Surprising just about no one, Nintendo has announced downloadable content for Mario Kart 8. Well, sort of. Nintendo UK's online store has accidentally spoiled the surprise of two add-ons being prepared for the racer.

Pack 1 arrives in November, which includes four vehicles, eight courses, and three characters (Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, Link). Nintendo is finally including characters from non-Mario games. The UK website lists the DLC as £7.00, which roughly translates to $11.60.

Pack 2 arrives in May 2015. You actually did read that right. May 2015. That add-on includes four vehicles, eight courses, and another three characters (Villager, Isabelle, Dry Bowser). It costs the same price, and grabbing both packs unlocks a set of colored Yoshi and Shy Guy variants to play as.

BUT WHERE'S BIRDO?

Seriously though, more courses is FANTASTIC. I love this game, and I'd love more courses.

But also, where's Birdo?!

Please include Solid Snake and a parachute gun DLC

TIA Nintendo

Interesting take on giving Link a motorcycle.

I think it's time to just make this "Nintendo Kart" because if you look at the original roster, it is REALLY scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point.

Better yet! Solid Snake riding a cardboard box on wheels!

More courses; YES!

Animal Crossing dudes; okay?

Link...

Link.......

No.

FINALLY.....

....>___>

I'm curious of the courses will be a mix or remakes and new ones or just remakes?

16 new courses is a lot of new courses.

I can't wait.

I'm more pumped about the new tracks, especially what appears to be an Excitebike one

Love it. I've kinda wondered why the Mario Party series didn't expand to include Nintendo IP in general...and have minigames based on their actual games, like a minigame that was basically a Mario Kart track, or a Smash Bros fight, or multiplayer platforming levels, or various Mario Sports battles. They could also use the minigames to highlight their more obscure titles.

Thought the racing levels of Mario Galaxy could have simply been MK tracks for example.

Holy shit, that's awesome. 8 tracks in November? I'm so excited for this.

This is excellent.

Link! This could be the start of something special. And eight courses is awesome. I hope it's actually eight courses and not four plus mirror versions.

God damn it I'm determined to wait until the next nintendo console

I just want more courses, I don't care about anything else.

Well, putting King Boo and other classic drivers instead of a bazillion koopa kids back in would be pretty great.

I hope Nintendo does a season's pass type thing with this like they did with Mario Golf. The Mario Golf one was totally worth it, and knowing how Nintendo has handled DLC before, they'd make it reasonable.

I am excite.

New arena based battle mode courses coming next? Maybe? Eh?

Cool! It'd be great if they just made a Mario Kart with a bunch of Nintendo characters instead of just Mario and Donkey Kong.

Would also be awesome if they made all the characters in a similar style, like how Konami Krazy Racers had Grey Fox in it but they all looked like Mario Kart sprites.

@patrickklepek

"Surpising just about no one..."

Wait! Since when is 'Nintendo announces meaningful DLC to one of their games that will significantly affect the online of their latest Mario Kart" notsurprising?!

It's gonna be a mix.

Quoting from the website: "The Add On Content packs include classics like Wario’s Gold Mine from Mario Kart Wii, as well as new courses, some taking place in the worlds of The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing".

@l1ghtn1n: @roboculus92: Cool. Thanks for the info.

"Dry," Bowser? Does this mean we should attribute Bowser's princess-knapping to his struggles with alcoholism?

Hopefully this is the beginning of Nintendo finally doing away with all those fuckin' goddamn clone characters and koopa kids, and adding some characters from other IPs they own. If Mario K9rt has 5 baby characters, 2 metal versions of the same character, and all of the koopa kids, then fuck that game.

"8 new courses, Isabelle, Villager..."

Alright that seems kinda neat.

"May 2015"

...uh...okay.

That's about the pace they roll out Virtual Console titles, so not entirely surprised.

Shut up and take my money Nintendo!

@theblue: That's the second of two substantial DLC packs. The first is coming in November.

Maybe at some point many of Nintendo's big multiplayer Mario franchises will be like Super Smash Bros., like Super Kart Bros. in this case, and even a Super Striker Bros instead of Super Mario Strikers (not that those would necessarily be the names). Or if they'll just keeping holding crossover stuff for DLC like with this.

As far as this DLC goes, I would probably see them as worth picking up, assuming those new courses are as good as MK8's existing ones. The combined price is fairly high, but it's a whole new row of cups (half of them new, the other half restored) in an already excellent game.

It also increases the likelihood of Smash DLC, on WiiU at least. Sakurai had made statements contrary to that, but that was some time ago. But given what has been shown, I trust that the core games will be well worth their price even if DLC is added later. Hope they don't pull a dirty trick like holding out something like Break The Targets for DLC, though.

I thought so too, but it seems to be a Dry Bones version of Bowser.

10 bucks for 8 courses isn't bad at all. Still weird to see Nintendo putting out DLC.

@hailinel: Yeah, I understand that, it's just such a long gap between the two. They probably want to keep people playing it as long as possible, which I get. Half a year just seems ridiculous though.

@mooseymcman: I concur!

I need to know what weight class Isabelle is in. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Mirror versions are an option you can already turn on in the custom race creator menu thingy and you also get a mirror Grand Prix if you get first place in all 150cc cups. I'm no Mario Kart DLC expert, but that seems like it would indicate the paid DLC wouldn't just be mirrored versions?

Oh good! Because Nintendo needed another Mario and Peach variant. Where's Diddy Kong, Birdo, Dry Bones, or any other character in previous MK's that were excluded in this one?

Fuck yeah, let's get some tracks too. Hyrule Highway, let's do it.

There have been plenty of non-Mario characters included in Mario Kart before.
R.O.B., Miis, Pac-Man, Blinky, Don, Mametchi, Ms. Pac-Man, Funky Kong, and Diddy Kong. (And I guess Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Junior).

And we take our first collective step down the road to Super Smash Karts…

We're getting more variants of Peach, Yoshi, and Shy Guy? Cat Peach? Where is Cat Bowser?!

She's still trying to piece her life together after losing everything in the District A market crash.

I'm not sure how to feel about this...

@cloudymusic: This is actually a much better response than I was expecting, so A+ to you!

Sixteen new courses within the next year GODDAMN! Still hoping for Paratroopa but this is excellent news.

At least we can't berate them for having on-disc DLC. I mean, right?

Give me more remakes of the SNES courses and they can have my money.

@mooseymcman: FUCKIN' THANK YOU!! WHERES MY BIRDO? THE APPLE OF MY EYE? THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE? THE BOW ON MY KART??

That May 2015 release doesn't feel that crazy to me. Didn't Last of Us Left Behind and the second Bioshock Infinite DLC come out this year. Both for games which came out in 2013. They are just being up front about it and showing people what you. I like that approach.

EDIT: Also, one of the images is showing off an F-Zero track. MOTHER. FUCKING. F-ZERO.

A neat idea (I never thought they would really do DLC courses) but I am worried about digital Nintendo products. I hate the idea of digital stuff being tied to the system... and with how fast Wii online went away, how long will this kind of stuff last?

Cautiously optimistic.