Here in 2026, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass feels like a completed scrapbook, but I still flip back to Wave 5 with a grin. I remember watching the reveal and thinking that Nintendo was finally ready to let the bathroom track loose. The water-soaked chaos of Squeaky Clean Sprint looked ridiculous in the best way, and the three new characters — Kamek from Mario Kart Tour, Petey Piranha from Mario Kart Double Dash, and Wiggler from Mario Kart 7 — gave the pack a weird little family reunion. At the time, Wave 5 was scheduled for sometime in summer, and then Nintendo turned around just a couple of weeks later with the full track list. Classic Nintendo, honestly.
I’m an ordinary player, not a dataminer, so I mostly cared about one thing: whether the cups would feel fun to race with friends. The Feather Cup and the Cherry Cup were practically waving me toward the starting line. The Feather Cup opened with Athens Dash from Mario Kart Tour, then slid into Daisy Cruiser from Double Dash, Moonview Highway from Wii, and the fresh new Squeaky Clean Sprint. The Cherry Cup gave me Los Angeles Laps from Tour, Sunset Wilds from Super Circuit, Koopa Cape from Wii, and Vancouver Velocity from Tour. That mix felt like a road trip through Mario Kart history, with a few detours into my own nostalgia.
| Cup | Track | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| 🏁 Feather Cup | Athens Dash | Mario Kart Tour |
| 🏁 Feather Cup | Daisy Cruiser | Mario Kart Double Dash |
| 🏁 Feather Cup | Moonview Highway | Mario Kart Wii |
| 🏁 Feather Cup | Squeaky Clean Sprint | New |
| 🍒 Cherry Cup | Los Angeles Laps | Mario Kart Tour |
| 🍒 Cherry Cup | Sunset Wilds | Mario Kart Super Circuit |
| 🍒 Cherry Cup | Koopa Cape | Mario Kart Wii |
| 🍒 Cherry Cup | Vancouver Velocity | Mario Kart Tour |
The Tour tracks got the bulk of the returning-course spotlight, with three of them making their console debut. That mattered to me because Tour had been this strange little side door into Mario Kart history, and now some of those courses were stepping onto the main stage. Sunset Wilds and Moonview Highway also felt special because they had not appeared in a mainline release since their debuts. Daisy Cruiser and Koopa Cape had both been playable in Mario Kart 7, so they carried a different kind of memory for me — the handheld era, the late-night races, the tiny screen that somehow held a whole world.
When Wave 5 arrived on July 12, 2023, all eight tracks and the three characters were available for purchase. If you already owned the Booster Course Pass or had Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, it was simply there waiting for you. I remember jumping into Squeaky Clean Sprint first because the bathroom theme sounded too silly to ignore. The track scrubbed and slid around me like it had a mind of its own, and Moonview Highway kept showing off its moody skyline in the background. No joke, I lost a race because I was staring at the scenery instead of the road.
At the time, only one wave of content remained for the end of the year, and speculation was running wild. There were still two empty character spots, plus plenty of classic courses that could return for one last lap. I kept wondering whether a fifth Rainbow Road would sneak into the final wave, since the Super Circuit, Double Dash, DS, and Wii versions were all still up for grabs. It was also a little shocking that another Bowser’s Castle track had not been brought back yet, especially when nearly every Mario Kart seems to include both a Bowser’s Castle and a Rainbow Road. Rainbow Road was still clearing its throat in the background, and I was listening.
Looking back from 2026, Wave 5 sits in that sweet spot between “new content” and “nostalgia trip.” It was not the final wave, but it had the energy of a last big road trip before the credits rolled. The cups were generous, the character picks were delightfully odd, and Squeaky Clean Sprint proved that Mario Kart can still make a bathroom feel like a battlefield. I still race those tracks when I want a quick dose of chaos, and I still smile when Petey Piranha plants himself in the middle of the road. Some waves fade into the rearview mirror. This one keeps honking at me.