Mario Kart has brought my family game nights together for as long as I can remember. The excitement of trying to get first place, avoiding shells and trying not to fall off of Rainbow Road makes it more fun.

Nintendo released its new downloadable content (DLC) for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch on March 18. The new DLC includes 48 different tracks from the Mario Kart series.

Tracks from the Nintendo DS, Wii, mobile app and other systems which supported the game will be included in the DLC. Nintendo will be releasing 8 tracks at a time till the end of 2023. Nintendo intends to keep us waiting in anticipation for the next release of tracks. I, being an impatient person when it comes to video games, certainly cannot wait.

So far, Nintendo has released two cups, Golden Dash and the Lucky Cat Cup, each having four tracks each. Doing as any college student would do, I put off my homework for an hour to play all eight tracks. 

The first cup I played was Golden Dash and the first track in the cup was Paris Promenade. The entire track is modeled after Paris. The detail when it comes to capturing the essence of Paris is amazing, from the design of the buildings to the detail on the Eiffel Tower. One thing that threw me off was how, on the last lap, the track switched direction entirely.

This track was first released on the Mario Kart Tour app and, while I did enjoy playing it on my phone, being able to play it on the Switch allowed me to have more control of what I was doing.

The next track was Toad Circuit. Personally, I didn’t feel this track was that exciting. I understand the desire for a regular racetrack, but for me it was missing the excitement of avoiding obstacles.

I am partial to the tracks that have more going on over the course. For instance, Thwomp Ruins. Thwomps are large rock-like monsters with faces that can fall on players at any moment. Thwomp Ruins does not just focus on you staying on the road, but also trying not to get crushed by thwomps and keeping your cart on the wall if you decide to drive that way.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Choco Mountain track. It starts off with you turning down the mountain. As someone who is more partial to karts it did not help that the first thing on this track is a long narrow turn. I also cannot drift to save my life, so I fell off halfway. The falling boulders were also a challenge for me because I had to be careful of how fast or slow I was going.

The final track of this cup was Coconut Mall, which was and still is my personal favorite. That’s  because you get to drive through a mall and it is a good mix of a simple track and obstacles. 

The Lucky Cat Cup included two tracks from the mobile app, Tokyo Blur and Ninja Hideaway, as well as Shroom Ridge from the DS and Sky Garden from the Gameboy. 

Tokyo Blur, like Paris Promenade, changes direction of the track. However, instead of just changing for one lap, it changes for all three and a few more obstacles are added. This aspect of this track I found exciting because you were kept on your toes from beginning to end.

The first lap is fairly simple with no obstacles, but on the second lap you have to avoid thwomps falling on you and for the third lap thwomps are still an issue and you are taken to a different part of the track where even more thwomps serve as obstacles. 

Shroom Ridge, the next track, reaffirmed my inability to drift or turn. This track is mostly turns, which gives players who choose bikes a better advantage to turn faster. The set up for Shroom Ridge is like a highway, so you should be aware of hitting cars because they can knock you out and slow you down. All in all, this track was fun to play and exciting and really challenged me.

Sky Garden was another challenging track where it is helpful to have a bike so you can make quick turns. The track is set up to evoke the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as you are playing high up in the sky and it is easy to fall off. Personally I found this track to be really fun, especially when playing with other people, because it increases the competition aspect of the game due to how easily someone can knock you off.

The final track of the cup was Ninja Hideaway. I am just going to say that this track kicked my butt. There were a lot of different elements to this track. For this example, you are racing through a ninja dojo, but instead of mostly driving on the floor, you drive through the ceiling and on the roof. 

It also had a lot more traps, which really threw me off. One example includes when you get out of the ceiling and you land on the dojo floor and the player has to avoid a spike trap that comes down from the ceiling. While this track did put me through the wringer, it was still fun.

All the remastered tracks have their own special thing that goes along with them and makes them fun in their own ways. I can certainly say I cannot wait for the rest of the tracks to come out.

Assistant to the Editor Janiyah Gaston can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @DEJaniyah. To stay up to date with all your Southern Illinois news follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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