Boy what a week. Assassin’s Creed Unity was released, and it’s, well…you know… The Master Chief Collection is loaded with just enough bugs that Unity is taking the brunt of the blowback, but make no mistake, it’s not in great shape either. So what’s the best game released this week? A cash-in Assassin’s Creed game that’s basically just the best parts of AC 3 and 4 copied and pasted into a new game. These are dark times indeed.
But never fear, Nintendo is here, and as usual they have brought quality with them. Today marks the release of the first DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. This pack includes 8 new tracks, 4 new carts, and 3 new characters and is currently priced at $7.99 ($11.99 if you buy next year’s pack with it in advance).
Naturally the biggest part of the DLC is the 8 new courses that make up the Yoshi Egg and Triforce cups. The pack includes 3 revamped retro stages, there’s Yoshi Circuit from Double Dash, Rainbow Road from the SNES, and the level that I think made the best transition to MK 8, Wario’s Gold Mine from the Wii. Unlike the traditional cups the retro stages are mixed into the regular playlists so playing Grand Prix will have you playing at least one or two retro levels no matter what you do.
While the retro upgrades are nice, it’s the new original levels where the DLC really shines. Three of the levels are themed around other Nintendo properties. The F-Zero and Excitebike themed levels both favor speed, with F-Zero giving you tons of boost pads to propel you and Excitebike presenting you with plentiful opportunities for trick jumps. Both levels are over very quickly but they’re still a lot of fun to play. The Zelda themed Hyrule Circuit is probably the most traditional of all the courses, it’s standout features are mostly little touches like changing coins into rupees. Ice Ice Outpost and Dragon Driftway are the only two new tracks not based on another game and I would say out of the two the latter’s nearly motion inducing twisting track is my favorite in the whole collection.
The DLC’s new characters are something of a mixed bag. Link is more interesting as a symbol than as a racer. His inclusion of course marks the first time that a Nintendo character from a series other than Mario has made an appearance. It’s a refreshing change of pace and it makes me excited at the prospect of a Mario Kart 9 that might find a better use for its extra roster spaces than the Koopalings. Tanooki Mario features a lot of little nostalgic touches that make it impossible to hate him, his horn is the sound of his tail whip in Super Mario Bros 3, and he even turns into Statue Mario temporarily in his trick jumps. The same nostalgic adoration doesn’t really apply to Cat Peach, who is cute and all, but is also just a woman in a cat suit. You didn’t earn this Peach!
I was somewhat concerned with how the DLC would be handled in online play. Now when you start up multiplayer you’ll have the option as to whether or not you play with the new levels. I think most of the people that are still playing online Mario Kart at this point are also purchasing the DLC, I didn’t have any trouble finding groups to play against on the new tracks, but if you do have issues you can always go back to the original 32 levels without much hassle.
In short this DLC is astoundingly good, especially for a company like Nintendo who usually misfires anytime the word internet is uttered. Some of the courses rival the best ones that the original game had to offer in terms of quality. If you enjoyed Mario Kart 8 then this is a no brainer. So I would suggest you take all that money you saved by not buying broken games and give it to a company whose QA testing and pride of workmanship ensure they actually deserve it.
