Topic: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I looked at gameplay of Wii Rainbow Road in Tour and the track layout looks pretty much the same though they turned it into a segment course like 3DS Rainbow Road rather than keeping it as a lap course. Segment 2 begins at the star cannon.

@Grumblevolcano Um, I don't like the sound of that... it sounds like they made the course way too quick to finish. Last I knew, it didn't take too long to complete a lap in the original version, which is why I'm a bit skeptical about how it'd potentially turn out in 8 Deluxe. Two laps could work, I think, but if they're just giving it one lap, then the race would be over before we knew it.

@MarioLover92 I went back to my copy of MKWii and a typical lap when I played was a bit under a minute. As a segment course it's way too short for MK8 Deluxe, hopefully they keep 3 laps like in MKWii if it comes to MK8 Deluxe.

@Grumblevolcano Ah yeah for sure, 3 laps would be preferable for me, too. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it's only the Tour version. If it comes out on 8 Deluxe, hopefully they'll still give it 3 laps in that version of the course.

Apparently what they did in Tour is stretch the course out to make it easier (not that they needed to, because you can never fall off a track in Tour unless you get hit by an item while jumping over a bottomless pit), that's why they turned it into a two section course. That and probably because quick track for mobile. Tour's version is definitely terrible, they ruined this track.

The booster course pass has the Moon Cup.

(I sometimes have a very juvenile sense of humour)

@NeonPizza 200cc is not a mess. Lol, although, I'll agree it seems absolutely NUTS until you learn how to turn in that mode. You have to take wider lines for the turns (see the lines I take below in Yoshi Circuit. See how I start my turn earlier, and from farther out), and if needed, fat finger your thumb to use the brakes to turn sharper.(You'll hear the tire screeching when I use the brakes.) Learning 200cc added so much more to the game. Now, 200cc is about the only speed class I like to use. It opens up more doors for shortcuts, and cutting across grass areas. .....I love doing 200cc time trials.

If you want to learn how to do 200cc, I think youtuber "Bayesic" has some tutorials. And he even has videos for breaking down tracks in 150cc & 200cc. He breaks down the techniques and strategies very well. edit: added 2015 Alex Olney video.

(I used Luigi here, but a smaller character would be better for learning. I learned with Shyguy.)

@NeonPizza If you're having a hard time with 200cc, try braking while you drift through turns. I've got in the habit of brake drifting while playing in 200cc, and it's made it a lot easier. Just make sure you don't lose your mini turbo sparks while you brake. Be aware that 200cc can occasionally appear in online races, as well.

This third wave has been awesome. Full of some of my favourites of the past, and I adore London Loop and Merry Mountain. Really feeling the lack of Double Dash tracks, though. The only game yet to see a track return with these first three waves. Give me six of its best for these next three waves and I'll be golden.

@NeonPizza I always have Auto Accelerate on, even on 200cc, I found that I prefer not having to hold the A button down all the time. My advice outside of that is to definitely use the brakes while drifting, and you can hold one drift around mutiple corners easier in 200cc. Experiment with different characters and kart/bike parts until you find something that does what you want, ignore the stats completely.

Here we go again, maintenance in an hour:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/netinfo/en_GB/index.html

@Grumblevolcano I've learned not to trust these maintenance periods if there isn't a trailer prior: I've been burned once before.

@Grumblevolcano Nah, it’s just a stability update.

In all seriousness, fingers crossed that this means there will be a new wave announcement soon.

They are starting to roll out the DLC spotlights for Wave 3, with Tour London Loop and GBA Boo Lake showing up in the Switch newsfeed tonight, so a new wave probably isn't that far away. I'm guessing early April so that they can do another tie-in course drop like with Sky-High Sundae, as there's a Yoshi's Island track datamined for Tour that's an obvious fit for the release window and for the Fruit Cup.

I mean, with the vouchers being leaked, this all seems to be building up to a direct soon, and it's pretty safe to predict the Booster Course Pack will be one of the things announced.

The next Tour track is a brand new course, Piranha Plant Cove:

This is making me think perhaps that'll be the wave 4 new non-city track and either GBA Yoshi Desert or DS Yoshi Falls (we have all the other retro Yoshi tracks in MK8 Deluxe) being in the Fruit Cup for the Yoshi connection.

Agreeing with PikaPhantom above. They just started putting wave 3 tracks in the Switch news feed. And they typically spend a whole blasted 1-2 months drip feeding headlines of the previous wave before they release the next wave. I'm really not a fan of this tactic, where nintendo news acts like 2 month old wave tracks just released.

@WoomyNNYes Wave 4 is almost guaranteed to appear in the February Direct, could be the full wave or just a teaser of a few tracks. I'd guess the full wave given wave 3 was probably only a teaser of 2 tracks because London Loop could've been considered insensitive to reveal at the time the Direct happened.

Surely there's got to be a Bowser Castle in the 2nd half of the pass. MK8 Deluxe has the most tracks but the joint last number of Bowser Castles.

• 1st (7): Super Circuit (GBA Bowser Castle 1-4, SNES Bowser Castle 1-3)
• 2nd (4): Tour (3DS Bowser's Castle, GBA Bowser Castle 1-3)
• 3rd (3): MKWii (Wii Bowser's Castle, GBA Bowser Castle 3, N64 Bowser's Castle), SMK (SNES Bowser Castle 1-3)
• 5th (2): MKDS (DS Bowser Castle, GBA Bowser Castle 2), MK7 (3DS Bowser's Castle, GBA Bowser Castle 1)
• 7th (1): MK64 (N64 Bowser's Castle), Double Dash (GCN Bowser's Castle), MK8/MK8 Deluxe (WiiU Bowser's Castle)