Hello, good morning. If you missed it, Nintendo finally revealed the Switch 2 after months of leaks and teases. It’s coming out this year, has a bigger screen, magnetic joy-con controllers, and can play the original Switch’s games through backwards compatibility. Also, Nintendo may have nonchalantly announced a new Mario Kart game that fans think might include a 24-player mode.
As you can see in this trailer, the Switch 2 is shown playing a Mario Kart game, and while I initially thought it was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at a glance, Mario Kart fans don’t seem to recognize the track players are racing through.
It looks like the Switch 2 could launch with Mario Kart 9. One of the most notable differences between the game we saw and previous Mario Karts is Donkey Kong. If you look at the gorilla racer in the background of different shots, you’ll notice he looks pretty similar to his Super Mario Bros. Movie incarnation, rather than the classic design seen in games like Mario Kart 8. Some fans have observed that Mario’s proportions seem to be a little more cartoony and similar to what we saw in the recent Super Mario Wonder as well. So while Nintendo didn’t officially put a name to the footage, it’s a pretty reasonable leap to assume this is Mario Kart 9.
It also looks like Mario Kart 9, or whatever the game is called, might include a 24-player racing mode. Fans noticed that the footage includes what looks like 24 starting positions on the track, implying that the online player count per race may double from the 12 in Mario Kart 8.
Fans have been combing through the brief bits of footage to determine some of the playable racers, and the roster we can see includes: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Daisy, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, and what appears to be Pauline, Toadette, a Goomba, and a Koopa.
Nintendo has confirmed it will hold a Direct presentation on the system on April 2, and we’ll almost certainly get a better look at the new Mario Kart then.