Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass Wave 6 Review

After five trips around the globe and the Mushroom Kingdom, the sixth and final wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass is here. Featuring new and returning tracks and characters, should players get on their karts and ride once more?

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass Wave 6 Review

The past five waves have nearly doubled the amount of courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Wave 6 closes the gap with eight different tracks across both the Acorn Cup and the Spiny Cup.

As part of this selection, tracks from Mario Kart Tour will allow racers to do some globe-trotting as they fly over the Trevi Fountain in Rome Avanti and hit the pitch in Madrid Drive. Meanwhile, Super Mario Kart classics like Bowser Castle 3 have received a retro revival with new elements and paths to explore. Paired with tracks from other entries (including another Rainbow Road!), and you’ve got a varied collection to choose from.

However, your mileage may vary with Wave 6. Some courses feature multiple shortcuts and changing routes each lap, but there were others with questionable design choices that were more annoying than innovative. It can be tough to enjoy the sights when a certain area cannot be driven on or there’s a clear lack of indicators as to where to go.

If anything, Rosalina’s Ice World from Mario Kart 7 was the most offensive of the lot. This track has the unfortunate curse of featuring slippery paths that violently clash with sharp corners and icy depths. Some may call this barrage of threats a difficulty curve, but we truly believe this track should have stayed on the Nintendo 3DS version of the game.

Unfortunately, there are no new tracks in Wave 6 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass. While certain tracks now feature anti-gravity segments and other flourishes, we would have loved to see another attempt at a Squeaky Clean Sprint that let the team’s creativity truly shine.

Players will also be able to take control of Funky Kong, Diddy Kong, Pauline, and Peachette as part of this DLC. Each character is full of life, pulling out everything from microphones to surfboards when landing the perfect trick. Variety is the spice of life, and pairing these racers up with the suite of parts means that there is an extremely high amount of customization.

When it comes to design elements, it can be a bit of a mixed bag. Seeing custom character advertisements and storefronts certainly adds a dash of personality, but the title still struggles with perspective. It can be jarring to see a traffic cone or potted plant bigger than the player; these could have easily been fixed to be less jarring.

Wave 6 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass continues to bring more great tracks and characters to the game, but some odd choices prevent it from taking first place. Mario Kart fans will have an absolute blast, but more casual players will rue the day they ever came across Rosalina’s Ice World.

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