The story of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a very interesting one when you really think about it. Because it started out on the Wii U as just Mario Kart 8, and it sold well enough. As well as having the first DLC ever for the title. But then, with the Nintendo Switch, they decided to port it over to the new console, bundle the previous DLC with it, and see where things would go from there. Where it went…was straight to the top. As it became the best-selling Switch game ever and beating the Wii U version many times over.
And now, it’s going to be around even LONGER via the Booster Course Pass that just gave us its first 8 new tracks recently. But if you ask the team behind the game…they weren’t expecting this at all. In fact, Producer Kosuke Yabuki talked with Nikkei about this and admitted that selling over 40 million copies of the game wasn’t in the cards at all at first:
We didn’t, but in hindsight, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a good match for the Switch. You can play the console anywhere and even split the controller in two, so it’s easy to pick up and play with a nearby sibling or friend. 5 years after the game’s release, that appeal hasn’t faded.
He also talked about keeping the game accessible:
We wanted the game to be a fun experience for everyone. It can be frustrating to lose, but there’s plenty that happens during races to make players crack a smile or want to play another round. The hope for players to experience emotions beyond the outcome of race. We designed the game in such a way where unthinkable things like slipping on a banana just before the finish line happen one after the other.
Sadly, whether we get Mario Kart 9 eventually is now very much in question, but you can’t knock Nintendo for wanting to keep their sales up.
