Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Has Been Updated To Version 3.0.0, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Need more Battle Mode courses!

Glad to see they've seemingly fixed the "item bagging" issue that's plagued online for awhile.

@DiamondCore Slower than molasses in January.

A moment of silence for Cheese Land, which will now never be picked online after this patch.

Whyyy isn't there a 96 races option in Vs.?

The biggest issue is still not addressed: the game is too easy. I just played the new courses at 150 cc and won both cups in a canter. It's difficult to appraise them when they can't be tested with tough racing. I'm grading them all an F for this one glaring omission.

Bad time to let my NSO subscription lapse 💀

"Made it so that you can’t acquire strong items when taking an Item Box by stopping or driving in reverse, or taking an Item Box that is in same location multiple times during a race."
Thank you so much for this one, way way overdue. Race or gtfo. Can't tell you how many times I've seen pairs of people game the system.

Time to announce “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Complete” all on 1 cart in time for the holidays. 😎

@MeloMan

i dont play online but im very curious, would you mind explaining this one to me?

@HalBailman How about 200cc?

Those new Booster Course Pass credits made me so happy inside. Thank you, Nintendo, for almost a decade of Mario Kart 8 greatness. One of the best games ever made.

Well much like smash bros, it will be sad to not be seeing more in line for this but it’s time to move on I suppose. It will be hard to top this one as it’s stuffed to the gills but such a great time to be had with this one. I do wish we got some more battle courses thrown in and I could do without the tour tracks for other classic tracks but this game gave me more than enough content to be worth the purchase.

Awesome... I will be playing tonight.

Now that Mario Kart 8 is finally done.... bring a F-Zero GX sequel Nintendo!!!

@HalBailman That's why you race online. The only purpose of racing against the boring bots is to get the trophys or to practice. Online or local mutiplayer is Mario Kart's bread and butter.

@IceClimbersMain 200 cc is more a special mode. It's too fast for most people and I rarely play it. 150 cc is the default hard difficulty and it should be hard, or at least a challenge! Most of these tracks, especially the Tour tracks, I've never seen, yet cruised around for easy wins. It's a joke.

@vio Not everyone has online. That should not be a requirement either to get a challenging race. Cruising around on a brand new track on supposedly a high difficulty level for first place is ridiculous.

@rjejr So long as they add in Knuckles and Dante, I could see this reprint having all 6 waves instead of 5 on the cart selling like hotcakes.

I played a little bit of it and I like what they added. I’m glad they finally added a Bower Castle track from SNES. Always loved the music in that stage. It’s been a few good years since I really sat down and played Mario Kart 8 but I should really get back into it. I think besides Daisy and Larry Koopa I think I’ll add Pauline as my main.

@-wc- it was called item bagging in short some players would purposefully drive in reverse or stop at the item box's to pull strong items in order to gain an advantage.

So they didn't fix Sunset Wilds after all?

I've sank 100 hours into Disney Speedstorm since it went f2p about a month and a half ago. As expected, my Mario Kart muscle memory went right out the window! I was bumping all over the road like a drunk driver on the 50cc grand prix, but by the time I got back up to 100cc, i was finally starting to get back into the flow of it. I had a similar experience when Crash Team Racing was new.

Anyways, the final wave of DLC was... good. The first cup was nothing to write home about; every track was just sort of average. Rome was pretty good, easily one of my favorite city tracks. I loved racing up the Colosseum and how Chain Chomps replicate the lions you'd see in a gladiator battle. DK Mountain got a fantastic visual glowup, but it was never one of my favorites. I was really hoping for Dino Dino Jungle instead, but I do still like it. Daisy Circuit is fine--it's better than most circuit tracks but still pretty basic, and the music is too soft to the point where it sounds like elevator music. Piranha Plant Cove is pretty good, but it doesn't bring anything new to the table; it just sorta feels like Dolphin Shoals and Wario Shipyard thrown together with little to set itself apart. It's still aesthetically pleasing, though.

The second cup is where things start to pick up, albeit not with the first track, as Madrid is another by-the-numbers city track that's largely forgettable. The music is pretty solid though, and I loved the little art gallery as well as the soccer field where Kuribo Shoes are kicking soccer balls at you. Those parts were cool, albeit too short. Rosalina's Ice World, Bowser's Castle SNES, and Rainbow Road Wii were all bangers, though!

I have a bit of an unhealthy infatuation with snow levels in video games, and while I'm sure lots of people are sick of how many have been added to the game already, I was happy to see Rosalina's Ice World make an appearance. The illuminescent blue caverns just look so beautiful, and other than Wii Rainbow Road, it's the only other track I can think of that explicitly references Super Mario Galaxy. The music wasn't that great even on 3DS, it's too slow and melancholic for a frenetic racing game, but it has strong N64 Sherbet Land vibes that I really like.

SNES Bowser's Castle is absolutely sick. Of the 2 Bowser's Castle tracks in the game, I think this one is my favorite. It's visually stunning with all the antigravity lava that make it feel straight out of a Super Mario Galaxy level yet still feeling faithful to the SNES original. The MK8 Bowser's Castle I feel tries a bit too hard to stand out, to the point where it ironically takes away from its identity. You have lasers, boulders, a wrecking ball, fire bars, lava geysers... it's all a bit overkill. This one keeps things relatively simple though, and I like that.

(continued...)

Of course, we end with Wii Rainbow Road, and it's interesting how all 3 of these final tracks have a strong Galaxy motif. I honestly don't have strong memories of this track on Wii, as it was never a standout Rainbow Road for me; granted, my favorite Rainbow Roads like the one from MK7 and the SNES game are already here, so Wii's inclusion doesn't upset me. The GameCube one would probably be a bit more nostalgic to me, and as a huge fan of classic Paper Mario, the GBA one with Bowser's floating castle in the background would be a glorious victory lap (no pun intended) against the dreaded Mario mandates. But, I honestly didn't have a strong preference one way or another.

That said, I do really like this iteration of Rainbow Road. It got a very nice visual overhaul, and it is quite fun to race on. The remixed music is bombastic and honestly gives me chills; it really felt like they recorded it with this being the Booster Course finale in mind and wanting to elicit as much of an emotional response as possible. All-in-all, it might be my third favorite of the five Rainbow Road tracks in the game.

I wouldn't say Wave 6 was the best wave of DLC, but it wasn't the worst, either. If you swapped the placement of Rome and Madrid, you'd have one cup of all bangers and the other cup of all "meh." It's been a great ride, but it still saddens me to see the DLC conclude without Airship Fortress and Luigi's Mansion, which are must-haves. I'm also really bummed about no Shy Guy Bazaar, among other personal favorites. Wuhu Loop was a fan-favorite. There's also so many battle maps they could add--several of which were already remastered in Tour.

I've said it before, but I hope Nintendo either announces a second Booster Course Pass or just keeps building off the already massive track selection for the next Mario Kart game. I'm sorry, but a "hard reboot" for franchises like this one and Smash would be soul-crushing. You know Nintendo would just release a half-finished game and promise to update it with content overtime that ends up not being that meaningful. Just give us all the content from the previous games and then build from there instead of starting from square one to deliver something fresh and new but objectively worse. It would be a hard sell to market a game with a fraction of the content, and Nintendo knows that.

They did a great job with DK Mountain. Best version by far, looks great in HD.

@Yosher Sadly no, but it was a long shot anyway. Best hope is that it will be in the next Mario Kart and fixed there.

@HalBailman By "not everyone has online" do you mean internet access or an NSO membership?

@TheBigK

This is how they hook you in.

Mine recently expired as well but I opted to buy the Mario kart expansion when the first wave launched.

I get to keep the tracks regardless of whether my subscription is still active

@vio

I presume he means NSO membership as obviously you can't download the new tracks without internet access

I would like there to be an itemless mode

"Made it so that you can create a Room even if you have 0 friends registered."

Right in the feels. But all in all, great dlc, great value, made a fantastic game into a legendary one. No regrets in buying it a second time for the Switch. Would even go for a third one if there is a complete physical one.

Some good additions/changes alongside the final wave of courses and the new characters+Mii costumes. The music player and nerf of item bagging are quite welcome. That said, still some missing QoL features that should definitely be added:

+Utilizing NIntendo Switch Game Invites. Alongside that, being able to play co-op with distant online friends against randoms instantly without always forcing an online friend to have to wait/spectate in order to join your group.

+96-race option in VS. mode

+Adding an optional toggle to random function in VS. mode where courses do not repeat. Even before the booster pass, a couple times I planned to do an online team 48-race marathon of all 48 base MK8D courses with 11 relatives, and I ended up getting repeat courses in the first go-about. Right now, the only way to 100% ensure that you get all distinct courses in the random queue is to manually have everyone vote for the same course, which is a huge hassle, wastes a ton of time, and is impossible without Discord/voice chat. There should be an option to eliminate or keep previously chosen courses in the random queue.

+An option to have only Booster cups/courses in the selection queue.

+The ability to have traditional, non-timed survival Balloon Battle with the ability to set the number of balloons. Frankly, it's ridiculous that survival balloon battle has somehow been missing from console Mario Karts for TWENTY YEARS (Mario Kart Double Dash in 2003 was the last one!). It has a different dynamic than the time-based one we currently have, because you often have to play with more defense, evasion and stealth if you're behind. I'm not arguing to remove or change the current system, heck even keeping things as is for online battles against randoms is fine; just give us additional options like how Smash has Timed and Stock battles for friend rooms/offline play. I genuinely don't understand how this is still missing.

With so many tracks now they should have increased the number you can choose from online from 3 to 10 or something.

At least the non-DLC owners can still listen to "Ninja Hideaway"!

Wave goodbye!

@traceman i always thought it was begging (begging for more items instead of earning them).. but now i see it with with 'a' it's not like you get a bag of items, so i'm confused now (i'm dutch so maybe it's slang i don't know)

I thought it was quite an interesting tactic btw, good players make moves the creators didn't expect, although on cheeseland it was overpowered... since the last two short cuts are so big.

@ChameleonBros adding yo your point of a 96 cup, i really thought they would make a simple addition which would lengthen the single player experience... make some remix cups: per console a cup, per theme (tour, highway, ice, donkey kong) etc..

To the people complaining MK8D is too easy: have you beaten Nintendo's times @ time trials? Both 150 and 200cc are pretty tough to beat. And you can also download even more challenging ghost data.
I found the time trials to be very challenging, far from the usual fun I have with playing Mario Kart online.

@romanista Nah, the proper term is 'sandbagging', but over time it got shortened to bagging. Either way, it was an incredibly lame and cheap strategy that Nintendo was very wise to nerf. Now if they could just balance the stats so we no longer have an annoying 'meta build' dominating. The Japanese try hards are the absolute worst with this crap! Through out the years I've watched them infest and completely take over online games with these builds. First it was Morton/Blue Falcon in the good ol Wii U game(RIP). Then it was everybody's favorite (LOL) Waluwiggler and now it's Yoshi/Teddy Buggy. I hope they at least do some more balance updates so we aren't now stuck with Yoshi/Teddy Buggy forever.

@vio Correct. The online subscription. I only resumed mine recently and will likely drop it again when it expires. Two of my friends have never had it. The regular Cups should offer a challenge. Not sure why this would even be questioned.

@Yalloo Time Trials suck. The regular Cups should offer a challenge. I'm not even demanding they be hard. While I'd like that, just some sort of difficulty that meant several attempts to win a Cup would be nice. Cruising around and winning with ease on the alleged harder difficulty is ridiculous.

@HalBailman by winning, you mean you got gold or you got 3 stars? Also, you need to consider 200cc the hard mode, not 150cc. I was scared by 200cc at first, but now I only play 200cc. It takes practice, but is doable. The first great tip I got was to use Y instead of A to accelerate in 200cc, because it makes braking button (B) much more accessible.

Between this and FF Theatrhythm’s last song pack I’m in DLC heaven

The vote system is still a joke. First time playing today and everyone picks the 2 new track options but it lands on the one person who picked MK8 Rainbow Road. Brilliant

Bah! Now I need to get a Daisy amiibo!

@vio Nope. Couch is

@ChameleonBros Woah… great suggestions! I agree with literally all of those missing QoL improvements. Especially bringing back the survival battle mode… I find that so much more fun in Mario Kart DS than the new timed setup. I don’t think it’d be too hard to implement (once the functionality is in place), either. Just a mode setting like ‘time-based’ or ‘survival mode’ for balloon battles, or even just add something like ‘unlimited’ under the match length option.

It could even work in the Bob-omb Blast, and perhaps also Coin Runners. They could have a few waves of coins as the battle goes on, adding the next wave of coins once, say, 90% of the coins on the current wave are collected. I think that’d be quite fun too.

Gonna unlock that Varia suit!

@larryisaman that's actually what i like about the votesystem.. voting increases the chance, but it makes sure some oddball choices won't be lost in memory... democracy isn't the dictatorship of the majority after all..

BTW... could people stop saying 'the soccer field'when it's clearly estadio santiago bernabeu, even the modern version which is just finished

This is the best wave, hands down. You can tell they gave it so much love, every single track is polished, which has never happened in any other wave before. It makes some tracks (like New York Minute or Tokyo Blur) look like a joke in comparison. Also the new characters are somewhat more expressive and fun.

@HalBailman I wouldn't mind some challenge or an option to make to the bots more challenging, but I don't really have any sympathy for someone who refuses to cough up a measily 20 bucks for a year of NSO. I mean Playstation and Xbox are quite a bit more online centric than Switch and have been for years now and the gamers on those consoles lap it up and pay a lot more than $20 for it, but your friends draw the line with Nintendo? Ok.. Frankly I don't think you should even buy MK 8 unless you plan to play online or have frequent local multiplayer with it.

The biggest issue was Sunset Wilds not having a Sunset. How this wasn’t Nintendo’s top priority to address for this update is frankly insane.

Imagine if they forgot to make the tracks in Rainbow Road multicoloured? C’mon Nintendo, this is basic stuff.

@beartown Correct. Won so easily that I got three stars and two stars, respectively. That's a joke. If you're suggesting three stars is the real challenge, it's clearly not anyway. Besides, the thrill and challenge of the race should be about basic winning, not annihilation.

No, 200 cc I regard as a special mode. 150 cc is the default hard mode. It's the third difficulty level and so, by implication, should offer some semblance of a challenge, if not be difficult to beat.

@vio Reality is people don't have the online subscription. Why should they? Why must they pay extra to try get a challenge? That's ridiculous. I doubt they would care about your sympathy either. For me, I want to be challenged in a Cup. Period. It's a glaring and perennial flaw in the series, and at least you wish there was a challenge. If more people speak up then perhaps Nintendo will fix this blight on the game.

@HalBailman I'm quite confused. You call one mode too easy to be called hard, while you call the hardest mode special and too hard to be called hard? It's up to you what you call what, but as far as I know, 200cc is just a hard mode in MK8. I know it used to be 150cc in previous games, but 150cc in MK8 is easier now. 200cc is a bit harder than 150cc was in previous games, but it's by no means a "special" mode in my opinion. It just requires you to use braking technique, which is actually a great fun and challenge once you get used to it (brake drifting is cool, but takes practice, as you need to coordinate drifting, turning, acceleration and braking). Also, please consider 3 stars as completing the Grand Prix, including 3 stars in 200cc. That's your challenge you were looking for. I played almost all of Mario Kart games and I think that the only game which got the difficulty right is MK8. The others are way too unfair and random.

@HalBailman Sure it is ridiculous, but Nintendo is a business and giant corporation whom is all about making money. I mean you could just as easily argure it is ridiculous that we got to play Mario Kart 8 online for free on the Wii U and the first couple years of the Switch and now we're forced to pay for it, but it what it is and I don't see it changing. The bots have been a pushover in every Mario Kart. This isn't something exclusive to 8.

@Member_the_game @vio @HalBailman

i think youd be surprised how many switch owning people dont have internet access at home, and you better believe they take their switch to public wifi to get the new tracks when they come out.

and, before someone acts like those same people cant afford a switch, then: internet access is FAR more expensive over time than owning a switch, and for alot of people its choosing month-to-month if they can afford it or if they have to sacrifice.

and, F online gaming right in it's ear, give me a challenging single player hard mode, that i cant beat the first time i try. im a grown ass man 🙂

PS - 150cc is the hardest mode available to you initially, and getting gold on every cup in 150cc is the requisite to play 200cc, therefore IT SHOULD BE A SERIOUS CHALLENGE, period.

in other words, mastering 150cc should essentially set you up skills wise for 200cc, but the jump in difficulty is so wide that IMO 200cc is a novelty and sort of breaks the game.

the idea that this is a "you" problem for not playing online instead of single player is absurd, Nintendo is responsible for making a single player game with a difficulty curve that makes sense for players of different skill levels. people saying that online is the "bread and butter" of MK havent been playing the series nearly as long as I have, i reckon. 👍

PPS - @vio

"Sure it is ridiculous, but Nintendo is a business and giant corporation whom is all about making money"

i dont see how this point supports your argument. isnt making quality games an essential part of their evil greedy corporate money making scheme?

"The bots have been a pushover in every Mario Kart. This isn't something exclusive to 8."

This would be a good argument if we were talking about the difficulty of MK8 vs other mario karts but we are not. 👍

@Spider-Kev It does, we won't get them unfortunately. However, I hope the next Mario Kart on Switch 2 )or whatever its called) will fix this.

@JohnnyMind I can't wait to try these out. It seems like they have gone out with a bang.

@HalBailman they do offer a challenge, I can see my kid managing 50cc and 100cc, but 150cc is just too hard for her.
I found more than enough challenge in the time trials, that's why I mentioned it.
Now why would you say it sucks? Is it maybe too challenging for you then?

I usually go through the cups once or twice, then I take it online, there's always better racers than me, so finishing first there is quite the challenge.

Just been around the new DLC tracks, I love what they did with Bowser Castle 3.
The music player is a great addition, but I've already got all of the songs to listen to on my PC. Big Blue is by far my favourite.

@vio Why are you changing the subject? Anything could be ridiculous. The weather is ridiculous. This conversation is fast becoming ridiculous. The issue is MK8 is too easy. You agree that is ridiculous, and yes, it's a perennial problem. That's it! End of story. Stop making excuses and let's hope Nintendo finally do better.

@beartown Stop rewriting my words. I said I regard 200 cc as a special mode. That is MY opinion. You're not forced to agree with it. As you say, 150 cc is the traditional hard mode. Except it's never been hard in the 3D era. Even if you believe 200 cc is the new hard mode, 150 cc still should offer a modicum of a challenge. It doesn't, and it's a joke.

@Yalloo No they don't offer a challenge. Otherwise I would not have won each Cup first go with at least 2 stars. We're talking about experienced players, not children. If you're unaware, there's no items and chaos in time trials. I enjoy the core game the most and it's about time it offers a genuine hard difficulty.

@HalBailman you really use some twisted thinking pattern about these modes. 150cc was never hard in 3D era? Not sure about that neither, because I played MK7 not long ago and even when my driving was near perfect, sometimes I lost due to bad luck (being hit all the time).

@HalBailman thanks for sharing. Just too bad you can't really enjoy the game as it is.
I find that the difficulty is pretty good in this game. There are easy, fun, normal, hard and very hard challenges all over the game. You must be too good at it, maybe time to look for another more challenging game for you to enjoy!

@-wc- It was me whom said online OR local multiplayer(thanks for conveniently leaving that part out) is the bread & butter and no, you most definitely reckon wrong because I'm an old man in my 40s whom grew up with the SNES and owned Super Mario Kart when it was a brand new game. How bout you? I stand by my statement. It was all about local multiplayer in the early titles until online came into the picture with DS. Mario Kart is about as much a single player experience as Smash is. Like I said, I would also like more challenging CPU opponents, but not enough to rage about it on a gaming site.

Boo for not fixing Sunset Wilds, this is a terrible update.

@HalBailman then play 200, and play online. series was never oriented to very robust single player play

@vio

"(thanks for conveniently leaving that part out)"

yeah, you caught me 😅

"How bout you?"

im 38. i got SMK in first grade, and played every one since. it is one of my favorite series' ever and ive mostly played it single player offline. different strokes!

"I stand by my statement."

I don't think you are even necessarily wrong and it's my bad for assuming you simply didnt remember the long history of offline SMK titles ✌️

"Mario Kart is about as much a single player experience as Smash is."

Clearly we have a difference of opinion. 👍

I don't think anyone here is raging 🙂 i hope i havent offended you with my shenanigans, i do admit that i took your words a bit out if context. ✌️

personally, id like SMK to go full on esports, Smash style, with a fully customizable, comprehensive experience, in every parallel you can imagine. Especially the weapons and conditions of winning.

@Yalloo

"You must be too good at it, maybe time to look for another more challenging game for you to enjoy!"

The people want and deserve F zero! 😆

@-wc- aha, I always think the people should get what they deserve!

I do remember playing F-zero on the Snes when I was a kid, but I can't say I miss it in any way. Maybe it was too hard, I couldn't say. I remember MK being really hard when I was younger, but I'm still enjoying it a lot. It was sometimes really driving me and my brothers crazy that our parents had to intervene. And playing that old SMK today, I completely understand why.

I have downloaded F-zero 99 but didn't even try it yet, not really interested so far.
I do love both F-zero tracks in MK8 though, and especially the music. So there must be some nostalgia there ..

@Yalloo

i loved og fzero on snes as a kid, and i owned and loved (and mastered once upon a time) fzero x on 64 and gx on gamecube. i still love og fzero but im lukewarm on 99, it controls different enough (and worse imo) that it doesnt really push the nostalgia buttons OR really deliver a satisfying experience IMHO. its not trash but its not "it."

i do highly recommend X and GX, regardless if you like og or 99, as they are two of the best racing games of all time, antigrav or no. again, IMO. 🙂👍

PS - i play GX on my gamecube all the time still, and ive been getting back into x on NSO though ill warn its not QUITE the same experience as on 64. still closer than 99 is to OG though ✌️

@Ironcore Customize items. Set it to Boos only. There you go.

@-wc- I will have a look at it one of these days, I mean the 99 one. Never played the N64 one (also just have the regular NSO), and I didn't own a gamecube.

But thanks for sharing, it warms my heart to see people still playing their older games and systems. And I would be one of them if I hadn't lost all my old consoles with a flood. I only go as far as the Wii. And it's fine, I've fot plenty of games to keep me entertained.

As a big F-zero fan, I'm curious what did you think of the F-zero circuits they did in MK8D?

i mean im sure this has occurred to you but if your wii isnt backwards compatible you are really missing out! 😆 it could be worth the upgrade!

though, to be honest i love my collection but i dont see myself adding to it any time soon at current market prices 😬 at least for the old games im into.

(i wonder if running gamecube roms on wii is a thing? 🤔 i simply never thought about it before.)

to be honest i got the hookup on a friends family play so my privilege is showing 🫣 i forgot i had the expansion pass and thats why i have the games. whoops!

ive been fortunate to be able to keep essentially all of my consoles, and lucked into some at thrift stores and things along the way. and, so damn sorry to hear about the flood, what a nightmare 😞 i get paranoid thoughts about my collection sometimes, it is so dear to me. 😬 i suppose i could insure it? did you have similar thoughts? (not to press the wound as it were, but i am curious.)

about the fzero mk circuits: great tracks! i think they are among the most fun in the entire game.

its not fzero, like at all, but the fzero aesthetic is so good that ill always welcome it! and they are fast, ill give them that. good stuff 👍

cheers

thank god, i hate item bagging, it's such a boring strat

I'm with @HalBailman that 150cc is far too easy, and 200cc is more of a special mode. The CPUs in 200cc aren't even any more difficult - they drive off the track and into walls just as an unpracticed player might. Mostly the mode answers the question "what if Mario Karts went really fast?" which opens up funny interactions such as taking shroom shortcuts by simply... hopping over them, or outrunning blue shells. That's right - if you drive without hitting walls, you basically go at the same speed the blue shells travel at, and can outrun them for a whole race. Hard mode!! Even the competitive multiplayer scene defaults to 150cc.

I never played Tour and had limited access to MKWii, so I went into half this wave having not played the tracks. I took poor lines and routes, drove out of bounds, got blue shelled repeatedly... and still cruised to 1st on every track in 150cc. You don't even need to utilize drifting or items, because the CPUs drive so slow, you pass them just by driving forward. The single player in this game plays like it's for babies, which makes me wonder what on earth 100cc and 50cc are for.

And to make matters worse, ALL the online multiplayer relies on the roulette system, so there isn't even a way to reliably pull the new tracks. The only way to see the new cups in order, is to populate your races with bots driving so bad that it's pretty much Time Trial With Blue Shells.

@topher6490 my thoughts exactly - why!!!! we have been waiting 2 years for that option!!!

Okay, now who will be insane enough to do the "1st place on all 96 courses continuously" challenge...

@-wc- yes, I also have crazy nightmarish thoughts sometimes, but I think I can still make the difference ;-P
I've made my peace with it. ***** happens.
I can also tell you that when I did the official transfer from my Wii to Wii U I lost all my save data. That was another big trauma, especially for the dozens of friends Mii I had. Nothing an insurance policy could have ever brought back.
But I've played so many great games since, and imo videogames are just getting better and better. When I play old games, it's pure nostalgia, if I play old games I didn't play younger, I usually don't enjoy them that much. And some older games I played too much, it really doesn't feel like playing anymore!
Regarding the F-zero tracks, I also think both are part of the very best. The music is a-ma-zing imo.

Have fun!

"Lowered the appearance rate of Mirror and 200cc in “Worldwide” and “Regional.""

Haven't played online in a while since my console and account are banned, but my biggest complaint was always not being able to choose your CC during online play. I only want to play 200cc 😭

@beartown That's my opinion. Get used to it. Correct. 150 cc has never been hard. The reason it might seem a little easier now is because we're all experienced, so it should be adjusted to factor that or add an extra option like a fiendish AI mode.

@Yalloo Who said I don't enjoy the game? Stop fabricating an issue to ease out of a conversation while issuing a sleight. I enjoy the game. I would enjoy it much more if I could race these Cups and it takes at least a few attempts to win so to get more out of the new content. Strolling to easy wins is a blight on the game.

@demacho 200 cc has already been discussed. Since you're probably too lazy to read back, I regard it as a special mode. Increasing the speed to an almost unnatural level is not the right way to add difficulty. Same with online, not everyone has it I why must I go there? 150 cc, the traditional hard mode, should be made more difficult. By that I mean at least offer a minor challenge, not strolling to victory first go.

@swoose Thank you. Thanks for adding some positive, informative comments and explaining the 200 cc situation better. Yes, it's not harder, it's different. It's a special mode. 150 cc is the key Mario Kart racing mode, and the regular Cups should offer a challenge. With all the new content added, it's disappointing and a major oversight that Nintendo couldn't add a new challenge to the game as well.

@HalBailman you should hire yourself as a problem inventor or something. You really try hard to twist a simple thing to make it a problem.

@HalBailman i really don't understand the need for hostility. it was an honest suggestion. sorry for not reading every single comment in this thread.

@demacho No hostility. Just an expectation of decorum and respect. You're about the fifth person that jumped into the conversation, and it just gets tiresome and feels like I'm ganged upon. Apology accepted and appreciated, and I apologise to you for any negative sentiment perceived.

In regards to 200cc, I've had "auto-accelerate" turned on forever and that works for me even at 200cc, though as a result of that I don't bother with time trials as you're not allowed to use it there.

What I want is for "Mirror" to become a separate option that you can use at any speed. So in VS it would be:
"Mirror: On, Off, Random"
instead of being its own thing tied to 150cc.

@HalBailman forgive me if this hasn't already been suggested (there's literally 90 comments on this thread) but one way to get around the lack of difficulty might be to go through Vs mode instead. Then you can select the difficulty setting along with the cc you want and play a cup with a bit more challenge at original top speed.

As for online, I think it's very affordable and well worth the investment. I think you mentioned you have a few mates with Switches who don't have online, but if all of you went in together for a year-long family membership it'd be peanuts. I don't want to presume anyone's financial situation but I think we're talking less than a dollar/pound a month if there's three of you signed up. Then you'd have access to significantly more competitive races which might scratch that itch.

To be clear, I don't disagree with you that there is room for a higher difficulty level, but I think the default setting for 150cc is sensible. You also have to remember that some people will be playing this game for the first time and are still getting the hang of the game when they reach 150cc.

@agqwestern No, "Hard AI" isn't that hard, and there's several problems with online. First, many people don't have it. Second, you're required to be online to use it so it's pointless if travelling, etc. Third, it's random tracks. How long must I play to experience the 8 new courses from the 96 possible options? Fourth, an expensive online hookup, which would require 4 subscriptions AND 4 copies of the game, should not be the only way to get a challenging race.

We're talking about experienced players too, not novices. 150 cc is simply too easy. I don't care how Nintendo fix it, I just say there must be a challenge at 150 cc in game. Please, let's end this discussion now. My opinion is 150 cc Cups must be harder. Time trials, online or 200 cc are not viable alternatives. 150 cc must offer a challenge for experienced players, period.

@Yoshif3 I'd LOVE an updated F-Zero too! Unfortunately I think it's unlikely given how we'll MK8 has sold. Producing a sequel on Switch 2 will be their priority. We can but hope!