The Next Mario Kart

ObieStar

ObieStar

That RPG Guy
Pronouns
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You can post ideas for the next Mario Kart or predictions.
My idea:
I really want Super Kart Bros. / Nintendo Kart. I would really like to ride around places like Magicant (there could be copyright issues but I don't care), Brinstar, Mt. Dedede, and even Jubilife City! Also, you could Wheelie, in the Pork Bean (or the Bike), or Wyrdeer? I mean, that's so cool! Also, I want there to be more Mario then other franchises. Bring back Waluigi Pinball and add Toad Town. That would be cool. But I am also worried. Nintendo could start using NFTs in Mario Kart like other big companies such as Square Enix. The micro-transactions in Tour are bad enough, but NFTs could make me despise Nintendo in some sense. I also worry some BS subscription (pun not intended) will come along that will give me and other people headaches.
 
I heard one rumor, even if it is false but I'm not sure, that the next game in the series could be Super Smash Kart with all Smash characters as racers. If this does happen, I will be very excited still
 
I think that if there were to be another game series focused on a crossover, changing Mario Kart into one would not be the way to go. Such an undertaking should be on unexplored territory or a similar existing genre with a twist, which was basically how Smash came to be due to how it's a different type of fighting game. Perhaps a strategy RPG would be a decent pick.

Anyway, for Mario Kart in particular, I have to imagine that the next game would be about shifting terrain where the course can change its layout, causing the course to be played differently. It could be as simple as the course changing between laps, or even items causing the course to change shape. In this way, it's a bit like Grumble Volcano, which has crumbling parts the longer the course took place.

Thank you for reading.
 
i dont want nintendo kart for the petty reason of me not really caring about nintendo series that arent mario lmao
and yeah other people have also made good points about it making smash feel less special and that. also isnt media kind of oversaturated with big crossovers lately
what i just want out of mario kart is a better roster please ( mario seems hell bent on making only underwhelming rosters though nowadays so :\ )
 
I mean Mario Kart 8/8 Deluxe already has non-Mario characters and elements in the game, so I feel like a full-on 'Nintendo Kart' is just going to happen at some point. I actually feel fairly confident about saying this.
 
Other Nintendo franchises have done some form of racing before. F-Zero originated as a racing game. Link, Isabelle, Villager, and the Inklings are playable in Mario Kart 8. Kirby has Air Ride on the GameCube. Pokemon has Dash, Team Turbo (this title is for the PC and has racing elements alongside minigames), and had various racing minigames in Pokemon Stadium 1, 2, and the two Pokepark games on Wii. And lastly, the DK series had 2 of its own racing titles, Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (aka Jet Race for PAL Regions), alongside the canceled Diddy Kong Pilot (which got turned into Banjo Pilot) and Donkey Kong Racing (which got turned into Sabreman Stampede before being canceled altogether). Sadly, this is where racing in Nintendo franchises (other than Mario) ends.

As for 3rd parties (these just include the ones that are already in Smash), there's the aforementioned Banjo Pilot, as well as Chocobo Kart, and the various Sonic racing titles (these include Sonic Drift 1 and 2 for Game Gear, the 3 Sonic Riders games, and Team Sonic Racing, as well as the 2 Sonic and Sega All Stars titles).
 
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Vehicle customization has to stick around, and a little bit more stat diversity would be good as well. But the one thing that does need to be corrected is the fact that while Rosalina and Waluigi are large-sized characters, they need to be in their own weight class (shares the same acceleration, weight, and traction as medium, but sacrifices handling to boost speed) instead of being in the same weight class as the bulkier large characters.
 
People are extremely fixated on characters when I think more robust discussion on game mechanics should also be considered, especially also considering that's the aspect of the series developers fixate upon the most. It doesn't matter if your character roster has only nonMario characters or exclusively Mario characters, it won't gain any traction if it plays terribly and while Mario Kart is a leader in the kart racing genre for its gameplay, it's also worth considering it can use a ton more improvements that its competition also partakes in.

I don't want a Nintendo Kart either. Mario Kart already sells perfectly well as is, I'm like zelen and I prefer Mario characters over other Nintendo ones, and I don't see what a glorified Mario Kart skin will do for the brand, unless the racing game becomes its own franchise with its own driving mechanics. Seeing characters like Inklings being more of a blatant advertisement than the GLA will ever be tires me. And I'm pretty sure more people can recognize Dry Bones than they do Animal Crossing characters.

Keep in mind that I love Mario Kart, and it's because of this love I have for the franchise is why my criticism in its aspects will be detailed.

  • The sense of speed in Mario Kart games has usually been subpar. I get it, it's meant for anyone, but that doesn't mean it should be sluggish even on the highest difficulty levels. There's a video below that talks about the sense of speed in racing games and while it's primarily aimed at other racing games, it perfectly applies to Mario Kart. Mario Kart: Double Dash actually felt decently fast primarily because it has narrower roads. Tracks since then have been overly wide (this is hugely apparent in Mario Kart DS, take a look at the width of GCN Luigi Circuit there vs its original appearance in Double Dash, and in Mario Kart 8, anything not named 200cc is slow. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled and Sonic & All-Stars Transformed all felt much faster than Mario Kart.
  • Adding onto this, I want more brake usage. Sure, perhaps you can floor it in 50 and 100cc, but learning how to use brakes in curves increases the skill and difficulty of the game, and it makes you less reliant on min-maxing speed and increases the need for better handling and acceleration of your cars. Mario Kart 8's 200cc mode teaches you when to slow down in curves and while its tracks aren't specifically designed to accommodate for it part of time, I want more tracks to be a tinge more difficult on higher speeds. Areas where you brake in 200cc in some tracks are fun and it also increases the fun factor when you ARE able to speed up and hit those straightaways.
  • Track design is the main thing that keeps Mario Kart apart from other titles, make no question about it. Many games use an item system now in its manner, Mario Kart is not the only major player in that game anymore. And I'm not talking about aesthetics but HOW a track is designed after the mechanics. Mario Kart 8 can be notoriously empty at points, but I also appreciate its attempts to deviate from the norm such as Mario Kart Stadium being a welcome change of pace or Mount Wario being a one-way track without a loop at all. I also don't like some of the track overhaul Mario Kart 8 does for the retro tracks, the main point to bring them back is nostalgia and that gets eliminated when Ribbon Road looks nothing like its original counterpart. Smash Ultimate understood the balance to keep some of the old stuff intact while upscaling other graphics to be graphically on par with the game, this is what I want Mario Kart to do too.
  • Mario Kart's single player content has always been absolutely dreadful. It has been criticized for its single player content back in the N64 era, and that criticism still perfectly applies today. Literally all you do in single player Mario Kart is race in Grand Prix repetitively until you unlock everything you need, and that's it. Every other racing game has evolved since just churning out Grand Prix race after Grand Prix race, whether it's Diddy Kong Racing and CTR's single player story mode or Sonic racing game's career-like story mode where you take upon varied missions such as eliminating rivals through items or beating them on the race, 1v1 duels, traffic attack, drift zones, that sort of thing. Even Blur, the game that mocked Mario Kart in its commercial, has better single player content. You don't need like, a grandiose adventure with 60 hours of content, but just something to break up the bleak repetitiveness of the current Mario Kart direction would be nice and dandy. Mission Mode in Mario Kart DS was a good start, but it was immensely flawed in that it was overly restrictive for no reason (it restricted your characters and cars you can use) and that completing it was entirely optional and that there were no unlocks behind it giving less incentive to complete it other than the sake of it. You could argue that sure, you should play it for fun, but I'd argue that rewarding players IS part of the fun.
  • The unlocking customization in Mario Kart has been terrible, it should not be random unlocks. Your coins should go towards the purchase of kart parts you actually want. It's not as bad as CTR's unlocking system, but it's still leagues behind what I can call fun.
  • General customization in Mario Kart games have always been lacking. It has been upgraded since Mario Kart 7 so you can choose any kart part you want, but nowadays even that is lacking. Aesthetics wise, the customization is bare minimum, and I've been asking for an ability to at least change the color of your cars since a long time ago. People like it when their character's cars matches their character colors, and Mario Kart 8 at least attempted to fix that with different paint job variations but more can be done, and we should have the ability to pick the car color we want. If we can't create our own car colors, at least pick from presets. Anything other than being stuck with the car color of the car.
  • I do want more auxiliary customization too such as changing bumper appearance, wing shape, headlights, hood, etc for a variety of vehicle bodies and that does require a bit more effort but eh, Team Sonic Racing did something like this and while there are more model options, more unlockables to play with isn't a bad thing. Just don't do what CTR did and it'll be fine.
  • Adding onto this, VS mode options have always been barren and skeletal. I want item switch toggles and being able to pick bot characters for your team, as well as picking bot characters cars. I'd also want this "character favorite combos" to be knocked off, it gets tiring seeing characters use the same combo over and over again. Mario Kart 7 did this best, where characters can use mostly anything, but they still had body part leanings and you see a greater variety of karts. Look, I love my Badwagon and P-Wing but I still change it up because I like other vehicles too.
  • Personally, and this may not be a popular opinion, I think we should do away with character weight classes altogether. Or at the very least, you can change your character's stats, as you can still have your base stats. Mario Kart DS sorta let you do this by picking any car you want and inheriting stats but you still retain weight. It also logically doesn't make any sense that Bowser drives faster than Peach when your car's under the hood make-up is what determines what your car can do. I don't want any advanced tuning to the level of Forza, but something that can make any character competitive is fine. Sure, you'll end up with repetitive combos of cars, but at least you can use your favorite character while doing so, rather than minmaxing a particular character and you would see at least some variety online.
  • SOUND OPTIONS. That should be a standard in ANY of the Nintendo titles. Why Smash Bros. is the only Nintendo game that lets you adjust sound is beyond me when that should be a standard in ALL games.
 
I'm in the "use more deep cuts from the extended Mario universe" boat, Nintendo Kart would only sacrifice any sort of representation beyond the surface level for Mario and it wouldn't bring it for any other franchises either. I'd rather have a good, well-rooted and fleshed out Mario roster than have a bunch of franchises each with even less representation than Mario has now (which is still barely scratching the surface of what the franchise has to offer)

Also, my personal bias of being a Mario fan and not really a Nintendo fan beyond that. I like Smash but I don't want the Mario roster to be stripped down to the number it has in Smash.
 
winstein said:
Anyway, for Mario Kart in particular, I have to imagine that the next game would be about shifting terrain where the course can change its layout, causing the course to be played differently. It could be as simple as the course changing between laps, or even items causing the course to change shape. In this way, it's a bit like Grumble Volcano, which has crumbling parts the longer the course took place.
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Both Beetle Adventure Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Transformed did something like this, with the former having you race 2 laps around a track and the final lap opening you to the finish line, while the latter has very dynamic track changes, the most drastic I can think of is Dream Valley, where every lap is hugely different because the portal changes where you race on.

 
After having played both MK8D and CTR: NF, I say that I like Nitro Fueled a lot more.

The next Mario Kart should feel like Nitro Fueled (without the grind, of course.)

We should be able to customize the karts and characters to our hearts content. Give characters costumes. give us paint options and stickers, give us decals for the karts.

A story mode would be nice. Hell, I want a track builder, too!
 
I'd like a track builder only if it's a dedicated game and not a side mode. Something like ModNations or Trackmania, which had robust track creators, and you can have good track creators worth using only if it's a sizable part of the game. Diddy Kong Racing DS attempted this and failed terribly.

Nitro-Fueled is a game I wanted to like but I cannot like solely because of ActiBlizz and the horrific grind it has.

Character costumes would be great. One Mario Kart game noticed the value of adding character alts because it understood that popularity however and not to a good extent.......... 😔
 
Just pretend that it was published by Nintendo. Close your eyes and mute the TV when the Activision logo pops up. Mod the game to put in a Nintendo logo.
 
Fawful Kart DS said:
I'm in the "use more deep cuts from the extended Mario universe" boat, Nintendo Kart would only sacrifice any sort of representation beyond the surface level for Mario and it wouldn't bring it for any other franchises either. I'd rather have a good, well-rooted and fleshed out Mario roster than have a bunch of franchises each with even less representation than Mario has now (which is still barely scratching the surface of what the franchise has to offer)

Also, my personal bias of being a Mario fan and not really a Nintendo fan beyond that. I like Smash but I don't want the Mario roster to be stripped down to the number it has in Smash.
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Well your first mistake is assuming that Mario Kart characters are meant to "represent" anything.
 
I mean, sure, I think track representation in Mario Kart could come a long way at the very least. We had Diamond City in Mario Kart Arcade GP, and while I'd like for the focus to have mostly original tracks, some nods to other games here and there would be appreciative. If Luigi's Mansion and Donkey Kong Country can have a Mario Kart track, then Paper Mario and Mario Party can have one too.
 
Yoshi's Island should have a Mario Kart track
 
Redshift said:
People are extremely fixated on characters
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Likely because most other aspects of the series have been handled pretty well as of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, all things considered. And while I understand characters don't really matter that much gameplay-wise, it's a bit of a bummer that the only newcomers in the newest console entry were heavyweight Peach, lightweight Rosalina, another medium weight Mario but in a fur suit, 7 Bowser Jrs., and characters that are not even from the same universe as Mario. I've grown placid when it comes to roster choices but, like, some of these were nothing even remotely exciting.

Anyway, I really enjoy Mario Kart Tour for its focus on singleplayer and more arcade-y gameplay, where the main goal is racking up as many points as possible within a course instead of just racing for 1st place. I wish the next Mario kart would have a game mode that expands somehow on that, perhaps through stages specially designed with this kind of gameplay in mind.
 
Redshift said:
I mean, sure, I think track representation in Mario Kart could come a long way at the very least. We had Diamond City in Mario Kart Arcade GP, and while I'd like for the focus to have mostly original tracks, some nods to other games here and there would be appreciative. If Luigi's Mansion and Donkey Kong Country can have a Mario Kart track, then Paper Mario and Mario Party can have one too.
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See again the mistake people make is that Mario Kart is "representing" something when it's really just "hey would this make for a neat track/character to play as"

Mario Kart is not some kind of celebration of Mario's history, it's just "hey let's put Mario characters in karts and drive around"
 
Mcmadness said:
See again the mistake people make is that Mario Kart is "representing" something when it's really just "hey would this make for a neat track/character to play as"

Mario Kart is not some kind of celebration of Mario's history, it's just "hey let's put Mario characters in karts and drive around"
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To be honest, neither is Team Sonic Racing yet that game uses locales from a variety of games (like Boo's House being from Sandpolis and we have an appearance of King Boom Boo, or Ocean View being from Sonic Heroes's Seaside Palace). In addition, we do have Super Mario 64, Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Sunshine-tracks and some light Super Mario Galaxy theming in these tracks and I think we could have more themed tracks from further games like the aforementioned Mario Party or a paper-themed track.

King Chicken said:
Yoshi's Island should have a Mario Kart track
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Thing is we do have a Yoshi's Island-themed track in the form of Yoshi Park 1 from Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 but an actual race around the island itself would be amazing.
 
That's exactly what I was thinking, a race around the island.
 
I want courses that force players on rough terrain. No more of this all smooth road nonsense.
Also, Mario represents Nintendo. Like, he's their mascot. The others? They're the different flavors to a bag of skittles.
 
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I really hope they bring back mission mode from MKDS... it was such a cool idea that could've been improved upon, but they only ever did it once. Apparently there's evidence that Mario Kart Wii was gonna have one, but that was obviously scrapped.
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