 Now that I’m done revisiting the first seven Mario Kart games, I’m ready to answer which tracks from those games should be the top choices to fill out the remaining forty courses of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s upcoming Booster Course Pass. If you are unfamiliar, during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that 48 new tracks will be coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe across six waves pulled from past Mario Kart games to make a grand total of 96 tracks. The first eight tracks were announced at the same time including Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64, Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii, and three tracks from Mario Kart Tour. While the two headlining retro tracks make me the most excited, I am also excited to play the three tracks from Tour inside Mario Kart 8 since they will be new to me. I had only played Mario Kart Tour, the Mario Kart mobile game, for about thirty minutes before I rapidly felt it was not for me due to the controls and structure so I really am not familiar with any of the possible track options from Mario Kart Tour. Even though then there will likely not be 40 courses pulled directly from Mario Kart 1-7, not to mention Nintendo didn’t fully rule out the possibility of new original tracks, we have no idea what the final breakdown will possibly be so guessing the cutoff point feels foolish. I’m already both prepared and excited to share what I think should be the top 40 tracks if they were pulled solely from Mario Kart 1-7 so let’s do it! Before I dive in, I want to be clear how this list is ordered. I think both the easiest and most clear way to write this list is to order it based off my favorite tracks rather than try to account for duplicate themes which the developers will most certainly do. For example, I don’t expect them to add all of the missing Rainbow Road courses and I don’t even necessarily want that! I think making a list that accounts for filling in gaps essentially means I’d have to reorder the list every time new courses are revealed for the Booster Pass. Not to say that I didn’t use that thinking occasionally to settle close ties, but it rarely came up and was never the primary motivation to decide between courses. Also, I do think it might be fun to revisit this list in the future somehow as the Booster Pass winds down so filling in gaps would be more of a factor. Finally, I do want to mention I’m aware tracks already in, planned, or datamined for Tour are more likely to get in since they appear to be touching up Tour’s assets in many cases for the Booster Pass tracks, but that’s a boring way to consider this and one of the tracks in the first wave hasn’t been datamined for Tour so there’s great hope more will follow. With all of that said, let’s get to it!  40: Mario Circuit 2 NES I want to see one Mario Circuit from the original Super Mario Kart make the cut for Mario Kart 8 as a way to see where the series all started. Mario Circuit 4 has a very good layout, but I want to push for Mario Circuit 2 which has a section where you circle around a turn and hop over part of the track you raced over previously. It adds some good personality to an otherwise standard track and would look cool in 3D. 39: Wario Shipyard 3DS Wario Shipyard is kind of aesthetically garish as the Wario gold and purple mixes with the washed out water and bone fish. I still think this course is kind of cool with a mostly good layout. It reminds me of rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones at Disneyland as it twists around itself. With a few touch ups, I think this could be a better course. 38: Luigi Circuit GBA I love the rain in Luigi Circuit as well as the giant Luigi blimp in the distance. They add enough personality to what is otherwise a very straightforward track. The turns are more complex than an average circuit track to the extent I wouldn’t necessarily call it a beginner course even if it is beginner friendly. This is a great course for pure racing as the only obstacles present are a few deep puddles that cause you to spin out. 37: Roslina’s Ice World 3DS Rosalina’s Ice World is quite a good course though I don’t have as much attachment to it as higher up choices (Sorry Rosalina!). The opening turn is wild and very memorable and you get a really cool run across an ice village on lap one before the ice melts. The cave section is hectic and features an interesting split path as the faster one is a narrower road with a giant cliff beside it. 36: Shy Guy Beach GBA I love a good beach course and Shy Guy Beach is pretty solid. The flat, original flavor of a Mario Kart beach course is thus far unrepresented in Mario Kart 8. You have to travel between islands and avoid deep pools of water all while dodging cannon balls from a group of Pirate Shy Guys.  35: Maka Wuhu 3DS I’m generally not a big fan of the segment races (Mount Wario and Big Blue being huge exceptions), but I want to see a Wuhu Island course make it into Mario Kart 8 and I think Maka Wuhu is the better of the two. As you ascend the mountain you’ll navigate tight tunnels, pass by the castle, and dodge some boulders. The showstopper moment though is being able to hang glide off the mountain and fly all the way to the beach below right during a huge sunset. I love there is an optional midair platform you can stop at too to grab some final items to prepare for the final stretch. There are ultimately two paths to the finish you can descend to which ups the drama as you can’t see the whole picture once you land.  34: DK Mountain GCN I’d be sad if DK Mountain doesn’t make the cut. Blasting up to the mountain out of the barrel and seeing the big frowning volcano is excellent. The rest of the course was pretty rough in its Gamecube version despite the awesome concept, but adding ramps on the descent and filling in the gap on the final S turns fixed the biggest issues. Tumbling off the final bridge is memorably painful. 33: Waluigi Pinball DS Waluigi Pinball is such a great concept as the whole race course is inside a pinball machine! After rocketing up to the top of the board you race down it dodging giant metal balls, bounce pads, and flippers. Also, the music is good! 32: Bowser Castle 4 GBA Bowser Castle 4 is a tightly designed Bowser Castle course where optimizing boost pad usage is important. My favorite section splits the road into a wide open path and a narrow one with boost pads and an item block. The trick with the narrow path though is that you can accelerate so fast you have to abandon it right when you can, otherwise you’ll hit a wall and lose time.  31: DK Jungle Parkway N64 I have more fondness for this course than its actual quality. Like Royal Raceway, there is a big jump over a river which is conceptually cool, though the recovery from landing is awkward. I think changing this to a hang glider section like Royal Raceway did in Mario Kart 8 will dramatically improve the pacing. Though the middle is kind of blah, the final section across the bridge and navigating the cave is excellent and does a lot of heavy lifting. 30: Peach Gardens DS Peach Gardens has a fairly tricky layout despite its calming appearance. The squared off flower patches are unusual obstacles for Mario Kart as you’ll want to take wider turns than usual to avoid clipping into the edges. I especially like the Chain Chomp hedge maze, the Monty Moles, and the final dramatic turn down the stairs into the goal. 29: Koopa Troopa Beach N64 I have a lot of fond memories of Koopa Troopa Beach from Mario Kart 64. It had cool ideas that originally worked well including one of the biggest shortcuts in the game by mushrooming up a ramp to jump through the waterfall and another huge ramp that let you grab an item block with a power item. The version in Mario Kart 7 has some interesting ideas on how to adapt the course in a more modern context to mixed results. I want this course back, but I think they’ll have to take a close look at what worked and what didn’t. The core course remains fun in both versions.  28: Lakeside Park GBA Lakeside Park is actually my least favorite course on Mario Kart Super Circuit, but that is mainly down to how brutally tough it is in a game that is already brutally tough and how unfair the fireballs that rain down from the volcano with minimal warning are. A lot of the GBA tracks got heavily reworked when transitioned to 3D and I think the outline is there for a really awesome course paired with the more forgiving mechanics of Mario Kart 8. Making it more vertical (especially for the jump) and making the raining fireballs behave like in Grumble Volcano would be a great start. 27: Mario Raceway N64 This is a very good beginner course as it has few obstacles besides the interesting turns. I love all of the mushroom shortcuts in this course as they are all fairly interesting including rocketing off the hill, cutting between the big mushroom, and rushing across the dirt and grass to cut the final S turn. Driving through a giant warp pipe to cap off the course is cool.  26: Daisy Hills 3DS Daisy Hills is a great intro course that really showed off how cool stereoscopic 3D was for Mario Kart (which would not be seen here) and how neat the hang glider is. It is quite a steep trek up Daisy Hills and you have to dodge goats along the way. The hang glider section has an awesome view as you fly over a lake into town and I love that there is a windmill to contend with for those itching for the tightest run through the course. 25: Wario Stadium N64 Wario’s surprisingly lengthy first course is a lot of fun as it is mostly focused on huge jumps and wicked turns. It has good pacing too as there are a few wide sections to let you set your own paths and to take advantage of items. If Mario Kart 8 kept Wario Stadium 64 at three laps, the endurance element would be unique to the game.  24: Mario Circuit 3DS Mario Kart 7’s Mario Circuit is the best Mario Circuit to date with an excellent flow throughout. It has some good personality thanks to the cherry blossom section and a loop inside Princess Peach’s castle. The following hang glider section asks you to pay attention to the warp pipes scattered about as they may be blasting air that will help you cut a path over to the final giant warp pipe you drive through. I think this a great, engaging, beginner friendly course. 23: Bowser’s Castle 3DS Mario Kart 7’s Bowser Castle is not as tough as some of his others, but it is creative and takes fun advantage of both underwater and hang glider traversal. The biggest setpiece obstacle is a barrel shaped water wheel of sorts that, depending on which route you take, you can land on top of or traverse the inside of. Dodging fire pillars underwater is a surreal visual and crossing the finish line by flying through a goal ring is unique and cool. Spread throughout are classic jumps over fire and thwomp dodging action backed by some sharp turns. 22: Frappe Snowland N64 Frappe Snowland is surprisingly more technical than it looks due to tight turns, a lot of jumps, and a field littered with snowmen. The final ice canyon section is memorable because bouncing shells off the walls is often your last hope to get ahead. Frappe Snowland is a really great intermediate course and plays well in heated competitions and time trials.  21: Broken Pier GBA I’m not sure Broken Pier can be translated well to Mario Kart 8, but I’d love to see them try! There is such tremendous, but risky shortcut and optimization potential in Broken Pier that even the ruthless AI of Super Circuit can’t keep up. Lots of it revolves around bounce pads to cut corners and also very narrow pathways for shortcuts. We don’t really see either idea explored frequently in Mario Kart 8 and that’s why I think it is worth attempting even if it won’t touch the original.  20: Toad’s Factory Wii Toad’s Factory is surprisingly tough for a beginner course as there are plenty of obstacles to dodge and conveyor belts altering your speed and direction to contend with. My favorite parts are jumping between the suspended platforms and the final stretch with the shifting walls that reveal and conceal boost pads to cross a pool of mud. 19: Dry Dry Ruins Wii Dry Dry Ruins is quietly a very good course. My favorite section is definitely the half pipe section you engage with to cross a river of sand inside the ruins. It’s unique in Mario Kart in that you hit two sections back to back at the right angles to effectively speed ahead. There are also elements of the track that change from lap to lap which is always cool such as pillars falling over that then become ramps to jump off and a giant room that fills with sand that you eventually have to navigate around. 18: Waluigi Stadium GCN I associate Waluigi Stadium so much with Mario Kart Wii I forgot it originated in Double Dash lol. This is a great beginner friendly course that has plenty of dynamic elements including giant piranha plants to dodge. I also appreciate how tight you can take some of the turns and the high shortcut potential with mushrooms. Also, all of the jumps are fun! 17: Bowser Castle 3 GBA I have a lot of fondness for Bowser Castle 3 when it was remade into 3D on Mario Kart Wii. It’s a very solid course offering manageable challenges. There’s a real wicked 180 degree turn that’s a lot of fun to take fast and there’s an interestingly handled diagonal section of the course as it uses segmented blocks to form the path. The final long stretch over the grating with a few holes on the edges is stressful for exciting last minute upsets.  16: Rainbow Road GBA I imagine this course would have to be reworked since its flavor of bounce pads aren’t in 8, but I really think Nintendo should work to adapt this Rainbow Road. There is a good flow between its challenges, and the three sections that revolve around bouncing over gaps are very cool. Maximizing your boost pads usage is tough since the course is so fast paced and becomes even harder as you lean into them. Choosing between the longer, safer road and the narrow road with full boost pads that you have to abandon early enough to not get launched into space is super cool. Super Circuit’s Rainbow Road would be a very unique course in Mario Kart 8 if given the proper care.  15: Choco Island 2 NES The mud lake in Choco Island 2 is one of the most memorable obstacles in the series. Its slickness means you need to commit to an angle as you approach and would be incredibly chaotic with 12 racers all pushing through at once. The DS version added a few more obstacles to flesh the course out, though the core idea is strong either way and needs to come back. 14: Ghost Valley 2 NES I love the Ghost Valley aesthetic and need it to come back in some way. The edges of the course collapsing as racers bump into them is a fun idea as it makes each successive lap harder. I picked Ghost Valley 2 over the other Ghost Valleys since it is a fairly balanced challenge, but I’d be happy with any of them. Also, I gave Ghost Valley 2 the edge over Broken Pier mainly because that course is all about speed rather the more muted elegance of a normal Ghost Valley course.  13: Banshee Boardwalk N64 I really like Banshee Boardwalk, the successor to the Ghost Valley courses from the original Super Mario Kart. The lone wooden piers suspended over water in a dark void just looks and feels cool. I love the ghosts, the giant Cheep Cheep that jumps over the track, and entering the collapsing shack filled with bats. It feels like a full journey and the narrow, precarious road and the gaps in the railing keep you focused. 12: Sherbet Land N64 The successor to the Vanilla Lake courses from Super Mario Kart is surprisingly technical and gets a huge boost of personality by prominently featuring the giant penguins from Super Mario 64. You can hop over the edge of the ice to cut corners, but the bigger gaps can throw you off. The cave section with the penguins on patrol has measured chaos and keeps you guessing if you’ll be able to take the tightest route or not which is always a fun gamble. The final, wide open stretch can be a bloodbath that lends itself to big upsets and its size makes you doubt how you should approach it. 11: Peach Beach GCN There are surprisingly few good beginner friendly courses in Mario Kart 8, so I’d love to have Peach Beach back which works very well as one and is still interesting for veteran players. The general gist of the track is mostly a straightforward oval, but the receding tides and dodging the Cataquacks littering the beach offer dynamic challenges. Also, I just love the vibe of a good beach course, they make me happy.  10: Desert Hills DS The angry sun and block pyramids of Super Mario Bros 3, not to mention the lovely oasis and titular giant hills, easily makes this the desert course with the most personality. Desert Hills is just very well designed and the wicked turns of the huge hills offer an interesting challenge that projects attitude. Aside from the first turn with an obvious shortcut for mushroom holders, it’s not terribly obvious how to optimize this course, but even a rough run still feels great and I think that gives it staying power.  9: DK Summit Wii The superior DK mountain course, DK Summit, is themed like a Snowboard course and has excellent momentum. Hitting the right jumps and half pipe sections to propel you forward is exciting and there is a section of narrow cliffs that introduces a great sense of danger. The giant half pipe section at the end is filled with heavy snow and shy guys to dodge which is an appropriately chaotic and unique finale. 8: Delfino Square DS On paper Delfino Square doesn’t seem like the most interesting course layout, but really every turn here feels carefully measured and exciting. After the big turn around the fountain, you race between buildings before hitting the harbor area. There are a few ways to navigate this area including a tight, mud filled alley. After crossing the suspension bridge a final sprint through a park leaves a great chance for final upsets.  7: Bowser’s Castle N64 Bowser’s Castle for the N64 lacks the big setpiece obstacles of his future castles, but it more than makes up for that with measured challenges and an interesting windy path to the goal. You get a bit of everything here, dodging thwomps, racing over bridges suspended above lava, racing down stairs, taking tight 90 degree turns, and dodging erupting lava pillars during jumps. It feels like a proper gauntlet from start to finish. 6: Airship Fortress DS I love the Super Mario Bros 3 airship theme for this course! While Cloudtop Cruise also features an airship, here you get the full experience of dodging Bullet Bills and Monty Moles, before entering inside to dodge scattered boxes and fire pillars. After launching out of the ship you get a fun 360 degree looping descent in the nearby castle. Just a great tight course overall.  5: Rock Rock Mountain 3DS Rock Rock Mountain has always been one of my most wanted 3DS courses. The cave and forest sections are solid, but it’s the dramatic descent down the mountain with one of the largest jumps in the series and the awesome ascent back up featuring boost pads and dodging incoming boulders that culminates with you rocketing off into a second hang glider section that really elevates it.  4: Maple Treeway Wii Maple Treeway has a great unique, Fall aesthetic and takes you on a fun journey through the tops of trees. After blasting out of a barrel, you wrap around the top of a tree and dodge some giant wigglers. The boost pads rocket you up to the half pipe at the very top of the course and here you begin rushing downwards back to the start. A handful of alternate paths, shortcuts, and dynamic elements including the wigglers and leaf piles that can drop helpful items like mushrooms and stars keeps each race exciting.  3: Bowser’s Castle Wii There is currently a dearth of good Bowser Castle content in Mario Kart 8 and it desperately needs the best one. While every section is excellent, the star section is definitely the hallway with half pipes where a Bowser statue launches giant fireballs down. Depending on the dynamic position of the fire balls you have to make an exciting choice as to whether to push forward into the next section of the hallway or stall for time on the halfpipes. Other obstacles provide great dynamic challenges as well, including the rotating fire bar and random lava pillar sprouts towards the end.  2: Rainbow Road Wii My absolute favorite challenging gauntlet of a course across the entire Mario Kart series is Rainbow Road on the Wii. Right from the start you rocket down the first slope into a good 180-degree turn. From there you are soon met with a tight figure 8 set of roads to navigate. Players with mushrooms can hop across the middle, but the others have to deal with the chaos especially when the paths meet up together. This is quickly followed by a wicked S-Turn that can send you plummeting to Earth below. While the first half of the course definitely steals the show, the other parts of the course are no slouch either where maximizing boost pads and dealing with your opponents become the chief challenges.  1: Koopa Cape Wii For all of the Mario Kart 8 era, I have felt the absence of the original Wii version of Koopa Cape in my life. It’s the only course that rivals Mute City as my favorite in the series. Every turn, with the constant rising and falling elevation, feels inspired. Where the track really comes alive though is the river section and the following underwater section. For the river section, staying in the water is crucial as you receive increased speed, but there are plenty of opportunities for shortcuts across gaps for those with mushrooms and choosing which ones to take advantage of is crucial to gain ground. After exiting the river, you rocket down the cliff into a warp pipe that leads to a fully enclosed glass tube underwater. The flowing water (criminally absent in the 3DS version) returns here to propel you forward and you must dodge in between rotating beams of lightning. Staying in the water is crucial to maintaining the maximum possible speed, but you must juggle if you can squeak past the lightning safely which is the peak of excitement in Mario Kart. The Wii version of Koopa Cape is an epic rollercoaster and is the number one track we need in Mario Kart 8. Don’t let me down Nintendo!  Thank you for reading my latest blog, I hope you enjoyed it! I always love to hear from my readers, so feel free to reach out and share which tracks you’d love to see return in the Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pass on my Twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time! Comments are closed.
|