The following list contains 10 of the most requested or recommended DLC additions to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from fans, ranked from the least to the most recurring.
10 Old Characters Returning
Quite self-explanatory, many people have asked in some shape or form that various cut characters return to the Mario Kart roster in future installments. These could easily be turned into a part of a DLC pack instead, restoring characters like R.O.B . or Wiggler to the roster.
As some fans miss their old favorites or just some of the more unique or weird additions to the roster (such as Mario Kart 7’s Honey Queen), this was an obvious choice for possible Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC.
9 More Items
Due to the Mario franchise being incredibly rich and diverse in its entires, as well as a lot of its items and power-ups, fans have wondered why the item selection has been so repetitive over the years in the Mario Kart series.
Some suggestions for items that could be added are Mario’s Cape, the P-Wing, Baby Yoshi, and Poison Mushrooms (present in Super Mario Kart). Even just those items, possibly returning as character-specific items, like previous installments had, or being track/course-specific, would be a very interesting addition to the game.
8 Old Tracks Remasters
Since Mario Kart DS introduced the retro cups, many fans have been excited at seeing their favorite track return in all of its glory. If some sort of retro cup DLC pack were to be introduced (possibly including the retro characters) many fans would immediately jump back into their karts to race again.
Given that one of the most requested things from fans is extra DLC in the form of extra cups, this could be incorporated with that, having 2 retro cups and 2 new ones, or even a fully retro DLC pack.
7 Extra Battle Modes
A complaint that is thrown at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is about its battle modes. There are five battle modes in the game, although some have complained that only a handful of them are fun enough to keep coming back to and criticized that some returning modes (like Balloon Battle) have become too easy now.
One example frequently brought up is the addition of a Last Man Standing mode for Balloon Battle, a mode that was present and popular in previous games that has since been phased out for a timed system instead.
6 Extra Cups
Another easy way to extend the longevity of this game is to simply add extra cups as DLC. Due to Mario’s aforementioned rich history, along with just using real-life settings, there should be no shortage of track ideas that Nintendo could come up with for making a few extra DLC tracks or cups.
Combining this idea with any of the track ideas listed already or higher up on the list could create potentially infinite cup plans for Nintendo to draw on for extra DLC cups, making the idea a no-brainer for DLC.
5 Mario Party & Sports Representation
Two of the more niche Mario franchises are the Mario Party and Sports series (Tennis, Sluggers, Strikers, and so on). These two series have little to no representation within the Mario Kart world, apart from characters like Waluigi.
Just a few ideas include having some board-based tracks (possibly similar in style to Ribbon Road to reference Mario Party DS) or a Dice Block item that can be picked up to give the player a timed-boost, or some other possible use.
4 Galaxy Representation
2007’s Super Mario Galaxy is one of the biggest and most popular of Mario’s adventures (of both 2D and 3D games). Several fans have pushed for more Galaxy representation in Mario Kart, be it in the form of tracks, items, or characters (such as the Lumas, that could come in a variety of colors like Yoshi and Shy Guy).
Players could be given access to the aforementioned Lumas and an Observatory track (or a full Good Egg Galaxy track) with Launch Stars as track elements to replace the launch cannons.
3 Other Franchise Items & Karts
Branching off of the popular requests for a wider variety of items and more representation of other franchises (like Mario Kart 8 did by introducing Link, Villagers, Isabelle, and the Inklings to the roster), this DLC could include new items and kart parts from an even wider range of franchises.
Some of these could include Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros., F-Zero (an immensely popular request), Kirby, or Pokémon, all of which being very large and very popular franchises that Nintendo utilizes.
2 Other Franchise Tracks
Whilst the Mario series has a large and rich history that could result in many more unique and exciting tracks for the Mario Kart series, Nintendo itself has a huge array of original IPs that could make the selection unique track ideas near infinite.
Some very interesting locations that players could explore as tracks include: Brinstar, Corneria, Dreamland, Octo Valley, Hyrule Field, Gerudo Desert (with its phenomenal music) or really any Pokémon region.
1 Other Franchises Characters
By far one of the biggest fan requests for the Mario Kart series is the inclusion of characters from other major Nintendo franchises. Fans got a taste of it in Mario Kart 8 DLC and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, adding characters from Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and The Legend of Zelda, which only served to fan the flames.
Many of the popular characters include Kirby, Captain Falcon, Zelda, or even Fox McCloud, being incredibly similar to the other lists, meaning it could all possibly be incorporated together.
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