DS version. Maybe it's just because it's in HD and the colors come much brighter and faster, but it bothers my eyes.

Having played the tracks I have to say how I’m still surprised how negative a minority on the internet has been about the DLC. I get that there’s a group that’s desperate for MK9 and they see this as somehow denying them what they want. I also agree that the DLC tracks aren’t all at the same level of polish or quality as the original tracks.

The thing is though that the DLC does make the game overall notably better. I mean clearly having Waluigi Pinball and Ninja Hideout alone does that - even if the other tracks were all awful (they’re not) those are great tracks on a par with the best tracks in the base game.

My initial impressions is that the brand new track and Kalimari Desert are the highlights. Kalimari Desert was already a highlight of 64 but pulling in the Tour gimmick of changing things up each lap was a surprising and inspired choice that I'd love to see more in retro courses.

@Grumblevolcano There’s no way they new, did they?

Tour is getting a multiplayer update at the end of September (new ways to play), battle mode perhaps?