Mario Kart Tour Ends

Nintendo has announced today that Mario Kart Tour will cease to exist at the end of September. And this time there won't be a way of playing the game offline, like there is with the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - Complete Edition. It doesn't really affect me, because I have only tried the game once and didn't like it, but it's an interesting view into the nature of such service games.

First of all, this sucks for everyone who has invested in the game somehow. But let that be a lesson learned to not invest into this form of gaming, where your ability to play the game depends on some online service that is likely to shut down once the game stops being profitable. You want to stay as far away from it as possible.

(And I perfectly know it's not easy to resist. If Nintendo were to release a Zelda mobile game with micro transactions, I would still play it. And as a fan of classic Arena Shooters, I'm also still playing Quake Champions, where I had recently praised Bethesda for keeping it alive, as the franchises has reached its 30th anniversary. But with this week's lay-offs from Microsoft, things are looking very bad for the game. More on that later.)

Free-to-play became a new standard for multiplayer games, because everyone is doing it and a price tag is therefore creating a barrier. But I can still play those Arena Shooters from the old days, because the community is keeping them alive. And I can still play Mario Kart Wii whenever I want, with community mods even online.

Anyway, the silver lining is that a lot of the contents from Mario Kart Tour found their way into either Mario Kart 8 Deluxe via the Booster Course Pass, or into Mario Kart World. The latter mainly got the characters and costumes, where hopefully they will add more of them in the future. It would be nice to finally have Dixie Kong playable in a console Mario Kart game. And all-but-one of the exclusive courses made it into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where they are preserved. Only the Piranha Plant Pipeline (also known as Pipe Canyon) will be fully lost.

Well, three years ago I was an advocate of a second Booster Course Pass to truly preserve as much as possible, but what we got was already quite good. And the lost course will eventually return in the future, maybe already as DLC for Mario Kart World. It is even in the current rotation of Mario Kart Tour, where it may be the last chance to play the Piranha Plant Pipeline in the game. But best not to start now...

Wario Land Week

Yesterday Nintendo has added the Free Roam playlists for all three Super Mario Land games in Mario Kart World to Nintendo Music. I still remember hearing them for the first time while playing the new Mario Kart and getting really pumped, because the Game Boy was my first own video game system and these three titles were my entry into gaming, followed by Link's Awakening.

They have a special place in my heart, but are often overshadowed by the Super Mario Bros. trilogy and Super Mario World, where it's nice to even get a reference here and there. Well, I've already sung my hymn of praise about these Game Boy classics some years ago, so I won't repeat that. But today they are finally reunited on Nintendo Switch Online with the addition of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3.

It's easily one of the best looking and sounding, if not the best looking and sounding title made for the original Game Boy, so you should definitely check it out if you have never played it before.

Some rumors were floating around about a new Wario Land coming to the Switch 2. I certainly hope that it will be more like this one, because I never really liked the direction the series took with Wario Land II and those transformations. By the way, the sequel is still missing on NSO as well... They are certainly taking their sweet time.

Mario Kart World: Drill and Boomerang Rally Added

After the addition of Bob-omb Blast back in March, the latest update for Mario Kart World adds some new features as well, and promises a series of similar free content updates for the future. With version 1.7.0 they have added two new rallies for the Knockout Tour: the Drill and the Boomerang Rally.

It's probably the easiest way to expand the game, without actually adding anything. Out of the 202 routes, which are connecting the different courses, only 62 were used in the Grand Prix mode and the Knockout Tour. The rest has been exclusive to the VS Races and Free Roam mode. So, it makes a lot of sense to utilize them for additional Knockout Tours.

Ideally, there would be custom or random rallies for the Knockout Tour, but having more dedicated rallies certainly is more convenient when playing online. Custom rallies would require the players to vote for six courses one after another, instead of just a single rally. And nobody has the patience for that.

You can access these new rallies in a similar way to the Booster Course Pass cups in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you now flip between two rows via the L and R buttons. Next to the two new rallies, there are open slots for six more, which they are going to add in future updates.

In addition, you can now use your sticker collection in the Photo Mode. It's almost strange that this wasn't in the game already, especially since Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury had a similar feature to reuse the Miiverse stamps. And this is finally adding a little more value to collecting all these stickers.

The update even got its own trailer. And you can find the full patch notes on Nintendo's website, where there have been a number of tweaks. For example, they have raised the acceleration of characters and vehicles with low acceleration.

If they add two more rallies per update, then this means that we will be getting three more of these updates, hopefully each of them also coming with their own additions. These could include 200cc, more outfits, and potentially even new drivers. (See here for more ideas.)

And it doesn't look like they are interested in adding more Knockout Tour rallies via paid DLC, if there's going to be any. However, this fits the general idea that paid DLC would probably expand the world with new islands around it, e.g. DK Island. And these islands wouldn't connect as nicely to the rest of the world, so they may not contribute to the Knockout Tour in any case. Each island could serve as an individual Grand Prix cup, however, with four new courses per island.

Hopefully, they will release new magnets on the Nintendo Store once all rallies and eventual DLC cup have been released. I need my fridge trophies.

Mario Kart World: Bob-omb Blast Added

Whether this was by accident or on purpose, Nintendo had teased us with the return of Bob-omb Blast in Mario Kart World earlier this month. Back then I said that we shouldn't necessarily expect more than this and today they indeed released an update, version 1.6.0, which primarily gave us this mode. There are also some balance changes, but Bob-omb Blast is the main attraction here.

And I'm happy to have it back. This is the best thing that came out of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and has always been my favorite Battle Mode... mode. You certainly want to use the "Frantic" item option for this one, so you always have the double item boxes for that enjoyable explosion spamming. Overall, this is more similar to the version from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so you have balloons, you won't see anyone holding stacks of bombs, and so on.

It's a fantastic addition, but it doesn't make up for the lack of dedicated battle courses. There are only two of them and only one of those is actually fun to play (Big Donut), where as a result even Bob-omb Blast gets boring quickly. That's one of the biggest complaints I have about Mario Kart World – that they didn't use the space between courses for more Battle Mode goodness. And with the exception of Dino Dino Jungle, I find the modified race tracks too large. I can race around DK Pass for a minute without running into any opponents... And that's lame.

Mario Kart World: Bob-omb Blast Returning?

"MAR10 Day" is approaching, so Nintendo is going full throttle with Super Mario stuff at the moment, which is still part of the 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. (which is why you shouldn't hold your breath about similar news for Zelda). There are different online events happening in games like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart World, where for the latter Nintendo has shared an interesting screenshot:

This is the online mode menu, showing the current event. There is nothing special about it on first glance, but when you look closely, you'll see that the icon for the Battle mode has changed, from a balloon and a coin to a balloon, a coin and Bob-omb.

Currently, there are only two battle modes available in Mario Kart World: Balloon Battle and Coin Runners. So, this icon change indicates that the beloved Bob-omb Blast is going to return in the near future, maybe even on March 10th for the MAR10 Day.

This has been on my list of potential free updates, where I wouldn't necessarily expect a major expansion. It may even be that an update that only comes with this mode and nothing else, though a general overhaul of the Battle mode will be appreciated. Shine Thief could return as well and ideally they will add some more dedicated battle courses into the world, since there are only two right now.

 

Via: NintendoEverything 

Mario Kart World DLC Ideas

If there's one game in Nintendo's current lineup that is practically begging to receive DLC, whether it's free or paid, then it's Mario Kart World. However, since everything is now part of an open world, this won't be as trivial as adding waves of new courses, which is probably why it's taking so long for Nintendo to announce something.

But it's easy to get ideas nevertheless, where mine will be split into two parts. First, there will be a set of free updates, which are aiming to enhance the current world of Mario Kart World in different ways. Second, there will be an Expansion Pass, which is going to add new islands with courses all around the existing world.

 

Free Updates

These should accompany the paid DLC and make more out of what's already in the existing game. And you don't have to be a creative genius to come up with something here, because the gaps are more or less obvious.

• 200cc mode
• Reverse courses
• Custom Knockout Tours
• New Battle Mode types
• More drivers and outfits 
• More music 

The biggest omission right now is easily 200cc, where it feels like most of the game was made with it in mind. Well, that's likely due to how the total number of racers has doubled to 24, making it necessary to widen all the courses, and due to all the long intermissions, where you never really have to take sharp turns. But it will feel like a natural addition nevertheless.

What's already possible is driving certain courses backwards, since they had to be built this way for the open world. And you can actively play races on some of them by picking the right intermissions in VS mode. Now, Nintendo could make more out of this by adding course variants (like Dino Dino Jungle R), so you can also play a three-lap race on them.

And the Knockout Tour really could use an equivalent to the VS mode, where you will vote for six connected courses one after another, which then will lead to a custom rally through the world. This seems simple enough, but will add infinitely more value to this mode than just having the same eight routes.

Battle Mode on the other hand is so bare bones that it needs some solid additions. Bob-omb Blast and Shine Thief should return from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and 8 Deluxe as additional types. And they should really add some more courses dedicated to this mode, where they could fill some open spaces in the world with them, e.g. adding the traditional Block Fort on some field near Mario Circuit. Others could be added via new lands in the paid DLC, but we'll get to that...

When it comes to new drivers, there is also a lot already in the game which could be repurposed for the Kamek transformations. And there is a particular group of characters which hasn't returned from Mario Kart 8 for some reason, so here is a first list:

• Lemmy, Larry, Wendy, Ludwig, Iggy, Roy & Morton
• Dry Bowser
• Fire, Ice and Boomerang Bro
• Fire, Frost and Bone Piranha Plant
• Snow Pokey 
• Bully, Spiny & Skeeter
• Kamek 

The Koopalings and Dry Bowser could be rewards for scoring 1st place in each of the 200cc Knockout Tour rallies. Most of the other additions are just regional variants of the existing monster drivers, e.g. the Hammer Bro, but there could also be some new ones, like the Spiny. Finally, once you have unlocked all transformations, Kamek himself should become playable.

As for new outfits, there is so much stuff still left from Mario Kart Tour (see the Mario Wiki), it's offending. Even if they said that they wanted to match certain themes, there still would be a lot of open stuff, e.g. Daisy's Farmer and Yukata outfits. They could make a whole "Booster Outfit Pass" out of this, just to port this all over, but it would be a scam if you had to pay for outfits that other characters already have as part of the base game.

It would also be a chance of bringing some other characters back from Mario Kart 8 if we were to include all the power-up transformations, like Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, or Penguin Luigi. There is a lot that they could do with those alone.

Some characters didn't really get much to begin with, where Pauline and Donkey Kong only have one alternate outfit each. But this could tie in to the paid DLC, where we might get a wave focused on Donkey Kong and with it new outfits for the existing characters as an appetizer. And this already leads us to the next part...

 

Expansion Pack

Of course, if we are talking about DLC for a Mario Kart game, then new cups and courses will have to be the main topic. But with the game's open world nature this isn't exactly trivial, because every addition with have to fit into that. And there are theoretically only two ways of making this happen: either they offer a second world, or they gradually try to expand the current world.

Neither is really ideal. With a second world Nintendo would have complete freedom, but they also would have to release it all at once, so you wouldn't have the typical DLC waves that keep the players engaged and excited over a longer period of time. It would also create a rift, which effectively splits the game in half.

As for expanding the current world, the best way to do that would be adding individual islands with the new contents all around it. This way they could be released in multiple waves, where each wave adds one or more larger pieces of land onto the map, which are home to the new courses. Since this feels more organic overall, let's run with this approach for the rest of this post.

With these new islands being their own thing, they could set themselves apart thematically from the rest and maybe even dive back into crossovers, like how they were established with the original DLC for Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. But they wouldn't have to go this far, since the franchises directly linked to Super Mario are already quite excellent choices with lots of potential:

• DK Island
• Yoshi's Island
• Kitchen Island (Wario Land)
• Haunted Island (Luigi's Mansion) 

They could bring back a good number of retro courses with this one, like DK Mountain, DK Jungle, Banshee Boardwalk, Luigi's Mansion, or even the new Yoshi's Island from the Booster Course Pass. And then mix them with new inclusions, like courses based on Wario Land, Luigi's Mansion 3, Donkey Kong Bananza or the upcoming Yoshi game, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

The same goes for the characters and vehicles. They could bring back Diddy, Dixie and Funky Kong, while introducing Young Pauline, Void Kong or King K. Rool. They could bring back Poochy, while introducing Captain Syrup or E. Gadd. And rest assured that we should finally be getting that Rambi Rider back.

If we were to go intro full crossover territories, there would be even more possibilities for all sorts of crazy things. Potentially, one island could focus on multiple franchises at once, where here are some examples for such an approach:

• Wuhu Island (Wii Sports, Pilotwings, Wave Race 64) 
• Dreaming Island (Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing)
• Future Island (F-Zero, Metroid, Splatoon) 

Again, they could bring back some of the established courses from Mario Kart 7 and 8, while combining it with some new stuff. And the same goes for drivers and vehicles. Since this website is supposed to be a Zelda blog, let's just go through that particular franchises as an example:

• Courses: Hyrule Circuit, Death Mountain Driftway
• Drivers: Link, Zelda, Octorok
• Vehicles: Master Cycle, Master Cycle Zero, Zonai Cart 

Link would have this Champion's Tunic as an outfit, potentially also the archaic tunic from Tears of the Kingdom. The same goes for Zelda, who could have appearances based on Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild and/or Tears of the Kingdom. And maybe there could also be new playable characters coming from additional Kamek transformations, e.g. your classic Octorok. Though, they also could just repurpose the Swoops and Piranha Plants to pose as Keese and Dekuranhas in this case.

There are two problems with this island approach overall, which can't be dismissed. One is that this could potentially create a bigger emphasis on water roads, especially if they also want to connect the new courses to the old ones on the edge of the map. And that's not exactly exciting, though I love the idea of getting lots of Wave Race 64 tributes with the new wave riding mechanic.

And the other problem is that there would be too many volcanoes in the end. I'm not kidding here: the main land already has one for Bowser's Castle, but DK Island, Yoshi's Island and Wuhu Island all have their own volcanoes as well. And if there's some island themed around Hyrule, it will likely feature Death Mountain... So, that may look a bit silly, but these were all just some basic ideas, where Nintendo could and certainly will get a lot more creative.

Now all that remains is to wait and see what they are cooking. Maybe the obligatory February Nintendo Direct will already give us an idea... 

Mario Kart World Magnets

This is something that you could get from the My Nintendo Store as a Platinum Points reward, where there was also a set for the Knockout Tour. They cost 500 points each and I got them back in November, because we have the perfect fridge for this type of item:

And they look quite nice. When playing Mario Kart World as of late, I made it a small ceremony to add a magnet whenever I got three stars on Mirror Mode, meaning that I had fully completed the corresponding cup or rally. (It also gives you three stars in 50cc to 150cc.) If they add 200cc eventually, then I will do it all over again.

But when you have kids who like to play Mario Kart, then this might be nice to have as well for similar reasons. So, I can recommend these items, should they become available again.

Anyway, this also made me realize how the icons between the Grand Prix cups and the Knockout Tour rallies mirror each other thematically:

• Mushroom  ↔ Golden Mushroom
• Fire Flower ↔ Ice Flower
• Star ↔ Moon
• Green Shell ↔ Spiny Shell
• Banana ↔ Cherries
• Leaf ↔ Acorn
• Lightning ↔ Cloud
• Crown ↔ Heart 

That's a cool detail. Makes you wonder whether they will replicate this in potential DLC or not care about this any longer. For example, they could do a Bell Cup and a Lucky Cat Rally. Or an Egg Cup and a Fruit Rally. And more importantly, will they also release magnets for those? 

Mario Kart World Impressions

Going by the sales, it seems pretty much mandatory for anyone with a Nintendo Switch 2 to also buy Mario Kart World, where the bundle must have been super popular. Anyway, this was my game for the holiday season, where I've begun playing this after Metroid Prime 4.

And my first impressions weren't all that great. It already starts with the controls, which took away some options you had in Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe). You used to be able to accelerate with Y and steer with the D-pad, but not any longer. I personally preferred holding the Y button, because it sits more comfortably on the Pro Controller for my large hands and it makes it easier to hit the brakes on B whenever you have to. There was even one time where I was getting cramps from holding down A for so long. Yeah, I could use the auto accelerate, but I would be playing Kirby Air Riders instead if I truly wanted that.

You also don't need the precision of the analog stick, because you only need to press left or right, so the D-pad always felt more suited for the job. But I had to readjust, because the game isn't giving you any options here...

Well, the Y button is now used for the map in Free Roam mode (and only there), while pressing down on the D-pad lets you rewind, which is probably how these changes came to be. But I would have preferred the L and R buttons for these actions, or some options to swap things. Let me decided whether I want to use the analog stick or the D-pad, simply enough. 

And then there is the new scale of things: 24 racers, big roads, lots of going straight from one course to the other... It made me immediately want to have 200cc, because everything felt so slow at first. But sadly this mode doesn't exist yet.

However, when my niece and nephew came to visit for Christmas and I let them play for an hour, this gave me a different perspective. They thought that 100cc was way too fast and they were doing best on these long, straight intermissions, where you don't have to drift around tight corners. And since Mario Kart always has been a hit with kids, I can see why Nintendo was okay with this new direction.

At the same time they also gave the more serious Mario Kart players a lot more to master with all those new tricks, especially with the wall riding. I found that a bit unintuitive, to be honest, because the direction is entirely dependent on the angle you hit the wall with. You can't steer while wall riding, even though it feels like you should be able to. There is a lot of trial and error, potentially giving players an edge who have been practicing all those tricks and angles to perfection.

That's also true for many of the P-Switch missions in the Free Roam mode. Often I feel like the game is asking of a level of precision that it doesn't offer, usually when you have to hit rails or zip lines just right after a jump. Then I rewind, try to steer more, and fly past it anyway... In those situations I think their "snapping zones" should be larger, but this would probably be annoying in other scenarios.

Anyway, besides some of the trickier missions, I found the Free Roam to be quite enjoyable. It's perfect for in-between, for when you want to play a little bit. The must fun part are probably the ?-Panels, where there are five to discover per course. They really make you explore all around the race track and learn its hidden intricacies, maybe even more so than in Time Trials.

However, they also make me feel like an idiot after playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. In the open world Zelda games it is mainly about spotting things and not a question of how to get there. You can always climb there, or fly up with your hover bike. In Mario Kart World you may spot a ?-Panel or a Peach Medaillon somewhere atop a house or on a pillar, but you can't just go up there directly. You have to find a way, which requires you to truly study the environments all around you, where you should not underestimate how complex some of those race tracks are. It can even get annoying, because you have to take huge detours to get where you want to be.

Things can get even worse should you happen to go out of bounds, because Lakitu is a tyrant in this game. He won't place you where you had been before your accident, no, he will place in one of few fixed spots around the race track, where then you have to backtrack all around the course just to try a second time. This got me quite frustrated around Crown City, one of the largest areas in the game, because it's two courses in one.

Sadly, you don't have any sense of completion for the P-Switches and Peach Medaillons. And all you ever get for your efforts are stickers, which you can use to customize your vehicle and avatar. To be fair, every single sticker is unique, so there is a stronger incentive to collect them all, as opposed to 900 pieces of golden poop. But they aren't even visible on some of the vehicles, so it's not all that exciting overall...

What's exciting is unlocking new outfits for the drivers, but this was done in the dullest way possible with the food. Whenever I saw a Yoshi's with something new, I swapped through all characters in the game who still had missing costumes to see if this did something... It's certainly not the intended way, but if you don't swap characters all that often, but want to have everything unlocked anyway, then this will be the most efficient method. And I was relieved when it was finally over... At least for now, there is a lot more left from Mario Kart Tour what they could bring over as DLC.

Oh, and the character selection menu is atrocious. I understand that they wanted to offer a selection based on themes, e.g. desert or snow, but it really would have been better if you could select the character first and then the costume. The way it is it's bloated, pretending that there are many more drivers than there actually are.

It's the other way around with the race courses, where there is more to discover than there is on first glance. Some of them do offer different variants, e.g. driving them in reverse, which can be played by selecting the right routes in VS mode. This is really cool, but there could have been more options here, like driving some courses in reverse for three whole laps.

And it was a nice surprise to find a number of SNES course tributes as intermissions on the world. There is like seven of these, which includes all three Ghost Valleys for some reason... But again, they could have done more with them, like offering them as courses in the underwhelming Battle Mode.

As for the new Grand Prix mode and the Knockout Tour, both heavily favor front-running, because for the most part you will be treading new grounds and therefore don't have to worry about bananas. The set rivals in Grand Prix feel super unfair, however, where they are clearly rubber-banding and getting support of the other CPU competitors. To get three stars on everything I had to fight them with their own methods, meaning that my partner helped me by covering my back.

Luckily, clearing a cup or rally in Mirror Mode now also gives you the stars in 150cc and lower, so you only have to do it once. In Mario Kart 8 150cc, Mirror Mode and 200cc had to be cleared separately. But there is also nothing to get here for the three stars, not even a sticker, so you really just do it for everything to look nice.

I personally found completing the Knockout Tour a bit easier, because you can gain a significant lead and just run with it. The first section is usually the trickiest, but at least you fail early and not in the third lap of the fourth race. The Knockout Tour is also a fantastic standout in this game, which makes good use of the open world setting to deliver something new for the series.

As someone who grew up with the Game Boy, I was delighted to finally see and hear some stuff from the Super Mario Land trilogy in Mario Kart World. The game has a rich soundtrack, where it randomly plays tracks during the intermissions and Free Roam, which covers a lot from all previous Mario Kart games, as well as other Super Mario games, like the Game Boy classics. It truly is a loveletter to the whole Super Mario franchise, and I was super excited when I first heard that Wario Land tune. Oh, and the Batadon and Tokotoko statues from the third world in Super Mario Land make their first reappearance, which was unexpected.

So... while my first impression wasn't the best, I really grew to like the game over the last weeks. Right now I'm hoping that it will get some awesome DLC in 2026, including a comeback of the crossovers. I want my Master Cycle Zero back! Vi-O-La would be cool as well, even though it was one of the more questionable aspects about Metroid Prime 4.

Mario Kart World Direct Roundup

The Mario Kart World Direct has aired today and given us some more details about the game, though most of it was already deduced by the fans out there from the existing footage. For example, you could spot the Big Donut battle stage, which had soft-confirmed Battle Mode. But it's still nice to have an official confirmation on a number of things, including the possibility to play your classic three-lap courses in Versus Mode.

As a Zelda player, I'm naturally intrigued by the Free Roam mode with all the little secrets that you can find everywhere. The P-Switches are essentially like your Korok puzzles in this, but there are also special medallions to find and the ?-panels. We don't know yet what they will do, but it's not like I care about the reward with these things, as long as exploring the world is fun.

The drive-thoughs for unlocking outfits are also a nice idea. It looks like this will be based on the different courses and regions, where you can obtain Sushi and with it the Happi outfits around the new Japan-themed course, Cheep Cheep Falls. However, this will mean that you will have to go everywhere with all the characters in order to unlock all their outfits, which might be somewhat repetitive.

Also, that the outfitted characters are simply appended onto the character select screen is... far from ideal. Well, it's nice that characters in the same outfit are right next to each other, making it easy to see what you are still missing. But it will blow this out of proportion in the end, where it would be better if you were to select the character first and the outfit second, like in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

But it looks like Mario Kart World is truly getting the good stuff from Mario Kart Tour that didn't make it into the Booster Course Pass. This includes the "new" items, however, where additions like the Feather, the Hammer, the Ice Flower, or the Coin Box did already exist in previous games, mainly in Tour. It's still a novelty for everyone who hasn't played the mobile game (including myself), but only the Coin Shell and Kamek are truly new from what I can tell. And it's unfortunate for the latter, because he has just joined the fun only to be demoted to an item right away.

While there was no clear confirmation on this, it really looks like the new weird character additions, like the cow or the dolphin, come from Kamek, though. In the Direct he transformed all other players into Chargin' Chucks on a road with Chargin' Chucks, which certainly was no coincidence. And many of the new additions are present as stage hazards, like the bats. I'm guessing that there will be the default set of drivers with your typical Mario Kart cast, but you'll get to unlock the outfits and Kamek transformations on top.

The most interesting change has to be the Charge Jump, however, which is activated by the drift button, but you charge it by going straight instead of drifting. This jump is then what lets you dodge attacks, grind on rails and even briefly drive on walls. The possibilities of this looked insane and this will add a lot of depth to the racing overall.

All in all, Mario Kart Tour looks great and like an absolute must-have for the Nintendo Switch 2. It won't make me buy the system at launch, though, where right now I'm not interested in becoming a "Nintendo Switch 2 Ambassador".

Also, on a side note, I find it interesting how Nintendo is pushing Rosalina as this snow princess, like it's their version of Elsa from Frozen. I do like her Aurora outfit, however, it's really beautiful.

Mario Kart World Introduced

Since the Nintendo Switch 2 is backwards compatible and they are also offering enhanced versions of Switch games for the new system, everything that comes out on the Switch 2 will have to compete with what's in the existing Switch library. In case of a new Mario Kart, it will have to compete with the popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its 96 courses, which is a tall task.

The best way to do so is by making the game more unique and also offering an experience that wouldn't have been possible with the Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart World tries to achieve this by turning this into an open world racing game, where the main courses are all part of an interconnected world. In addition, your kart will now transform into a boat when on water or into a plane when flying, instead of driving underwater or utilizing a glider. Nothing of this is innovative, since there have been a number of racing games set in a gigantic free-roam environment, like Need for Speed Underground 2, The Crew series, the Forza Horizon series and more. And the vehicle transformations are straight out of Diddy Kong Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

It is something new for Mario Kart, however, and it will certainly make it distinct from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It's also of note how the selection of retro courses really aims at the stuff that has been missing in the previous title, including most of the more popular tracks from Mario Kart Tour that didn't make the cut for the Booster Course Pass:

• N64 Koopa Troopa Beach
• N64 Wario Stadium
• GCN Dino Dino Jungle
• DS DK Pass
  
• DS Airship Fortress
• Wii Toad Factory
• 3DS Shy Guy Bazaar
• 3DS Wario Shipyard
  

There always was speculation that they might leave out some of these courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe purposefully and it looks like this was on the money. I personally didn't see it as a hindrance, because the iterations from Mario Kart Tour will be vastly different in the end, since anything in Mario Kart World will have to be much wider and spacier to offer enough room for the 24 combatants... But of course it makes these courses feel fresher if they haven't appeared in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe already.

From what we have seen so far, there are 29 courses on the world map and there will be seven cups with four courses each. This makes one course an orphan somehow, unless there is a cup with five courses in total. However, some courses may be used twice with different routes, like all the cities from Mario Kart Tour, and there also will probably be an eighth cup, the Special Cup, which is going to feature the traditional Rainbow Road somewhere.

And all these courses are connected, where the parts in between may even resemble or contain other classic race tracks. But that's also where I see the greatest weakness of Mario Kart World so far. Each cup begins with your usual three-lap course, but then you will be driving to the next course, which works like a sectioned track, similar to Mount Wario or Wuhu Island. Laps 1 and 2 are the road to the next course and lap 3 is the course itself. So, you're only going one lap on the other courses in a cup, which cuts this very short. It detracts from the actual courses and the roads between the courses feel like a lot of filler, where you're also just following a line. Not a straight line, but still a line.

It adds a lot more variety to the cups, that's for sure, and nearing a course also looks quite impressive, where they are the clear highlights in this open world environment. So, it's certainly a new experience for Mario Kart, but it also feels watered down. You spend so much time going towards these highlights, these landmarks, but then only have a very short race on them. It's like a cup is now 50% meaningless filler.

The courses look like they will loop normally, however, so I suppose that you can still get the traditional Mario Kart experience when playing custom cups in Versus Mode, probably also when playing online. I tend to play the normal cups in singleplayer only for as long as it takes me to get all starts, so I suppose it will be fine. This flow also works very well for the new Knockout Tour, which is basically like F-Zero 99 ("Mario Kart 24"), where it's really cool that this makes you go from one end of the map to the next over six courses.

Another important topic are the drivers and karts. And I love how unanimously the internet reacts to the cow being a playable character now with "Oh, now I need to get this game. Screw the open world or the graphics, I want playable moo moo." Well, I'm personally more hyped for the penguin, but generally I'm loving how they are going all-in with the character additions. Finally, there is a playable Goomba in Mario Kart! And they are doing some really outlandish stuff, like the Coin Coffers from Super Mario 3D Land.

Character costumes are also a thing and it looks like you will be unlocking them via food items while racing through the world. Many of the outfits are returning from Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Odyssey, which is lovely. And maybe you have to drive with the corresponding characters through certain areas in order to obtain them, which gives you a reason to explore more.

There even seems to be a connection between the playable characters and the courses. For example, we have the cow and Moo Moo Meadows. Or you have the Cataquack and Peach Beach. You get Pokeys and Desert Hills. Most of these also acted as obstacles in the courses in question. So, maybe you will unlock the characters by visiting all these courses and recruiting them as new drivers, which would be a nice change.

However, with all these odd additions it will be hard to swallow any missing characters at the end. We have yet to see the Koopalings, for example. Ad the other Kongs are also absent again, though here it's understandable, because they are basing Donkey Kong on his new Bananza design. And maybe they don't want to go for redesigns of Diddy Kong and the others just yet. But this makes it all the more tragic that Dixie Kong didn't make the cut into the Booster Course Pass.

As for karts and bikes, we are back to choosing individual vehicles, instead of parts, like it was in Mario Kart Wii. So no more kart customization. While this allows less freedom and will miss creative combinations, it does have its merits. Whenever I play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with friends or family, who aren't all too familiar with the game, the kart selection process tends to take forever, because there too many options and too many variables. This will simplify things. It also allows the comeback of stranger vehicles, like something that has chain wheels. In one part of the trailer we could see Rosalina riding a snow mobile, for example, which wouldn't have been possible in Mario Kart 7 or 8.

On April 17th we will get a Nintendo Direct for the game, which will probably teach us everything we want to know. But I'm also curious how the game will handle DLC, since Mario Kart has proven to be a game that is the perfect candidate for additional contents.

Maybe this is where all the crossover stuff will go into... again. I could see them making a second world map, where all the other Nintendo franchises have their home, maybe as individual islands. One island could be Hyrule, and there could be Wuhu Island as a whole on the map, maybe neighboring an Animal Crossing: New Horizons resort. If you're unlocking characters on a course-basis this would make all the more sense. But that's just a thought, I'm also fine with them focusing on getting as much crazy Mario stuff into Mario Kart World as possible.

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Roundup

That was quite the show. I'm not blown away, where I have to get this new console right away on June 5th, but it fell in line with what I was expecting yesterday. For the most part. In the topic of Zelda it even exceeded my expectations, but we'll get to that.

It opened with Mario Kart World, the big launch title. It looks like this is Nintendo's only new game at launch, the rest will be third party stuff or "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games. And I was completely wrong about this game, because all these years I was convinced that they will go deeper into the crossover direction to make it more distinct from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Well, they will make it more distinct from that, but in an entirely different way – by going in the direction of open world driving games, like The Crew or Forza. They are also going all in when it comes to characters (and their customization), seemingly exceeding Mario Kart Tour here. Well, there will be a Nintendo Direct about the game on April 17th, explaining more.

Another "launch title" is the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which lets you discover the system virtually. This would be neat if it were for free, but it isn't. Who is going to buy this? Not me, that's who. And I'm not sure what to think about the handicapped basketball game, but it doesn't look fun. It will probably flop like ARMS, but at least ARMS was fun to play and had awesome character designs.

The whole voice / video chat part was incredibly awkward, where I was wondering if the C on new button stands for "Cringe". Also, that's stuff that was already possible on the Wii U 10 years ago, at least to a degree. Microphone and camera support are not a novelty that will sell this system over the original Switch, but they are treating it like one. And the screen-sharing was already lacking badly during the presentation, this is just embarrassing.

Then we learned what the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games are all about, which are going to include Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, among others. These will offer HDR, better resolutions and frame rates, but to give this a nice twist, Nintendo will add new features to them that are only possible on the Nintendo Switch 2. Metroid Prime 4 will have an additional control scheme with mouse controls and the two Zelda titles will be accompanied with new smartphone apps, but also now have a second set of save files.

This wasn't part of the Nintendo Direct, but a number of games will also receive free updates to improve performance, which includes the Link's Awakening remake and Echoes of Wisdom (see here). And that will be lovely.

As expected, the Nintendo Switch Online offerings will now also include a Nintendo GameCube library, but only as part of the Expansion Pack. The Wind Waker is one of the first games in it, which in hindsight explains why they won't bother with porting over The Wind Waker HD at this point. But maybe we will get enhanced versions of the Wii U remasters in some years...

The slightly more interesting game here is probably SoulCalibur II starring Link. I always wanted this to come back, though I also would have preferred the remaster on Switch with Link in it.

Also as expect, there will be massive wave of 3rd party games, including Elden Ring and even an exclusive game by FromSoftware, Duskbloods. I honestly couldn't tell if this was a Bloodborne remaster/port or a new game, because it all looks the same to me, but it's impressive that Nintendo was able to land this deal, since FromSoftware has been very loyal to Sony.

And there will be a variety of 3rd party games coming to the Switch 2 at launch, like Cyberpunk 2077, making up for the lack of first party titles other than Mario Kart World. Not that it needs much else – a lot of people bought the Switch for Mario Kart only. No DOOM: The Dark Ages, though, that's a bit disappointing, especially since they made the first two games magically run on the Switch. But I wouldn't play that on Switch anyway...

Street Fighter VI, though, that's a game that appeals to me on console, but it doesn't look like the game will be available physically. Instead there will be the new "Game-Key Cards", which can be used like game cards, but will simply enable you to download and play the game in question. Not exactly what I'm looking for...

It's almost funny how one of the most anticipated titles for any Nintendo Direct was just mentioned very briefly with Hollow Knight: Silksong. And it's scheduled for 2025 according to Nintendo, but I believe it when I see a life sign from Team Cherry. Remember that two years ago Microsoft claimed that the game will release within a year...

Also, why is this a Nintendo Switch 2 game now? They had a demo of Silksong on the Switch at E3 2019, six years ago! And it ran perfectly fine. The original Hollow Knight had 60FPS and its sequel should use the same engine and everything. They also had announced it for Nintendo Switch as part of their Kickstarter program, back when this was still supposed to be DLC for Hollow Knight. So, why is this a Nintendo Switch 2 game all of sudden?

The same could be asked about Hades II. Why does this need to be a Switch 2 game when Hades runs fine on the Switch? Of course you will get even better frame rate and resolution on the new system, so there is nothing against a Switch 2 version, but you would think that this something that comes for both systems. Update: it is. I forgot that it was already announced for Switch as well. So, in the end this isn't a big deal and both titles will probably just released for both systems at the same time.

The big surprise and highlight for me in this Nintendo Direct was, of course, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Well, this is a game that I had expected to be a thing eventually – I've mentioned the idea several times on my blog and it's really a no-brainer. I also wanted to explore this idea for a while now, but I thought there was more time to do so, since I didn't really expect this to be shown already. I always thought that after Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes in 2022 Koei Tecmo directly started working on the next Nintendo collaboration, but since Tears of the Kingdom wasn't released yet at the time, this couldn't be it. So, instead I kept expecting a "Xenoblade Warriors" first. But maybe they got early access to Tears of the Kingdom, since it technically was finished in 2022, just entering its polishing phase.

Anyway, they are really riding on the success of the open world Zeldas here. Not only is Breath of the Wild getting an upgraded version, but Tears of the Kingdom as well. There will be five new amiibo of the sages, also coming out June 5th. And they are doing this new Hyrule Warriors game already. Something tells me that the next 3D Zelda will probably turn this into a trilogy...

The big bouncer at the end was Donkey Kong Bananza. It's the open world'ish 3D Donkey Kong game where there had been rumors about this for ages. So, no new 3D Mario yet, but this looks a lot of fun as well. I love how they are mixing your typical Nintendo platformer magic with this sheer brute force, it's something special.

...

In  the next days I will talk about a variety of topics from today in more detail. This will include Mario Kart World, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades, and more. This blog will certainly get much livelier from now on.

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Expectations

Tomorrow the big Nintendo Switch 2 Direct will happen and we will know more. A lot more, since the Nintendo Direct will be an entire hour long. Plus, the two following days, Nintendo of America will host Treehouse Live streams, featuring seven hours of gameplay. There were rumors that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be packed and they might as well be true.

First, let's go through the things that we already know about. There will be a new Mario Kart. There are going to be "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games (see the Virtual Game Cards article). And they most likely will talk about the new Joy-Cons with their mouse-like feature.

 

New Mario Kart

As for the new Mario Kart, that's clearly going to be one of the big system sellers at launch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Nintendo Switch game, after all, and it will be tough to compete with the sheer amount of content that game has. But Mario Kart 8 is also getting 11 years old now and has been played to death, where any novelty will potentially sell a new Mario Kart game at this point. From the footage so far we can deduce that there is potentially a new nitro boost functionality, that the game will now support up to 24 players at once, and that the path-changing feature from the Booster Course Pass may become more prominent.

I'm personally hoping that they will go more crazy with the whole crossover aspect, so that we might get Zelda as a new driver, or Zonai vehicle parts, and so on (see here). I also don't think it will be called "Mario Kart 9", because technically Mario Kart Tour is already that, where I'm sticking with the "Mario Kart X" branding... until tomorrow.

There were also rumors about a Mario Kart-themed Nintendo Switch 2 at launch. In general, any Special Edition of the console could potentially lure me in, even though that I'm usually not an early adopter, given that the edition in question looks nice. I also wouldn't mind one for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

 

Enhanced Nintendo Switch Games

Speaking of, this leads us to the topic of "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games". It's no secret that a variety of Nintendo Switch games could profit heavily from a hardware boost. Pretty much everything from the Zelda franchise comes to mind, where with the exception of Skyward Sword HD there is always some trouble with the frame rates. And maybe some of these games will already run more smoothly on the better hardware by default.

But enhanced versions of the games will certainly offer more, like upscaling to 4k resolution. This could happen via free updates, but knowing Nintendo they will probably charge a small fee for such updates. On the Nintendo Switch they made a lot of profit with remasters and ports from the previous eras, where that's a business they will likely want to keep to a degree.

The interesting question is how they will handle remasters of Nintendo Switch games. Will this be a thing separate from the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games? We had convincing rumors about a new version of Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch (see U-King-O). Will that be a new remaster? Or can the Nintendo Switch version be upgraded? I personally would prefer a remaster, because this opens the doors for all those quality of life improvements from Tears of the Kingdom and better DLC integration.

Or what about Metroid Prime 4? Will this get a separate version for the Nintendo Switch 2 that simply has much better graphics? Or will you be able to upgrade the Nintendo Switch version? Or will both be a thing and work in the same way? It's an interesting topic, which certainly will be clarified tomorrow.

 New Joy-Cons

I have to be honest here, I have no clue what the mouse-functionality could be used for, other than strategy games and a new Mario Paint. But I'm sure that Nintendo will have had some ideas and maybe even come up with some entirely new games that utilize these as a gimmick...

 

Nintendo Switch 2 Online

Another important topic will be the handling of the whole Nintendo Switch Online system. Ideally, everything will carry over to the Nintendo Switch 2, like all the existing game libraries for NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and so on, or titles like F-Zero 99. But they will add upon that with new libraries and "free" online games that weren't possible on the current Nintendo Switch system. The first announcement will likely be a GameCube library, potentially also a Nintendo DS library. Thinking about it, emulating touch screen controls might be even be solved with the new Joy-Cons...

 

Other Game Announcements

This is going to be huge. The biggest launch of a system in gaming history. I'm certain that they will show us most, if not all of the following titles, in addition to the new Mario Kart X, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Prettier Edition, and Breath of the Wild 4K.

• New 3D Open World Mario
• New 3D Open World Donkey Kong
• New Fire Emblem (utilizing the mouse functionality)
• New Animal Crossing (in space)
• Splatoon 4
  
• ARMS 2
  
• Ocarina of Time Remake
  
• Super Metroid Remake
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
• DOOM: The Dark Ages

I'm kidding, of course... A little April Fools' joke, if you so will. Though, some of the things in this list are quite possible, first and foremost a new 3D Mario game. And maybe it does go into the direction of Bowser's Fury, where it's one seamless, interconnected world.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is entirely possible as well, together with a variety of other 3rd party ports. They loved porting games over to the Switch, no matter what it took, which will be so much easier now with the increased hardware power and AI-driven rendering technologies like DLSS. So, we're going to get a lot more here and the new DOOM (which looks absolutely awesome) is just an example.

However, as much as I would love to see Silksong, that game was already shown on the Nintendo Switch and shouldn't have anything to do with the Switch 2 presentation.

Also, I doubt that we will already see a new Splatoon or Animal Crossing. Both are made by the same team, sadly, where I'm curious to see what they will prioritize. But maybe they will split the development up, so that these franchises can be developed simultaneously, as both are huge sellers. But as much as Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold, it got boring eventually without any new updates, since the team was busy with Splatoon 3 in the past years...

And I haven't even mentioned Super Smash Bros. in the above list, because that felt too unrealistic. This might go like on the original Nintendo Switch, meaning that we will see titles like a new Smash Bros. or Animal Crossing in the second or third years, but not already in the first. But as usual, I'm happy to be proven wrong, I'm just not holding my breath here.

Zelda is in an interesting position, because we just got new titles in the past two years, so I don't expect to see a new Zelda game already. But they will most likely hold us over with something, like that Breath of the Wild remaster, or at some point a new Hyrule Warriors game. The franchise has been too successful on the Nintendo Switch to not offer anything as soon as possible. However, I doubt we will see a full-blown remake of another classic already, because I don't know who is supposed to work on it, other than GREZZO, who were busy with Echoes of Wisdom.

My personal "realistic" wish, if they are going with a remaster of Breath of the Wild, would be a Shrine Maker, which also includes stuff from Tears of the Kingdom. That's something that the main team could have been working on as a side project...

Anyway, I'm game. And I'm excited for tomorrow.

The Legend of Zelda in Mario Kart X

Mario Kart 8 opened the gates for other franchises to join the kart racing madness, where the next Mario Kart game could explore this even further. This would mean more courses, vehicles parts, and characters from the existing guest franchises, while even more franchises get thrown into the mix. A key change for this "Mario Kart X" would be the return of special items for all characters, like in Double Dash!!, which allows to feature items from a variety of other franchises, next to the Mario Kart core items.

Now, since this is a Zelda blog, let's use The Legend of Zelda as an example of how things could get expanded for the franchise in the next Mario Kart game in all departments. We're bringing back everything that was already there in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, of course, but we'll add some more drivers, courses, and vehicle parts on top.

Drivers:

• Link (Skyward Sword) – Clawshot
• Link (Breath of the Wild) – Remote Bomb
• Zelda (Skyward Sword) – Goddess's Harp
  
• Zelda (Tears of the Kingdom) – Recall
  

Both Links from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would return here, but they would also be more different from each other thanks to the different special items. The classic Link would go with the Clawshot, which lets you easily get past an opponent in front of you. It may also be used to bring yourself back on track or to take shortcuts.

The Link from Breath of the Wild (and Tears of the Kingdom) on the other hand doesn't even know what a Hookshot is, so it makes sense for him to have something different. The Remote Bombs were already a good choice for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and they would work similar to the normal bombs from Mario Kart, but with the difference that you can detonate them yourself.

This time Link will also bring Princess Zelda with him, where she also could come in two different variants. The classic Link is mainly based on Skyward Sword and that Zelda would also work really well in Mario Kart with her outfit. She could even bring some music into this, which is something very traditional for the series, and play her lullaby on the Goddess's Harp to make nearby drivers fall asleep. Alternatively, we could see a Zelda from a different game, who has the Bow of Light as her special item. So, there are lots of possibilities here and this is just one.

Last but not least, we have the Zelda from the newest Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom. She could wear the Zonai dress for karts and her outfit from the beginning of the game / from Breath of the Wild for bikes. Her special item would be Recall, which acts defensively. You can use it on yourself to undo mistakes, like driving off the track. Or you can use it when you are about to get hit to send the incoming projectile back to its sender. Yes, this would even work with Blue Shells, but these special items tend to be stronger, so it's not something that you would get front-running.

While it's easy to imagine that both Zelda and Link would join the karting fun, Ganondorf on the other hand might come off as goofy and out-of-character. But if Nintendo wants to make him work, I'm sure that they could pull it off.

Courses:

• Wii U Hyrule Circuit
• Death Mountain Driftway
  
• Zora's River Ride
  
• Lost Woods Wrong Turns
  

The Hyrule Circuit from Mario Kart 8 would simply return and function as the basic circuit track for the Zelda franchise, which mainly covers Hyrule Field and Hyrule Castle. For the new courses we could be visiting other signature locations from the series, like Death Mountain, Lake Hylia, and the Lost Woods. All of these would be designed specifically for Mario Kart and not come from a certain Zelda game.

You would drive all around the treacherous terrain of Death Mountain and maybe this course could also take inspiration from the Goron Racetrack in Majora's Mask, where in the very least we should got lots of excited Gorons as spectators. And a part of the course should go right through Goron City.

The "Zora's River Ride" will be a sectioned course, like Big Blue, where you start at Zora's Domain and drive down the Zora's River all the way to Lake Hylia. It will be a different journey through Hyrule with lots of underwater gameplay.

Finally, the Lost Woods could become a course where you can take multiple pathways with some indication of what's the right one. If you take the wrong route, it will bring you back to the starting line. Now, this would probably become the meanest course in Mario Kart history, but we could also make it look similar to the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time and turn this into Zelda's entry for the Battle Mode.

Vehicle Parts:

• Master Cycle
• Triforce Tires
• Hylian Kite
• Master Cycle Zero
• Ancient Tires
• Paraglider
• Sailcloth
• Zonai Sled
• Zonai Wheels
• Zonai Wing
  

Both Master Cycles and all their parts need to return, without a single doubt. In addition, the Sailcloth from Skyward Sword could serve as an excellent glider for the respective Zelda, where possibly they could also design a trike based on a Loftwing.

But they don't really have to invent something crazy like the Master Cycle again, because the Zonai Devices from Tears of the Kingdom were practically made for the vehicle customization system, which was introduced in Mario Kart 7. You could use a smaller version of the Big Wheels as wheels and make a glider based on the Wing, where this is already perfect.

A new kart could be something glued together with the Ultrahand, like a Sled with a Steering Stick in its middle and a light at the front. For underwater parts a Fan could appear in the back. It would be ugly and basic, but that's how vehicles built with the Ultrahand are meant to be and it's a good representation for Tears of the Kingdom.

Mario Kart X – The Next Mario Kart?

It's apparently Mario Kart Month on Hyrule Blog, where the release of the final wave of the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has brought a lot of things up. At least this time we'll slowly return to the topic of The Legend of Zelda...

After Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its Booster Course Pass, every fan is probably wondering where Nintendo will go with this series. With 96 courses and 48 characters Mario Kart 8 Deluxe became a behemoth of a game, so how are they going to surpass this? One answer I keep seeing and hearing is that they should just keep all those contents and simply add to them. To compete with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe it needs to become "Mario Kart Ultimate".

But there is a problem with this idea: the next Nintendo console and with it the next Mario Kart game will likely have much better graphics, where you can't just re-use things from a 2014 title. A lot of time and effort will have to go into making the assets for the next game, which is probably already happening as we speak. Meanwhile, they've remastered contents from Mario Kart Tour for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, because here they were able to achieve a lot with lower effort and without a massive discrepancy in quality. For a new Mario Kart title this wouldn't have been so "easy".

So, a new Mario Kart game won't be able to compete with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when it comes to its sheer amount of content, at least not right from the beginning. It needs a different selling point, something to create excitement and interest. And here I'm putting my money on the "Mario Kart X" idea, which is based on the rumors by Zippo from last year, but I came up with some thoughts of my own about this and it's an interesting idea to talk about.

The "X" stands for two things. It's "Mario Kart 10" for starters, where Nintendo will be inspired by Microsoft and skip the 9. For real, if we count Mario Kart Tour, as Nintendo seemingly does, then the next game will be the tenth installment in the Mario Kart series, so there is that. But the "X" will also stand for "Cross" or "Crossroads", as in crossing over with other franchises.

Of course, this isn't a new idea... Mario Kart DS had R.O.B. as a first guest character and the arcade games featured several characters from Bandai Namco, mainly Pac-Man. Mario Kart 7 featured Wuhu Island from Wii Sports Resort as a setting for multiple courses, which was also a home for the Mii characters introduced in Mario Kart Wii. And finally, Mario Kart 8 experimented with adding contents from several Nintendo franchises in its DLC, where we saw The Legend of Zelda, Excitebike, F-Zero, and Animal Crossing.

It was only a bit for each, though. For The Legend of Zelda you get Link, the Master Cycle and Hyrule Circuit. F-Zero has two courses and the Blue Falcon, but no playable character. Excitebike only has the Excitebike Arena. And the big winner was Animal Crossing with a course, three characters, and two vehicles. It was likely an experiment from Nintendo to see how people would react to this type of content in Mario Kart.

And the result seemed clear... With the launch of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe then also came Splatoon into this mix with characters, karts, and Urchin Underpass for a battle course. And later we would get Link and the Master Cycle Zero from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a free bonus to add more for the Zelda fans. The crossroads were green from all sides and Mario Kart wasn't just about Mario any longer.

But it returned to being only about Mario shortly after... Since 2018 they did not expand on the crossover idea any further, where Mario Kart Tour and the Booster Course Pass didn't feature any more guest characters, vehicles, or courses. This is mainly due to the direction of Mario Kart Tour, but it may also be because Nintendo had already planned to keep any additional crossover contents for the next Mario Kart game, "Mario Kart X".

This isn't about making a "Nintendo Kart" or a "Smash Kart", though, where Mario will be just one of many franchises. In its heart it will stay Mario Kart, where the majority of courses and characters will still be from the Mario universe, like in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Mario is the host and everyone else gets invited to his kart party. It's just that the crossovers will see more focus this time to attract as many Nintendo fans as possible and to create the necessary fanfare for the next game.

This will be achieved by adding more to what was already there, like finally featuring Captain Falcon as a driver, but also bringing more franchises into the mix, like Star Fox, Kirby, Metroid, Kid Icarus, and ARMS. Heck, maybe there will even be Fire Emblem, because Tiki riding a kart would be hilarious.

 

The Basics?

48 courses seems like a good number to start things off, where this may become the new standard going forward. It used to be 16 with Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash!! and then got doubled with the introduction of retro cups in Mario Kart DS, but 32 courses will be too low if any future Mario Kart wants a chance at competing with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The next Mario Kart should also implement the Reverse Mode from Mario Kart Tour and ditch Mirror Mode. It's just so much more fun and interesting to drive the courses backwards, where they feel like completely new courses in some cases. And with 48 courses present, Reverse Mode will make it seem like there are 96 courses already. 200cc then will be available in both the normal and the reversed variants.

We could still see the four traditional cups, filled with new courses for the Mario franchise, including your obligatory Mario Circuit, Bowser Castle and Rainbow Road. The remaining eight cups on the other hand could offer a mix of guest content and retro courses, where for the latter they will likely bring back tracks like Hyrule Circuit or Mute City.

The core items will also still be from the Mario universe for your typical bananas, mushrooms, and shells, but the game could bring back the special items from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Tour, which can only be obtained and used by specific characters, to offer something from other franchises as well. For example, Link could have a Hookshot or a Clawshot, which lets him quickly pass players in front of him. Or Samus (who would likely race in her Zero Suit) could obtain a Metroid, which latches onto a nearby player. This way we could experience items from all guest franchises, while keeping the typical Mario Kart item set.

It's similar to the currencies from other games in certain courses, like the Rupees in Hyrule Circuit. This could also get explored a little further, where the prime example are Banana Coins on the Donkey Kong tracks.

Apropos, the courses based on Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island are also good examples for how Mario Kart can explore the Mario-verse and its related franchises a little further. Why not also make a Super Mario Land track or some crazy WarioWare course? If we can have Hyrule in Mario Kart, then certainly also something from these games...

The New?

What's missing in this concept is some novelty, something that no Mario Kart has done before. Well, getting items from other franchises could fill that role, but character-specific items in themselves aren't a new idea. And we're talking about a big, new gameplay idea, like bikes or gliding.

A common suggestions is drilling as a new driving mode, but this would probably work better with the Drill Mushroom item from Super Mario Bros. Wonder and won't be as groundbreaking as it sounds at first. It might be an option to dodge attacks and take certain shortcuts at the expense of speed.

The Wonder Flower on the other hand could be an item that truly changes things, where they could do all sorts of crazy things to the courses. Flip everything on its head, add new hazards, or make you go in reverse. Hyrule Circuit could turn into Lorule Circuit with this. The potential is limitless and could add a unique feature to every course, both new and old. It could also get very annoying and detract from the usual driving, so it may not be the best idea... It's also the most obvious idea at the moment, where Nintendo usually isn't that predictable.

Another idea that you will see quite often is a course creator. And while this could indeed be fun and interesting, it would likely become its own game, a "Mario Kart Maker", just like Super Mario Maker did.

Ideally, with a Mario Kart game focused on crossovers, you would get a new gameplay mechanic that let's things cross over. One idea could be "course merging", which lets you throw two or more course into a mix, where then the courses are connected with each other via portals. You could start on Mario Circuit, but after the first curve a portal takes you into Hyrule Castle from the Hyrule Circuit and at the end of the castle another portal takes you onto the Rainbow Road. These portals would stay fixed for a single race, but you never know what you will get with the next race.

Weird portals connected different worlds may even serve as an explanation how Mario and co. suddenly ended up racing in Hyrule or in Mute City... It's a new mechanic that wouldn't distract from the crossover aspect, but rather lead into it.

And this could also be something that simply wasn't possible before on the Nintendo Switch and older systems due to hardware limitations, because it needs to load multiple courses at once and change between them seamlessly. It would also prevent the game from ever getting stale, because the possible combinations of courses is countless.

The problem with this idea is that this isn't something that would work well within the normal cups. First you want to experience the courses as they are and not in slices. This would have to be a separate mode, which then doesn't make it something that really defines the entire game from start to finish.

So, I don't really have the one idea right now that will revolutionize Mario Kart, but luckily I'm not a director at Nintendo, so I don't really have to and I will be happy to be surprised in the end. But I'm still convinced that the next Mario Kart will dive deeper into crossovers and make this one of its big selling points, where in a follow-up post we will look at what this could mean specifically for The Legend of Zelda.