Nintendo pulled off a surprise last week, announcing a flurry of new Mario games to celebrate the 35th birthday of the world’s most well-known “Italian” plumber with a moustache. The biggest announcement is Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.
- The new Nintendo Switch game enables you to race real-life RC cars through custom tracks in your home. When you buy the game, it will come with a physical kart with a camera on board to add the mixed realities together as a sort of AR racing track with the Switch itself.
- The race track is set up using gates, and it looks like you’ll be racing against non-physical AI if you have one kit, but combine a couple of kits and you can have real-life races, Nintendo noting you can play with up to four players in local multiplayer mode.
- My worry is… how big of a room do I need to move into for this? Do I need to move house just to make a bigger track? What happens if your cat walks in and stops your kart?
- It’s out with either a Mario Set or Luigi Set, on October 16th for $99.99.
- So, $100 gets you one Kart only, so playing with four Karts seems like it’ll run you $400… and that’s without a Switch for each. So, invite your friends and their Switches and their carts and rent a wedding hall?
Those other Mario games?
- Yes, there’s more too.
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, confirming rumors that Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy will be making a re-release return on the Switch.
- Some retro comebacks: Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario Bros 3 will make it to the Switch in a re-release of Super Mario All-Stars. (The non-3D version.)
- There’s a Mario Battle Royale because of course there is, playing against 35 others.
- And Nintendo rounded out its victory lap with a novelty retro handheld (Game & Watch), Mario themed-crossovers over the next months. For example, in March 2021, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will get a new set of Super Mario furniture.
But this is not a Mario echo chamber! Kotaku gets it right by pointing out that Nintendo’s new Mario games have a weird purchase-by deadline, and it sucks. You only have five months to buy some of them. For no real reason, except Nintendo!
Is it 1995? 