When everyone thought Nintendo would announce Mario Kart 9 during this week’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo surprised Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch OLED, and Nintendo Switch Lite users with the announcement of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe “Booster Course Pass,” which is set to add 48 different remastered courses from the series part across six waves that won’t end until the end of 2023. For this, Switch users either need to fork over $24.99 or have a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. As you can see from the headline, not everyone is impressed with this.
Of course, many Mario Kart fans were over-the-moon with this announcement, though there was plenty of disappointment about the lack of a new entry. However, Booster Course Pass not being Mario Kart 9 isn’t the only problem some Nintendo fans have with the news. If you thought you noticed that the visuals for the new courses don’t look quite right, you’re not alone; some Nintendo fans think the new courses have downgraded visuals.
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“I dunno if this is gonna bother people but I feel like it should be pointed out: The tracks they’re adding to MK8 Deluxe look completely different from the courses in the original game,” pointed out Jolly J over on Twitter. “The art style looks just like the Mario Kart Tour app, how do y’all feel about this?”
“Finally someone else talking about it. Looks awful. They’re literally direct ports of the untextured models from Tour (a mobile game). Not a good look at all,” reads a reply in agreement.
“Kinda disappointing they’re not remaking them for Switch and just porting them from the mobile game,” adds another reply. “I mean 48 tracks is still cool but I wish they at least visually upgraded them.”
At the moment of publishing, Nintendo has not addressed any of this criticism, and we don’t expect this to change for a variety of reasons. However, if it does, we will be sure to update the story with whatever Nintendo has to say. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts and hot-takes in the comments section or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What do you think of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s new tracks?
H/T, Kotaku.
