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 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] It is the only game in the Mario Kart series to include content based on Splatoon. It is the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, with 70.59 million copies sold as of December 2025.^[2]

Splatoon content

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe introduces Splatoon content 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. The selectable 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 (without the wristband), 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.

The Inklings' head icons lack their headgear.

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). 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. The Inklings' emblems all use a symbol of an Inkling in squid form, with the ink color varying to match the Inkling being used. 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.

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.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also introduces the battle mode course Urchin Underpass, based on the Urchin Underpass stage from Splatoon, as well as two Splatoon-themed vehicles, both of them ATVs: the Splat Buggy, which is available from the start, and the Inkstriker (based on the Inkstrike), which is unlockable. These two vehicles have a unique visual effect: their exhaust pipes spray ink during a speed boost rather than flames, accompanied by a unique sound effect similar to the sound of firing a shooter in Splatoon. When playing as an Inkling, the ink color of these vehicles matches that of the player's Inkling; when playing as any other character, the Splat Buggy uses magenta ink while the Inkstriker uses purple ink. The design of the vehicles is also different if the player is an Inkling, with a Super Mushroom symbol on the Splat Buggy and a ? Block symbol on the Inkstriker being replaced by symbols from Splatoon. Additionally, the Standard Kart, Standard Bike, and Standard ATV vehicles, as well as the Super Glider, have unique appearances when used by Inklings, being covered in ink splatters.

If an Inkling is a CPU, they will usually use the Splat Buggy or Inkstriker with Standard tires; however, they can sometimes use the Standard Kart with Standard tires, or the Standard Bike with Monster tires. They will also always use the Super Glider. The green and magenta Inkling Girls and the purple and cyan Inkling Boys can never appear as CPUs. In Time Trial mode, Inklings are used by five of the staff ghosts: the orange Inkling Girl is used by the 200cc staff ghosts for Excitebike Arena and Tour Tokyo Blur, the purple Inkling Boy is used by the 200cc staff ghost for Dragon Driftway, and the blue Inkling Boy is used by the 150cc staff ghosts for Tour Tokyo Blur and Tour Bangkok Rush.

A Splatoon-themed Mii racing suit named the Inkling Suit can be unlocked by scanning any Splatoon series amiibo.

Gallery

Artwork

Inkling Girl racing as seen in the key art
Artwork of Inkling Girl on a Splat Buggy using a Blooper, which is also a squid
The previous artwork with Mario included
A version of the previous artwork featuring Urchin Underpass. This is one of the images used for the background of the main menu, specifically for the multiplayer mode.
2D artwork of the Inklings on the Splat Buggy and Inkstriker, along with a Blooper
2D artwork of Inkling Girl on the Splat Buggy
A sheet from the first set of Window Stickers on My Nintendo
The amiibo Mii racing suits, including the Inkling Suit