Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

The box for the game; a female Inkling is featured towards the top.

Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Producer(s)	Hideki Konno Kosuke Yabuki (Deluxe only) Yasuyuki Oyagi
Director(s)	Kosuke Yabuki
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Release	Worldwide: 28 April 2017
Genre(s)	Kart racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Media	Game card Digital download (Nintendo eShop)
Game size(s)	11.2 GB
Age rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone PEGI: 3+ CERO: All Ages

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a kart racing game released for the Nintendo Switch. The game was first revealed through a trailer as part of the Nintendo Switch Presentation on 13 January 2017 in Tokyo, Japan and is an enhanced port of the Wii U game Mario Kart 8.^[1] The game is the first in the Mario Kart series to include references and content from Splatoon. It is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, with 62.9 million copies sold.^[2]

Splatoon content

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe introduces Splatoon characters and other references to the Mario Kart series. Both female and male Inklings (referred to as Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy, respectively) appear as playable characters, with three different variants each. A new battle mode course is introduced named Urchin Underpass, based on the Urchin Underpass stage from Splatoon, as well as two Splatoon-themed ATVs, the Splat Buggy and the Inkstriker (based on the Inkstrike). A new Inkling-themed amiibo costume unlocked by scanning any Splatoon amiibo is also added.

The selectable costume variants for the Inklings are as follows:

Inkling Girl:

Orange ink, orange eyes, light skin, Studio Headphones, White Tee, and Pink Trainers.
Green ink, pink eyes, pale skin, Studio Headphones, Black Tee, and Black Trainers.
Pink ink, cyan eyes, dark skin, Studio Headphones, Sky-Blue Squideye, and Cyan Trainers.

Inkling Boy:

Blue ink, blue eyes, light skin, Pilot Goggles, Zink Layered LS, and Purple Hi-Horses.
Purple ink, orange eyes, tan skin, Pilot Goggles, Choco Layered LS, and Gold Hi-Horses.
Cyan ink, brown eyes, medium skin, Pilot Goggles, Yellow Layered LS, and Zombie Hi-Horses.

Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy are both considered medium-weight drivers, though they have slightly different statistics: Inkling Girl is among the lightest medium-weight drivers (sharing her stats with Cat Peach, the female Villager, and Diddy Kong), while Inkling Boy is only very slightly lighter than average (sharing his stats with Tanooki Mario and the male Villager). Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy are rivals of each other, meaning that playing as Inkling Girl in Grand Prix mode ensures the best CPU player will be Inkling Boy, and vice versa. Originally, Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy occupied separate slots on the character select screen, but starting in the version 3.0.0 update, they instead share the same slot, with Inkling Boy and his variants being variants of Inkling Girl.

Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy use different animations from one another. Both of them brandish a Splattershot in their animation upon being chosen on the character select screen, in two of their Jump Boost animations, and in their animations for finishing a race or battle in the top half, while the other Jump Boost animation has them briefly assume squid form, but the exact poses for each animation differ between Inkling Girl and Inkling Boy. One of Inkling Girl's animations was altered in the version 1.1.0 update due to originally having resembled an obscene gesture.