After basically the whole thing had already been leaked online and by vendors at CES, today Nintendo announced the Switch 2the follow-up to the original Switch that debuted in 2017 and has since become the third best-selling video game console of all time. There’s a lot to be excited about with the Switch 2, from its magnetic joy-cons to the bigger screen and better kickstand, but what we’re here to drone on about at Jalopnik is the new Mario Kart game that also got teased for the first time in the announcement video.
Now, Nintendo doesn’t actually say that this is a new Mario Kart game, but it’s obvious that it is, and it’s long overdue. The Mario Kart game that launched with the Switch (well, one month after it came out) wasn’t actually a new game — called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, it’s an expanded version of Mario Kart 8which first came out in 2014 for the Wii U. Nintendo has done a great job of releasing DLC content like new characters and tracks, with the most recent ones coming out in late 2023, but still, it’s high time we get a truly new Mario Kart game.
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The glimpses at the new Mario Kart title come near the end of the Switch 2 video. We see Mario and friends racing through a desert landscape called “Mario Bros. Circuit” that sure looks inspired by America’s Route 66, complete with wide roads, cacti and a cute Yoshi-themed diner. (It actually looks more like a Mario version of Radiator Springs from the “Cars” universe than the real Route 66, which is fine by me.
There are two specific elements I’m really excited by. The first is the starting grid we see on the track. While the maximum number of racers in Mario Kart 8 is twelve, there are twenty-four spots on the grid in the new game! That’s absolutely wild and speaks to (hopefully) improved processing and graphics power that the Switch 2 will have. Also, Nintendo seems to have totally revamped the art style for the characters, with the new racers more closely matching their retro counterparts in design and proportion. Look how goofily huge Donkey Kong is, for example, and Mario looks more akin to the N64 versions of himself. Everyone looks cuter, more stylized and more expressive overall, and the karts all look awesome, too.
We’ll hopefully learn more about the new Mario Kart game, which will probably just be called Mario Kart 9, when Nintendo holds its full Switch 2 Direct livestream on April 2. As for a potential release date, all we know is that the Switch 2 will go on sale at some point in 2025, hopefully sooner rather than later. Mario Kart 8 is the fifth best-selling video game of all time, so it’s got some big shoes to fill.
