Summary
- A new Mario Kart game was seemingly shown off during the Switch 2 reveal, and fans are already trying to put the roster together.
- By analyzing frames, fans have figured out that characters like Pauline and King Boo are confirmed to be in the game.
Earlier today, Nintendo finally lifted the lid on the Switch 2, giving us our first official look at the system, its fancy Joy-Cons that seem to function like a computer mouse, and how they connect to the console. We expected all of that thanks to leaks before the official reveal, but what we didn’t expect was what looked like the reveal of a brand new Mario Kart game.
We don’t know if it’s Mario Kart 9 or some weird spinoff title like Tour, but we got a good look at a new track and a lot of the game’s roster of characters. Granted, we only got a close look at the characters we expect to show up, such as Mario, Peach, and Bowser, but fans of the series have been analyzing the brief snippets of gameplay we did get to put together a roster.
Mario Kart Fans Using The Switch 2 Reveal To Figure Out The Next Game’s Roster
It started shortly after the Switch 2 trailer went live, with Twitter user UltimaShadowX pointing out that Paulina and Koopa Troopa could be seen towards the back end of the pack just before the sweeping shot of the track. They also noticed Toadette and what seems to be a Goomba in the background of one shot too, which is nice since Goombas are rarely part of Mario Kart rosters.
Even deeper analysis then ensued, and it seems that another Twitter user called Natnew7 even managed to name every character in the race that was shown, which you can see embedded down below. It seems as though all the baby characters are included, as well as deeper cut characters like Birdo, King Boo, Lakitu, and Shy Guy.
More notably, it appears as though Dry Bones wasn’t included in the race, while there were also no characters from other Nintendo properties, such as Link or the Animal Crossing villagers. Of course, just because all the characters in the race have been named, it doesn’t mean they’re not in the game.
It was also noticed that there are 24 marks on the road at the starting line, which suggests that at least this one track supports more than the standard 12 players. If that’s the case, the game will have to have an expanded roster to actually give people characters to choose from. Hopefully, if this title is going to be a Switch 2 launch title, we’ll learn more fairly soon.
Nintendo Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the successor to Nintendo Switch, scheduled for release in 2025. Confirmed as backwards compatible, it will play both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games. A full reveal is pencilled in for April 2, 2025.