If Mario Kart 9 wants to best succeed it needs to make one major change to the franchise.
It has been over ten years since the last mainline Mario Kart game. Mario Kart 8 came out for the Wii U in May 2014, before getting a special rerelease on the Nintendo Switch in 2017 sporting a Deluxe subtitle.
Since then, word on the Mario Kart front has been relatively quiet. Nintendo continued to support Mario Kart 8's Switch release in the years since with 48 new DLC tracks, but no full-scale follow-up has ever been broached by the Japanese gaming giant.
However, that looks to be changing soon. A new Mario Kart game seemingly appeared during the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, with rumors that the new game (dubbed by fans as Mario Kart 9) will be released on or around the console's launch.
Mario Kart 9 Needs To Make a Massive Change
With Mario Kart 9, Nintendo can and should make the biggest change in franchise history...embrace Nintendo's history like never before.
Now, what exactly does that mean? Since the inception of the Mario Kart franchise, it has been a mainly Mushroom Kingdom-based affair, only putting the focus on Mario and his friend with its characters, tracks, karts, and items.
Mario Kart 8 changed that, dipping its toes into the crossover waters by bringing in a handful of other Nintendo IPs including characters and tracks from The Legend of Zelda, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing franchises, as well as a shoutout to Nintendo's other racing stalwart, F-Zero, with yet another bonus course.
But these inclusions ultimately felt like mere sprinkles on the larger Mario Kart 9 sundae.
What Mario Kart 9 needs to do to best succeed is take a page out of another beloved Nintendo franchise, Super Smash Bros., and become a full-on Nintendo karting crossover.
The Smash series has long been a celebration of all things Nintendo (and video games as a whole in more recent iterations). This has meant that characters and worlds from across the Nintendo canon have gotten the chance to intermingle in some manic multiplayer fun.
And it is this crossover nature that could be the next groundbreaking evolution for the Mario Kart franchise.
Kart Has Reached Its Creative Limits
As a series, Mario Kart has sort of creatively felt like it has reached its limits in recent years.
Sure, Mario Kart 8 is one of the best-selling games of all time (over 72 million units sold per Nintendo), and Nintendo could very well rest on its laurels and release a Mario Kart 9 that looks and sounds similar to their Wii U/Switch mega-hit.
However, fans of the Switch maker know, Nintendo has never been one to stop thinking outside of the box.
When Fans thought the Mario Kart formula was perfected with 64, the company released the duo-racing Gamecube hit Double Dash. When the road felt like it was getting old, the Mario Kart franchise took players to the skies and deep beneath the seas.
Even in the last game, Nintendo added a new spin on the series' iconic racing action by introducing zero-gravity sections with Mario Kart 8.
The Mario Kart formula has felt like it has reached its creative bounds. So, if it is going to continue to evolve and keep bringing fans back with a new creative twist, it feels like the natural next step is to bring in characters, karts, courses, and items from across the Nintendo catalog.
Maybe another run-of-the-mill Mario Kart would sell just as well as Mario Kart 8 did, but fans seeing the likes of Link, Samus, Kirby, and Pikachu joining the karting ranks alongside Mario and friends would get some serious buzz.
If Nintendo wants to make this next-generation game truly feel like a creative leap, then this is how to do it.
One Crossover Door Closes And Another Opens
Another big reason Nintendo would be smart to make Mario Kart 9 a crossover affair is the fact that it could be losing its other big franchise that uses the same schtick (at least for now).
The Super Smash Bros. franchise feels as though it is going to take some time off after its beloved Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Switch. After nearly 20 years of building the series bigger and bigger, Ultimate felt like a culmination of sorts, bringing back every character, item, and stage from past games.
It also included a dream-fulfilling roster of new characters introducing some truly mind-boggling crossovers from across gaming like Steve from Minecraft (yeah, the one being portrayed by Jack Black in the upcoming Minecraft movie), Banjo from Banjo Kazooie, and (even) Kingdom Hearts' Sora.
Ultimate went as big as the series is ever likely to go, so it feels right that Smash takes a bit of a breather before its next entry.
That is not to say the franchise should disappear entirely. Perhaps a remaster of an older game like Super Smash Bros. Melee is on the table for Switch 2. But the next mainline Smash title is likely some time away.
What better way to fill that void than passing the crossover torch from the hit platform fighter series to Mario Kart?
Mario Kart 9 has no publicly listed release window (read about potential Mario Kart 9 release rumors here).
