Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the second most bought game on the Nintendo Switch, second only to Super Mario Odyssey. This is a big feat, as the game was a port of the Wii U version with a few new characters and added DLC. For a while, the game got consistent updates, and then, it went quiet. But last week, the game got a new update, one that brought a bike and look for Link from Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
The question though, is why did this happen? How did this process all start? Well, Producer Kosuke Yabuki talked about it in a blog post on the Nintendo of Japan website. He noted that a reason it could work was because the two teams had a lot of crossover:
Much of the Mario Kart development team – including myself – has also spent time working on developing titles for the Zelda series too; likewise, members of the Zelda team have also worked on Mario Kart. A lot of us are friends that see each other around the same floor on a daily basis!
He also noted that the head of Breath of Wild, Eiji Aonuma, came to him and asked what he thought about bringing a bike to Link in Breath of the Wild, and Yabuki loved it. So by the time that the Champions Ballad DLC came to the game late last year, he knew what to do:
After playing The Champions’ Ballad – Breath of the Wild’s second DLC expansion – I felt that the “Master Cycle Zero” would be a perfect fit for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!
To fit with the variety of terrain that the game’s courses offer, such as the anti-gravity sections in which the player drives on ceilings, walls, and the like, we re-appropriated the bike’s mechanics and appearance.
The Master Cycle Zero is available now as a free update.
