Mario Kart 8 Legend of Zelda Animal Crossing DLC

Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart 8 has already become one of the best selling games on the Nintendo Wii U. After receiving near unanimous praise from critics, the game became the second title on the Wii U to sell over a million copies in the United States. While the game has been out for a few months now, gamers are still hungry for more content.

Today, Nintendo announced that it'll be delivering fans the Mario Kart 8 add-on content that they've been craving and it'll appear in the form of themed DLC based on The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing.

As revealed by Nintendo's UK Store, there will be two content packs that each come with eight new tracks, three new racers and four new vehicles. In total, these packs, priced at £7.00 each, will increase the total number of courses found in the game by 50% and add popular characters like Link and Isabelle to a roster that many believed needed some variation – something we pointed out in our review.

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The first pack, which will also likely be the most popular, is based on The Legend of Zelda and is set to arrive at some point in November 2014. It'll add the previously mentioned Hyrulian hero Link as a playable racer, as well as Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach. The infamous Blue Falcon from F-Zero will also be making an appearance in the DLC.

Meanwhile, the appropriately titled 'Mario Kart 8 Pack 2' will arrive much later in May 2015. While the amount of time separating the content is a little odd, the pack is nonetheless inspired by the beloved Animal Crossing series. Featuring Villager, Isabelle and Dry Bowser, the package will also include two new cups and four additional karts.

New stages based on the worlds of F-Zero, Excite Bike, Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda will be added to the game, but classic courses such as Wario’s Gold Mine from Mario Kart Wii will also be making a return. As a bonus incentive, those that purchase the 'Season Pass' of sorts that features this content, or even just both packs separately, will be rewarded with the option to choose between eight different colors for ShyGuy and Yoshi apiece. Neat.

Admittedly, it's a little odd to see the likes of Link hopping into a kart, but the producer of Mario Kart did say he wouldn't rule out the possibility of it happening. The DLC also comes at a time when Nintendo plans on rolling out its line of Amiibo figures, so in hindsight the additional content makes a lot of sense and should help to bring consumers that incentive they need to purchase that drool-inducing Link figurine. It is compatible with both Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 right from the get-go, after all.

It's safe to say that this DLC adds a little more Nintendo-fueled nostalgia than the free Mercedes-Benz DLC though, right?

UPDATE: Nintendo of America has announced that each content pack can be purchased for $7.99 apiece, or fans can pickup both in a bundle for $11.99. Suffice to say, that's a pretty good deal for DLC that more or less doubles the content offered in Mario Kart 8.

What do you think of the newly announced Mario Kart 8 DLC? Will you be picking up the new content packs? Let us know in the comments!

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Mario Kart 8 is available right now exclusively on the Wii U and the new add-ons will be arriving in November 2014 and May 2015.

Follow Riley on Twitter @TheRileyLittle for more news on Mario Kart 8, as well as everything else in gaming.

Source: Nintendo UK Store (via GoNintendo)