The Full Potential of a New Mario Kart

Mario Kart has managed to lodge itself as a staple of every Nintendo system since the SNES and is a quintessential part of every gamer’s collection. It has excellent level design, well-balanced item pools, as well as an ease of accessibility that gives way to a layer of complexity for seasoned players to chew on (enough to be able to break down staff ghost data with practice and experience). However, for all the strengths Mario Kart has as a trendsetter in the Kart racer genre, it still falls behind the competition in some areas. Here I will explore these and how we could get the best Mario Kart experience to date.

Past Elements

Mario Kart works so well because of its familiar and welcoming mode structure and presentation. Any generation can jump into any iteration and know exactly where to go to play together or alone. It is a fundamental requirement that simplicity and ease of play are maintained. Grand Prix, Time Trial, VS, and online are mainstays at this stage, but the Mii Costumes, kart customisation, paragliding, underwater, and zero gravity features need to be kept with any new gimmick Nintendo decides to add to the sequel rather than replaced to help with backward compatibility. An optional but exciting feature that has somehow never returned to the series is the Double Dash gimmick of two racers in one kart. It’s not exactly a game-changer to the series, but having this as an optional toggleable mode in multiplayer can add a lot of fun for younger players or literal back seat drivers who want to get involved with the mayhem without the pressure of having to race against more skilled family members or friends. One last point here: a real battle mode needs to be included from the start and not introduced in a definitive release or DLC later down the road. For a lot of players, battle mode is a necessity for multiplayer and a highly regarded element that cannot be half-baked for the second time in a row.

Single Player Content

One thing Mario Kart has (mostly) always lacked is dedicated single-player content. This is mostly fine as the majority of consumers are here for the online multiplayer or split-screen fun but for solo players, outside of staff time trials and aiming for stars on Grand Prix cups there isn’t a whole lot to do. Mario Kart DS took a stride in the right direction with its mission mode, adding 7 sets of 9 missions to master and get star ranks. However, a story mode akin to Diddy Kong Racing or Team Sonic Racing would be greatly appreciated. This could be an alternative way to unlock cosmetics for karts, character costumes, characters in general, or even flairs for the karts like alternative horns, particle effects, and all that flashy stuff players love to use online against friends. I’m not expecting a Tolkien-level narrative here, just some simple races and some other modes to add variety in tracks that could help players in the right direction towards track mastery.

Tracks

As I started writing this article I was content on keeping the typical fare of 32 races with a mix of new and old, but since then the ‘Course Booster Pack’ has been released and this has changed my perspective on this entirely. When completed, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will have 96 tracks, the most the series has had by far, so the next game having a third of that would be incredibly underwhelming. The best option Nintendo has here is to build on the same engine they have already created, add their new gimmicks, adjust the control to give it a unique flourish, and port every track over that is already in the game on top of the new 32 tracks expected in a fresh release. This would be the most definitive Mario Kart experience and wouldn’t take a lot of effort if they utilised the same engine from 8 Deluxe, as most of the groundwork has been done for them already.

Items

Arguably the most important element of Mario Kart is its items. From the iconic banana peel to the dastardly spiny shell, we all love/hate the chaotic randomness of getting bombarded with a plethora of exciting items and cursing Miyamoto himself for getting a coin when we needed to deflect an oncoming red shell. A feature that has been slowly forgotten over time was the super items from Double Dash, these were character-specific items that certain characters would get in lower positions to give them an advantage, some of which are still in the games today (golden mushrooms, fireballs, and triple shells). Of these, the chain chomp, giant shell, giant banana should see a return, as well as the POW block, giant mushroom, and fake item box. As far as I’m concerned the more frantic chaos with giant items and RNG the better when it comes to multiplayer matches.

Characters

The Mario roster is without a doubt one of the most iconic in all of gaming, Mario himself is the face of gaming as a whole and his ensemble quickly follows behind. What I propose for this hypothetical sequel is a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate approach and bring in every character from every previous game (such as Queen Bee or R.O.B) and to help keep it fresh and character slots more meaningful combine clone characters into costumes. The costume gimmick can be spread quite far too and add an extra layer of customisation. We’ve already seen with Shy Guy, Inkling, and Yoshi that swapping the colour palette of characters can add a more personal touch to characters. Some ideas that could add some much-needed variety include wedding costumes for Mario, Peach, and Bowser as well as a Warioware costume for Wario. The possibilities for small references to past adventures are almost endless.

So that’s my wishlist for the definitive Mario Kart sequel, what would you like to see in the newest iteration of the game on the next Nintendo system? And let me know who your main is in the replies!