Mario Kart 9 is highly anticipated among fans of the famous Italian plumber. Rumors about the game keep coming up on a regular basis, and players around the world predict news about it in every Nintendo Direct. We summarize what you can expect about the game, including new courses, vehicles, new gameplay features and a release date window.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to be one of the most popular racing games on the market. Originally released for Nintendo's Wii U in 2014 as Mario Kart 8, the game has been re-released for the Switch in 2017 and continues to entertain a large player base, with more than 50 million copies sold. However, with the game's ten-year anniversary coming up next year, questions about its expected successor have started to arise.
Nintendo, however, is keeping quiet about Mario Kart 9 – or whatever it is going to be called. The rumor mill, on the other hand, is going wild with new theories about what the game is going to look like. We have summarized the most popular rumors for you.
Mario Kart 9: Potential New Gameplay Features
The most recent entries in the Mario Kart franchise each featured a brand-new gameplay feature. Mario Kart Wii introduced bikes, which are still a staple in the series. Mario Kart 7 added gliders, which allowed racers to travel long distances in the air for the first time. Most recently, Mario Kart 8 introduced antigravity mode, which makes karts hover slightly above ground and allows them to drive stable on walls and ceilings.
Another shake-up was the introduction of point-to-point racetracks in Mario Kart 7. For the first time, players would race from a designated starting point to a designated finishing point rather than a closed circuit, with any race using three different sectors rather than three laps (or seven on Baby Park).
Therefore, it is expected that Mario Kart 9 brings another innovation to the table. While nothing is decided yet, an obvious idea would be to get air racing for the first time in the franchise. This would also be a nice nod to Diddy Kong Racing, which introduced this feature to Nintendo 64 players in 1997. If Nintendo do not want to stop there, they might also introduce vehicle transformations similar to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed.
However, if Nintendo's history of game design has proven anything, it is that they come up with an unexpected gameplay twist more often than not.
Mario Kart 9: Vehicles And Courses
Obviously, if the racing action takes to new areas of the Mushroom Kingdom, the vehicles have to adapt to the challenge. So far we do not have any details, but it may be possible to see more planes – hopefully some that, unlike Bowser's Hurricane from Mario Kart DS, can actually fly.
Retaining some fan favorites is probably impossible to avoid for Nintendo, though. Players around the world found a liking for the Biddybuggy and the Master Cycle, and the F-Zero-inspired Blue Falcon has also seen multiple entries in the Mario Kart franchise. Maybe they will even keep the Fashion Scooter, which gives you a similar vibe to the real-life Vespa.
It is yet unclear which concepts Nintendo would bring to the table for new Mario Kart courses. They also make it really difficult to predict, considering we got many exotic track concepts in the past, including a racetrack in a bathroom. However, we can make an estimate on the number of tracks in Mario Kart 9.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released with 48 tracks, combining the original 32 tracks and the 16 DLC tracks from Mario Kart 8 in the base game. It is very likely that Nintendo will include 48 tracks into Mario Kart 9 again, with an additional 48 tracks possibly following in an expansion pass similar to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pack.
While the core 48 tracks will most likely be split into 24 new tracks and 24 remakes from previous games (retro tracks), the mix in an expansion pack is difficult to predict. It would be really cool to see another remake of the retro tracks in Mario Kart DS, since these still felt very outdated even on a newer console generation. It is absolutely certain that Nintendo have more than enough tracks to consider, thanks to Mario Kart Tour adding exciting, new circuits to the mix.
Mario Kart 9: Release Date Expectation
There are even more rumors talking about the eventual release of Nintendo's next console, although Nintendo themselves are more communicative about this one. Their new competitor on the console market is expected to release in 2024, which would make it logical for Nintendo to release their next Mario Kart on that console too.
This would also fit the system of releasing one brand-new Mario Kart per console, with the Switch being somewhat of an exception since Mario Kart 8 was originally released for the Wii U.
With the question of Mario Kart 9's release date on the table, we need to remember that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still actively supported by Nintendo. The game's booster course still adds new courses to the game, but most of the extra cups are already released. Wave 6 of the Booster Course Pass is going to conclude the expansion pass, and it is expected to release either late in 2023 or early in 2024.
This would make room for another brand-new Mario Kart entry sometime in 2024. With Nintendo's history of announcements a few months in advance, it is to be expected that a Mario Kart releasing in 2024 would be announced in the first half of next year.