Mario Kart 8’s new tracks are a basic addition to one of Nintendo’s all-time greats

theverge.com:

Nintendo has released the first eight of 48 new tracks coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of its Booster Course Pass DLC. It’s an ambitious release strategy that will eventually see it double the number of courses in the game to an impressive 96 in total by the end of next year. Nintendo might not be referring to these new releases as Mario Kart 9, but five years after the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — and almost eight years after Mario Kart 8 originally debuted on the Wii U —it’s hard not to hope that they might effectively serve as a sequel.

While new to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, none of these tracks are brand new. Much like roughly half of the game’s original 48 courses, they’re remasters from previous Mario Kart games. There’s one each from its entries on the Nintendo 64, Wii, GBA, DS, and 3DS, and three from Mario Kart Tour, the free-to-play smartphone entry in the series developed by DeNA.

Although there are a lot of new tracks on the way, the fundamentals of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remain unchanged since 2017. The new courses are neatly integrated into the existing interface, allowing you to scroll up from the selection screen to reveal what will eventually be 12 new cups to race through, each with four locations apiece. For now, only the first two cups are available — the Golden Dash Cup and Lucky Cat Cup. But beyond the new courses, Nintendo hasn’t announced any other new additions to the game that are on the way. There are no new characters, karts, or faster racing speeds like we saw with Mario Kart 8’s downloadable content on the Wii U.

If you approach this new DLC expecting it to act as a stand-in for a new numbered entry in the series, I think you’ll be disappointed, and given the entire 48-track collection