'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' DLC Tracks Will Be Playable Without Buying Them

So, Mario Kart fans were left feeling incredibly mixed after last week’s Nintendo Direct. The good news was that there’s finally some new Mario Kart content that isn’t on a mobile game or using a very expensive remote-control car peripheral. The bad news was that there’s no new game happening, despite it being almost five years since the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and almost eight since the release of 8 on the Wii U. 

That said though, there’s still a lot to be excited about. Deluxe is going to be getting an absolutely massive DLC expansion, dubbed the Booster Course Pass. The pass will see the introduction of a whopping 48 remastered tracks, which featured in previous entries in the series, released in waves over the course (no pun intended) of two years. 

Check out the trailer for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC below.

Now, the price of this is already surprisingly reasonable. It’s set to cost £22.49 to buy outright, or alternatively you’ll be able to access them for “free” (in very strong quotation marks there) if you’re a subscriber to the pricey Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. But no, don’t worry, that’s not what this article is about.

As reported by Eurogamer, the game’s official page on Nintendo’s website reads: “Courses from wave 1 of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass can be played from March 18th locally or online in Friends and Rivals races, even if only one player owns the Booster Course Pass or has access to it as part of a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. From March 22nd, courses from wave 1 will also appear in the Random selection when playing Global or Regional races with anyone online.”

Basically, as long as you have one friend who owns the DLC, you’ll be able to play on the new tracks whenever you want to, so long as you’re playing with them. Otherwise, past 22 March, you’ll be able to randomly drop on the tracks when playing online, but you won’t have a lot of choice over when this happens. 

At the end of the day though, if you’re a fan of the game, there’s really no reason not to just buy the DLC yourself - the cost breaks down at less than 50p per track, and literally doubles the amount of courses in the game. The first wave is racing onto Nintendo Switch (sorry not sorry) on 18 March.