Playing with friends in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Switch is proving to be quite difficult for those that purchased the game. It’s not a great look for a game where one of the major draws is multiplayer and for a company who has plans to roll-out a paid for subscription service for online play.
Nintendo hasn’t yet addressed the issue, but some players have taken it upon themselves to find a work around that allows them to play with their friends in Mario Kart 8 and it’s a frustratingly complex process for a thing that should be seamless when you think how long online multiplayer on consoles has been a thing.
Regardless, here’s the method that some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe players have been using to play with their friends (via Reddit).
Of your group of friends that want to play together you need to have one of those people join a race. You won’t be able to immediately join your friend, as the game will give you an error. However, after they play a race and go into the next voting portion, the game will allow you to join that friend as a spectator for the next race. After that race is over, you should be able to join your friend to play.
Yes, this is a completely ridiculous way to join friends in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but with so many people wanting to do so and not being able to, this seems like one of the only ways to do it at this point. The unfortunate part about this is that many who purchased the game are getting communication errors on the Switch, or that the target device cannot accept more connection in both the new Battle Mode and in Versus mode.
Hopefully Nintendo does get these multiplayer issues fixed as they’ve got another big multiplayer-centric title on the way for the Switch with Splatoon. If these issues persist, it could deter Switch owners from signing up from their premium subscription as well.
