Instead Of 'Mario Kart 9', 'Mario Kart 8' Is Getting A Massive Two-Year DLC

If you were hoping for a Mario Kart 9 announcement during last night's Nintendo Direct, we've got some bad news for you.

Instead of developing a brand-new entry in the popular kart racing series, Nintendo has instead decided to create a massive DLC expansion for the ever-popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Take a look at the trailer below!

It certainly makes sense. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to sell incredibly well month after month. Why go to all the trouble of releasing a new game at this point in the Switch's lifecycle when you could just polish up a bunch of classic tracks and release them into an existing title?

The DLC, which Nintendo is calling the Booster Course Pass, will see 48 remastered tracks released over the course of two years. That's an entirely new Mario Kart worth of tracks, and it'll only cost £25 (or free if you're a paid up Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscriber).

The 48 courses, which remix and remaster popular tracks from past Mario Kart games, will be released in six waves over the next couple of years. The first eight courses will be available from March 18, and include Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii), Choco Mountain (Mario Kart 64), and Toad Circuit (Mario Kart 7).

Clearly, this DLC puts and end to last month's rumours that Nintendo was developing Mario Kart 9. While I obviously can't say for sure, I'm going to assume that two more years of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC almost definitely means that we won't be seeing a new Mario Kart launch until Nintendo releases its next console.

But you know what? Mario Kart 8 Deluxe slaps so hard that I'm absolutely fine with that!