image

Nintendo’s Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is going to give us wave after wave of classic Mario Kart tracks, albeit in remastered, tweaked versions. Tons of players have very fond memories of these tracks, and Nintendo certainly recognizes that.

In an interview with Nikkei, producer Kosuke Yabuki discussed how Nintendo approached these tracks, and details the care put into them in order to freshen them up, while still respecting what made the originals great. You can see his full statement below, as translated by NintendoEverything.

The word ‘remaster’ might sound cheap, but we’re confident that it will create new and unique experiences that are different to how tracks were originally. We had to make all sorts of adjustments, as it wasn’t enough to simply leave the tracks as they were. The Game Boy Advance track ‘Sky Garden’ (released in 2001) was originally a flat plain, but we added some verticality to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version.

Players are going to have their own memories with each course, so we were careful not to change them too much. The discussion of intellectual property often happens around characters, but courses also belong in that conversation. We want to honor players’ memories while also polishing the allure of each course as IP.

Add Comment

Comments (8)

lionk

2y ago

I think a true remake for those old tracks in MK8 graphical style would have been the better choice in this case. They would be gorgeous and refreshed and would of course still be recognised by nostalgic players in this way.
And when Nintendo did not choose to switch off their support for our older hardware and online infrastructure, nostalgic players could still be playing online and buy the older games in their original state on older (still perfectly fine) consoles.

Edited 2 times

lucius6

2y ago

'Honor player memories' is that why the removed the moving cars at the end of Coconut Mall?


conangiga

2y ago

@lucius6

They honored my memories of last minute failure when I crashed into those cars in the last lap.
Might be easier now but at leats I didn't lose my mind like in the Wii original.


linkedtriforce

2y ago

@lionk

I also would’ve liked to see these tracks remade. The graphical style doesn’t bother me much, but I do wish they had more additions like more substantial glider and underwater sections, and especially the anti-grav sections that makes MK8 unique. However, I also understand them wanting to keep the original feel, and with us ultimately getting double the amount of tracks, I can’t really complain. I’ve been having a blast with the 8 new courses so far, and looking forward to playing each wave as they come.


sligeach_eire

2y ago

"The word ‘remaster’ might sound cheap".

That's because it is. Companies are all over remasters these days because it's so much cheaper than creating new and original content from scratch. And these "remastered" tracks don't look as nice as the original tracks in MK8. OR the DLC tracks that were added on Wii U, those packs contained several returning old tracks and look far better.

While it's an impressive number of additional old tracks being added in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Pass, Nintendo have done them on the relative cheap.


bakfug

2y ago

This is one of those things I just cant bring myself to even pretend to care about. The tracks look nice, and asking for even more than we are getting for the price point its at seems ridiculous to me.


zero_revolution

2y ago

I don't like this answer. I get why they're doing the DLC this way, it's a cheap and easy way to add more content to MK8 and keep fans satiated while they wait for MK9 (which they are certainly saving for the next system) They already are remaking so many tracks for Tour, so it makes sense, and I don't necessarily blame them. But why straight up lie like this when some of the tracks they are adding have even been completely changed?

Coconut Mall has some minor changes like the cars not moving at the end or the escalators, but you also have stuff like Sky Garden which has a completely different layout from the original version, so it isn't even the same track. Not exactly what I'd call "honoring player memories."

Not to mention they've added glider and underwater sections to some of these tracks, so I don't see why anti-gravity is being avoided if this is the reason why. I'm not a fan of excuses like this. Just be honest with us, we already can tell what the reasoning is.


ridleysaria

2y ago

Nostalgia is a convenient excuse for minimal effort tracks. Now I’m not totally down about the DLC, it’s going to be quite a few tracks for a decent price at the end of the day. But let’s not pretend they put even half their best effort into it.

Edited 1 time