Let's have some more fun with the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC by looking what may await us with the remaining waves. There have been two leaks with the release of the first wave, where we can already paint a pretty good picture. One is mined data of the current prefixes for all the tracks in the upcoming cups, which tells us what games the tracks will be from (for the most part). The other is an updated banner for the Booster Course Pass, which potentially shows us a variety of upcoming tracks. Well, let's put this all together and see what else there might be.
Spoilers ahead! If you don't want to know any of the leaked stuff, stop reading right here. You've been warned.
Let's start with the mined course data. Following are all the names of the future cups and the currently known retro labels for their courses. Some of them don't have any, but this is also true for Ninja Hideaway, where this data will probably get filled with upcoming updates.
As for the new banner found by Joshua 'NantenJex' Goldie, it's not clear where he got this from. But there's an upscaled version provided by Jolimations, which makes it easier to see the tracks:
It looks like this is mainly images of tracks from Mario Kart Tour slapped together, which accurately describes the whole DLC anyway. But there is what seems to be the trick variant of Choco Mountain next to Luigi's right arm, which doesn't really make any sense, unless not much thought was given into making the new banner. So, don't expect any shown courses here to be guaranteed.
Still, since all the new tracks are very likely going to be ported over from Mario Kart Tour, everything already in the mobile game is up for consideration anyway, where it makes sense to take a look at the list of courses for the game and remove what's already in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
This compilation doesn't cover any remixed courses or courses that aren't in the game yet, of course, like Coconut Mall for example or upcoming city tours. So, just because a course isn't in the above list, it doesn't mean that it won't make it. There is still a lot of time until the end of 2023, where Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will continuously get additions.
And this list doesn't really fit well together with the numbers that we have above anyway, where apparently there won't be so many SNES and Nintendo 3DS courses, while GameCube and Wii are said to get more than what Mario Kart Tour already has. Even Mario Kart Tour itself only provides eight out of the dozen original Tour tracks so far, where at least three more city tours would be needed to start each new cup with a different real life city inspired course. And there is probably one more original course coming to Tour.
Also, there's are so many courses from Mario Kart 7 in Mario Kart Tour that it will be hard to pick between them. It would take all of the seven unlabeled tracks to cover the above list of Nintendo 3DS courses and this doesn't even include the two Wuhu Island tracks yet, which feel like a must-have and will certainly come to the mobile game at some point. Overall, the tracks from Mario Kart 7 will make for some of the best additions to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, because this is the game that has introduced the different driving modes. Even if there won't be any anti-gravity sections, these tracks will at least make good use of the glider and offer some great underwater tracks as well, e.g. Wario Shipyard.
In the leaked banner you can already spot the 3DS Rainbow Road and the Rock Cup will very likely feature Rock Rock Mountain, where there isn't much room left, really. With in this mind it's absolutely baffling that they went with the simplest track from Mario Kart 7, Toad Circuit, instead of something like the amazing Shy Guy Bazaar...
At the same time we will be getting more GBA tracks than what there already is present in Mario Kart Tour, unless they are giving us both of the Bowser Castles, which would be lame. Those courses will most likely end up all being very short and simple as well, similar to Sky Garden. While that's not a problem in itself and it's nice to have some more carefree tracks, it will be disappointing if we end up getting many simple courses over some more interesting ones. In the end it's all their ripe for the taking.
And this raises one big question: Why not just have it all?
Well, the answer is that currently "only" 48 additional courses are planned. And if these courses were made in the quality of the base game, then this would be a gigantic effort for Nintendo, where we couldn't really ask for more. But they aren't in the same quality, they are mass-produced Mario Kart Tour ports, where their main purpose is probably for people to subscribe to the Expansion Pack of the Nintendo Switch Online service. And it's in Nintendo's own interest that they stay subscribed for the years to come, where the best way to ensure this is to keep releasing more courses. So, if we're really going the "quantity over quality" route, why not go it down all the way?
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a second Fighters Pass, where it's possible that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may get a second Booster Course Pass in 2024 and 2025. They will keep making more courses for Mario Kart Tour and they could keep exporting them to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe while they are it... The current system to swap between the cups via the L and R buttons in the menu already feels like it's meant to be expanded even further. Especially in the trophy overview of the game modes this handles quite oddly, where they could have just used a single button instead.
And with 96 courses in total we could have everything from Mario Kart 7 and pretty much everything of note from the entire Mario Kart series. The only problem is that they will eventually run out of power-ups to name these new cups after. "Fruit Cup", really?
Well, there is another problem: at some point Nintendo will want to upgrade the Nintendo Switch to the next generation and also release a new Mario Kart title for that system. But that title will most likely go in a "Nintendo Kart" direction, where their goal might be to make Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the ultimate Mario Kart experience until then by adding all these retro courses.
It won't be the ultimate Mario Kart without some character additions, however. It doesn't need any of the weird characters variations that Mario Kart Tour has, like Lederhosen Luigi, but some of the most prominent omissions from past games and additions in Tour should make it over to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as well, either as separate DLC or as part of the free updates. This includes Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Funky Kong, Birdo (with colors), Kamek, and Pauline.
Zelda from Breath of the Wild would also be great, especially after she took over the Master Cycle Zero in Age of Calamity. But Nintendo will probably save additional crossovers for the next Mario Kart game as a selling point.
Conclusion
By porting over the courses from Mario Kart Tour Nintendo went on the "quantity over quality" lane, but on that lane it won't be easy to satisfy everyone. There are just too many good tracks in Mario Kart with all of them being a favorite for someone. When the Booster Course Pass is gone and done, Mario Kart Tour will still have a good amount of desirable courses left, wanting to be ported over to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as well, where it's possible that those will all of this will be continued in a second Booster Course Pass. Oh, and there should be some more drivers to truly make this the ultimate Mario Kart collection, but everyone knew that already.
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