16 Tracks That Need To Be In The Mario Kart 8 DLC

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There are 48 new tracks coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe over the next two years, as part of the “Booster Course Pack” DLC that was announced in the February 2022 Nintendo Direct. Those 48 tracks will all be remakes of old, beloved tracks — and we’ve already seen the first wave, which brings 8 new courses and two new cups, the Golden Dash Cup and the Lucky Cat Cup, to the game.

That leaves forty tracks for us to speculate about, and even though forty tracks means that pretty much every single track ever made will be coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we can still hope for a few of our favourites to return…

DK’s Jungle Parkway

We might have loathed this course back in the day for the sheer number of times you can fall into water and that lousy cave hairpin turn at the end, and maybe our opinion has been altered by the rosy filter of nostalgia, but we do think DK’s Jungle Parkway is a great candidate for an MK8 remake all the same.

The glossy remake of this track for Mario Kart Wii gives us hope that this one’s in the pipeline. And speaking of pipelines…

Koopa Cape

Some of Mario Kart 8’s best tracks are the ones with waterfalls — Shy Guy Falls, Dolphin Shoals, DK Jungle — so Koopa Cape could be a perfect new addition. It’s a fast-paced track thanks to its flooded roads, which speed the player along nicely, but can be the difference between a well-earned 1st place and a disappointing 8th, depending on skill.

The underwater pipe section, complete with echoing audio and music, would be a great place for a little bit of anti-gravity, too!

DK Mountain

DK Mountain, originally from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, shows signs of some of the DNA that would eventually turn into colossal showpiece tracks like Grumble Volcano and Mount Wario. It borrows elements of DK’s Jungle Parkway, too — namely the rickety bridge right at the end, which challenges racers not to blow it at the last second.

This track is pretty simple: Get shot up to the top of a mountain, race down, repeat. But sometimes, simple is actually best for showcasing your mastery of the art of the drift.

Airship Fortress

Made for Mario Kart DS, and more recently re-released as a Mario Kart Tour track, Airship Fortress takes place on Bowser’s deadly airship, with players trying to dodge a barrage of Bullet Bills as they wind their way around a twisting stone track with plenty of pitfalls. The music is a total bop, and we’d love to hear a jazzy MK8 remaster.

Kalimari Desert

You either love Mario Kart 64‘s Kalimari Desert or you hate it, but you can’t deny that trains are cool, and this one sure does have a train. Not much else, of course — just the vast expanses of desert with the occasional railway crossing — but why would you want to take away from the glorious majesty of a train?

We’d love to see this one gussied up with modern Mario Kart 8 visuals. Maybe even an anti-gravity bit somewhere? Let us go inside the train, perhaps? We’ve already got planes (Sunshine Airport) and automobiles (Toad’s Turnpike), so let’s complete the trilogy already!

Moo Moo Farm

Arguably, Mario Kart 8’s Moo Moo Meadows — in itself a remake of the Wii’s track — is better than Moo Moo Farm. It’s a similar concept (animals on the track! Oh no!) but polished up to make a more interesting race.

But as we’ve said before, sometimes a track’s simplicity pares things down to what’s truly important: How good you are at Mario Kart. After all, one of the best tracks of all time is Baby Park, which is just a simple oval. Remake Moo Moo Farm in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe style, combine a few of the elements from Moo Moo Meadows, and you’ve got yourself an all-time classic on your hands.

Waluigi Pinball

Poor Waluigi is the forgotten middle child of Nintendo’s cast of characters, and he deserves more recognition — especially for the fantastic track that is Waluigi Pinball. First introduced in Mario Kart DS, this course shrinks down the racers to fit them on a giant pinball table, complete with big balls threatening to wipe them out at any moment.

This one’s a fantastic candidate for anti-grav trickery, given how twisty and turny it already is.

Maple Treeway

One of the most beautiful tracks on Mario Kart Wii, Maple Treeway is a crash-course in the trickiest parts of Mario Kart. Mastering tight turns, avoiding cliff edges and Wiggler-shaped obstacles, and knowing exactly when to use your power-ups are key to making it through this one unscathed.

Unlike a lot of other Mario Kart tracks, this track isn’t really based on anything in particular — in fact, it’s barely Mario-themed at all, taking place instead in an autumnal forest, winding around the treetops and leaf piles and ending with a bouncy net stretched between the branches.