COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #7 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (DLC)
Mario Kart 8 originally appeared on the Wii U way back in 2014, meaning many Nintendo enthusiasts have been playing a good chunk of these courses for nearly a decade now. So how is it possible that the Nintendo Switch Deluxe version released not long after the console launched back in 2017 makes a top ten list in 2023? For the same reason that it still regularly hovers near the top of monthly sales charts and is by far and away the highest selling title for Nintendo’s hybrid:
Quality and a ridiculously high volume of content.
Ok so here’s some maths for you: A couple of years back, Nintendo made the announcement that they would be releasing 6 waves consisting of 2 new cups (4 tracks per cup) to MK8 over the course of a little over a year and a half. This added up to players looking forward to 48 additional tracks on top of the original release’s 48, bringing the grand total of courses to 96. This would also include a number of new characters to play as along with some other extra little bells and whistles (like the long awaited and more than welcome item selection option). That sure is a whole lot of video game right there.
I know that I mentioned my rule for making the top ten list meant that the title had to be released in 2023. But I’m bending that thing here a little because this year saw the final 3 waves hit the console completing the game once and for all. Each cup is made up of selections from previous entries in the series as well as the mobile app Mario Kart Tour and the occasional all new course. With that many tracks to play, you’re inevitably looking at a mixed bag to choose from but overall the quality has been solid across the board. The fact that Maple Treeway and DK Mountain both made the cut goes a long way to helping me sleep at night.
This clearly makes complete financial sense: Why move on to Mario Kart 9 when Deluxe has consistently sold like crazy and eat into those sales? Obviously the answer would be to simply extend the lifetime to the existing software by adding new content in a drip feed to keep players coming back for more. Worked like a charm on yours truly and as of this writing it looks like I’ve clocked in 230 hours of playtime on the Switch version alone. But now that it’s all wrapped up, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to see what the next step for the series is gonna look like.
So I guess that’s the big question now: Where can the Mario Kart series go from here?
