A few days ago, some new content was added to
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which gave Link his
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Champion's Tunic, as well as his Master Cycle Zero. The DLC came in the form of a free update that was available the very same day it was announced and allowed players to switch from Link's design from the more traditional Green Tunic to the newest iteration in the series.
The very same day the DLC was revealed,
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe producder Kosuke Yabuki shared a message and today, thanks to the people over at NintendoEverything, we have the translated version of what he said.
Yabuki mentions that not only Link's appearance was changed but they also added a new animation for when the character performs a jump action in which, instead of holding the Master Sword, he would be holding one of the Guardian swords from Breath of the Wild; his Guardian Sword++ to be precise.
He also mentions that they've had the idea to include a bike in
Breath of the Wild for quite a while now—which would later materialise into Link riding that very same bike in
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's latest DLC.
"
One day—about a year ago —Mr. Eiji Aonuma came to me with a thought. He said: 'I’m thinking about putting a bike in Breath of the Wild, what do you think?' I promptly replied: 'Riding around that world on a bike would be the best, go for it'! "
On what they actually wanted for the bike, Yabuki reveals that they couldn't just throw in a bike in the world of Zelda unless they made sure it would fit right in.
"Just dropping a bike into the world of Hyrule wouldn’t be an easy feat, though. There were a lot of things to consider: making sure the player could feel the tires’ traction, making the engine sound powerful, and even designing the bike to make it feel like ancient technology! The development team faced a great deal of challenges, for sure".
It sure is interesting that completely different developer teams came to a decision to include content from the other game in their own, although Mario Kart 8 Deluxe already features a few characters from other series like Donkey Kong, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing.
Link was already a character released in DLC form for Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U but it is nice that they simply decided they could add Breath of the Wild content that didn't just feel like a recolour—especially when adding the Breath of the Wild Master Cycle Zero. Let's just hope that Nintendo keeps adding content to the game and surprising their fans the same way they did with the Breath of the Wild DLC in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
For the rest of the interview with Kosuke Yabuki, head over to NintendoEverything by clicking right here.
Hit the road with the definitive version of Mario Kart 8 and play anytime, anywhere! Race your friends or battle them in a revised battle mode on new and returning battle courses.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available for the Nintendo Switch right now.