In spite of a steady stream of rumors that Nintendo recently started work on Mario Kart 9, it doesn't look like a new installation in the extremely popular racing franchise is around the corner. Nintendo recently announced a new wave of DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, in spite of its age, which heavily implies that developing a new Mario Kart game isn't a priority for Nintendo right now. Fans will just have to keep playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Mario Kart Tour for now, but in the meantime, it seems like rumors about bold innovations in Mario Kart 9 will continue to circulate.
The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass certainly makes it look like innovation in Mario Kart 9 will be key. As exciting as the Booster Course Pass is, it significantly raises the bar for the quantity of content that the next Mario Kart game will offer. Nintendo may have created a problem for Mario Kart that it's also experiencing in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's sheer scale raises questions about what another Smash game could possibly do to live up to its legacy, and Mario Kart 9 may be facing similar questions now.
Inheriting the Smash Ultimate Obstacle
Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco, and Nintendo certainly took a risk with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The Smash Ultimate roster includes every past fighter and then some, which results in a staggering amount of playable characters. It also brings back a huge amount of stages, packs its own story mode, and offers various other features that make it a dominant Smash experience. While that means Smash Ultimate is a great game in a vacuum, that also results in Ultimate being a seemingly impossible act to follow. After all the characters and amenities that Smash Ultimate offered, future Smash games are at risk of feeling like a step down if they don't try to be as big as Ultimate.
Unexpectedly, Mario Kart 9 may face similar risks because of the way Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is expanding right now. As the best-selling game on the Switch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already a hard act to follow, but by the end of the Booster Course Pass, Deluxe will have nearly 100 courses for players to choose from, which is an unprecedented number for console Mario Kart games. These courses will offer an incredible amount of variety to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe players, which means that if Mario Kart 9 has significantly fewer courses than that, it may feel repetitive in comparison. Mario Kart 9 probably can't launch with 100 courses, though, so it needs to make up for the difference somehow.
Mario Kart 9's Changes and Challenges
Many rumors suggest that Mario Kart 9 will feature guest characters from various Nintendo properties, and while that would be a great way to help the game stand out from the rest of the franchise, it may not be enough to make it feel as diverse as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It'll need some serious mechanical changes too, whether that means shaking up Mario Kart's item system or introducing different styles of racing to Mario Kart altogether. The more Nintendo does to make Mario Kart 9 feel unique, the better.
Mario Kart 9 may yet be able to avoid the strange situation that the Super Smash Bros. series faces. Big ideas that change the Mario Kart formula will serve a new game well, no matter how many courses it ends up having. The same is true for Smash, but Mario Kart's need for innovation may be more pressing, considering how long it has been since Nintendo released a Mario Kart game on consoles. The Booster Course Pass will keep fans entertained for now, but demand for another game is growing, so hopefully Nintendo has some tricks up its sleeve.
A new Mario Kart game is rumored to be in development.
