Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass, sometimes formatted as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Booster Course Pass on Nintendo's Oceanian website, is a DLC expansion pack for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, announced during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct. The pack includes twelve additional cups, for a total of 48 additional courses (bringing the total number of courses in the game to 96), most of which are remastered versions of courses from other Mario Kart games, including Mario Kart Tour. The courses are based on their designs from Mario Kart Tour, but with visual improvements and new music arrangements. In addition to the courses, starting with Wave 4's release, the pass also features eight additional playable characters for the game, which also return from other Mario Kart games. The pass is being released through six waves, with each wave containing eight total courses (divided into two cups of four courses each). All waves are set to be released by Holiday 2023. The pack marks the longest gap between the original release of a Super Mario game and the release of its DLC, with the first wave releasing nearly five years after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did. The pack also makes Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the first Mario Kart game to feature classic courses from games following the original game's release, with Mario Kart Tour and its reappearing courses debuting after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was initially released.

The Booster Course Pass can be purchased on its own, but it is also included in a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, as well as in the digital-only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle (Game + Booster Course Pass). In Hong Kong, activation codes for the Booster Course Pass are additionally distributed in physical Nintendo Switch game cases, though buyers must own a copy of the base game to be able to use a code. The first wave of the DLC was made available to pre-load on March 15, 2022, and was released on March 18, 2022. In mainland China for the Tencent release, waves release later than they do internationally, with the pack set to completely release by the end of 2024 rather than 2023. If the player has purchased the Booster Course Pass or currently has a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, a small icon of a Super Star can be seen next to the version number on the game's title screen.

The courses shown in the key artwork use official screenshots and in-game course icons from Mario Kart Tour. Some screenshots of the courses show Paris Promenade and Paris Promenade 3 with barrier fences from that game, as well as an official screenshot of the ninja Shy Guys in Ninja Hideaway, which originated from the 2021 Ninja Tour's in-game preview. Prior to Wave 1's release, the infographic showing all of the known courses across all six waves also used Mario Kart Tour screenshots. However, in the launch trailer for Wave 1 posted following its release, the infographic was updated to use in-game screenshots from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for all courses, which the release trailers for future waves, as well as the version of the infographic added to the game's menu in version 2.3.0 (upon the release of Wave 4), would follow as well.

Several minor adjustments to the courses in Wave 1 were made upon the release of Wave 2, such as their course icons being slightly brighter, and the sand and dirt on some courses now leaving tire marks. Additionally, the final car section in was adjusted, making the cars serve as hazards and move sporadically in random directions (except for Time Trials, in which they remain stationary as they were originally).

In the September 2023 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced a bundle that includes the base Mario Kart 8 Deluxe game and a download code for the Booster Course Pass in Japan and a bundle that includes the Booster Course Pass download code and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe pins, cards, and stickers (no game included) in Europe and Oceania, both of which released on October 6, 2023.

Courses
Each of the six waves features two cups, each with four courses, for eight courses per wave. As of the sixth wave, there is one course from Super Mario Kart, two courses each from Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, three courses from Mario Kart 7, four courses from Mario Kart DS, five courses from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, seven courses from Mario Kart Wii, fourteen courses from Mario Kart Tour, and three new courses. Excluding the Mario Kart Tour courses, and  are the only courses to make their classic course debuts in the Booster Course Pass.

Ninja Hideaway and Merry Mountain lack the "Tour" prefix, despite both debuting in Mario Kart Tour. In the Tencent release of the DLC in mainland China, all courses from Mario Kart Tour lack the "Tour" prefix, likely due to Mario Kart Tour's unavailability from app distribution platforms in mainland China.

In the British English version of the game, and  are known as  and  respectively, as was the case in the British English versions of their original appearances. However, courses that had different names between European French and Canadian French in previous games instead use their European French names in both versions.

In addition to the courses listed below, is included among courses in the sixth wave. Its cup and position are currently unknown.

Characters
Starting in Wave 4, eight additional playable characters were also added in the Booster Course Pass in addition to the courses. All of these characters reuse their character models, icons, and some animations from Mario Kart Tour, along with several new animations such as tricks for bikes and ATVs, as well as losing animations.

Wave 4

 * MK8D Birdo Icon.png Birdo - Birdo returns from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart Wii, and Mario Kart Tour as the sole playable character included in Wave 4. Similarly to Yoshi and Shy Guy, Birdo has nine different colors. She is a mediumweight driver and has identical statistics to Peach, Daisy, and Yoshi. Birdo's alternate colors are named after the Mario Kart Tour variants, taking the form of "Birdo (color)" as opposed to "color Birdo", which Yoshi and Shy Guy's color variations use. Birdo's horn sound resembles the sound she makes when spitting out an egg in Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * Alternate colors: MK8D Birdo Light-Blue Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Black Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Red Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Yellow Icon.pngMK8D Birdo White Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Blue Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Green Icon.pngMK8D Birdo Orange Icon.png

Wave 5

 * MK8DX Petey Piranha Icon.png Petey Piranha - Petey Piranha returns from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Tour as one of three new drivers in Wave 5. He is a heavyweight driver and has almost the same statistics as Metal Mario / Gold Mario and Pink Gold Peach, except for using the large vehicle size instead of medium, and with an Invincibility statistic additionally increased by a value of 0.75 (3 points).
 * MK8DX Wiggler Icon.png Wiggler - Wiggler returns from Mario Kart 7 as one of three new drivers in Wave 5. It is a heavyweight driver and has identical statistics to Waluigi, Donkey Kong, and Roy, except for using the medium vehicle size instead of large. Its release in Wave 5 was hours before its introduction to Mario Kart Tour in the Pipe Tour.
 * MK8DX Kamek Icon.png Kamek - Kamek returns from Mario Kart Tour as one of three new drivers in Wave 5. He is a mediumweight driver and has identical statistics to Luigi and Iggy. His horn sound resembles his speech in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Kamek was originally intended to appear as a racer in the original Mario Kart 8, but was scrapped during development.

Wave 6

 * MK8 Secret Character Icon.png Diddy Kong - Diddy Kong returns from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart Wii, and Mario Kart Tour as one of four new drivers in Wave 6. He is a mediumweight driver.
 * MK8 Secret Character Icon.png Funky Kong - Funky Kong returns from Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart Tour as one of four new drivers in Wave 6. He is a heavyweight driver.
 * MK8 Secret Character Icon.png Pauline - Pauline returns from Mario Kart Tour as one of four new drivers in Wave 6. She is a heavyweight driver.
 * MK8 Secret Character Icon.png Peachette - Peachette returns from Mario Kart Tour as one of four new drivers in Wave 6. She is a mediumweight driver.

Internal content
An alternate version of the key artwork exists in the game's files as of version 2.0.0, showing several courses that were unreleased at the time of the update's release. As with the official artwork, this banner uses official screenshots and in-game course icons from Mario Kart Tour, including icons for trick and reverse/trick variants. Several courses included in the pass appeared in this banner before their official announcements, including Sky-High Sundae,, , , , and several Tour city courses (notably including and  before their official reveals for Mario Kart Tour ), though the  art used within it is that of , rather than , which appears in the pass.

In the game's internal data in version 2.0.0, many upcoming course slots were each designated a prefix. Across waves 2-6, "SNES" (denoting a Super Mario Kart course) was allocated to two courses, "N64" (Mario Kart 64) to one course, "GBA" (Mario Kart: Super Circuit) to four courses, "GCN" (Mario Kart: Double Dash!!) to four, "DS" (Mario Kart DS) to three, "Wii" (Mario Kart Wii) to five, "3DS" (Mario Kart 7) to two, and "Tour" (Mario Kart Tours city courses) to twelve, in addition to seven courses without a prefix (which either denote new courses or Mario Kart Tours non-city courses). The prefixes, which matched the courses in Wave 2, were removed in version 2.1.0 with that wave's release; however, the lineups of later were slightly different, with several prefixes changing positions within the respective waves, appearing in place of  in Wave 3, and  appearing in place of a planned SNES course in Wave 5. Additionally, while the third slot of the Acorn Cup did not have a prefix in the data, 's codename (Cnsw_63) assigns it to that placement, indicating that this slot may have been undecided.

In version 2.1.0, brief snippets of the first seconds of the music for many then-unreleased courses were added to the game's files, including, , all of Mario Kart Tour's new courses up to , and every course that would go on to be featured in Wave 3. The filenames of these music snippets all corresponded to the course order dictated by the then-removed unused prefixes; the snippets were removed with Wave 3's release in version 2.2.0. These filenames indicate that several courses were moved between waves before their release, such as and  originally being planned for Waves 3 and 6 respectively, and  and  originally being planned for Waves 4 and 5 respectively.

Trivia

 * The official North American webpage for the pass has had numerous errors over time:
 * The pass was once briefly referred to as the "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pack" on the site.
 * was once briefly labeled as a 3DS course instead of DS.
 * Following the full reveal of Wave 3 and until its release, the website erroneously stated that Wave 3 would be available on December 7, 2023 rather than 2022.
 * Similarly, the British Nintendo eShop page for the Booster Course Pass erroneously states that Wave 3 released on December 8 rather than December 7.
 * Nintendo of America's official Twitter account once erroneously used the British English name for in a tweet before deleting it and replacing it with the American English name.
 * In Time Trial mode, the countries of several of the 150cc staff ghosts for Mario Kart Tour's city courses match the cities' respective countries:, , and , , , and 's staff ghosts are French, Japanese, American, British, German, and Dutch respectively. The other city courses have Japanese, American, or Spanish staff ghosts, as there are no staff ghosts in the game corresponding to the countries of those cities.
 * The trailers for the first three waves of the Booster Course Pass feature a voiceover in the North American versions (performed by voice actress ), which is absent from the versions for other regions. The reveal trailers for later waves lack voiceovers in all regions.