Nintendo shocked everyone when it announced that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would be getting multiple waves of DLC five years after it hit store shelves. Many players had assumed that Nintendo was focusing its attention on the next chapter of the Mario Kart series, and many rumors suggest that was the case. However, it seems like Nintendo is not quite done with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the studio has been churning out new courses for players to enjoy over the past year.
Not content with simply adding courses, it seems like Nintendo is shocking its audience once again by introducing a brand-new racer to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in the next wave of DLC. None of the previous waves of the Booster Course Pass included any extra racers, and it did not seem like the studio was planning to add any to the roster. That seems to be changing with Wave 4 which is set to add Birdo to the mix. She is a great addition to the game, but new racers should have been the norm from the get-go.
Booster Course Pass Wave 4 is Changing the Game
The Booster Course Pass has helped reinvigorate Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Wave 4 will likely continue to liven up the acclaimed kart racer. Not much is known about the contents of Wave 4 besides two of the additions it will be bringing to the game. One of the eight courses that Wave 4 will introduce is the brand-new Yoshi's Island, based on the game of the same name. This course looks like it could be a fun addition to the game, and hopefully it is a sign of things to come from this wave. It seems, however, that courses are not the only thing Nintendo is adding this time around.
Birdo will be joining the playable roster of racers, and it looks like she will bring with her all sorts of different color options for players to choose from. She was first introduced in Mario Kart: Double Dash, and has appeared in pretty much every Mario Kart game since. She was notably absent from Mario Kart 8, and she was not a part of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe either. She did appear in Mario Kart Tour, and that made her absence in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe even more glaring.
Birdo fans can finally rejoice as Nintendo seems to be rectifying its mistake with Wave 4 of Booster Course Pack. That is great news for players who have wanted new racers, but it also seems like a strange time to add a new racer. None of the previous waves included any new racer, and it did not seem like Nintendo had any plans to increase the roster. While Mario Kart 8 got some racer DLC, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe seemed pretty stuck with its base roster. That seems to be changing now, but it should have changed from the start.
Nintendo Should Have Been Adding New Characters All Along
Adding new tracks five years after the game released really helped liven up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but something definitely felt missing from the first three Booster Course Pass waves. The Booster Course Pass seemed like the perfect way to introduce new racers to the game, but Nintendo chose not to. There are many characters that would have fit right into the roster, but all players got were new tracks. It felt like a pretty glaring omission, but Wave 4 shows that Nintendo could have added characters from the get-go.
There is a massive catalog of characters from throughout Nintendo's history that could have made great additions to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Mario Kart Tour is chock-full of characters that never raced before and could have easily been ported over as DLC. Nintendo already been porting over various Mario Kart Tour tracks, after all. Characters like Pauline, Nabbit, and Chargin' Chuck would have all been worthy additions. Other characters that were cut out of the mainline series like Funky Kong could have also joined the Booster Course Pass. So many racers have been left out Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the DLC was Nintendo's chance to fix that.
It is nice to see Nintendo adding a new racer after all these years, but it should have happened a lot sooner. There have been three waves of DLC tracks so far, and none of them have expanded the roster with new additions. It seems really strange that it took Nintendo this long to add a new character, and it makes the lack of new characters in the previous waves feel even worse.
Booster Course Pass Wave 4 Will Hopefully Set a New Precedent
The addition of Birdo hopefully means there'll be even more racers in future waves. There are only two more waves after Booster Course Wave 4 launches, and that means there are only two more chances for new racers. There is no way to go back in time and add racers to previous waves, but Nintendo could at least start adding new ones now. Wave 4 shows that the company is not opposed to this idea; it just took Nintendo a little while to get here. Now, it just needs to take the roster to the next level.
Wave 4 cannot be the only wave that adds new racers to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If Birdo is the only addition then Nintendo would have missed out on a huge opportunity, and Wave 4 will stick out like a sore thumb. 48 new courses are definitely a nice selling point for the Booster Course Pass, but new Mario Kart characters would have made it look even better. Now that it has finally added one character, there is no going back.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the waves play out now that new characters are on the table. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe players will likely learn more about what Nintendo has in store for the game in the next couple of months, and hopefully it is well worth the wait.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available now for Nintendo Switch.