Nintendo has officially released Wave 6 of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course DLC, and with that, the game has come to a close. It’s bittersweet, as I’ve been playing some variation of this game for 10 years now. I still remember getting Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U from my grandparents for my 14th birthday. I had just finished a soccer game, and I couldn’t wait to get home and play it. Now I’m 23, and the game’s 2017 Switch port has double the amount of courses. It’s the best selling video game on the Switch, and it’s hard to imagine the system without it.
Since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s initial launch in 2017, it seems like everyone was confused by whether or not we’d ever see a new Mario Kart game, a Mario Kart 9, if you will. While the Booster Course DLC is essentially the quantity of another game, it still uses the same mechanics as the base game. With Wave 6 concluding the multi-year expansion, we’ll hopefully see a new Mario Kart in the next couple years. This will most likely be on the Nintendo Switch 2, which is heavily rumored to launch in 2024.
Don’t think that I’m already eager for the next game though. I’m perfectly content with continuing to get my Mario Kart fix with 8 Deluxe for now, especially with the new Wave. While the quality of the Booster Course has varied, I’d argue that Wave 6 is easily the best we’ve received. I don’t think there’s a single bad track in the two cups, and some might be the best in the entire DLC.
Still, some are better than others. How do certain tracks stack up too each other? That’s what I’m going to find out. Let’s take a look at the new Acorn and Spiny cups and rank the tracks from worst to best.
3DS Rosalina’s Ice World - Spiny Cup
This isn’t a bad track by any means, but we have to start somewhere. I never cared for the original version of this track in Mario Kart 7, and this is a pretty faithful adaption. I’m not a huge fan of ice tracks to begin with, and I don’t really see why Rosalina suddenly has a world made of ice. I feel like it would’ve made more sense if the track took place in space or on the Comet Observatory, to be more in line with her portrayal in Super Mario Galaxy.
Also, am I the only one whoo gets super frustrated when the camera wonks-out on that first ice curve of the race? I know this has been a problem with other Booster Courses like Maple Treeway, but I feel like it’s most noticeable here.
Still, this isn’t an awful track. The part where you choose one of two paths in the ice cave is nice, as is the small ramp short-cut that comes after it. I’m not a huge fan of the under-water section, but that makes jumping to the iceberg above it in later laps a thrilling challenge.
Tour Madrid Drive - Spiny Cup
While I tend to think most of the Tour tracks blend together, I have to say they’ve gotten better as the DLC went on. Madrid Drive might be the lesser of the two Tour tracks in Wave 6, but it’s still an enjoyable track. The music is on-point, and I genuinely believe the varying track layouts each lap should become a staple for every track in a future Mario Kart. Also, the wide-open, rectangular areas are super unique and quite disorienting to drive through—in a good way.
Sadly, the track does suffer from the ol’ “I’m a Tour track and therefore feel like a generic city with no defining features” phenomenon. Maybe I’d get more enjoyment out of it if I’d actually visited Madrid, but that’s a big ask just to get maximum enjoyment out of a Mario Kart track. Luckily, the course does have a super memorable finale in driving through a soccer stadium. This has become one of my favorite sections of any track in the game.
Wii Daisy Circuit - Acorn Cup
Daisy Circuit was never one of my favorites from Wii, but it’s still a solid circuit track with lots of great turns to pull off. I don’t like how they put a Piranha Plant cut-out in front of the staircase shortcut, which makes it more obvious, but other than that the course is pretty much in tact. It’s also nice to experience the circuit without the weird orange hue and plastic-looking graphics Mario Kart Wii was known for.
Rome Avanti - Acorn Cup
I wanted to place this higher, but the other tracks are just so good that I couldn’t. Still, Rome Avanti is one of if not the best Toour tracks in the game. It almost feels like a version of Athens Dash that takes place at night, but the track design feels a lot better and more fleshed out. It’s one of those courses where I want to stop racing and instead just drive around to look at the surrounding area. It’s a bit hard to pick out specific areas that I like, since it all looks similar and blends together, but it still manages to feel way less boring than the other Tour tracks.
Scratch that, I just remembered the part where the Chain Chomps try eating at the track on both sides of you. That part is awesome.
SNES Bowser’s Castle 3 - Spiny Cup
Oh, how far we’ve come. To think that this used to be a flat, 2-D track from Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo. This 8 Deluxe remake might not be the most visually impressive of all these tracks, but it still deserves to be at number 4 due to the historical significance of the remake. It’s not the first SNES track to be remade in 8 Deluxe, but it definitely feels like the most ambitious.
Also, Bowser’s Castle 3 is a great time to race through. All the varying heights of different ramps allow for seemingly endless ways you can race through the track. It’s ironic how the original was extremely flat due to the limitations of the SNES hardware, and yet this 8 Deluxe version has some of the most varied heights and depths in the game. I do think they could’ve pushed the layout a little further, but it’s still an incredible track.
GCN DK Mountain - Acorn Cup
I’m far more familiar with this course’s Wii remake, but from what I can tell they did a great job translating the original to 8 Deluxe. Everything from the track feels a bit more polished and well designed. For instance, when going down the mountain in the Wii version there were large chunks of rock that you could jump over too skip a small portion of the track. I personally like that this was taken out, as it makes the track feel less jank. The track is also a bit wider in some sections, and the final bridge seems too shake in the wind much more.
There’s not a whole lot to say about this one, since it’s a retro course with barely any new features, but what’s here still remains as one of the best mountain-themed Mario Kart courses ever created.
Piranha Plant Cove - Acorn Cup
In my opinion, pretty much all the new Nitro tracks in the Booster Course DLC (with the exception of Squeaky Clean Sprint) are very lackluster. However, not only is Piranha Plant Cove the best of these “original” courses, it’s also quite possibly the best use of under-water driving in a Mario Kart game.
I wasn’t a huge fan of this feature when it was added in Mario Kart 7. The physics always felt pretty terrible while driving, and a lot of the underwater sections feel the same. Quite possibly the only exception for this in 7 was Wario’s Shipyard, which unfortunately didn’t return at all in 8 Deluxe. Luckily, Piranha Plant Cove does everything that track does, but better.
The undersea adventure is incredibly thrilling and sees the player diving downwards before scaling up ancient ruins, similar to Atlantis. It is also the only original track to change different directions for each lap, making every lap feel fresh—something usually lacking in underwater courses, in my opinion. Part of me wishes the track was a bit brighter at some points, but overall the murky, mysterious setting is probably better at night. I would put this track as number one in Wave 6, but there’s one more returning course that claims the throne.
Wii Rainbow Road - Spiny Cup
There’s not much I can say about Wii Rainbow Road that hasn’t already been said. Since Mario Kart Wii came out in 2008, everyone who played it thought one of two things:
“Wow, I love how challenging Rainbow Road is! It’s such a good finale, and I can’t wait to master it!”
Or…
“This course is WAY too difficult and I hate it. Get it away from me.”
Regardless of what side you’re on, it’s at least agreed upon that this is one of the most difficult courses in all of Mario Kart. For me, and several others, that’s what makes it so fun.
The version in the Booster Course DLC doesn’t feel as difficult, though that might just be 8 Deluxe’s controls being a lot better than Wii’s. Luckily, it makes up for it ten-fold by feeling like a much more polished and prettier version of the track. It’s similar to DK Mountain in that parts of the track that used to feel janky now feel refined and better to race on. I always used to misjudge the curves after the two giant, circular pits in the Wii version. In the deluxe version, I’m never doubting where I’m turning and can focus on having fun.
Overall, it’s the same Rainbow Road that so many of us have come to love. It might not be my favorite Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (that title goes to the brilliant 3DS Rainbow Road), but it’s still a damn good one. I definitely consider it to be the best course in the Wave 6 expansion.
With that, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe comes to a close. I’ll be sure to enjoy the game and it’s new tracks for many days to come, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Mario Kart.
Do you have any thoughts about my ranking, or the Booster Course pass as a whole? Please write to me and let me know!
Later! - Andrew