Mario Kart 8 Deluxe seemingly will get five new DLC characters

Based on the new character select screen after the latest update

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 4 (read: more DLC tracks and Birdo) dropped this week, and with it, plenty of speculation and intrigue.

After booting the update up and navigating through the menus to try out the new tracks, I noticed something odd: there’s five “?” spots on the character select screen that didn’t appear before! This is in addition to Birdo, who made their debut in Wave 4.

Interestingly, instead of rearranging the character select screen, Birdo appears in a brand new column, with five more slots below them denoted by a “?” With the Mario universe as vast as it is at this point, the realm of speculation is probably limitless, as any character, no matter how small (Goombas!) could show up. Note that there are two more waves to go until these five slots are potentially filled; and of course, this might not be the definitive end of all DLC for the game.

Who could the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC characters be?

Just based on a few racers that have appeared in other games, there’s a short list:

• Funky Kong (Mario Kart Wii/Tour)
• Diddy Kong (Double Dash/Wii/Tour)
• Honey Queen (Mario Kart 7)
• Wiggler (Mario Kart 7)
• Petey Piranha (Double Dash/Tour)

This list also isn’t exhaustive, and Nintendo could surprise us with out-of-left-field characters like they did with the Animal Crossing Villager and Link from the Zelda series. I can also see Pauline making it in by the end, especially given her appearance in Mario Golf: Super Rush. The sky is the limit when you’re a character factory like Nintendo!

Check out our extensive review coverage of all of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe wave so far:

• Wave 1
• Wave 2
• Wave 3