Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pack Wave 3 Review
Halfway home!
Hey!
Remember when this series was supposed to be consistent post-release insight?
Ha.
Ah well. I’m back again to provide you with another review on the Booster Course Pack, the DLC that Nintendo released for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, adding 48 courses to the 48 existing within the game in six installments of eight courses apiece — deemed “waves”.
For a link to the first review, look here. My second review is here as well, for your perusal. As with all reviews in this series, the intent is to honestly look at these courses and tell you, the consumer, whether we think it’s worth the money and time to procure this pass if you don’t already have it.
You know the drill at this point. Two cups, eight tracks.
Our first cup is the Rock Cup, comprised of [Tour] London Loop, [GBA] Boo Lake, [3DS] Rock Rock Mountain, and [Wii] Maple Treeway. Our second cup is the Moon Cup, made up of [Tour] Berlin Byways, [DS] Peach Gardens, Merry Mountain, and [3DS] Rainbow Road.
The other component to this update is something I’ll talk about after we walk through the tracks. It might be the greatest thing they’ve ever done to Mario Kart, but we’ll talk more about that in a second.
First, let’s talk about the Rock Cup.
London Loop takes my favorite city in the world and one of my favorite games in the world and turns it into… well, a completely underwhelming experience. It’s clear that every one of these 12 DLC Cups is going to start with a Tour city track as the opener, and it’s a gimmick that has not paid off at all. The tracks, while innovative with their map choices, feel bland, oscillating between too wide and too tight with no real easy way to determine which you’re getting until it’s too late.
Boo Lake, thankfully, brings us back up - but only so far. Most of the track is Ghost Valley-reminiscent for those of us who recall the track fondly (or not) from the Wii or SNES days - it’s a very fast wooden track, built angular in cornering, so it plays distinctly differently to other tracks in the cup and the game. It’s a great design for 150cc, but ratcheting it up to 200cc highlighted some of the flaws, including CPU racers eternally locked into a Lakitu fishing cycle. That’s gotta be one of the levels of hell.
Rock Rock Mountain bats third, but it’s not much of a cleanup hitter. It’s a fun track in some areas - the forest section is a highlight, for sure, as you can either glide most of the way around the middle portion of the track or you can drop to the ground for some classic item-based assault. Unfortunately, the actual rock portion of the track isn’t nearly so exciting, and it all drags a tad long sometimes. This review is also colored by the fact that I was once hit by seven blue shells in one race here during a Grand Prix. Never again.
Maple Treeway may actually be the salvation to this entire cup. Like Wario’s Gold Mine, it loses a bit of the luster that made the track so well-loved in its Wii Days - the bouncing net is gone, replaced by a glider section, and cannons work differently in this game so the exhilaration of dodging a sibling’s shell isn’t quite as present - but goddamn, this track is so good. It still holds enough of that feeling, and maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but there’s nothing like hanging a hard right into that shortcut and ruining some poor soul’s day.
All in all? Another case of starts slow and finishes strong, but this is not the best entry in the DLC series by any means. Three pretty low-rating tracks that are mostly bolstered by a series favorite out of the basement.
That leaves our second cup - the Moon Cup.
Berlin Byways is fun, for a city track. There’s a reference to the Berlin Wall being comprised partially by Thwomps, which raises so many questions that I wish Brian David Gilbert were around to unravel for us on Polygon. In the meantime, I suppose we’ll examine the track more holistically - in which case, this one’s not as bad as London. It’s hard, because I feel like so many of these tracks wind up on their own grading scale, because if I stack this one against any of the 48 from the pre-DLC track lineup, I think it maybe beats Toad’s Turnpike. Maybe.
Peach Gardens makes a return, and I really like what they did with this one - adding that adjusted third lap where you drive counterclockwise is a super enjoyable little twist, adding some much-needed variety to a track that would have otherwise felt, I think, rather lifeless.
Merry Mountain shines a lot better than Sky-High Sundae did. Another Tour track that’s branded as… well, not that, because it did technically appear in 8 Deluxe first, this one’s for all the holiday spirit enjoyers - and it’s good fun, with Santa buzzing you from above, presents aplenty, and a map that’s got enough going on to excuse some of the design misses - namely, a section of the track that’s so wide that it could fit all 12 racers side-by-side being about a third of the experience.
3DS Rainbow Road closes us out - our fourth? Rainbow Road in the game now. It’s by far the most adventurous in terms of map design, having you weave your way around planets, on planets, through one of those star transporters, an LSD trip tube, and around it all, it’s still a demanding track technically, especially at high speeds. This one’s a lot of fun, but when the bullshit kicks in, it kicks in hard here.
All in all? No standouts like Maple Treeway here, but I think the overall composition of the cup is superior in this one, and one of the better releases we’ve had yet. That’s enough for me to give this one a vaguely positive shrug.
On the whole, what’s the takeaway?
So, we talked about the cups. I think at this point we know what we’re getting with these. That, in and of itself, isn’t new information, and I’m not going to bore you with it.
What I do want to talk about is what I alluded to earlier. See, with this update, Nintendo blessed us, the loyal players, with the stupidest and best update of all time - because now, in versus competition, you can select which items you want to have available.
Has your younger brother been a turd? Simply don’t tell him that it’s blue shells only and watch as the joy is ripped from under him as swiftly as the thirty-two nukes heading his way arrive.
Need to spice up game night with your friends? Have each person pick a weapon, and cackle as it provides not only an entertaining night, but a night that’s more balanced and fair. Will the best player win? No. God no.
Goddamn, you’ll laugh though, and that’s worth ten wins.
Is it worth the money?
If for no other reason than forcing your loved ones to endure Blue Shell Hell, yes. Oh my god, yes. It’s the best thing they’ve ever done.
What’s your track ranking?
Maple Treeway is the easy winner. I think second goes to Merry Mountain, then 3DS Rainbow Road, with Boo Lake fourth. After that, it’s Peach Gardens, Rock Rock Mountain, Berlin, and London bottom.
Final thoughts
Man. I still can’t believe they let us pick the items. They better make than an option for every game going forward.
See you for Wave 4!