History Trivia / MarioKart8

** At E3 2014, just a few weeks after the Wii U version released, Nintendo included a moment of the Luigi Death Stare during their presentation.

** In 2019, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch got a news bulletin for games starring Luigi to celebrate the upcoming release of ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3''. The message for ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' notes that "it's not polite to stare at rivals as you pass them", referencing the infamous Luigi's Death Stare.
** When amiibo kiosks were still a thing, Luigi's showcase video had a brief moment of him doing the death stare.
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'', Luigi gives Mario and Huey a ride to Bowser's Castle in his kart. After dropping them off, Huey tells Luigi to give people that "mean stare" if they give him any trouble.
** A [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Wii_Maple_Treeway#/media/File:MK8DMapleTreeway2.jpg promotional screenshot]] for Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass has Luigi doing the death stare.

* ''Mario Kart 8'' was the best selling game on Wii U, with 8.46 million units sold. It is also the best selling game on the Nintendo Switch, with 57 million units sold as of September 30th, 2023. Roughly half of all Switch owners have ''Deluxe''.

* Courses need at least one stationary coin and one stationary item box, or else the game will crash. In order to prevent a crash, Mute City and Big Blue both have a single coin hidden somewhere beyond the course's boundaries. Mute City's coin is hidden inside a building, while Big Blue's is hidden inside an island. Baby Park has an item box hidden inside the support structure of the background Ferris wheel, while DS Shroom Ridge has an inaccessible item box underground in the field near the tunnel.

** When Deluxe first released, Miis didn’t properly show any emotions. A patch would later fix this issue.

** Similarly, not long after Wave 2 released, portions of fifteen of the remaining tracks' music got leaked, including the entirety of the third wave and small portions of the other waves' tracks.
** Between the internal data that leaked the placement of courses, the aforementioned music leak, and the banner datamine, several future tracks for the Booster Course Pass have been identified. All the tracks implicated by this leak have been confirmed as of Wave 5

** The battle arenas from the Wii U version still exist in ''Deluxe'', but can't be accessed without hacking.
** The DLC icons for Villager, Isabelle, and the other DLC chracters from the Wii U version still remain in ''Deluxe''.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' tracks in the Booster Course Pass use their track models lifted directly from that game.
** Shroom Ridge, Berlin Byways and Moonview Highway reuse the cars from Toad’s Turnpike.
** The Swoopers from Wario's Gold Mine are reused in Choco Mountain and Rock Rock Mountain.
** The Snowmen from Sherbet Land reappear in Snow Land.
** The environment for SNES Donut Plains 3 is reused for SNES Rainbow Road.
** The planets from 3DS Rainbow Road reappear in the background in Wii Rainbow Road.

* Electrodrome is, to date, the only track in the ''Mario Kart'' series to have a one-word name.[[note]]If one counts battle courses, then Skyscraper in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' also qualifies.[[/note]]

* The original Wii U version is the only ''Mario Kart'' game where no tracks share the exact same music as each other.[[note]]Mario Kart Stadium and Mario Circuit use different arrangements of the same composition, however. This is also the case for Sweet Sweet Canyon and Sweet Sweet Kingdom in ''Deluxe''.[[/note]] This is averted in ''Deluxe'' as of Wave 2 of the Booster Course Pass, as DS Wario Stadium and DS Waluigi Pinball share the same arrangement of their theme.

* The entire Star Cup from ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' was remade in ''8 Deluxe'', marking the second time in a console ''Mario Kart'' title where an entire cup from a previous game was remade in-game through post-launch support, the first being Lightning Cup from ''Super Circuit'' having all its courses remade for ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' (not counting ''Super Circuit'' itself including all of the ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks). And in both cases, the tracks were added to the games in reverse order. However, when ''Tour'' launched, it included all Mushroom Cup courses from ''VideoGame/MarioKart7''.
* Courses need at least one coin in it or else the game will crash. In order to prevent a crash, Mute City and Big Blue both have a single coin hidden somewhere beyond the course's boundaries. Mute City's coin is hidden inside a building, while Big Blue's is hidden inside an island. Similarity, a course needs a least one stationary item box. Baby Park and Shroom Ridge have hidden stationary item boxes in places that are inaccessible to the player.

** Various official descriptions for DS Mario Circuit describe it as a course full of blossoming cherry trees and a winding trail through Peach's Castle, describing the Mario Circuit from ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' instead of the one from ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS''.

** Various descriptions for DS Mario Circuit describe it as a course full of blossoming cherry trees and a winding trail through Peach's Castle, describing the Mario Circuit from ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' instead of the one from ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS''.

** To celebrate getting 1,000 subscribers on Instagram, Waluigi's creator shared an [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz344UUyyAY/?img_index=1 illustration]] of Waluigi riding a Wiggler motorcycle.

* DummiedOut: The battle arenas from the Wii U version still exist in ''Deluxe'', but can't be accessed without hacking.

* Courses need at least one coin or else the game will crash. In order to prevent a crash, Mute City and Big Blue both have a single coin hidden somewhere beyond the course's boundaries. Mute City's coin is hidden inside a building, while Big Blue's is hidden inside an island.

** Courses need at least one coin or else the game will crash. In order to prevent a crash, Mute City and Big Blue both have a single coin hidden somewhere beyond the course's boundaries. Mute City's coin is hidden inside a building, while Big Blue's is hidden inside an island.

** With Nintendo [=eShop=] support shutting down on Wii U, the only way to access the DLC tracks on Wii U is to either already have them, buy a Wii U bundle with them preinstalled or purchase a Wii U used that the prior owner bought them on.
* KillerApp: Considering how well the original game sold -- the best selling Wii U title, approximately two-thirds of all Wii U owners purchased it -- it very likely prevented the system from going down as one of the biggest failures in video gaming history instead of "only" being Nintendo's lowest-selling home console. Weirdly enough, ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' also ended up being this for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch to some extent; while not markedted as ''the'' killer app for the system (that was ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''), it was still held up as one of the biggest reasons to purchase a Switch and ended up outselling the original version in just under a year. By the end of 2018, it had dethroned ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' as the top-selling Switch title and remained as the system's killer app ever since. Between the two installments, ''Mario Kart 8'' has become the highest-selling game in the entire franchise. In 2021, 4 years after its launch (and 7 years after the original release), ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' still ranked among top 10 best-selling games of that year, and was considered to be a major driver of Switch sales as well, leading to Nintendo to release a season pass full of recreated classic ''Mario Kart'' courses for 2022 and 2023.

* KillerApp: Considering how well the original game sold -- approximately two-thirds of all Wii U owners purchased it -- it very likely prevented the system from going down as one of the biggest failures in video gaming history instead of "only" being Nintendo's lowest-selling home console. Weirdly enough, ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' also ended up being this for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch to some extent; while not ''the'' killer app for the system (that was ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''), it was still held up as one of the biggest reasons to purchase a Switch and ended up outselling the original version in just under a year. By the end of 2018, it had dethroned ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' as the top-selling Switch title. Between the two installments, ''Mario Kart 8'' has become the highest-selling game in the entire franchise. In 2021, 4 years after its launch (and 7 years after the original release), ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' still ranked among top 10 best-selling games of that year, and was considered to be a major driver of Switch sales as well, leading to Nintendo to release a season pass full of recreated classic ''Mario Kart'' courses for 2022 and 2023.

** A [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Wii_Maple_Treeway#/media/File:MK8DMapleTreeway2.jpg promotional screenshot]] for Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass has Luigi doing the death stare.%%Something about the Akira-inspired artwork of Waluigi in the Wild Wiggler, a combination that is heavily popular. Not to mention that Waluigi's own creator made the artwork.

** A [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Wii_Maple_Treeway#/media/File:MK8DMapleTreeway2.jpg promotional screenshot]] for Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass has Luigi doing the death stare.

* SequelGap:
** The first wave of the Booster Course Pass was released almost five years after ''Deluxe'' released.
** The last wave of the Booster Course Pass was released in November 2023, about nine and a half years after the Wii U version. If the pass is any indication that no new game is in the works, then there will be at least a decade long gap between 8 and its true successor.

* HistoryRepeats: Much like how ''Mario Kart 8'' on the Wii U didn't add a 48-course VS mode to allow all the DLC tracks to be played in one go with the base game tracks (''8 Deluxe'' would add this), ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe'' didn't add a 96-course VS mode to allow the Booster Course Pass tracks to be played in one sitting with the base game tracks.

* HistoryRepeats: Much like how Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U didn’t add a 48-course VS mode to allow all the DLC tracks to be played in one go with the base game tracks (8 Deluxe would add this), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe didn’t add a 96-course VS mode to allow the Booster Course Pass tracks to be played in one sitting with the base game tracks.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Certain amiibo figurines have gone out of print, making their costumes much more difficult to unlock. Likewise, with Nintendo eShop support shutting down on Wii U, the only way to access the DLC tracks on ElWii U is to either already have them, buy a Wii U bundle with them preinstalled or purchase a Wii U used that the prior owner bought them on.

*** SNES Bowser Castle 3 is referred to as SNES Bowser'''''[='s=]''''' Castle 3.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Certain amiibo figurines have gone out of print, making their costumes much more difficult to unlock.

** The last wave of the Booster Course Pass was released in November 2023, about nine and half years after the Wii U version. If the pass is any indication that no new game is in the works, then there will be at least a decade long gap between 8 and its true successor.

** The last wave of the Booster Course Pass is planned to be released by the end of 2023. If the pass is any indication that no new game is in the works, then there will be at least a ten year gap between 8 and its true successor.

** The Booster Course Pass was referred to as the "Booster Course Pack" on the North American website. This mistake would eventually get corrected.
** On that same website, Shroom Ridge was listed as a [[VideoGame/MarioKart7 3DS]] track instead of a [[VideoGame/MarioKartDS DS]] one, which would eventually get corrected.
** The website's image for GBA Sky Garden uses a screenshot from ''Mario Kart Tour'' instead of one from the actual game. This wouldn't be ''too'' noticeable if the ''Tour'' version of the course didn't use gray cobblestones (like the original course in ''Super Circuit'') instead of the orange ones from the Booster Course Pass version.
** On the North American website for the Booster Course Pass, Wii Rainbow Road currently shows an image of 3DS Rainbow Road instead, although this is only present when viewing on a desktop but is correct on mobile devices.

* The entire Star Cup from ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' was remade in ''8 Deluxe'', marking the second time in a console ''Mario Kart'' title where an entire cup from a previous game was remade in-game post-launch, the first being Lightning Cup from ''Super Circuit'' having all its courses remade for ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' (not counting ''Super Circuit'' itself including all of the ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks). And in both cases, the tracks were added to the games in reverse order. However, when ''Tour'' launched, it included all Mushroom Cup courses from ''VideoGame/MarioKart7''.

* The entire Star Cup from ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' was remade in ''8 Deluxe'', marking the second time in a console ''Mario Kart'' title where an entire cup from a previous game was remade in-game, the first being Lightning Cup from ''Super Circuit'' having all its courses remade for ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' (not counting ''Super Circuit'' itself including all of the ''Super Mario Kart'' tracks). And in both cases, the tracks were added to the games in reverse order.

* ''Mario Kart 8'' was the best selling game on Wii U, with 8.46 million units sold. It is also the best selling game on the Nintendo Switch, with 52 million units sold as of December 31st, 2022. Roughly half of all Switch owners have ''Deluxe''.