Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Wave 4 Tracks: March 9th

[Strafe]

The graphics look rather dull and jaggy compared to the (8 years old!) masterpieces that are already there.

 

But they play really well!

[ZOK]

Anyone know where you are supposed to enter these Shopto prepaid codes? I’ve tried entering them as a discount on the eshop website and a prepaid card via the Switch and neither works.

 

EDIT: Ignore me, you just choose ‘redeem code’ from the eshop homepage…

[Garwoofoo]

Have these tracks even been included in the online rotation? Played for about half an hour and didn’t see any of them offered at all. I hope they are not just for offline play. 

[makkuwata]

46 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

Have these tracks even been included in the online rotation? Played for about half an hour and didn’t see any of them offered at all. I hope they are not just for offline play. 

I jumped on for a similar length of time and didn’t encounter any. Though it was odd, I matched at first with one other person and the race started right away. Over the course of the session one other person would dip in and out for a race, but there was no waiting around once every one had made their track choice.

 

It was great fun. I lost every race. Really makes me wish there was an option for 1v1 matchmaking.

[joffocakes]

The new tracks won't appear in Global/Regional races until 22nd March:

 

https://screenrant.com/mario-kart-8-dlc-play-free-booster-pack/amp/#:~:text=These tracks will enter the rotation on March 22.

[makkuwata]

Huh. I have the expanded online subscription, but if I’d outright bought the DLC following the direct I’d be pretty pissed right now. I might give the tracks a spin in time trial, but 99% of my exposure to them  will be online.

[Jamie John]

Just whizzed through both cups on 150cc (got three stars in both - still got it!).

 

Ninja Hideaway is the stand-out by far, but the others are good fun. I like how the Tour tracks change in the final lap. Shroom Ridge seems to be the best of the legacy tracks, followed by Coconut Mall. Toad Circuit is the only duffer - short, dull and too wide - but then I suppose it was probably one of the simpler races on the 3DS.

 

Anyway, 8 new tracks added to the rotation is great, and I got a tingle when I first saw you could press L or R from the engine select screen to see how many new cups there were.

 

Good stuff!

 

(Also, as an aside, I played the first six tracks convinced that my trusty Switch Pro controller had developed stick drift. Turns out that the tilt controls had been left on and I was holding the controller at a slight angle . I was preparing myself to take the bloody thing apart to fix it.)

[ZOK]

These new tracks are excellent!

[scottcr]

They’re very good. The ninja one is wild

[b00dles]

They're good, I like the new ones and good to see some other oldies back. I presume the other shortcut on the clouds level isn't there because you don't have a feather? I've only done both gps once but it didn't look like the other leaf was there perhaps. Or I'm misremembering in my old age 

[makkuwata]

An outer barrier on the last sweeping corner!? Not my Choco Mountain! 

[FalconGR]

I was coming on to post the same thing - how can you possibly remove the defining feature of choco mountain? The fact that you could fall in and lose the race at the last corner is the entire point! What are they going to do next? A version of Wario stadium with a barrier under the jump?

 

Otherwise, wonderful to have an excuse to play this again. 

[DC]

When was the DLC announced? I could swear I bought it, drunk, from Shopto, but I cannot find any evidence of that now. I am drunk again, though.

 

Mid Feb. I have no record of it. I’m losing it.

[Graham S]

It would be here if you had. 
 

https://www.shopto.net/en/account/?action=digital_items#account_jumpmark

[Jolly]

Suprised at the love for Ninja Hideaway in here, it's definitely my least favourite of the new eight. But then my favourite is probably Toad Circuit so I'm clearly a very boring man. 

 

So good to be back in Mario Kart though, man. That fucking soundtrack. 

[the_debaser]

Mario Kart music is properly underrated. In fact all Nintendo racer music is brilliant. 

[makkuwata]

1 hour ago, Jolly said:

But then my favourite is probably Toad Circuit so I'm clearly a very boring man. 

Madness. They let the work experience kid make Toad Circuit.

 

I bet the absurd saturation on a lot of these tracks is their way of tricking us into buying Mario from Sunshine as a DLC character.

[Keyboard Koala]

Other scheduled tracks are:

 

– Sydney Sprint (Tour)
– LA Laps (Tour)
– New York Minute (Tour)
– Koopa Cape (Wii)
– Maple Treeway (Wii)
– Mario Circuit (SNES)
– Vanilla Lake (SNES)
– Rainbow Road (3DS)

[shynra]

Hope we get the London loop

 

(not played it but saw there's a London level) 

 

If they do have a Scottish level with a comedic distillery like street fighter 4-ill have that instead! 

[jcee]

I hope for the next Mario Kart they add some extra nuance or quirks into the handling model. Coming back after playing Mario Kart 64 a fair bit recently I feel like the handling is just too damn perfect...it just feels a bit dull to race. This sounds like an odd complaint.

[Jackson]

The second cup of 4 tracks is great. And I love coconut mall from the first cup. I like all the branching paths in the Tour tracks too, it's something a bit different at least. A good start, bring on the next 40!

[Stoppy2000]

Played this with my son last night and we were both laughing our heads off. It's such a good game and more of that is most welcome. It's going to to be immense when all the dlc is available. No idea where they take Mario Kart 9 though...

[DarhkFox]

Do the tracks show up in private lobby's though?

[joffocakes]

55 minutes ago, Darhkwing said:

Do the tracks show up in private lobby's though?

 

Yeah you can still play them in private lobbies just fine.

[ZOK]

I think the Paris track is my favourite of the new ones.

[fat flatulent git]

The new tracks are a bit easy.  I'm rubbish at Mario Kart 8 and have very few 3-star championships at 150cc but I did these two on my first try.

 

Sky Garden is maybe my favourite of the new tracks.

[Corranga]

21 hours ago, ZOK said:

Anyone know where you are supposed to enter these Shopto prepaid codes? I’ve tried entering them as a discount on the eshop website and a prepaid card via the Switch and neither works.

 

EDIT: Ignore me, you just choose ‘redeem code’ from the eshop homepage…

you can also do it online here:

https://ec.nintendo.com/redeem/#/

 

Though I then also had to go to the eShop on my Switch and re download to actually get the content.

 

For those asking about private lobbies, I believe they announced that if the host has the DLC, all players can race on the new tracks even if they don’t have it, though not put this to the test

[makkuwata]

6 hours ago, jcee said:

I hope for the next Mario Kart they add some extra nuance or quirks into the handling model. Coming back after playing Mario Kart 64 a fair bit recently I feel like the handling is just too damn perfect...it just feels a bit dull to race. This sounds like an odd complaint.

Agreed. I’m not going to argue against this being the best Mario Kart game, but being able to ride the apex of a corner from any position on track is getting a little stale.

[ZOK]

I think that’s a fair criticism, but it only really applies when playing one up against the cpu. Play it how it’s meant to be played, which is four human players round the telly plus Hard cpu and Frantic items, and good luck to you.

[CheekyLee]

NInja Hideaway ... oh my!  I went from thinking "Ah, it's the new Bowser Castle." to "Cool, it's the new Baby Park!" to "Wait, I can still go higher?" via "WHERE THE **** AM I GOING?" Yes, I fell off the course more times than I would have liked, and definitely more than I'll admit, but most of it turned out to actually be my own fault for not paying proper attention. I've only played each of the 2 GPs once in 150cc, but I have already seen enough to feel that this might become my new favourite track of all-time.  As welcome as the retro tracks are, their comparative simplicity to the tracks designed with MK8 in mind does somewhat show through here.

 

However, I am also very pleasantly surprised with the Tour tracks. I spent quite a bit of time in Tour when it first launched, so have played them all before, but none of them ever really stu k in my mind at all. Now, though, seeing how good they look and just how fast they play on my TV? Bring on New York!

 

It's a shame this is optional DLC, really. I consider it essential, and at this point I'll even take costumes and characters as in-game micro-transactions. I've fallen back in love with Mario Kart, and there are still 5 more of these packs to come. Well played, Nintendo.