During today's reveal of Nintendo's new hardware, the Nintendo Switch 2, we got a brief look at a brand new game that's coming to the system: it's a new Mario Kart, and we know…next to nothing about it.
We briefly got a look at some Mario Kart gameplay on the Nintendo Switch 2 that's almost certainly not Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or any other Mario Kart we've ever seen. The track is completely unfamiliar for one, but the karts themselves look totally different too, and seem to be in a sliiiiightly different style to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. So unless this is one heck of a remake/remaster, the fabled Mario Kart 9 (or whatever they call it) looks to finally be happening.
The footage itself shows a familiar roster of Mario Kart racers: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser, Toad, DK, Daisy, and, if you squint, what looks like Wario, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, Koopa, and a handful of others I'm sure eagle-eyed fans will pick out as they dissect the footage. They're cruising down a desert highway course we've never seen before complete with a Yoshi's Diner on the side of the course, NPC cars and trucks driving in the opposite direction, and an audience of cheering Toads. The karts themselves are also different from what we're used to in 8 Deluxe, and seem to be a little more compact and roundish, though it's hard to tell.
Unfortunately we don't know much more about what this new Mario Kart is or how it plays. This is similar to the reveal of Super Mario Odyssey way back in 2016 as a part of the Nintendo Switch console reveal, where we only saw a little bit of game footage before the game itself had ever been officially revealed, titled, or anything else. Super Mario Odyssey was then later officially shown off just a few months later.
It's likely we'll get more information on this new Mario Kart game during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct that was just announced for April 2, 2025. Nintendo has said that the Switch 2 itself will release sometime this year, and it sounds like we can expect Mario Kart to come along with that release. Time for a new Mario Kart Black Friday bundle?
We're still dissecting everything we saw this morning, so check out our breakdowns of the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement and everything else about the new console here at IGN.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
