A year from now we might be reminiscing about the good old days of Mario Kart when you only had to worry about 11 other drivers firing those green shells at you.
Because, while the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal focused almost exclusively on giving us a tour of the hardware, we seemingly got a look at the next Mario Kart game – the 9th in the official canon.
Given Nintendo isn’t planning on showcasing games until the rumoured April 2 Direct stream, those few seconds of gameplay are going to have to tide us over for 10 weeks!
Everyone’s been searching for clues and IGN noticed that there were a grand total of 24 positions on the starting grid. Considering there’s always been 12 in previous games, this could be a recipe for the chaotic action to be further ramped up.
As the site points out, this doesn’t confirm the amount of competitors is going to double, but those precious few seconds of gameplay do tell us that 14 racers do appear at certain points. Interesting. This might be a way for Mario Kart 9 to differentiate itself from the previous games in the series.
The last time Nintendo released a new mainline Mario game was Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U in 2014. That eventually became Mario Kart 8: Deluxe for the Switch.
The key new features that time were anti-gravity racing, which allowed you to scale walls and ceilings, ATVs added to the vehicle line ups, and Koopalings becoming playable characters. Our favourite new weapon was the Piranha Plant, which made a dive for anyone in your vicinity.
There’s sure to be a host of new features beyond the addition of more drivers. We’re already counting down to April 2.
Opinion
Mario Kart trumped Switch 2
The Switch 2 reveal told us very little we didn’t already suspect. It didn’t feel like it was the event we crave as tech enthusiasts. Indeed, the presence of a new Mario Kart game was bigger news and more exciting than the hardware. Perhaps its ok that the hardware looks like a boring upgrade? Because, with Nintendo, it’s always about the games and quite often about Mario games.
