Topic: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

@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)

I'm no regular watcher of SNL but that's the funniest SNL sketch I've personally seen in forever.

I mean its more or less just the Grouch sketch from a few years ago, but its a really good basis for a joke, so fair enough. It also gets kudos for being "what if the joke is this child friendly series was suddenly for adults" but actually funny, a distressingly rare thing these days.

I know it's still early, but which wave do you think Piranha Plant Cove will be in?

@WaterKirby1964 If I had to guess, probably wave 4. I looked at Tour's course list in Mario Wiki, and it looks like there's four original courses that aren't based on a real city or a remixed retro course. (Ninja Hideaway, Sky-High Sundae, Merry Mountain, and as you've mentioned, Piranha Plant Cove.) It might be part of the Boomerang Cup since there's been a pattern of having the aforementioned courses part of the second cup of their respective waves. I don't think Nintendo's planning on adding Tour's RMX courses to the DLC, either.

There you have it, DS Shroom Ridge is coming to Tour:

So Tour has fully caught up with the Booster Course Pass. Sure there's the new Yoshi's Island course in wave 4 but it could come to Tour before wave 4 releases.

Interesting, so Nintendo skipped 3DS Alpine Pass and Wii Maple Treeway when highlighting tracks in the Switch news section:

• February 14th - Wii Mushroom Gorge
• February 18th - Sky High Sundae
• February 21st - Tour London Loop
• February 25th - GBA Boo Lake
• February 28th - Tour Berlin Byways

At this rate, it's looking like Wave 4 may actually release in March.

I've been saving video clips of me winning in online races, which is when I hit 1st, 2nd or 3rd places. Right now, my main driver is Inkling Boy (purple), but once the next DLC wave hits I'm going to play as green Birdo just to rub it in the non-DLC owners' faces.

There’s no way we don’t get a bowser’s castle track, but don’t expect a grand one. Maybe Castle 1 from GBA

@TheBigBlue With as many GCN tracks that haven't been leaked yet "I believe 2 or 3 of them are still unconfirmed, so I'm honestly expecting Bowser's Castle from Double Dash which is a fan favorite.

@Grumblevolcano Maybe they'll release it on the 1 Year Anniversary of the 1st Wave? Also GOOD LORD HOW HAS IT ALREADY BEEN A YEAR SINCE WAVE 1.

@LilyGoMEOW Ah yeah, that's another course I want to see make a comeback. Out of all the Bowser's Castle courses throughout the Mario Kart series, the one from Double Dash is easily my favorite. I'd honestly love more MKDD courses to make a return in general... we're three waves in and there's not a single course from that game in the BCP yet.

On a side note, I wonder how likely it is to have more kart parts as part of the next update. They've added additional ones to MK8D long before the BCP got announced.