It has arrived and it is – already – the happiness of many and many players! Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Additional Circuits Part 1 Pass has been available for download for several days. Also, in order to help you make a decision as to the merits of this purchase, we offer you a mini-test, just to offer you an opinion on the quality of the work carried out by the developers. Here is our test of the DLC offered on Nintendo Switch.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: retro to the taste of the day
First, a little reminder. Nintendo announced a few months ago the release of several DLCs intended to expand the content of its bestseller, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Concretely, these are additional circuits – and only, since no additional character/kart is announced – 48 in total, which will be dispatched over several months with, for each wave, 8 tracks offered. Routes that you can also find solo, with new cuts linked to these additional circuits. For the record, these are not really new since they come from Mario Kart games released on other media (mobile, N64, DS, etc.).
The circuits of the “mobile” version, main attraction
Nevertheless and in our opinion, the main interest lies here, three circuits come directly from Mario Kart Tour, title available on Smartphone. Also, knowing that many “console” players shunned this production, it amounts (at least, for some/some of us) to discovering three new layouts. Namely, Paris, Tokyo and the Ninja Dojo.
It is also the latter which has our preference, because of its great richness, its many shortcuts, the variety of traps and its graphics, really successful. More refined, the race in our capital also remains very fun, due to its “fast” nature and, for us French, the attachment that this can represent. Finally, the event which takes place in the Japanese capital is not lacking in interest either, with a good highlighting of the pilots mastering the Drift.
But the retro stings (a little) the eyes…
Thus, if our test stopped at these three circuits, the score granted would be excellent! Especially since the music, like the visuals, are successful there and in a tone quite close to the standards in force in the rest of the initial software. No significant lag, therefore, which means that the integration is perfectly successful.
On the other hand, when it comes to embarking on the 5 “retro” tracks, the result is a little less flattering. Obviously, we understand that the developers wanted to keep the DNA of the original tracks. However, the visual of some of these tracks is quite shocking to the eye. We think, in particular, of Choco Mountain, which has aged a lot. And more generally, the textures and certain decorative elements on several other “retro” tracks are a bit simplistic. And far from the standards of the hybrid console. There was clearly better to do, even respecting the original works.
Tap the mushroom in the Toad Circuit, available via Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Additional Circuits Pass! pic.twitter.com/ZrztzdpEIO
— Nintendo France (@NintendoFrance) April 6, 2022
Despite everything, we really liked it!
Fortunately, the pleasure of playing, controller in hand, is there, despite this downside. And especially if you like two wheels, which give you the opportunity to rediscover certain circuits with a different -driving- approach. For our part, we particularly liked the Corniche Champion -and its very tight turns- and the Circuit Toad. A pure joy to travel through them, once more, with the most successful Mario Kart in history! And then, once once more, the initial music has been skillfully orchestrated/remastered, this time seamlessly with the rest of the software’s sound content. A very good point.
Article published at 10:06 a.m. on 04/17/2022