Nintendo has announced the newest additions to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Pass - Wave 6! This is the final release of DLC in the Booster Pass, and it's a big one! Here's what we're getting:

  • 2 new Cups with 4 Courses each
  • 4 new Characters

Booster Pass Wave 6 arrives on November 9, 2023. It is available for free to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers or to those that have purchased the pass in the Eshop. Let's look at all the new content coming in Wave 6.

New Characters in Wave 6

4 new characters are coming with Wave 6 and it's feeling a bit like Diddy Kong Racing on the N64.

  • Funky Kong
  • Diddy Kong
  • Pauline
  • Peachette

 

 

New Courses in Wave 6

There are 8 new courses arriving with the update, separated into 2 different cups - Acorn and Spiny. Damn blue shells!

Acorn Cup Courses

  • Rome Avanti (Tour)
  • DK Mountain (Gamecube)
  • Daisy Circuit (Wii)
  • Piranha Plant Cove (New!)

 

 

Spiny Cup Courses

The blue shell cup. What a great way to end the Booster Pass series of updates.

  • Madrid Drive (Tour)
  • Rosalina's Ice World (3DS)
  • Bowser's Castle (Super Nintendo)
  • Rainbow Road (Wii)

 

 

Wave 6 Preview Video

What's Next for Mario Kart?

We don't know.

The Booster Course Pack has built upon the strong base of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, becoming the definitive Mario Kart experience. With so many fan-favourite tracks from the past being added, and a trove of new characters, it's a bit sad that it's all coming to an end. It makes us ask the very simple question: Will Nintendo announce another pass of DLC for next year?

Maybe not. Maybe this is indeed the end of Mario Kart 8. The game certainly had a good run, first arriving on the Wii U all the way back on May 29, 2014, we're getting close to 10 years with the same game. Not that there's a problem with that, many games are turning into "live services" which are getting constant updates to their core, and Mario Kart 8's Booster Pass has done an incredible job at this over the past 2 years.

Mario Kart 9... or 10 if we consider that 9 could be seen as Mario Kart Home Circuit... or 11 if you throw in the mobile Mario Kart Tour, could be coming next with the "Switch 2" or "Super Switch" on the horizon. Could we see Nintendo pull a "let's call it Mario Kart" as is so common these days and make that the "eternally updated game", playing heavily into Switch Online for all the DLC updates? It would certainly be a way forward, but at the very least the next Mario Kart game needs to incorporate a ton of baseline content to truly be worth it. Imagine booting up a new Mario Kart and having a quarter of the content that we have on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe right now - that's not great.

That asks the question, do we even need a new Mario Kart? Whatever is coming down the line for Switch hardware is going to be backwards compatible, so it's not like we're losing the current Mario Kart experience. It might run even smoother with a beefier piece of hardware, which could lead to more complex content being added. Tack on a new Booster Pass and we're off to the races.

How have you been enjoying the booster pass content? Was the addition of the tour tracks a welcome experience in the mainline series? Let us know that and your thoughts on the new DLC in the comments below.