Back in February 2022, the Nintendo Direct of that month revealed several interesting things, but not as surprising as the fact Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was to get an entire new game’s worth of courses added across the next two years. Sure, they looked as though they were ported from Tour with few changes, but those shown were all fun tracks to race on. To hell with thinking they were lesser owing to the visuals not being on the same level as the base game.

Now, two years later, the final wave has released, and I’ve got a lot of thoughts on those tracks chosen. To make it easy to follow, I’m splitting this into four sections. The first will talk about the city Tour tracks, the second about the non-city Tour tracks. The third will focus on the returning tracks from SNES to DS, while the fourth will be about the Wii and 3DS tracks. While I could do this per wave, I’m not judging them based on which wave was the best, so it makes less sense to do so.

For those city tracks, I find them… mostly fine. There are some absolute great ones among them, such as Vancouver Velocity and London Loop. For the former, there’s a great section to start taking the race along some bridges that’s tight in width but with some great sweeping turns. Then the other laps take the race around the city and even through an ice rink. The only bad routing I find with this one is that long straight going into lap 3. There just isn’t anything on it.

As for London Loop, I’ve left my bias at the door. There’s some great routing across all three laps, with the third heading for the river. Not in it, but alongside. There’s a nice mix of greenery and urban areas, with varied architecture with those urban areas to give each zone a bit of a unique flavour. The same can also be said of tracks such as Singapore Speedway and Amsterdam Drift, with the latter also having a fun section within the canals.

Some tracks have a great use of crossovers, such as Sydney Sprint with its last lap being mostly a reverse of its first, but some can get a bit complex with it. Such as Rome Avanti. Each lap takes the route to the same plaza area, but each time that route is different. At least it makes for some fun chaos if other racers are on a different lap to you. And then there’s Los Angeles Laps which, while it barely has any crossover, feels too long because of it.

Each area is distinct, with lap one on the beach and lap three within the oil fields, and plenty of city in between. But it feels like three separate routes forced together more than any other of these city tracks. I much prefer the simplicity of tracks like Tokyo Blur and New York Minute, which only have small changes between laps, over it. Even if such means there’s barely much visual change between laps.

Of the new Tour tracks, I much prefer the non-city ones. There’s a lot more interesting theming with them. The city tracks all have a feeling of missed opportunity and do tend to blend together even with their distinct identity. Meanwhile, you have the likes of Merry Mountain or Sky-High Sundae that have such a visual identity it’s hard to mistake them for any other track across the entire series. Granted, I find those two to be the weakest in terms of routing, but it doesn’t change the excellent visual design of them.

Ninja Hideaway has such a great split layout, with a high and low section of the track throughout almost all of it. It’s tough to stick to that high route at times, but it can prove to be the faster of the two routes if you know what you’re doing. Piranha Plant Cove is a great underwater race track, being the only one of the new courses to have a different routing per lap. While there isn’t a massive amount of variety per route, the underwater ruins vibe is simply lovely to race through.

Then there’s the two standout tracks from Tour. You wouldn’t think a bathroom would make for an exciting place to race, but Nintendo somehow made it happen with Squeaky Clean Sprint. From the bathtub into its pipes, then out onto the floor to glide over a toilet back onto the counter top the race began. It feels simple, but it is a lot of fun to race around. Backed up by a lovely piece of jazz music that starts slow in its first half but then pumps it full of energy for the second.

And that is something I’ve yet to talk about with those Tour tracks. The music. Every theme used here is great. There is no piece that falls flat. Whether adding to the visual theming such as with Amsterdam Drift and Merry Mountain, or just being an energetic bop such as with London Loop. As for the second standout track… Yoshi’s Island, which is so packed of references to that game on a another simple but joyous ride that it’s hard not to love it.

For the returning tracks, SNES Mario Circuit 3 might still be a flat track with barely any new additions, but it’s still a fun simple ride. So imagine the surprise for those who don’t follow Tour when Bowser Castle 3 had such a glow up that aside from the route it could be considered an entirely different track. I absolutely love it. I also love how N64 Kalimari Desert includes the alternate route from Tour that takes the race onto the train track.

DS Peach Gardens does a Paris Promenade and takes the race in reverse for its final lap, which is a nice addition. Waluigi Pinball is just as great as ever, but I feel its lightshow is muted somewhat by the Tour visuals. GCN DK Mountain I was really hoping to see, so I’m glad it made it with Wave 6. Waluigi Stadium was also another favourite of mine from Double Dash, which I am absolutely glad got the glow up it did. It looks so much like a proper motocross stadium now.

Then there’s the GBA tracks, which have all received such great visual changes. But some of them have had their routing sacrificed. Large sections changed or smoothed out. Some of it makes sense, such as Riverside Park smoothing out some particularly tight corners. Then there’s Sky Garden, which has about a third of all its corners removed with the rest drastically smoothed out that the routing barely feels the same track. Still a fun one, but the flow of it is so simplified that it feels over so quickly.

This is one of the reasons I’m hoping returning courses in the next Mario Kart game ignore whatever changes Tour made to them. As an alternate route, such changes would make sense. But as the base course? No. If SNES Bowser Castle 3 can look as good as it does without sacrificing its routing, I don’t see why the GBA tracks had to. I’ll be going into detail with more future Mario Kart hopes at a later time, but I have already touched on such with a CultureSlate article.

The 3DS tracks are all enjoyable. Toad’s Circuit may be a very simple track, but the other three more than make up for it. Alpine Pass is one of my favourites of the 3DS, so I’m glad it is here. The 3DS Rainbow Road is also fantastic, being one long circuit orbiting planets and even some moon riding. Rosalina’s Ice World was a surprise, and there are some others I would gladly have taken over it, but it does make for a lovely part of the finale.

As for the Wii tracks… why are there so many? In total there are eight, which makes for half of that game’s entire new tracks. Popularity is obviously something to do with it, as Mario Kart Wii was the previous record holder in terms of sales. But when this Booster Course Pass was first announced, I had expected a more even distribution between the previous games. Not that the selection of Wii tracks chosen is bad, of course. I was just hoping for more representation from the older games.

Coconut Mall, Maple Treeway, DK Snowboard Cross, and Rainbow Road I am absolutely happy to see here. Koopa Cape I would also be happy to see, but it feels way too cramped. Something feels off in its scale that makes it feel a bit more difficult to race on than it should. Tricking your way out of the tunnel should not land you almost at the halfpipe on the final turn, for instance. Then there’s Moonview Highway, which I never found to be interesting but now feels even less so.

Overall, this is still a full game’s worth of tracks that have been added for less than half the cost of one. It doesn’t matter much to me if there’s a few I dislike, as there’s plenty that I do. And it’s not just tracks that were added, as starting with Wave 4, characters also started joining the roster. Birdo, Petey Piranha, and Diddy Kong being added make all but Paratroopa of the Double Dash roster present. Wiggler, Kamek, Funky Kong, Pauline, and Peachette round out the roster of new characters, which has given room for people to play as old favourites or discover a new one.

On the subject of ignoring the changes to tracks from Tour, I am in no way saying that Tour should be ignored outright. I would love to see these city tracks, and especially the non-city tracks, appear in future Mario Kart games. Perhaps Tour could also mark a change in Mario Kart featuring alternate routes in general for all courses. After all, as I talk about in that CultureSlate article, it’s easier to boost the track number with alternate routes than have to create more unique themes for a fully unique track.

With the Booster Course Pass now fully out, the future of the series is on the horizon. I find it difficult to believe a second expansion will be announced next year, which means it could finally be time for a new game. Of course, any new game is likely a few years out. The successor to the Switch needs to release first. Whatever the future for Mario Kart holds, I’m sure it will be another great part of an already great legacy.

Images Taken From:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo Switch [Handheld]