Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass, also formatted as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Booster Course Pass, 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 use 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 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 the end of 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 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 in Time Trials, in which they remain stationary as they were originally).

Courses
Each of the six waves features two cups, each with four courses, for eight courses per wave. As of the fourth wave, there is one course each from Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, two courses from Mario Kart 64, three courses from Mario Kart 7, four courses each from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart Wii, eleven courses from Mario Kart Tour, and two new courses. Excluding the Tour courses, and  are currently the only classic courses in the Booster Course Pass that had not previously appeared as classic courses in other games, while Sky-High Sundae and Yoshi's Island are currently the only courses to make their series debut in the pass.

Ninja Hideaway and Merry Mountain lack the "Tour" prefix, despite both debuting in Mario Kart Tour. Furthermore, despite making their debuts in the Booster Course Pass, Sky-High Sundae and Yoshi's Island are labeled and marketed as new courses in both the pass and 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 pass, 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 the pass in both versions.

Including the courses listed below, a new course, Squeaky Clean Sprint, will be included in Wave 5. Its placement in its respective cup is to be announced.

Characters
Starting in Wave 4, additional playable characters were also added in the Booster Course Pass in addition to the courses, with more returning characters set to be included after Wave 4.

Wave 4

 * MK8D Birdo Icon.png Birdo - Birdo returns as the sole playable character included in Wave 4. Similarly to Yoshi and Shy Guy, Birdo has nine different colors. She is a medium weight 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. Additionally, Birdo's model, icons, and some animations are taken from Mario Kart Tour. 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

 * Petey Piranha - A heavyweight driver.
 * Wiggler - A heavyweight driver.
 * Kamek - A medium weight driver.

Wave 6

 * MK8 Secret Character Icon.png MK8 Secret Character Icon.png The character select screen features two additional slots for extra characters, indicating that the pass will add at least six characters. The characters that occupy these slots will be revealed at later dates.

Internal content
An alternate version of the key artwork exists in the game's files as of version 2.0.0, showing several currently unreleased courses. 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. and can also be identified in the banner, suggesting that they are or were planned to be featured in the pass at some point.

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 Tour) to twelve, in addition to seven courses without a prefix. 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 Waves 3 and 4 were slightly different, with several prefixes changing positions within the respective waves, and appearing in place of a planned GCN course in Wave 3.

In version 2.1.0, snippets of musical remakes for many 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. 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. The filenames for several of these music snippets indicate that several courses were moved between waves before their release, such as and  originally being planned for Waves 3 and 6 respectively, and  Tour Los Angeles Laps 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.
 * The countries of most of the 150cc staff ghosts for Mario Kart Tour's city courses match the cities' respective countries:, , , , , and 's staff ghosts are French, Japanese, American, British, German, and Dutch respectively.
 * ,, and are the current sole exceptions, with Japanese and American staff ghosts rather than Australian, Thai, or Singaporean ones respectively; no staff ghost in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is Australian, Thai, or Singaporean.
 * The reveal trailers for the first three waves of the Booster Course Pass feature a voiceover in the North American versions, which is absent from the versions for other regions. The reveal trailer for Wave 4 lacks a voiceover in all regions.
 * The voiceovers featured in the aforementioned trailers were performed by voice actress Luci Christian.