A recent article in the magazine GamesIndustry included a variety of predictions from various video game industry analysts that were talking about what we can likely expect from other games soon. One person, Dr. Serkan Toto, claimed that Mario Kart 9 is in active development and will come with a new twist.
Toto gave no proof for whether this is true or not, but considering it’s been several years since Mario Kart 8 was released, the time might be right for a new, dedicated Mario Kart game on the Switch. Originally, Mario Kart 8 released in 2014 for the Wii U, and was upgraded to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 2017 for the Switch. However, Mario Kart and Pikmin’s trademarks were also renewed before E3 2021, so Toto might be telling the truth.
Eight years is a long time gap for a game, so hopefully Nintendo is, in fact, working on a new Mario Kart game. Toto went on to say that he believed Nintendo would release the new Mario Kart game sometime this year, along with releasing a new property onto mobile devices, such as the Mario Kart Tour game in 2019.
If Mario Kart 9 actually is coming, however, there still remains a lot to be seen on how exactly Nintendo would change it. Mario Kart 8 not only included much bigger maps and new characters, it also included customizable cars, and tracks that looped and curved and on occasion caused players to have to drive on the ceiling.
Exactly what Nintendo would have in order to top how successful Mario Kart 8 was and count it as a “new twist” remains to be seen, but considering how well Mario Kart 8 did, it will hopefully be something big that can blow its predecessors out of the water…if Mario Kart 9 actually is in development.
If it does turn out to be in the works, we can likely expect it to be announced at a Nintendo Direct sometime in the future, whether at some point before the summer or at Nintendo’s E3 Direct. Until then, however, all we can do is wait for concrete information from Nintendo.
