Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just recently joined Pikmin 3 Deluxe in receiving a rather tantalising free update to make it look much better when played on the Switch 2.

If you’re curious to see just how much an improvement you can expect, our lovely video producer Alex has booted it up and provided some direct gameplay. Not only is it blatantly obvious that the resolution is now much higher than it was on the original Switch, but those who enjoy playing local multiplayer have also been gifted a rather generous update.

Yes, you can now play with up to eight participants via local split-screen, and it looks frankly absurd. Gameplay is still locked at 30fps in this mode, as you’d probably expect, but just the fact that you can fit eight little screens into your display is absolutely mad.

What’s also funny is that the option to play with five to eight participants is very much visible on the original Switch, however attempting to choose this will result in a message letting you know that it’s only possible on Switch 2. Sneaky, Nintendo, but very clever.

It’s quite odd to see Mario Kart 8 Deluxe makes its way back into the news like this in 2026, but Nintendo doesn’t seem to be in a rush to add any new content to Mario Kart World. We’ll take what we can get.