Five More Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC Characters Teased

The latest wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe add-on content has arrived. Judging from the updated character screen, more Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC characters are planned. [Thanks, Wario64 and PadWarrior!]

The new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC characters will appear alongside the newly-added Birdo. Birdo was announced in a previous reveal, along with the addition of a Yoshi’s Island course. Birdo stands at the head of an entire new column in the character select screen. Below her are five blank spaces occupied by “?s.”

5 new spaces #MK8D #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/6JZQvq7XtL

— PadWarrior (@pad_warrior) March 9, 2023

With two more waves of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC coming, the five new characters will presumably be added as part of those waves. As to who they could be, there are still a few Nintendo-related characters that could make the cut. Samus Aran from the Metroid series could be one. Splatoon‘s prominence as part of Nintendo’s top-line franchises could hint at the arrival of a named character from one of the games. The upcoming launch of a new Zelda title could also herald the arrival of a character to accompany Link.

The Nintendo press release that accompanied Wave 4 also promised “more returning courses and characters from across the Mario Kart series.” Narrowing the list to only characters that have previously appeared in a Mario Kart game but not Mario Kart 8 Deluxe suggests characters like Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, R.O.B. Pauline, and more obscure names like Wiggler and Petey Pirhana.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available on the Nintendo Switch. Wave 4 of its DLC arrived on March 9, 2023, with two more waves planned.