Mario Kart 8
According to reports from the official Mario Kart 8 Deluxe website, it seems that the new tracks contained in the Pass Courses can also be used online by users who have not purchased the DLC, as long as a friend we are playing with is in possession of the package.The information should have actually been present since the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Paths Pass announcement, but reported as a note at the bottom of the page, linked to one of the many asterisks scattered in the official description on the Nintendo website. Here is what it says:
The courses of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Package 1 - Additional Courses Pass will be playable locally and online from March 18th in Friends and Opponents mode, even if only one player owns the Additional Paths Pass or accessed via a Nintendo Switch Online Membership + Add-on Package. From March 22, Pack 1 courses will also appear in the random selection of World or Regional races against online opponents.
It will therefore be possible to use the new tracks of the Pass Routes online even simply by playing with a user who owns them, since this can select them and they will also be available for other players in the online or local multiplayer session.
Not only that, the tracks of the first broadcast of March 18th will be included in the online rotation of world or regional races starting from March 22nd, so there is the possibility to see them also playing with strangers during any session in these modality, even if obviously they are fortuitous cases considering the quantity of possibilities in the random selection among dozens of different paths.
For the rest, we remind you that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Paths Pass can be purchased for 24.99 euros or used within the standard equipment of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription + Additional Package. We have also seen the details of the package and the first tracks arriving on March 18th.
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You'll Be Able to Play Mario Kart 8's DLC Courses Online, Even If You Don't Own Them
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe users will be able to play the upcoming Booster Course tracks online or with friends, even if they haven't paid for the DLC themselves.
The new tracks, the first eight of which will release on March 18, will be shuffled into Mario Kart 8's online selection of courses on March 22, meaning even players who don't own them can occasionally have a go. That being said, there will be 56 tracks in the game after that first wave, so players will initially have just a one in seven chance of coming across a new one through random selection.
A more consistent way to play without paying is through a friend, as Nintendo also revealed on its website (per Nintendo Life) that groups of friends can play the new tracks together from March 18 even if only one player owns the Booster Course Pass. This can be done in local or online play.
It's a neat way of keeping the audience from being fragmented between those who have paid and those who haven't, while giving more choice to those that have.
The DLC costs $24.99 (£22.49) and will add 48 tracks to Mario Kart 8, all of them remastered versions of courses featured in previous games. They'll be released in six separate waves between March this year and the end of 2023.
The first round of tracks includes the Golden Dash Cup and the Lucky Cat Cup, with the following eight individual courses:
Nintendo announced the DLC for its five-year old Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in a Nintendo Direct last week. With the addition of the new tracks, the game will have over half of the courses ever made for the Mario Kart series.
IGN said Mario Kart 8 is 'amazing', and 'the best entry in the series so far, and it has all the content you’ll need.' Clearly, we said this before we knew we needed even more tracks.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.