
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just keeps getting bigger, and Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass has just dropped!
As with every new DLC, two new Cups have been introduced to the mix — the Rock Cup, and the Moon Cup. And each one has four returning courses from Mario Kart history.
But alongside Wave 3's arrival, Nintendo has announced that a brand new free update is also available today, and it brings with it 'Custom Items' for certain multiplayer modes. This is available for all players (you don't need the DLC) and is a bit like Smash Bros. where you can pick and choose what items you want to appear on the course.
This new feature is available both offline for VS Races and in some online modes. You can also use this to give specific items to teams in Team Races and Battles. So we're either getting rid of the Blue Shell or having Blue Shell-only races, right?
In case you've forgotten, here are the eight courses available in Wave 3:
Rock Cup
- Tour London Loop
- GBA Boo Lake
- 3DS Rock Rock Mountain
- Wii Maple Treeway
Moon Cup
- Tour Berlin Byways
- DS Peach Gardens
- Merry Mountain
- 3DS Rainbow Road
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Let us know when you'll be hitting the races once again with these brand-new courses, and share your feelings on the Custom Item update in the comments!
Comments 63
Looks like another nice addition, will be updating as soon as I get home from work, Peach Gardens was always a favorite of mine.
Great! Looking forward to some Mario Kart this Christmas vacation!
Genuinely forgot this was out this week until yesterday, fair to say I was a bit surprised to see all these livestreams for it popping up seemingly out of nowhere.
Super excited to play this wave though: brings back some of the best tracks in the series (with some utterly gorgeous remixes to boot) in addition to adding some awesome looking Tour tracks to the mix as well (can't wait to play Merry Mountain for the first time). Also, WHY DIDN'T THEY MENTION CUSTOM ITEMS BEFORE NOW?! THAT'S AMAZING!
Now that's a welcome addition! Gives me some more hope for new character inclusions too.
Not too much more hope, that's still very small, but still. Thanks Nintendo!
More than the new courses, I'm looking forward to try out the Item Switch.
That will be nice to remove some of the annoying items, makes me hope that eventually we’ll get an option to randomly choose a course
Not a bad lineup of tracks, would've swapped the DS Rainbow Road for an N64 track
I forgot that custom items was something I wanted!!
I'm looking forward to playing these new courses once I get home from work.
Can't really afford any new games this winter, but at least this already payed for!
And they look pretty good, I wonder how rough the first wave will look once the DLC is finished...
This actually a really cool update, I’m glad they’ve decided to put this in as a counterbalance for the more frequent items ;”for those who didn’t like that change a ton. A decent selection of courses this time too, although we are desperately missing a double dash track.
@Kimyonaakuma they did retroactively update a few of the wave 1 courses when 2 came out, perhaps they’ve been polished up again this wave?
One thing I’d like to see return that I remember doing in double dash, was being able to go thru Grand Prix over a longer stretch of cups. I think you could race thru all the cups in one stretch for the gold, that’d take an eternity on this game, but if you could adjust how many cups or select from a number of tracks to have a race for the gold that’d be a nice way to mix things up.
I have it on the pass but can never remember how to download them. Can someone remind me?
@Grandiajet you can just update your game from the home menu just press the + button when Mario kart is selected and they’ll be there once you update it.
I just did a race of all 8 new tracks, and I can already say this is hands-down the best wave of DLC so far. The city tracks are actually a lot of fun. Maple Treeway was given so much justice--I love the remixed music. I legitimately started to get teary-eyed whenever I landed on the moon in 3DS Rainbow Road and the music got all soft. Just magical. I even enjoyed Peach Gardens, which was one of my least-favorites back on the DS and Wii. They even made a surprising change that really threw me for a loop. Just an-around great package with none of the tracks sticking out as being exceptionally average. My only real complaint is that Rock Rock Mountain suffers the same graphical curse as tracks like Mushroom Gorge and Choco Mountain where Nintendo is just refusing to put decent textures on rocky mountainsides for some reason. I'd expect the visuals of Koopa Cape to be similarly subpar if that one gets remastered. But otherwise, great stuff. I am a happy boy!
@USWITCH64 I think we downloaded different DLC, lol.
I think nintendo should drop the act and include in the next mario kart EVERY COURSE, CARACHTER, ITEM and VEHICLE EVER CONCEIVED AND PUBLISHED for mario kart plus (let's call it MARIO KART DELUXE REMIX SUPER INCREDIBLE ULTIMATE TRACK or something ) and also add a mk builder for tracks and vehicles with many options. i'd pay big bucks for that.
still, as tomorrow is festive in italy, me and my kids have something to do over the day.
This was definitely the strongest wave. Merry Mountain, Maple Treeway, and 3DS Rainbow Road are some of my favorite tracks in the series and they carried the whole wave on their shoulders, but the remakes of Boo Lake and Rock Rock Mountain are pretty great too. The city tracks felt a bit more forgettable this time, especially London Loop, but I think I just need to play them more. My only disappointment is Peach Gardens which is still great but feels like it's been simplified a bit.
Even then, my favorite experience with this update so far was turning on Only Blue Shells and watching the chaos unfold.
Just had a quick play. Nice selection of tracks.
I like that I never played Tour because it means London Loop and Berlin Byways are totally new to me and so I have zero clue which way turn on first playthrough! xD
Merry Mountain is cool, but a very simple track overall and in terms of layout feels too similar to Sky-High Sundae. Aesthetics are nice and Christmassy though.
Is it just me or is the AI more intense in these Booster courses? Their green shell shot accuracy is mental! xD
Not sure why it had to take a near decade but cool to see about the custom items. Should be interesting playing with friends in local multiplayer.
Wonder if next wave they will offer a bunch of the outfits etc for various characters from Tour.
I'm very much looking forward to turning off coins.
Custom items! And the new tracks look great. Looking forward to some Mario Kart tonight.
Does this mean we can finally use the feather item in races???
The custom items may tempt me to upgrade, as I hate the ink weapon and don't play the game often for that reason (I struggle to see what's going on without my screen being blocked).
@AlexHarford its a free update, no need to get the booster pass just for that feature. I haven’t bought it yet but have it because of the n64 subscription thing
Can’t wait to play rainbow road again!
YES!!!! I was already stoked to get those tracks downloaded but the addition of item control in multiplayer similar to Smash....absolutely! I play a lot of local multiplayer in my house and I'm excited to see what green shells & bananas "only" plays like. Also, what's a turbo only play like? Really excited.
True madness is 200cc with only Crazy 8s enabled.
@Moonlessky Even better, thanks for pointing that out. Given I'll play the game more, it'll probably encourage me to buy the booster pass for the extra tracks anyway.
@USWITCH64 Uhh what? Boo Lake is awesome and the graphics are top notch. Love when you go under the lake! Overall this is easily the best looking of the 3 waves thus far. Grass and rock textures are still kind of blah, but I'm used to it now. Oh and long last I finally got my beloved Maple Treeway in MK 8 in glorious HD!
Alright the fact that they are releasing free updates amid the dlc is actually making me not such a grinch when people suggest new characters. There was also a recent datamine where they are slowly altering background character data like rivals or something, which also hints at more roster shenanigans.
I still don’t think it’ll happen but now I’m not thinking it’s entirely impossible.
Merry Mountain is nice and pretty, but 3DS Rainbow Road is gorgeous. Like the half-pipe stunts as well.
One thing though - never noticed it happening before, but has anyone else been clipping through the force-field course arrows?
@CharlieGirl Imagine doing coins only
@Coffeemonster Actually this just happened to me for the first time (to my recollection) and I was curious on this as well. Maybe it's always been a thing🤷♂️, But our minds are so melded to the older tracks that we begin the turn early enough,thus not getting close to the barriers in the first place?
What I'm holding out for is the hope that they'll add a lap modifier like some of the past games have had,as well as to race all tracks in one tournament-style cup. 96 tracks,9 laps,200cc and only single mushrooms. That's my dream 😂
If you want to sever ties with no-longer-loved ones without the pain of long and awkward conversation(s), just play with...
All.
Blue.
Shells.
Thanks, Nintendo!
A good update, would be nice if they give us a Double Dash Mode in the next one.
Ok, Nintendo!
I’ve literally wanted this mode my whole life, I can finally play with ONLY coins.
While part of me still pines for the Tour costumes in 8 Deluxe and I still believe not adding battle stages was a missed opportunity, I’ll happily take a small, yet significant update like item customization. Why have I never thought about what a race with just stars or gold mushrooms would be like? And at 200cc on top of that! I’m not expecting anything major in the future but I might be a little more intrigued to see what future waves might bring.
Luigi Circuit, no items, standard kart, Toad only. Just like Melee Fox on FD no items!
3DS rainbow road. I see my blood pressure is gonna go up.
Can't wait to get home and race against my kids, this has become sorta like a family gaming tradition now
@EriXz Same. We have Mario Kart night planned already!
OMG! This was a feature I've wanted in 8 for years now! Turning off rhe boo right now.
@USWITCH64,
Most seem to be liking this the best, I will have a go later just to see, but I guess we can't all like the same things.
Baby Park, 200 cc, 8s ONLY. Let's get chaotic.
So glad the custom items option is back. That was one of my favorite features in Mario Kart Wii.
I am absolutely mortified that I missed the custom items update. I just got done with completing Wave 3 this morning and I enjoyed it. But I was unaware of the custom items update until I saw this article! Such a pleasant surprise!
@OFFICIALMichi I know a lot of people will point at the roster's overabundance of reused character ideas, like there are five Marios, four Peaches, and thirteen... KOOPAS! But as much as I would like more unique characters in the roster, I think what Mario Kart 8 Deluxe needs more than anything else is some new battle maps.
Remember back on the Wii U, the battle mode seemed like such an afterthought because there were no arenas, only race tracks? Now we have a small handful of proper battle maps, but while the course selection for racing on is doubling, the arena selection is still the same, leaving me to feel like the battle mode is once again an afterthought.
Seeing Nintendo add small updates to the game is really nice, and I still have hopes that they'll add at least a few more battle maps eventually.
@OwenGamer22 Nicccccccccce profile pic, be a ssssssssssshame if ssssssssssomething happened to it...
Hm... If free updates mean we might get characters... I'd expect: Pauline, Diddy, and King Boo I think. Definitely characters that are in Tour to reuse animations, and those are all notable omissions in 8.
If this means I can enjoy the game with no Piranha Plants wasting my item slots, I'm sold.
I forgot it came out today! Glad so I can boot it up first thing this Friday!
Am I alone in vowing to eliminate Lightning, Bloopers, and Blue Shells from all my future VS races? They're just such terminally annoying power ups that literally only make the game less enjoyable to me. Finally, an update that brings something a Mario Kart game (every Mario Kart game, TBH) badly needed.
"Item Switch for Mario Kart (Wii U)"
It's been so much time for this to finally happen!
Ugh, still in the middle of No Man's Sky shenanigans at the moment, so trying the new courses out may have to wait.
Blue Shell-only races do sound like a splendid idea though.
Do you need to the DLC to play'em online?
Nice, finally an option to turn of Lightning and Blue Shell. Speaking of Blue Shell, I much prefer the item they had in Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformers. You could unleash a swarm of robot wasps in front of the 1st player but with skill you could actually dodge all of them. Not that you couldn't dodge Blue Shell in many Mario Kart games but it mostly required a specific item or very spesific circumstances to pull it off.
Ikaruga Series: Fire Flowers only
Barry Allen Classic: Mushrooms only
Tyreek Hill Trilogy: Triple Mushrooms only
Hellen Keller Memorial: Bloopers only
Muggsy Bogues Melee: Lightning only
David Bowie Tribute: Starmen only
Pete Mitchell Dogfight: Triple Red Shells only
Rick Moranis Ruckus: Piranha Plants only
The Three British Idiots Grand Tour: Bullet Bills only
Paul Hogan Power Hour: Boomerang Flowers only
HudsonSoft Hoedown: Bob-ombs only
Dirk Diggler Duel: Super Horns only
@Debo626 No, you definitely not alone! I was remarking last month to my dad about how much I wish we could turn certain items off, but I never thought they'd actually add that. Imagine my surprise when I got on earlier and discovered that feature without knowing it was being added!
Finally...I can say sod off to all blue shells, bloopers, lightning bolts, boos (because nothing is more infuriating than getting an item stolen from you right as you're about to use it to defend yourself from a red or blue shell), and coins
@Giygas_95 Love your comment! And this part: "Finally...I can say sod off to all blue shells, bloopers, lightning bolts, boos (because nothing is more infuriating than getting an item stolen from you right as you're about to use it to defend yourself from a red or blue shell), and coins"---I completely agree! I tried a VS race last night with all your settings above but I stupidly left coins on and, yeah, not doing that again. I usually end up in first and don't need coins, I need items with which to defend myself from red shells. I learned something lol. Tonight = no smegging coins 😂
@Agent_P thanks, sorry for late response
@OwenGamer22 loud 'splosion noise
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