Highlights
- Mario Kart 8's modding community has created new tracks, characters, and visual enhancements that add fresh and exciting elements to the game.
- The modding community's creativity and dedication to Mario Kart 8 showcases their love for the game and their desire to constantly add new ideas and content.
Mario Kart 8's modding community is often a busy one, with dedicated fans spending their time bringing new and exciting additions to the franchise that they love. When it comes to Mario Kart 8, the talent behind the mods has created some new ways to have fun behind the wheel for Mario and his friends, whether that be the addition of new tracks, remakes of classics, or the addition of the most requested characters in Mario Kart 8 as playable racers to the most iconic kart racer of all time.
With the best Mario Kart 8 mods, players will be in for a great time, and surely be able to add even more hours of entertainment from the exhilarating and fun kart racer. Although the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass may add some refreshing fun, the talent of the Mario Kart 8 modding community deserves some love for their hard work.
These mods come from the community of fans that love Mario Kart 8 and are in no way associated with Nintendo or official add-ons to the game.
9 Night Courses
For some players, they might be a tad bored with the visuals that they have when it comes to Mario Kart 8’s tracks. However, thanks to Wonzer, Delphox, and _Ro, players will be able to change the time of day, allowing for the Night Courses mod to shine. The fact that players can now play these races at night brings new life to them.
The courses can become more visually appealing thanks to the night sky and the glistening stars. There’s a new layer of immersion for the tracks that can be experienced, and the lighting within them. Night Courses is a great mod for those that just want to change their visual flair.
8 It’s About Time – Crash Get Into MK8DX
Thanks to JustModdingLife and Miaocat, Crash Bandicoot joins the race in Mario Kart 8. If players want to use Crash Bandicoot in Mario Kart 8, they will need the It’s About Time – Crash Gets Into MK8DX mod. This mod takes the character model from Crash Bandicoot 4 and even includes a fresh voice pack for the character.
It’s great to see Crash Bandicoot arrive in this mod, as he is a rather deserving character, especially when he has his racing spin-off series that is rather popular, although, nothing can be quite as popular as the best kart racer games like Mario Kart.
7 SitBar’s CT Pack
This innovative mod from SitBar combines some impressive custom tracks from the community, compiling them into one massive mod that completely overhauls the vanilla tracks in Mario Kart 8. Players can expect new races with SitBar’s CT Pack, as well as some returning tracks that were not featured on the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass.
With over 80 custom tracks and 8 custom battle maps, SitBar’s CT Pack acts as a brand new expansion to Mario Kart 8 in an unofficial capacity. It shows the love that the community has for the game as they constantly add their ideas and creativity into the modding scene.
6 Green Hill Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog makes an entry to Mario Kart 8 with the Green Hill Zone mod thanks to Squadaloo, which will have players taking on the loops and boosts of Sonic’s home track as the iconic Mario Kart 8 characters.
There’s a creative genius in the Green Hill Zone mod, and it’s a track that deserves to be recognized. If only Sonic was an official character, as this track and its custom music would be a great addition, much like Link and his official track Hyrule Circuit.
5 Diddy Kong (With Tour Animations)
Players are given the choice between replacing Mario, Metal Mario, Gold Mario, cat peach, or Pink Gold Peach with the Diddy Kong (with Tour animations) mod by Boxy Mcfoggins Jr. The great thing about this mod is that players only have to replace one character on the roster, and it’s one of the repeating characters that should already be in place for the iconic Diddy Kong.
This mod comes complete with some Mario KartTour animations, providing players with their best Diddy Kong in Mario Kart 8 until Nintendo allows the red hat-wearing monkey into the game. With only 2 characters left in Wave 6 of the Booster Course Pass, it’s not even confirmed if an official Diddy will make it to the track, so this Diddy Kong mod is the next best thing.
4 Funky Kong From MKT
The iconic Funky Kong makes his way to Mario Kart 8 thanks to the modding community. Fans adore Funky Kong for his style and skill with a surfboard. He’s the snazziest Kong around, and his lack of inclusion in Mario Kart 8 has left many fans upset, wishing for the Mario KartWii debut to carry him through the next Mario Kart entries.
However, thanks to MagnaDR, players have access to the Funky Kong from MKT mod, which ports over his model from Mario Kart Tour, replacing him with Donkey Kong. Although he still has Donkey Kong’s animations and voice, it’s the closest thing players can get to Funky in MK8.
3 Kirby In MK8 Deluxe
Created by WataPascul, Kirby in MK8 Deluxe mod replaces Koopa Troopa with everyone’s favorite pink ball. Kirby is an iconic Nintendo character and is certainly on the list of guest characters that deserve a chance behind the wheel in a Mario Kart game. Thanks to modders, the reality is here.
Luckily, this Kirby can’t just suck up and consume other drivers for their power. The model is adorable, just like the real Kirby. The size of Kirby is also rather small, more fitting for his actual size in his games. It’s great to see this character race and drift around tracks.
2 GCN Peach Beach
Peach Beach is one of the best Mario Kart tracks of all time. Thanks to popdoo3234, Peach Beach was added to the game through the mod GCN Peach Beach. This mod does exactly what it promises, and ports the classic race over to Mario Kart 8 with great success.
It’s one of the most visually appealing tracks and has a great custom track associated with it. Sadly, the birds that linger on the beach are not present for the course, and it seems that players can go out of bounds without being pulled back by Lakitu.
1 Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic may not need a vehicle to run fast, but he best gets used to putting his feet on the pedals if he wants to be a fair competitor to the Mario Kart 8 racers. Thanks to Corbond, Kerouz, and dx0, their mod, Sonic The Hedgehog (Port) brings the iconic blue hedgehog into Mario Kart 8, thus continuing the friendly rivalry between Mario and Sonic.
The characters have come together a few times over the years, so it is a shame that Mario has never invited Sonic to the Mario Kart scene. However, his appearance in this mod replaces the Mario Kart 8 model and allows players to enjoy the speeds of the fast blue hedgehog.
Mario Kart 8 is available on Wii U, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe available on Nintendo Switch.