Even though the Master Cycle (Zero) is not featured in Tears of the Kingdom, its engine will keep running in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where two days ago the game has received new contents with the fifth wave of the Booster Course Pass. Dreams of returning courses are crushed with every new wave, so let's see what we got this time (and didn't)...
Feather Cup:
- Tour Athens Dash
- GCN Daisy Cruiser
- Wii Moonview Highway
- Squeaky Clean Sprint
Cherry Cup:
- Tour Los Angeles Laps
- GBA Sunset Wilds
- Wii Koopa Cape
- Tour Vancouver Velocity
Like in the fourth wave, we have gotten three city tours this time and one nitro course, which means that half of these courses will be new to those who don't play Mario Kart Tour. The fifth wave isn't as rich in variety when it comes to themes, where there is a lot of water summer fun, but it makes up for it with a variety in driving modes, where half of the courses actually feature under-water segments. Well, some of those are entirely optional or even off-road, but this is still more than what we've got in all previous waves combined.
On top of that, the last two courses feature anti-gravity, while three of the courses also have the half-pipe boosters, which got re-introduced to the game in wave 3. So, there are plenty of different mechanics to enjoy here, which wasn't always the case with these DLCs.
And that the themes are bit similar throughout these two cups is actually not the fault of the three cities from Mario Kart Tour, because they are as different as they can possibly get. Athens Dash, for example, takes place in some old Greek ruins for the majority of the track, which is really awesome and makes it the most unique of these town tours so far. It's visually also quite distinct and a very good opening for the new wave.
Los Angeles Laps starts at a beach and goes through an oil field during the final lap, not only showing this city from its best sides, which is unusual. Of course Mario Kart isn't the right platform for social criticism, but it's interesting that they've picked L.A. out of all these cities to also show some dirt. What they cannot show is the infamous HOLLYWOOD sign, however, because of legal reasons, but they could have replaced it with something out of the Mario universe...
The wave ends with Vancouver Velocity, which seems to be the love child of New York Minute and Merry Mountain visually. It's slightly more spectacular and has a similar flow to the excellent Singapore Speedway, which was the finale of the previous wave, but it's not as great. The Rogers Arena is filled with the stop-motion sprite audience we know and hate from Sidney Sprint, which is also true for the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Laps...
The Feather Cup ends on a completely new course, Squeaky Clean Sprint, where previously I've been dismissive of this one, but it actually turned out quite nice. It gives off real Micro Machines vibes and looks pretty good in-game, where they've put a lot of attention to detail into this one. Going down the drain in the bathtub is as disgusting as you would expect and creates a good contrast for the soapy rest of the course.
Let's move on to the classics, where first we have GCN Daisy Cruiser from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! – another fan favorite, which has also re-appeared in Mario Kart 7, where they had flooded the cellar to create an underwater section and added an alternate route around the upper deck. The version from Mario Kart Tour kept these changes, but now you will also find Goombas in swing rings occupying the pool as new obstacles. It's rare that they add new obstacles instead of just removing old ones, so that's noteworthy.
An example of removed obstacles would be the underwater tube in Wii Koopa Cape, where originally it had spinning zappers in Mario Kart Wii, which already got removed in Mario Kart 7, because they had turned this part into a underwater section. Cheep Cheeps were then added as new obstacles, but you will only see these now outside of the tube, which became one of the rare anti-gravity sections in the DLC. It's actually anti-gravity and underwater at the same time, so let's not complain all too much, since this is a rare happenstance. And they've added spin boost pillars to let you gain more speed inside.
The overall course has been scaled down in size, however, which is the opposite of what they had been doing during the early Booster Course Pass, where some of the courses seemed quite large and the drivers like midgets. It's odd and there will be some tough turns in 200cc because of that.
Like Daisy Cruiser, this course has appeared in all three of the latest Mario Kart games – Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart Tour, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – where this is actually the tenth one for this to be true during the Booster Course Pass. That's mainly because Mario Kart Tour has been re-using most of the tracks from Mario Kart 7, both nitro and retro, where many of those now found their way over to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
One course from Mario Kart Wii that wasn't already in Mario Kart 7 is Wii Moonview Highway, however, where it was one of the biggest surprises of this wave, at least for those who have been following all the mined data leaks. According to its file name, it was originally going to be part of the Acorn Cup. And this was one of the slots without any label, where it was assumed that it was going to be one of the "new" tracks, like Yoshi's Island or Squeaky Clean Sprint. But this is not the case and this increases the total of Wii courses by one, which already has seen the most love in the Booster Course Pass, outside of the city tours.
And you might argue that Moonview Highway is probably the last thing that the Booster Course Pass needed, where this is yet another city to drive through. The cars will be even the same that you have on the other courses with traffic, like N64 Toad's Turnpike, but at least it now goes in both directions, unlike DS Shroom Ridge in the first wave. And they brought back the Bob-omb cars for a new track entity. The course is also generally fun to speed through with all the boost panels, where I personally have fond memories of playing this in Mario Kart Wii, but thematically Dry Dry Ruins would have been a nicer choice for the Booster Course Pass.
Last and probably also least, we have GBA Sunset Wilds. The GBA courses have been some of my favorites throughout the Booster Course Pass, where there has been one per wave so far and the added three-dimensionality always gave these courses a huge overhaul. Sunset Wilds is mostly flat, however, and while the mining Shy Guys are cute, it just feels like a discount Kalimari Desert without any trains.
Its defining feature in Mario Kart: Super Circuit was that the sun actually sets and it will turn to night during the last lap. They even had this in Mario Kart Tour, but for some reason the change to nighttime didn't make the cut in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where the internet has not been happy about this and this blog can only echo... Maybe Nintendo will listen and bring back the nightfall in the next update, like they had fixed the moving cars in Coconut Mall, but maybe there was a technical reason behind this.
We're talking about a project here that at first looked like it was being made by a single working student, after all. The quality has increased quite a bit since then, but there are still limits to what working students can do. But if there's a technical reason behind this change, then they simply should have gone with some other retro course that they have available in Mario Kart Tour. Overall this was a bad choice and makes for one of the most unremarkable tracks in the entire DLC.
Drivers:
- Petey Piranha
- Wiggler
- Kamek
Luckily, we're not just getting courses any longer, but also new drivers, where this time they have focused on adding some enemies, where all of them made their Mario Kart debut in different games. First, we have Petey Piranha, who is finally reunited with his buddy from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, King Boo, at least on the roster. Thankfully, Petey won't obscure half of the screen any longer, since it zooms out more, but he is still the largest character in the game.
Wiggler from Mario Kart 7 is also quite large and probably one of the most entertaining characters to watch. He can keep two hands on the steering wheel while using items or gesturing with his other hands, which is quite funny. And when he turns ted, it's the perfect representation of everyone playing Mario Kart ever. Plus, it's just hilarious that you can drive Wiggler on a Wild Wiggler into wild Wigglers on Maple Treeway. Such good times.
This makes you wish that they had also brought back the Magikruiser for Kamek, who has been a long-standing request, where he made his debut and Mario Kart Tour and now is finally playable in a Mario Kart game on the big screen. But even without his bike he is still quite fun and comes with some fantastic stunt animations, where he will do magic with his wand. The wand is missing during his losing animation, though, which makes it looks like he's jerking off, where Nintendo will hopefully fix this is the next and maybe final update. That and the missing nightfall in Sunset Wilds.
Otherwise there are no big complaints here, where it's nice to have all these characters (back) in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It makes you wish that they will add more after the last two that we will in the final wave of the Booster Course Pass, because there is a lot more from where they came from.
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