StarTopic Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass |ST| Doubled Dash!! [WAVE 6 AVAILABLE NOW]

[xghost777]

Birdo is definitely the focus this Wave, but I’m not ruling out a surprise character next week either. We’ve gotten more than we expected twice in a row now (Coconut Mall fix and the item menu). I don’t think I mentioned I was happy to see confirmation this morning we are getting more than Birdo, not that it was in doubt in my eyes.

The only character I feel 100% confident making the cut is Diddy Kong. I do think we’ll get five more (after Diddy) to make a full new row of seven. No way they clump characters together. They want you to be able to select Mario with no fuss or extra possibility of it going wrong (ie hit X or whatever for alts, though it’s not a bad idea to get around it).

 

[Tye]

Tour isn't a previous MK, it's the latest one in the series. I could see Tour characters get in but with the way Nintendo worded it as "characters from past Mario Kart games" they gave themselves an out if Tour characters don't make it over.

Tour’s in a weird place because it’s kinda both a previous game and current game at the same time. While it did launch after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, it launched before the Booster Course Pass, which may as well be the “latest Mario Kart” now. After all, Nintendo has been marketing the non-city courses from Tour as new courses to the Booster Course Pass itself (and so far half of them have released there first, with the upcoming Yoshi’s Island course being the latest and best example). And regardless, Nintendo has referred to both the characters and courses in the Booster Course Pass as being “from past Mario Kart games” which includes all the Tour city courses that we’re getting, so there’s not really any reason for them to treat the characters from Tour any differently.

 

[MondoMega]

We’ll get our answer next week but I don’t think we’ll be getting any less than 6 or 7; depending on if they add another row or column. Don’t expect them to try and mix the new racers into the existing selection; just like vanilla Mario Kart 8’s DLC they’ll be stuck in their own column (or row) for certain, to separate them for people who do not own the Booster Course Pass.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Imagine if DK actually stands for Diddy Kong, and we get a reimagined Diddy Kong Racing track that coincides with an NSO release and Diddy coming to Mario Kart 8.

I always thought Dino Dino Jungle was a sneaky reference to Diddy Kong Racing. Internally, it is even listed as Diddy's personal track.

 

[Apopheniac]

Diddy Kong's voice clips in Wii were really annoying. I hope he doesn't come back so I don't have to hear about his monkey business

 

[Tye]

We’ll get our answer next week but I don’t think we’ll be getting any less than 6 or 7; depending on if they add another row or column. Don’t expect them to try and mix the new racers into the existing selection; just like vanilla Mario Kart 8’s DLC they’ll be stuck in their own column (or row) for certain, to separate them for people who do not own the Booster Course Pass.

How do you think they’ll handle that if they are adding a new column or row? Because they can’t just fit another one like they did with the MK8 DLC on Wii U or the new characters added in MK8D on Switch without scaling things down or something now, because it literally won’t fit (trust me, I’ve thoroughly checked that while making those mockups I posted earlier). So whatever they do, it’s gonna require more change to the UI than what they’ve done before.

Also, I still think there was something up with the Mario and Peach alts having their rival data removed between updates and that it may be connected to them combining characters to make room for the DLC ones. If that’s the case, a minimum of 4 could be expected rather than 6 or 7, and they’d also have to rearrange things in some way to at least fill in the open spots left by the Mario and Peach alts. Honestly, as much as I’d love more characters, I don’t really think they’re gonna suddenly be dropping a bunch of them at us on the last two waves when Wave 4 only has a single one…

 

[xghost777]

How do you think they’ll handle that if they are adding a new column or row? Because they can’t just fit another one like they did with the MK8 DLC on Wii U or the new characters added in MK8D on Switch without scaling things down or something now, because it literally won’t fit (trust me, I’ve thoroughly checked that while making those mockups I posted earlier). So whatever they do, it’s gonna require more change to the UI than what they’ve done before.

Also, I still think there was something up with the Mario and Peach alts having their rival data removed between updates and that it may be connected to them combining characters to make room for the DLC ones. If that’s the case, a minimum of 4 could be expected rather than 6 or 7. Honestly, as much as I’d love more characters, I don’t really think they’re gonna suddenly be dropping a bunch of them at us on the last two waves when Wave 4 only has a single one…

You can tighten gaps and shrink pictures down a smidge like other games with growing rosters do it. Look at Smash for example. The CSS already looks slightly different in different modes already. It might not look as elegant as it does now, but it can easily be done.

 

[MondoMega]

How do you think they’ll handle that if they are adding a new column or row? Because they can’t just fit another one like they did with the MK8 DLC on Wii U or the new characters added in MK8D on Switch without scaling things down or something now, because it literally won’t fit (trust me, I’ve thoroughly checked that while making those mockups I posted earlier). So whatever they do, it’s gonna require more change to the UI than what they’ve done before.

Also, I still think there was something up with the Mario and Peach alts having their rival data removed between updates and that it may be connected to them combining characters to make room for the DLC ones. If that’s the case, a minimum of 4 could be expected rather than 6 or 7. Honestly, as much as I’d love more characters, I don’t really think they’re gonna suddenly be dropping a bunch of them at us on the last two waves when Wave 4 only has a single one…

I think it’ll be as simple as scaling the icons down or moving them closer together; enough to fit another row for a 7x7 grid (like the Wii U version’s 6x6 grid post-DLC). I don’t think three characters each in Waves 5 and 6 is too much a stretch when they have so many more they could pull from Tour. I imagine Birdo’s eight colour alts are what will “even” things out a little.

 

[Magic-Man]

I think it’ll be as simple as scaling the icons down or moving them closer together; enough to fit another row for a 7x7 grid (like the Wii U version’s 6x6 grid post-DLC). I don’t think three characters each in Waves 5 and 6 is too much a stretch when they have so many more they could pull from Tour. I imagine Birdo’s eight colour alts are what will “even” things out a little.

My only issue with the 7 character theory is, why only Birdo in Wave 4? They'd probably spread the characters out more.

 

[xghost777]

My only issue with the 7 character theory is, why only Birdo in Wave 4? They'd probably spread the characters out more.

We could get a surprise character don’t forget or the other characters may not be 100% done. Wave 1 seemingly came in pretty hot for example comparing it to future tracks and even had one of its tracks updated later.

 

[Tye]

You can tighten gaps and shrink pictures down a smidge like other games with growing rosters do it. Look at Smash for example.

Yeah, I know, but currently the Mario Kart 8 character select screen UI isn’t built for that like Smash was. I’m not saying they couldn’t do that, just that I’m not so sure it’s necessarily the most likely thing they’ll do considering it’s never been done before when new characters were added to MK8 and it would require more work than just combing some character alts and moving things around a bit.

Another thing to consider is that if we happen to get some bonus variant characters from Tour (like, say, Dr. Mario, Captain Toad, Kitsune Luigi, etc.) alongside new returning characters added, it would make sense to combine the existing Mario and Peach variants (and/or others like the Inklings and Villagers) anyway which would in turn free up space without having to scale down anything. The “amiibo” logo on the Mii icon is already pretty small and hard to read as it is, after all, so for legibility reasons I’m not sure they’d want to make it much smaller than that…

 

[Boyfriend]

i hope you're all looking forward to the smash 3DS approach of them adding a horribly scaled second page to the character select

 

[xghost777]

Yeah, I know, but currently the Mario Kart 8 character select screen UI isn’t built for that like Smash was. I’m not saying they couldn’t do that, just that I’m not so sure it’s necessarily the most likely thing they’ll do considering it’s never been done before when new characters were added to MK8.

Another thing to consider is that if we happen to get some bonus variant characters from Tour (like, say, Dr. Mario, Captain Toad, Kitsune Luigi, etc.) alongside new returning characters added, it would make sense to combine the Mario and Peach variants (and/or others like the Inklings and Villagers) anyway which would in turn free up space without having to scale down anything. The “amiibo” logo on the Mii icon is already pretty small and hard to read as it is, after all, so for legibility reasons I’m not sure they’d want to make it much smaller than that…

Similar logic though, the course select screen wasn’t made to support more courses and they adjusted it to work. Same deal with showing trophies for the grand prix screen. They’ve already adjusted the character select screen twice in Mario Kart 8’s life, once on Wii U and then again on Switch.

If they add those features like you suggest, which I agree would be super cool and I like your mock ups, you lose out on making it as painless as possible to select Mario which is huge.

 

[Tye]

Similar logic though, the course select screen wasn’t made to support more courses and they adjusted it to work. Same deal with showing trophies for the grand prix screen. They’ve already adjusted the character select screen twice in Mario Kart 8’s life, once on Wii U and then again on Switch.

If they add those features like you suggest, which I agree would be super cool and I like your mock ups, you lose out on making it as painless as possible to select Mario which is huge.

Sure but with the course select screen and Grand Prix cups they literally just added another full screen of 12 cups; the spacing and layout didn’t change at all beyond adding a toggle to switch between the two sets of cups. The same images could be used at the same scale and everything. I’m just saying that combining some characters and filling in the gaps would be the path of least resistance compared to having to tweak how the UI is displayed when it comes to the character select screen. And I don’t think having one additional button press to select Mario matters in the slightest, especially considering that the very next screen where you select your kart parts is already a lot more complex than selecting a character.

Anyway, they could certainly still just shrink things and add another row or column for sure, but I’m not really expecting that as the most likely option, personally. But who knows, I guess we’ll find out either way next week. =P

 

[Skipper93653]

DS Mario Circuit is going to be a simultaneous launch in Tour and 8 Deluxe (well, a day a part)

 

[VolcanicDynamo]

DS Mario Circuit is going to be a simultaneous launch in Tour and 8 Deluxe (well, a day a part)

And there's the Fire Piranha Plant on DS Mario Circuit, ready to go on the course.

 

[MondoMega]

The side-by-side comparison does make me appreciate (or even notice in the first place) some of 8DX's enhancements a little more.

 

[Barely Able]

The side-by-side comparison does make me appreciate (or even notice in the first place) some of 8DX's enhancements a little more.

I remember the first wave not looking so hot and the worry around future waves, but they have done a pretty good job with the new art style ever sense. Has its own charms despite the textures being more matte.

 

[MondoMega]

There are a TON of new screesnhots in this Nintendo Dream article.

「マリオカート８ デラックス コース追加パス」第4弾が2023年3月9日(木)配信！ – Nintendo DREAM WEB

2023年末までに、第6弾まで48コースが順次配信予定の『マリオカート８ デラックス』有料追加コンテンツ「マリオカート８ デラックス コース追加パス」。任天堂は第4弾を2023年3月9日(木)午前10時に配信することを発表しました。

www.ndw.jp

Most notably, they confirm the Fire Piranha Plants for the 8DX version of DS Mario Circuit too!

 

[xghost777]

Looking at the screenshots in the article above, wow there’s a ton of detail in these new courses. Really impressed by Riverside Park especially since it barely got a short snippet in the trailer.

 

[P.Scoop]

I remember reading an interview when Mario Kart 8 came to Wii U and the interviewer asked Yabuki about characters. He basically apologized in the interview to the fans of Bowser Jr., Dry Bones, King Boo, and Diddy Kong in particular which stood out to me cause the first 3 of those got added immediately into MK8D. Then Diddy was a launch day character in Tour and the only MK vet they immediately put in the mobile game.

Feel like they got Waluigi'd. So they made up for them in 8DX and Tour.

 

[Skipper93653]

Sleeping Wiggler appreciation post.

 

[Molluck1]

I watched the presentation videos of a few tracks that interested me the least and I think I noticed something pretty "big"...
Concerning the management of the objects. I have the impression that we will have a change in the gameplay at this level: by passing on a mushroom on the ground, we do not have the boost directly but we pick it up to use it when we want.
The sequence in Riverside Park with Bowser Jr. We see that he sends a shell on a plant and we can see that the plant drops its mushroom behind a coin, then the camera changes and we see Bowser Jr taking the coin and then getting a mushroom in hand.
The camera change seems to me to be done deliberately enough that it's not very clear to understand but I think it's a big clue.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

I watched the presentation videos of a few tracks that interested me the least and I think I noticed something pretty "big"...
Concerning the management of the objects. I have the impression that we will have a change in the gameplay at this level: by passing on a mushroom on the ground, we do not have the boost directly but we pick it up to use it when we want.
The sequence in Riverside Park with Bowser Jr. We see that he sends a shell on a plant and we can see that the plant drops its mushroom behind a coin, then the camera changes and we see Bowser Jr taking the coin and then getting a mushroom in hand.
The camera change seems to me to be done deliberately enough that it's not very clear to understand but I think it's a big clue.

My guess would be you're over thinking it and the mushroom appears because it was pulled from the item box that they had only just passed rather than from the floor.

Edited because I changed my mind on the explanation

 

[Molluck1]

My guess would be you're over thinking it and the mushroom appears because it was pulled from the item box that they had only just passed rather than from the floor.

Edited because I changed my mind on the explanation

Considering the trajectory it must have go on the mushroom and therefore get a boost, but we don't see any boost. So I really think that the mushroom actually is the one that was on the ground.

 

[DenkeyKong]

So what tracks is everyone looking forward to the most? For me, that would be Singapore Speedway: song sounds great and it's got a unique vibe compared to the other city tracks thus far, and Mario Circuit DS: looks like a good old school race track.

 

[xghost777]

So what tracks is everyone looking forward to the most? For me, that would be Singapore Speedway: song sounds great and it's got a unique vibe compared to the other city tracks thus far, and Mario Circuit DS: looks like a good old school race track.

Yoshi’s Island, DK Summit, and Waluigi Stadium are my most anticipated for sure. Yoshi just looks awesome (they nailed the look and I love how vertical it is) and the other two were some of my favorites in the past.

 

[Dutch]

Still fingers crossed for the Ink Piranha Plants in Bangkok Rush.

 

[zumaddy]

Never played the Singapore track, but the vibes are good

 

[MusicProposition]

I think there might be new costumes for some characters. On one Amsterdam screenshot, Daisy doesn’t wear a crown. We don’t see her full outfit on that screenshot.

 

[Skipper93653]

I think there might be new costumes for some characters. On one Amsterdam screenshot, Daisy doesn’t wear a crown. We don’t see her full outfit on that screenshot.

The lack of a crown in that screenshot is still puzzling.

 

[BlueSpirit20]

I think there might be new costumes for some characters. On one Amsterdam screenshot, Daisy doesn’t wear a crown. We don’t see her full outfit on that screenshot.

Dude, this is massive. Also, if you zoom in at her collar in the first image, it looks like she is wearing something different.

 

[MusicProposition]

I don’t wanna hype everyone up without reason. It could still be a perspective thing that you don’t see the crown PLUS she doesn’t have a different hat which these alternate costumes normally have. I don’t know.

But it would make sense, and this is my reasoning: They’ve been bringing over so much from Tour, the costumes would make sense too. As rumors suggested and as many of us think, they won’t open up a new row of characters when Birdo comes next week, but make them alternate skins. Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach for example. That whole thing might also lead to other skins being added - from Tour.

 

[xghost777]

I think there might be new costumes for some characters. On one Amsterdam screenshot, Daisy doesn’t wear a crown. We don’t see her full outfit on that screenshot.

I feel like it is just the angle making it look missing.

 

[BlueSpirit20]

Could it be the Daisy Farmer costume? The Crown should absolutely be visible in that screenshot.

 

[Gartooth]

Every Daisy alt in Tour has her wearing something different on her head. So if that screenshot was a new alt it's not anything from Tour. I have a feeling it's just a weird screenshot and nothing more.

 

[Skipper93653]

Singapore Speedway has a slight modification to the road which makes it easier to turn from Singapore Speedway 2 to Singapore Speedway 3 so since they made that modification, that'll likely happen at one point in the track.
Tour:

8 Deluxe:

 

[Skipper93653]

Another Singapore Speedway revelation: It is section based! There is a second starting line on the track!

Side view:

 

[Dutch]

Still not convinced of wave 6 having 3 “new” tracks. Would be a bit much, wouldn’t it? Right now my prediction is that we might get some retro tracks there that had not been decided on by the time of wave 1. Especially since nu turned out to just be a test thing.

 

[Skipper93653]

Still not convinced of wave 6 having 3 “new” tracks. Would be a bit much, wouldn’t it? Right now my prediction is that we might get some retro tracks there that had not been decided on by the time of wave 1. Especially since nu turned out to just be a test thing.

Considering Wave 4 followed the datamine of 3 city tracks in that wave rather than the 2 we are used to so far does act in favour of 3 "new" tracks in Wave 6. Nintendo is essentially cramming every original Tour track into this pass.

 

[Dutch]

Okay so this one should be coming with the city tour right? What could it be?

 

[Molluck1]

Okay so this one should be coming with the city tour right? What could it be?

It's definitively a Pokey.

 

[Thunder84]

Singapore Speedway has a slight modification to the road which makes it easier to turn from Singapore Speedway 2 to Singapore Speedway 3 so since they made that modification, that'll likely happen at one point in the track.
Tour:

8 Deluxe:

Between this and the anti-gravity grates on Waluigi Stadium that (I'm assuming) won't be in Tour, it's cool to see that Nintendo is actually going in and editing the track geometry now. Even if it's just small changes, it opens the door for larger ones later on.

Another Singapore Speedway revelation: It is section based! There is a second starting line on the track!

Side view:

I knew that there was gonna be something weird with Singapore to help mitigate the length. Not really sure how this would factor in though. First lap is almost certainly SS1, but lap 2 can't just be the immediate turn into SS2. Maybe they send you through Chinatown first? Would still be a short lap though. Regardless, the lap after you pass that starting line is almost certainly what Mondo predicted a few weeks ago. SS2, with a turn into SS3 that sends you through Chinatown.

Makes a lot more sense why this is the cup closer now though.

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

Considering the trajectory it must have go on the mushroom and therefore get a boost, but we don't see any boost. So I really think that the mushroom actually is the one that was on the ground.

Nah

 

[Skipper93653]

Okay so this one should be coming with the city tour right? What could it be?

According to Tour datamines, the tour coming after the upcoming Mario Tour (so the one getting the Pokey Mii Suit) is actually going to be a desert-related tour as according to the IDs and ID theory, the ID gaps containing BOTH GBA Yoshi Desert and Wii Dry Dry Ruins got increases and the timing of those increases place it for that exact tour. According to the same ID theory, we are expecting the next city sometime in May.

 

[Thunder84]

According to Tour datamines, the tour coming after the upcoming Mario Tour (so the one getting the Pokey Mii Suit) is actually going to be a desert-related tour as according to the IDs and ID theory, the ID gaps containing BOTH GBA Yoshi Desert and Wii Dry Dry Ruins got increases and the timing of those increases place it for that exact tour. According to the same ID theory, we are expecting the next city sometime in May.

Surprised they're waiting so long for the next city track. Just by timing alone, it pretty much has to be in wave 5 then. Interesting.

As for the other two city tracks, based on the screenshots + video clips the routes both seem pretty simple. Amsterdam Drift is some combination of AD1, AD2R, and AD3 (in which you get turned around fairly quickly by utilizing an unused road right in front of the starting line), while Bangkok Rush is some combination of BR1, BR2 (which will flip everyone around), and BR3 (which will then immediately unflip everyone).

 

[Magic-Man]

I'm curious, what's everyones most anticipated track for this wave? I'm kinda divided between Mario Circuit and Yoshi's Island. It'll be nice to have a Mario Circuit that's similar to previous 3D games (I don't like MK8's version for the extreme reliance on anti-gravity instead of a decent layout), but Yoshi's Island looks phenomenal.

 

[VolcanicDynamo]

I'm curious, what's everyones most anticipated track for this wave? I'm kinda divided between Mario Circuit and Yoshi's Island. It'll be nice to have a Mario Circuit that's similar to previous 3D games (I don't like MK8's version for the extreme reliance on anti-gravity instead of a decent layout), but Yoshi's Island looks phenomenal.

Hard to not pick Yoshi's Island, but I'm interested in racing on Mario Circuit and some of these Tour courses people have been hyping up.

 

[Thunder84]

Yoshi's Island > Waluigi Stadium > Singapore Speedway > Mario Circuit > Riverside Park > Amsterdam Drift > Bangkok Rush > DK Summit in terms of anticipation for me. Very important to note that this is not reflective of how much I think I'll like each track; DK Summit could easily end up as my favorite track this wave, I just don't have much hype for it considering that it seems pretty much unchanged from its Tour counterpart.

 

[touchfuzzy]

I haven't even played wave 3 yet so I'm gonna come in hot next week with 16 new tracks to check out lol.