The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Finally Giving Us The Mario Kart Of Our Dreams
We’re back.
After months of countless rumors and leaks, Nintendo has finally revealed its first tantalizing look at the Nintendo Switch 2 and its very first confirmed game, Mario Kart. For the first time in 11 years, we’re finally getting a brand-new Kart game, and it looks like it could be a big step forward. The teaser only had about 20 seconds of gameplay footage, but that was enough to glean some crucial details.
At first glance, this new game looks like a shinier version of what we’ve been playing for years, showing off a desert-based track filled with colorful little details, like a pit stop and a Yoshi burger joint. But some interesting details are lurking in the background.
At the teaser’s 1:40 mark, we see an overhead shot of the starting line, which is sneakily a huge reveal. You can see the little marks where players start the race, and there aren’t 12 anymore, but 24. That implies the new Mario Kart will support up to 24 player races, double those of Mario Kart 8. That seems like a drastic change for a franchise that can already feel chaotic, but it also sounds like one heck of a good time.
24-player Mario Kart sounds like utter chaos, in a good way.
Although we don’t know the Switch 2’s official specs, it will be more powerful, so it should be able to handle bigger races just fine. There’s also a precedent here, as a few other Nintendo games have done something similar. F-Zero 99 put a battle royal spin on racing, pitting 99 players against each other in a high-speed fight. Then Mario Party Jamboree introduced a 20-player minigame mode called Koopathlon. A bigger Mario Kart would certainly feel like par for the course, but that’s not the only detail worth noting.
After that overhead shot, the camera pans in and flies by Rosalina, who’s driving some kind of snowmobile, complete with treads. This suggests some kind of off-roading feature, which perfectly ties into the next hint.
The new Mario Kart will apparently feature different kart types, and might even allow for a good bit of offroading.
As the footage ends, we see the racers speed past that Yoshi’s Burgers joint, and there’s a mysterious glowing item outside the store. It’s not a power-up box, a gold coin, or anything else I can recall from any iteration of Mario Kart. There’s obviously not much information to go on yet, but it’s possible this is some kind of collectible, or maybe even a car part.
That could suggest an exploration or open-world element to the game. Notably, the shot also places a huge emphasis on an expansive vista, with lots of little roads and routes shooting off the one main road. This single shot looks drastically bigger than anything in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which, though it had background details, tended to keep tracks contained and linear.
In January 2022, a major rumor said Mario Kart 9 would feature a “new twist” on the series. We never heard anything more, but some kind of open-world element would certainly be a twist.
The final shot of the trailer shows a race that looks far, far bigger than anything we’ve ever seen in Mario Kart.
Nintendo would presumably want to go all-out for a new Mario Kart, especially if it's the Switch 2’s headline game. It’s been 11 years since the release of Mario Kart 8, so this new entry may have been in development for years. Notably, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is, by far, the best-selling game on Nintendo Switch, with over 64 million copies moved. If there’s a franchise you put everything on the line for, it's Mario Kart.
With a Switch 2 Nintendo Direct planned for April 2, 2025, and a Nintendo Switch Tour coming that same month so fans can get their hands on the system, it won’t be long before we hear more. Start stocking up on banana peels now.
