Image: Nintendo
Nintendo has revealed a new Mario Kart game seemingly launching with the Nintendo Switch 2.
Nintendo has officially revealed a new Mario Kart game, finally adding a new mainline instalment to the iconic kart racing game franchise after 11 long years. In the company’s recent reveal trailer for the Nintendo Switch 2, it showed off a few snippets of gameplay from the next Mario Kart game, featuring a new racing course called Mario Bros. Circuit.
Here’s the trailer, in case you missed it:
Nintendo shows off new Mario Kart game
This week, Nintendo finally revealed its upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game console, featuring a design similar to the original Switch with a few minor changes. Although Nintendo has yet to announce a specific release date for the console, it did confirm that it will launch sometime later this year.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal trailer might have been mostly focused on its hardware changes, but viewers were also given a glimpse of a new mystery Mario Kart game. Following the console’s reveal, the trailer rolled footage from the untitled Mario Kart game, showcasing Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, Toad, Donkey Kong, Princess Daisy, Waluigi, and Yoshi as playable characters.
Mind you, these were just the few characters we managed to spot in the trailer, so there may be even more tucked away offscreen. The game appears to support 24-character races according to the number of placements seen on the starting grid, which makes for a massive expansion from the series’ usual 12-character races.
The trailer also shows off a new course for the Mario Kart game, seemingly called “Mario Bros. Circuit.” The course is set on a highway in the desert, complete with a Yoshi-themed diner. Later on, the course seems to open up into a larger desert zone, which could mean that the new Mario Kart game plans to include larger semi-open world zones.
The new Mario Kart game will be the first mainline release in the series since Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U in 2014. Given that it was the only game featured in the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal trailer, one can safely assume – for now – that it will be a launch title for the console.
