nintendo – Trekking with Dennis

Will I Buy A Switch 2 In 2026?

A friend of mine picked up a Nintendo Switch 2 console just before Christmas. We don’t live close enough for me to pop over and have a go on the machine, but so far, they seem happy with their purchase and pretty enamoured with Mario Kart World in particular. Despite the console’s high price point putting me off (and other folks, too, if sales figures for the final quarter of 2025 are to be believed), someone who *can* afford to blow that amount of money seems to be having a wonderful time with their purchase.

And that got me thinking!

My friend is the first person I know personally who’s bought a Switch 2 since the console launched last Spring. But I’m sure, over time, there will be others: my brother-in-law is a pretty big gamer, for example, and usually has money to spare, so I wouldn’t be stunned to learn he’s planning to pick one up, too. But… am I ever going to get a Nintendo Switch 2? And do I even want one anymore? That’s the subject we’re going to tackle today.

4 promo images for Nintendo's Switch 2 console. — Promo images for the Switch 2.

As always, my usual caveat applies: everything we’re discussing is *subjective, not objective*, so if I make a point about the Switch 2, its lineup of games, or Nintendo as a corporation that you disagree with… that’s okay. There ought to be enough room in the gaming and Nintendo communities for civil discussion and respectful disagreements that don’t descend into toxicity and name-calling. We can agree to disagree, and my thoughts on a corporation or games console aren’t a personal attack on fans or players.

I think I should start by laying out a very brief history of my personal relationship with Nintendo. I played a couple of games on a family member’s NES when I was very young. I think the one I remember most vividly from that era is Slalom, a funny little skiing game developed by Rare – who would go on to create Donkey Kong Country, and many other titles! I was already really interested in video games, even as a young kid, and after pestering my parents and saving up as much pocket money as I could, I finally got my hands on my very first home console in 1992: a Super Nintendo.

Photo of the Nintendo Super Scope. — Does anyone else remember playing with this epic light gun?

Since then, I’ve owned every home console that Nintendo has put out, with the exception of the GameCube. I’ve owned an N64, a Wii, a Wii U, a Switch, and I dabbled in handhelds with a Game Boy Advance, DS, and 3DS. Nintendo’s consoles have given me a lot of fun over the years, and while I don’t consider myself a super-fan, or anything like that, I’ve always felt that Nintendo’s big, generation-defining titles were well worth the price of admission.

But I looked back, recently, on my Switch play history, and I came to a bit of a surprising realisation: across the eight-plus years that I’ve owned the console, I’ve only really played seven games on it. Those titles are: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (and the Booster Course Pass expansion), Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. I tried out a couple of others that I didn’t get on with, like Mario Tennis Aces, but that’s really it.

Promo image for Super Mario Odyssey showing Cappy, a Bullet Bill, and a tank. — I only played a handful of games on my Switch 1.

My primary gaming platform has been PC for about a decade now, and while I was more than content to pick up a Switch to play a handful of Nintendo exclusives, it was never going to be my *main* device for playing games. So in that sense, I shouldn’t be surprised at the relative lack of titles. As I’ve said before, both my ability to play games for long sessions due to my health, and my general interest in playing a large number of games, have waned over time. Plus, there are always financial constraints! So, again, not a huge surprise that I have so few Switch 1 games. But it does kind of put the Switch 2 into context for me.

Despite my criticisms of the price point of the Switch 2 and its games, and Nintendo’s greedy and anti-consumer corporate attitude, I’ve been working under the assumption that I would, eventually, pick up the new console. Maybe Mario Kart World didn’t do enough to tempt me at launch, and despite being a big Donkey Kong 64 fan back in the day, Bananza didn’t really stand out to me, either. But surely a new Animal Crossing or 3D Mario adventure would. Right?

Promo/concept art of Wario for the Nintendo game Wario Ware. — Actual photo from the Nintendo boardroom.

I think this comes back to the core problem that the Switch 2 has: its price point, and specifically, its price point in the current economic climate. In 2017, I was content to pay £300 for a Switch. Playing the likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and New Horizons felt worthwhile at the time, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on those experiences – even if there are flaws and drawbacks, both games gave me some enjoyable experiences. But thinking about it, playing seven games across eight years is less than one new title per year, and it kind of puts the cost of the system into context. I had fun with my Switch. But was it worth the money?

With the Switch 2 being £100 more just to get started, and with its exclusive games also having risen in price, I’m no longer so confident in my original plan to pick up the console. The simple truth is that the Switch 2 feels pretty derivative and similar to its predecessor, and of the biggest games to launch on the system since it debuted – Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4 – all feel pretty samey, too. I can get the kart-racing experience I want from Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Adventure games and 3D platformers are ten a penny, with excellent releases in the past few years like Kena: Bridge of Spirits. And there are some fun upcoming single-player FPS titles on the horizon, too: Mouse, P.I. For Hire being just one example. And all of those games are playable on the PC I already have.

Promo screenshot of Donkey Kong Banaza. — With no new Nintendo games feeling special or innovative, I can find comparable experiences elsewhere.

When Nintendo stepped back from the “power and graphics” race to focus on innovative ways to play, it was a huge success. They reached out to a casual audience of non-gamers and brought them on board in droves. The Wii, with its motion controls, the DS and 3DS with titles like Brain Training, and the Switch as a hybrid console all achieved huge successes. But as I said last year, the Switch 2 feels like Nintendo’s least-innovative console in decades, doubling-down on what worked with the Switch at the expense of that innovation.

Without it, what does Nintendo have? A handful of franchises that players have history with, sure. But as the broader games industry moves on and continues to find new things to do with those genres, while also pushing the boat out graphically, where has that left Nintendo? Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has tight, focused races across a variety of tracks, while its signature mechanic ensures each race feels different. Mario Kart World has an open world… which doesn’t seem to really suit the format. Slapping an open world onto a title for the sake of it isn’t innovative. CrossWorlds’ mid-race portals to a new racetrack? That does feel new and different.

Promo image of Mario Kart World advertising the Free Roam mode. — *Mario Kart World* has an open world with a free roam mode.

If I want to play an adventure-platformer, I have so many options. And many of them are graphically superior to anything Nintendo has made. Look at the aforementioned Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which was my pick for “game of the year” back in 2021. Could Nintendo make a Switch 2 game look that good? Why do I need Donkey Kong Banaza when there are literal indie titles that look better and offer the same kind of gameplay experience? The only reason would be that I feel a connection to the character and the series.

And this isn’t to disparage Bananza or Mario Kart World. If I played them, I think they both look like titles I’d enjoy. But my point is… why do I *need* to play them, or buy an expensive console to play them on, when other games can do pretty much the same thing on hardware I already own? By sacrificing innovation with the Switch 2, Nintendo has given me a reason to leave it on the shelf. The reality is that other games can do pretty much everything that Nintendo’s titles can, and because the Switch 2 is still less-powerful than its competitors despite charging similar money, many of those alternatives can look a lot better while doing it, too.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct broadcast showing three of Nintendo's executives. — The Switch 2 still feels pricey for what it offers.

We are less than one year into the Switch 2’s run, though, and it’s gotta be possible that new games will come along that genuinely recapture that sense of innovation, that idea that “there’s nothing else like this on the market,” and that will persuade me that I need to check out this console. I’m not writing off the Switch 2. And despite seeming to be struggling outside of Japan, Nintendo is still shifting Switch 2 units and games, so I’m not trying to claim that the console itself will be a flop. I think it’s already close to (or may have already eclipsed) the total lifetime sales of the Wii U, which would pretty much be the bar for that kind of discussion!

“Not every game is right for every player,” and I guess that’s true of consoles, too. It may simply be the case that this Nintendo generation is the first since the GameCube that I end up skipping, if none of the games really call out to me and make me feel like I’m seriously missing out. As someone who’s the wrong side of forty, I am admittedly not part of Nintendo’s true target audience! So perhaps it makes sense that this console with more family-friendly titles is something I’d walk away from. Heck, maybe I’m stepping back from Nintendo, like, twenty years too late!

Promo screenshot for Metroid Prime 4. — *Metroid Prime 4*.

It is an admittedly rather odd feeling, though, to be looking in from the outside at a brand-new Nintendo console, a brand-new 3D Donkey Kong game, and a brand-new Mario Kart title and… not really feel like I’m missing out in a huge way. I remember being on a months-long waiting list when the Wii launched, and answering the phone at 8am, in my pants, when my local Game branch rang me to tell me they’d finally got one in stock for me. I practically *sprinted* to the bus stop to get there in time and promptly took two days off work while I got acquainted with my new baby! And I bought a Wii U, for heaven’s sake. *A Wii U.* But now, here I am, feeling really uninspired by and just plain uninterested in the Switch 2.

With Bananza being last year’s big 3D platformer, I don’t see a 3D Mario title being launched in 2026. With Pokémon Pokopia doing the “cozy life-sim” thing, and New Horizons getting a big update, it also seems pretty clear that a new Animal Crossing title isn’t on the cards this year, either. Those are the only two Nintendo exclusive titles that I could imagine piquing my interest and potentially convincing me that I need a Switch 2… so I doubt I’ll be buying one this year. I will keep my ear to the ground to see what else might be coming our way with the Switch 2, though.

This was a bit of a stream-of-consciousness waffle, so thanks for sticking with me to the end! I wanted to get my thoughts in order about the Switch 2, its games, and why I don’t really feel all that interested in it right now. Price is a big part of the equation, but it isn’t the only thing keeping Nintendo’s newest console out of my hands. If, however, that should change in the future, be sure to check back. And I daresay I’ll have more to say about Nintendo and the wide world of video games before too long.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is out now. All titles discussed above (Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Banaza, Metroid Prime 4, et al) are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Nintendo Is Just Awful

Wed 08.10.25Dennis

Despite trying hard to project a “family-friendly” image, Nintendo is no less of a greedy, aggressive, predatory, and money-grubbing corporation than the worst of the worst in the games industry. The company would, were it not for a legion of well-trained apologists, rightly be held up along with the likes of Electronic Arts, Tencent, Blizzard, and Ubisoft as a shining example of a gaming mega-corporation that is, for want of a better word… evil.

Nintendo, if you weren’t aware, has recently tried to patent in-game systems, which would prevent anyone else from using those mechanics in their games – or would mean those companies would have to pay a license or fee to Nintendo. This is tied to the Palworld situation that I talked about last year, as Nintendo is embroiled in a frivolous lawsuit against Palworld’s creators, Pocketpair. But I think it says a lot about how Nintendo behaves, how far the company has fallen, and why it’s past time for the current crop of increasingly elderly executives and game directors to be retired.

Promo art for Palworld showing a character holding a blue orb. — *Palworld* is causing a lot of bed-wetting among Nintendo executives…

Here’s the bottom line when it comes to patents: if other companies had treated Nintendo the way that Nintendo treats other companies, Nintendo would’ve gone bankrupt making playing cards in 1980. That’s not an exaggeration: literally none of the games Nintendo became known for would’ve been possible if other companies had taken out patents like the ones Nintendo is trying to use in the Palworld lawsuit. And where would Nintendo be today without video games? Just another failed Japanese toy company that didn’t make the cut.

If Universal and CBS, developers of the 1980 arcade game Space Panic, had patented the idea of the 2D platformer, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong wouldn’t have been able to exist. Nintendo would never have been able to develop Super Mario Kart – or any of its other racing games – if someone like Sega had gotten a patent for the concept of a racing video game after their successful Road Race arcade game in 1976. If Sony had patented the 3D platformer after 1995’s Jumping Flash, then Nintendo couldn’t have made Super Mario 64. Should I continue, or have I made my point?

Screenshot of Space Panic. — Doesn’t this look familiar…

The entire history of video games is one of piecemeal innovation. A new creation comes along, gains traction – or doesn’t in some cases, but the concept still seems appealing – and then other companies take the idea in new directions. Nintendo has never actually made anything original. What they’ve done for decades – very successfully, to their credit – is build on other people’s creativity and other people’s ideas, taking concepts that other games have tried and honing them, often to near-perfection. If other companies had locked their efforts away, as Nintendo is attempting to do to Palworld and others, not only would the entire games industry be smaller, less creative, and just worse overall, but Nintendo itself as we know it today could never have come to exist.

There are some massively-popular games which went on to quickly spawn entire genres. I’m old enough to remember when first-person shooters were literally called “Doom clones,” but id Software, in 1993, didn’t try to patent the concept. If they had, there’d never have been GoldenEye, Metroid Prime, or literally any other FPS title. Games companies don’t exactly like sharing their ideas, but it’s been accepted as part of the games industry for decades. You can’t claim ownership of a broad concept, idea, or genre.

Screenshot of GoldenEye showing the player character shooting an enemy. — *GoldenEye* wouldn’t have been made if id Software had gotten a patent for first-person shooter mechanics.

There are some things that can and should be trademarked, copyrighted, or patented. I’d never try to argue, for instance, that anyone other than Nintendo should be allowed to create a 2D platformer featuring a red-hatted, overall-wearing, turtle-stomping plumber named Mario. That concept is a specific one, and it uses original characters, designs, creations, and storylines. But the basic mechanics of how video games work should be – and historically, have always been – open to everyone. Trying to claim ownership over a sub-genre or in-game mechanic simply should not be allowed – and we need to clamp down on this kind of misbehaviour now, lest it get out of hand.

There are many other games companies who’d surely love nothing more than to get a patent for something broad and vague, stifling competition or forcing their competitors to pay them. Imagine if Bethesda managed to get a patent for something like mana points in a video game. Or if Ubisoft got a patent for concealing the player character in tall grass. What about if Atari patented flying in a spaceship? After all, they pioneered that idea in video game form with 1979’s Asteroids. Would the video games industry be better off if every company could patent everything it could claim to have invented? Or would video games as a whole be smaller, less interesting and less innovative? I think we all know the answer.

Nintendo is using the legal system to try to shut down competition.

Pokémon is, itself, a great example of the evolution of video games. It didn’t spring into existence overnight, fully-formed and utterly unique. It built on existing battle games, turn-based games, card games, and role-playing games, which had been developed through the 1980s and early 1990s, and also drew inspiration from films, manga, and even collectables like baseball cards and capsule toys. Many role-playing games – especially JRPGs – use very similar in-game mechanics for things like combat and overworld exploration, and plenty of titles outside of the monster-battling sub-genre also use things like summonable allies, temporary companions, and friendly monsters. Why should any of that be patentable? How does Nintendo have the sheer nerve to say they invented any of it?

Because that’s what Nintendo’s patent claims: that they own, invented, and have the exclusive rights to the in-game mechanic of summoning an object or ally to engage in battle.

To be clear: this patent should never have been granted in the first place. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of video games could have easily found the flaws in this patent and thrown it out. But Nintendo having the cheek, the sheer brass neck, to ask for this patent… it’s absolutely disgusting.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing three executives/producers. — Three senior Nintendo executives/producers during a recent Nintendo Direct broadcast.

Nintendo’s leadership needs a good clear-out. The people who’ve been there since the ’80s and ’90s are growing old, and in lieu of actually innovating and inventing, they’re desperately trying to use lawfare to drive away the competition. Terrified of losing their position – and perhaps recognising that the overpriced Switch 2 isn’t going to sell as well as its predecessor – they’re trying to use illegitimate and, frankly, dishonourable means of shutting down competition. When you can no longer compete on merit… trying to use legal loopholes and dodgy rulings to shut out the competition must seem tempting.

That’s what Nintendo is doing, at the end of the day. They’ve realised that Palworld is the canary in the coal mine: a shining example of a new company coming in, creating something better and more appealing, and hoovering up eager customers who’ve burned out on the stale, repetitive, and boring Pokémon series. And because the elderly senior developers and executives don’t know how to make a game like Palworld, the only thing they can think to do is try to get it shut down.

And that’s pretty fucking shameful.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World trailer showing Mario grinding on a rail. — *Mario Kart World*.

Nintendo’s recent output, in my opinion, hammers home why the senior people at the corporation feel a need to do this. Even the top-selling Nintendo games of the last generation – Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tears of the Kingdom, Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – were sequels at best, derivative and repetitive at worst. The Switch 2, with its samey design, is the first Nintendo console in decades not to offer something new or innovative. And the company seems to be doubling-down on wringing as much money as possible out of its fans and players with increasingly unfriendly decisions around pricing. With limited room for growth, a lack of new ideas, and an elderly and outdated crop of senior developers and leaders, Nintendo is trying to shut down genuine competitors instead of learning, growing, and improving – the way video games companies have done for decades.

It’s embarrassing, quite frankly, that Nintendo felt the need to stoop so low, and that they have such a lack of confidence in their ability to compete fairly if the playing field were level.

But that’s Nintendo for you… and Nintendo is just awful.

All titles discussed above are the copyright of their respective developer, publisher, and/or studio. Some screenshots and promo art courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

The Next Animal Crossing: A Wishlist

Tue 22.07.25Dennis

Let’s do something we haven’t done for a long time: talk about Animal Crossing!

For some context, Animal Crossing: New Horizons briefly became my most-played Nintendo Switch game… before being overtaken by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I enjoyed the game in 2020 and into 2021, but I felt it was far more limited than it should’ve been and I burned out on it more quickly than I expected. When I compare New Horizons to its predecessor – a game I was still playing from time to time when New Horizons was released – I think it comes up short.

Nintendo also didn’t give New Horizons the level of support and updates I would’ve hoped for. In true Nintendo fashion, they abandoned the best-selling Switch-exclusive title after little more than a year, giving a handful of free updates (some of which re-introduced items and features that had been added for one holiday season, then removed), and one piece of paid-for DLC. Neither the free updates nor the paid DLC addressed what I considered to be New Horizons’ most egregious flaws and missing features.

Concept art for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing five different character designs. — Concept art for some of the villagers in *New Horizons*.

It was a real shame to see some of New Leaf’s best elements – things which gave that game genuine longevity and kept me returning to it – stripped out of New Horizons. And while some of the things New Horizons added did improve the overall Animal Crossing experience… the trade-off wasn’t really worth it. Losing minigames and Tortimer’s island basically meant multiplayer wasn’t fun and offered very little to do besides having a wander around… and honestly, that got boring pretty quickly. Some players have crafted great islands, don’t get me wrong, but if all I can do is look around… let’s just say it reminds me of being dragged around stately homes and botanical gardens by my parents when I was a kid. And no, that is not a compliment!

So with New Horizons and New Leaf in mind… what should the next Animal Crossing look like? The tl;dr? The best of both worlds – while also learning from other recent games in the casual life-sim space. That’s what I’d want to see from the next game in the series, which is surely already in development for the Nintendo Switch 2.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing a player character snoozing in a decorated room. — Could a new Animal Crossing game be imminent?

There are rumours flitting around that a new Animal Crossing game might be teased as early as this month, with 2026 being talked about as a potential release year. I think it makes sense for Nintendo to line up a new Animal Crossing relatively early in the life of the Switch 2, especially if the more expensive system isn’t selling quite as well as its predecessor. Attracting that large “cozy game,” casual playerbase would make a lot of sense, so 2026 sounds plausible to me.

With all that being said, my usual caveats apply! I have no “insider information” about the Animal Crossing series. I’m not claiming to know when the game will be released or what new features might be included. Everything we’re going to discuss today is a wishlist from a fan, and nothing more. It also goes without saying that all of this is the subjective, not objective, opinion of just one person. If I recommend a new feature that you think sounds awful, or I miss out something you believe should be obvious… that’s okay. There ought to be enough room in the Animal Crossing community for polite discussion and respectful disagreement.

With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at my Animal Crossing wishlist.

Wish #1:
More options in the character creator.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing various hairstyle options. — Hairstyles in *New Horizons*.

New Leaf and New Horizons don’t exactly have a ton of character creation options. There are a handful of eyes, noses, mouths, and hairstyles… but a modern title on more powerful hardware could expand this by a lot. We could see dozens of hairstyles, new hair and eye colours, and facial features, all of which would help us create unique and personalised characters. The new game will almost certainly stick with the familiar Animal Crossing art style, but even within that framework there’s a ton of room to do more.

I’d like to see different body types – villagers of different heights and weights. There could also be new facial hair and makeup options, too. I felt New Leaf’s customisation options were solid enough on the 3DS – but I gotta be honest: I expected more from New Horizons coming more than half a decade later on a much more powerful system. The Switch 2 really ought to be able to handle many more character creation options, and isn’t the point of a life simulator to, y’know, simulate your life? A lot of folks want to be able to put themselves into the game – so Nintendo really ought to make that happen!

Wish #2:
Learn from the successes (and shortcomings) of similar games.

Still frame from the Disney Dreamlight Valley Skull Rock Update trailer showing the player taking a selfie. — Taking a selfie in *Disney Dreamlight Valley*.

One of my favourite games of the last few years has been Disney Dreamlight Valley – despite its monetisation issues. Dreamlight Valley is itself inspired by Animal Crossing – but it’s also a game that took the life-sim formula and did more with it than any Animal Crossing title so far. In particular, being able to easily move buildings around by hopping into an editor mode on the fly is something the next Animal Crossing series could really use. Imagine if, instead of having to go to Tom Nook, wade through dialogue, wait 24 hours, and only be able to move one house at a time… you could just move any of them any time you wanted? And imagine if, instead of being permanently stuck with wherever you happened to site the museum or the shop… you could pick them up and move them around as your town expands. That would be neat, huh?

Then there are things like unique villager quests that could be a lot of fun. Other cozy life-sim titles, like this year’s Locomoto, also have better editing and customisation tools that I think Nintendo should take a serious look at. I don’t play a ton of these types of games, so I don’t know every new feature that might be kicking around out there, but there are bound to be others that I haven’t seen or can’t call to mind right now! The long and short of it is that Nintendo shouldn’t just look inwards at New Leaf and New Horizons, but outwards at other games in the genre. There are plenty of games on the market in a similar space – and some are a whole lot better than Animal Crossing right now.

Wish #3:
Proper menu/inventory icons.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing the player's inventory. — Pockets in *New Horizons*.

When I played New Leaf on the 3DS, I didn’t really mind that there was only one inventory icon for furniture, and one for clothes. But on the Switch? You’d have thought each individual item could’ve gotten its own unique icon. At the very least, it should’ve been possible to see at a glance whether I’m carrying a wardrobe or a teacup. These are pretty basic quality-of-life things that would make navigating menus, storage, and inventories so much smoother. It would be way easier to find crafted items, gifts, tools, and the like if each item had its own icon.

There’s no real reason why each item can’t be given its own inventory icon. It would’ve been possible on the Switch, so it’s certainly going to be achievable on the new system. It’s a pain the arse to scroll through storage and inventories, trying to find a particular item of clothing or piece of furniture – and there’s just no need for it any more. On older hardware? Sure. But now? It’s time to have a proper, well-organised inventory!

Wish #4:
Item durability needs to piss off.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing a broken watering can. — Ugh.

I don’t think I’ve ever played a single game – not one, ever – where I’ve thought to myself “gosh, I’m glad my tools/weapons break. That just makes this game so much more fun!” And I’ve definitely never been playing a game and thought “you know what would make this better? If my tools and guns randomly stopped working while I’m trying to use them!” I can’t think of any game where item durability is implemented well and actually makes sense – except, perhaps, for Minecraft.

New Horizons had pathetically awful item durability. I get that maybe your bottom-tier, basic tools wouldn’t work as well or last as long as proper ones. But come on… even the top-tier golden tools break after a handful of uses. And it’s such a pain in the arse to be halfway through a big task – like watering a flowerbed or breaking a money rock – only for your tool to break. And with no status indicators nor any way to keep track, tools seemed to break completely at random. I get the idea behind it… but it wasn’t fun. I don’t play a game like Animal Crossing for realism, and I definitely don’t play it to get frustrated when my pissing watering can breaks.

Wish #5:
Either use announcements properly or don’t include them.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing Isabelle's morning announcements. — No, Isabelle. No, it fucking doesn’t.

Isabelle’s morning announcements were absolutely useless most of the time. She’d let you know about big things, like events, but she’d also not let you know about everything… with her stupid little “oh, that doesn’t count as news” really pissing me off more and more as time went on. The town noticeboard wasn’t much better, with even basic things not being posted there. If you’re going to include a feature – or two – in a game like this specifically to make announcements about important events and things going on… use them. Otherwise they’re just a waste of time.

I’d like to start my play session with a proper announcement of what’s going on. But Isabelle wouldn’t tell you if a special character was visiting, or if it was the last day to see a certain event. And the noticeboard hardly got anything added to it. I’m pretty sure I missed seeing characters like Gulliver and Redd a few times because their visits weren’t made obvious. If you don’t have a lot of time to play, getting a roundup of what’s happening that day can be really important, and when there are built-in features especially created for this purpose, it just seems ridiculous not to take advantage of them.

Wish #6:
A proper third-person camera.
(As a togglable option)

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing a villager walking through fruit trees, with a tent in the background. — The standard camera angle.

This one might be controversial! Animal Crossing games have all had the same kind of top-down/isometric camera angle. But having played Dreamlight Valley, as discussed above, one thing I believe would really add to the immersion would be a proper over-the-shoulder third-person camera. Being able to explore the world from that perspective would be a game-changer – literally – and I think it would add a lot to the Animal Crossing experience.

However, because this would undoubtedly be controversial, I think it should be included as an option, not as something mandatory. The standard Animal Crossing camera could also be present for folks who want the more “traditional” experience. The rest of us can have fun exploring our villages a bit more up close and personal!

Wish #7:
Multiplayer mini-games.

Screenshot of Animal Crossing: New Leaf showing a player shooting balloons on Tortimer's Island. — Balloon hunting on Tortimer’s Island in *New Leaf*.

The reason I was still playing New Leaf years after its release – and the reason I don’t play New Horizons any more – is the multiplayer mini-games on Tortimer’s island. Being able to fire up New Leaf and play those games with friends was a ton of fun, and it kept me engaged with the game for way longer than I otherwise would’ve been. The mini-games were a blast, too, with plenty of different options on Tortimer’s “tours.”

It was such a shame that New Horizons didn’t include any of that. It meant multiplayer got boring really quickly, and while you can “make your own fun,” at least in a limited way… that doesn’t make up for it. Proper, structured games to play with friends made a world of difference to New Leaf, and I really felt their absence harmed New Horizons. I bought Switch Online entirely because a friend wanted to play New Horizons together… but both of us bounced off pretty quickly after we’d visited each other’s islands and realised that there wasn’t actually a lot to do there.

Wish #8:
Mini-games that can be played at will.
(No randomness/waiting)

Screenshot of Animal Crossing: New Leaf showing a game of hide-and-seek. — Playing hide-and-seek in *New Leaf*.

I’d like to be able to go up to my favourite villager and invite them to play a game. I don’t want to have to go up to everyone over and over again and hope that someone will ask me to play hide-and-seek! As the player, I should be able to choose when to start these mini-games, and pick from the list of available options. Maybe certain characters can refuse my request if they’re in a bad mood or something… sure. That could add to the immersion. But I should be able to start these mini-games at will to give me something to do when I’m not weeding or fishing!

This would also be present in multiplayer. After arriving at a friend’s town, we could choose to start a game of something like hide-and-seek with some of the villagers from their town, and that could add to the fun. But instead of approaching characters and hoping to get the right dialogue prompts, this should be a permanent fixture; something we can always ask our villagers to do.

Wish #9:
Support the game for 6+ years instead of just 18 months.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing Happy Home Paradise and its pricing. — *Happy Home Paradise* and its associated update were the last major content additions to *New Horizons* – barely eighteen months after the game launched.

Nintendo dropped the ball by abandoning New Horizons so quickly. Look around at the cozy life-sim genre and what do you see? Ongoing support for multiple years from all of the big developers. New items, events, and gameplay features are frequently added, often for free but sometimes as paid DLC. Nintendo did this for the game’s first year, but a lot of that was really spent on patches and on adding features that, frankly, should’ve been present from day one. The next game in the series should get continuing support really for the life of the Switch 2, but at least for five or six years instead of one or two.

This should also include listening and responding to community feedback. If players ask for, say, more vegetables to plant… then add them in the next update. The best long-running titles have devs who engage with and listen to players, and while Animal Crossing has done some of this, sometimes – like reducing the scope of the Easter event – there’s a lot more that Nintendo could do on that front. I’d love to see the next Animal Crossing given years’ worth of free updates. If the game’s gonna sell tens of millions of copies, it’s not like adding new items every now and then is gonna break the bank!

Wish #10:
More shops.
(All of which can be placed anywhere, and all of which can expand.)

Screenshot of Animal Crossing: New Leaf showing a player on the shopping street. — The shopping street in *New Leaf* – with construction underway to expand Nook’s Cranny.

After New Leaf had an entire shopping street, it was kinda pathetic that New Horizons only got two shops. And after New Leaf’s main shop got five or six expansions, taking it from a tin hut to a full-blown multi-storey department store, it was pretty lame that Nook’s Cranny only got one solitary upgrade in New Horizons. Even when Nintendo relented to pressure and added Brewster’s coffee shop back into the game, it wasn’t able to be placed in the world and could only be a new room in the museum. That just made me sad.

So the next game should have, at a minimum, all of the shops from New Leaf, and all of them should be able to be placed in the world. There could be options to place two shops in the same space, or to put the coffee shop inside the museum – but these should be optional, not mandatory! If I want to place the coffee shop in its own dedicated building out in the game world, I should have that freedom. And all of these – including the coffee shop – should get at least one level of expansion. The main shop should get half a dozen.

Wish #11:
Massively expanded villager dialogue.
(And more villager personality types than there are available slots)

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing a villager crafting in their home. — Dialogue got pretty repetitive…

New Horizons gave you ten slots on your island for villagers to move into. But there are only eight villager personality types! What that meant in practice is you’d get at least two villagers who were word-for-word identical to one another. Combine that with some pretty lazy and sparse dialogue, and you’ve got a recipe for boring, repetitive character interactions. Some common events – like walking into a villager’s home while they’re crafting – literally only had one possible line of dialogue, meaning even if you didn’t have two of the same personality type you’d still always see the same text every single time that event triggered.

Given that every Animal Crossing game just uses text for dialogue, adding a huge amount of additional text wouldn’t inflate the size of the game or really have any noticeable impact whatsoever. That goes double for the Switch 2, so I really hope that the next game in the series can have… oh, let’s say quadruple the amount of dialogue, with new villager personality types to further mix things up. And there should be more personality types than there are housing slots available in your town – so you’re always going to have a reason to mix things up and bring in new villagers.

Wish #12:
Farming and cooking from day 1.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing cooking recipes. — Recipes after one of the final *New Horizons* updates.

By the time New Horizons introduced crops other than pumpkins, I’d already given up on the game. Some of the new farming and cooking things looked neat – but not neat enough to warrant starting a brand-new island or returning to my old one! It would be great if the next game could include these pretty basic features from day one, and not strip out gameplay elements to “add” later while expecting praise! Farming crops and cooking recipes are bog-standard life-sim features and should be present from the beginning.

I love how Dreamlight Valley handles these things, though. Crops can be farmed for cash if you have enough space, but they need watering and attention. And also crops are ingredients in all of your recipes. Food in that game can be consumed for extra energy, given to villagers to boost your friendship, sold for cash, or even used for decoration. New Horizons had some of that, but I think it could be massively expanded to make farming and cooking integral parts of the experience.

Wish #13:
Some kind of drivable vehicle.

Promo image for Mario Kart 8 showing the Animal Crossing Villager character in a kart. — Yep, exactly like this!

If we assume that New Horizons’ successor is going to have a larger map, it would be neat if we could get some kind of bike or kart to make traversing the game world a little faster. This could be a late-game item, meaning you’d need to invest a lot of time and money into acquiring or crafting it, and it could be limited to only being drivable on paths/roads, not just everywhere. But it could make doing your chores a lot more fun – and it would feel like there was something to work towards beyond house expansions, new furniture, and so on.

Depending on what kind of setting the new game goes for – it could be a return to the forest, a city, or another island of some kind – then different vehicle options could be found to fit the game. Perhaps an even bigger project for your new village could see you build your own railway line, with a train and different buildable stations around the village. That could be a ton of fun, too, and a great way to include the Animal Crossing train, which was absent from New Horizons.

Wish #14:
New special characters and events.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing Zipper in the Roost. — Maybe not this guy, though…

New Horizons introduced a couple of new special characters to run things like the fishing tourney and the bug-off. But these events weren’t new, and they played out pretty much the same as in previous entries in the series. I’d like to see brand-new special characters tied to new events – maybe a hide-and-seek championship or a scavenger hunt. Either of those could introduce a new character to organise and manage the event, mixing things up and giving players something new to do at least once a week.

This could also expand to include new annual holidays or seasonal events; we got things like the wedding and the fireworks nights in New Horizons, but I’m sure there are others and different ones that a new game could include. I don’t think Animal Crossing should go overboard here; we don’t need a special character and event every single day! But having new ones in the mix, helmed by new characters, would be a lot of fun.

Wish #15:
Go easy on the monetisation.

Still frame of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Welcome Tour. — *Welcome Tour* – and the Switch 2’s launch overall – doesn’t leave me feeling optimistic for this one.

New Horizons, despite its limitations, was priced fairly. Given recent behaviour from Nintendo – jacking up prices left, right, and centre, and going all-in on microtransactions in mobile games like Mario Kart Tour – I don’t want to see the next Animal Crossing game monetised to death. We don’t need “season passes,” paid-for skins, or dozens of tiny “item packs” to add content to the game for a fee. The game should be reasonably-priced, with plenty of free updates throughout its life, and one or perhaps two expansion packs – provided they’re sizable and not overpriced.

This is a source of concern, I’ll be honest with you. I can absolutely see Nintendo trying to cash in on the Animal Crossing series, charging for items, features, characters, currency, and all sorts of things that should be included with the game. I was disappointed when Dreamlight Valley’s monetisation got out of hand, and you don’t need to look far to see life-sim games with ridiculous price tags. The Sims 4, for instance, costs over £1,300 if you were to buy all of its various content packs and DLC.

So that’s it.

Promo screenshot for Animal Crossing: New Horizons showing a player character standing outside a house with decorative items and fencing. — What will come next for Animal Crossing?

We’ve taken a look at a whole bunch of things that I’d like to see from the next Animal Crossing game!

This series has a lot of potential – but for me, at least, New Horizons didn’t live up to it. Most of what we’ve discussed today could – and I would argue should – have been part of New Horizons or added to it later. So in that sense, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable or asking for anything totally crazy from the next game in the series.

I’m not sure what the developers have in store, though. Could we get a new game set in an urban environment, for instance, or are we going to stick with the deserted island? Will characters like Tortimer and Kappn have bigger roles this time, after being effectively absent in New Horizons? What will be the new game’s biggest addition or transformation? Those are all open questions!

If Nintendo gets this right, the next Animal Crossing could be the game that convinces me to save up for a Switch 2. But if it looks like it’s going to be drowning in microtransactions and monetisation… maybe I won’t bother.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch. The next Animal Crossing game is presumably in development, but no release date has been announced at time of writing. The Animal Crossing series – including all titles and properties discussed above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots and artwork courtesy of IGDB and Nookipedia. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Uh-Oh: The Nintendo Switch 2 Is Still In Stock

Thu 05.06.25Dennis

When the Nintendo Wii launched here in the UK in late 2006, pre-orders sold out well in advance. I was on a waiting list that was months long, and it wasn’t until almost half a year later that I managed to finally get my hands on a console. In 2017, though I wasn’t on a waiting list and didn’t buy a Switch right away, I was well aware that there were waiting lists and some folks found it difficult to get their hands on a console on launch day. That’s to say nothing of the problems Sony and Microsoft had when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles launched a few years ago. Those machines were out of stock everywhere for basically an entire year – at least here in the UK.

Nintendo emailed me shortly after the Switch 2 was announced; a marketing circular hyping up the new console and inviting pre-orders. I didn’t actually meet Nintendo’s stringent pre-order requirements, having cancelled my Switch Online membership for lack of use a while ago! But Nintendo has been pushing hard for pre-orders, and there was even a minor controversy a few weeks ago when it seemed that Game, the UK’s only remaining chain of video game shops, had messed up some folks’ pre-orders. The Switch 2 was all set to be the hottest piece of tech of 2025 and looked like it’d be hard to find!

Which makes it feel profoundly odd that today, on launch day, consoles are available everywhere I look.

Screenshot of Amazon UK showing a Nintendo Switch 2 console. — The Nintendo Switch 2 hasn’t sold out… at least here in the UK at time of writing.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a damning indictment of the Switch 2 that it hasn’t sold out. In fact, if you remember my criticisms of Microsoft and Sony back in 2020, you’ll know that I argued then that companies needed to do more to ensure they had enough stock to go around before launch. Playing into the hands of touts and scalpers was really poor from both Xbox and PlayStation, and on the one hand I’m glad that Nintendo seems to have been better-prepared.

But on the other… I can’t shake a funny feeling. Nintendo has never been well-prepared for… well, anything. Go back twenty years and you’ll find jokes and memes doing the rounds about Nintendo machines and games being unavailable or out of stock, and I think I’m right in saying that even the beleaguered Wii U had stock issues when it was released back in 2012. So… has Nintendo finally got it right? Did the company, for what could be the first time ever, manage to gauge public interest perfectly, and successfully manufacture and ship enough units all across the world?

Promo image of the Nintendo Wii and a Wii Remote. — The Wii was out of stock everywhere for months after its launch.

Or could there be another explanation?

Is the Switch 2 still in stock today because… well, there just isn’t as much interest in the console as Nintendo had hoped? Even if you’re the hardest of hard-core Nintendo fanatics, you can’t deny that the Switch 2’s marketing campaign has been dominated by the high price of games, as well as the increased price of the system itself. I warned that pitching the Switch 2 at a comparable price to Xbox and PlayStation consoles would invite potentially unfavourable comparisons, and for gamers interested in a handheld, there are cheaper and more versatile handheld PCs on the market.

Then there’s the launch lineup. As I said last time, the only game I’d really call a “system seller” or “killer app” is Mario Kart World – the game which has attracted a ton of criticism for its price tag. Donkey Kong Bananza isn’t a launch title, and as a game in a second-tier franchise I doubt it would be a huge mover of Switch 2s on its own anyway. What other games are there at launch that are going to attract players? Enhanced ports of a handful of Switch 1 titles and underwhelming versions of games that look and run better on other consoles? I don’t mean to be unkind, but I doubt many folks are buying a £400 console to play Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess or the paid-for demo Welcome Tour.

Promo still of Mario Kart World showing Mario on a snowmobile wearing a cowboy hat. — Nintendo is clearly banking on *Mario Kart World* to shift a lot of consoles.

Maybe this is a weird quirk of the UK market, and perhaps gamers in the United States, Europe, and Japan are going to be waiting a while to get a chance to play on Nintendo’s latest machine. But I’m not so sure, and I’ll be very curious to see the Switch 2 sales figures – if Nintendo announces them – sometime in the autumn when the company talks about the current financial quarter.

There are issues in the UK with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and a government that seems hell-bent on punishing the poorest and least-well off in society. So that could absolutely be a contributing factor to why people aren’t confident in investing in a brand-new, relatively expensive, luxury item like a games console. But if that were true, I’d have expected to see sales of Xbox, PlayStation, PC, smartphones, and other gadgets in decline – which is something that hasn’t happened.

Screenshot of UK retailer Game, showing a Nintendo Switch 2 console. — Another UK retailer (Game) has Switch 2 consoles in stock.

So what’s going on? Maybe I’ll check back in a couple of days’ time and find that Switch 2 consoles are out of stock. Or maybe Nintendo finally got one right and managed to produce enough consoles to meet launch demand. There’s a first time for everything, after all. But I can’t shake the feeling at this very early stage that something isn’t quite going to plan, and that the Switch 2 might not be reaching the sales targets Nintendo and their corporate investors had in mind. But I’m not going to write the console’s obituary just yet! There’s still plenty of time for things to change; it’s literally the machine’s first day on sale. However, the simple fact that consoles haven’t already sold out has definitely caught me off guard.

If you put a gun to my head and told me to predict, right now, how well the Switch 2 would perform across its lifespan… I’d say that I still expect it to do well with Nintendo’s core fanbase, but that it might struggle to reach the same number of units sold as the original Switch. The price tag is a big part of that… but so is the console’s uninspired design. For decades, Nintendo consoles were new, innovative, and fresh. Sometimes that worked, and sometimes it didn’t work quite so well, but what you could never say about Nintendo was that they were stagnant. The company built a reputation around innovative, fun, family-friendly games. The Switch 2 is the company’s first console to feel repetitive and samey… and maybe, just maybe, that could be another contributing factor.

Or I could be totally wrong and by Saturday, it’ll be a six-month wait to get a Switch 2! Still… strange times.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is available to purchase now. The Switch, Switch 2, Super Mario, and other properties discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Mario Kart World: Sky High Price, Unmet Expectations?

Sun 20.04.25Dennis

I’ve been looking forward to the game I’d been tentatively calling “Mario Kart 9” for years. Seriously, check out the dedicated Mario Kart page here on the website; five years ago, I was already putting together fantasy retro cups and talking about which characters could be included. I first played Super Mario Kart when I had a Super Nintendo in the early ’90s, and one of my favourite memories from my time spent working in the games industry is getting to play Mario Kart 8 in 2013 – a full year before it launched – at an official Nintendo press event. I’ve played every mainline game in the series on their original consoles (and maybe on a cheeky emulator, too) and I’ve had so much fun playing by myself and with friends. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is my most-played Switch game by quite a long way, and I still go back to it to play my favourite tracks every now and then.

So let’s re-emphasise that for the record: I am a Mario Kart fan!

Why do I feel the need to start this piece with such a big disclaimer? Well, having sat down to watch the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast with pretty high expectations… I’m left feeling a little disappointed. Usually I don’t like to criticise a game before it’s even been released, but the way Nintendo is pitching Mario Kart World – and particularly how the corporation is pricing the game – hasn’t left a good first impression.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Luigi racing on a desert track. — How do you feel about *Mario Kart World*?

I knew and understood that Mario Kart World would have fewer racetracks than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has. That seemed blindingly obvious to me years ago, even before the Booster Course Pass doubled the number of tracks, so I don’t necessarily think it’s a problem or a bad thing that the new game will launch with what looks to be 32 race courses instead of 96. But… there’s no getting away from the fact that with fewer tracks comes less replayability and less diversity of environments. I can fire up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and play a racetrack I haven’t seen in months; Mario Kart World’s roster – at one-third the size – will wear out its welcome relatively quickly in comparison.

And that comparison matters because, according to Nintendo, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (and presumably the Booster Course Pass, too) will be playable on the Switch 2. Not only that, but it’ll be slightly less expensive for way more racetracks: copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe retail for less than £40 here in the UK, with the Booster Course Pass as a downloadable add-on for an additional £22.50. The price of Mario Kart World is going to be £67 digitally or £75 for a physical copy.

The store listing for Mario Kart World. — *Mario Kart World’*s official Nintendo Store listing.

Some of the new and re-imagined racetracks look good, don’t get me wrong. Boo Cinema looks especially creative, DK Spaceport looks new and retro at the same time, and I really liked the new look at Wario Stadium from the N64 – which, in its original form, was one of my least-favourite tracks from that game.

There are a couple of oddities, however, among the roster of tracks. Firstly, even if you put a gun to my head I wouldn’t have included Sky High Sundae; that bland track is one of the worst from the Booster Course Pass and when there were so many better options, I don’t know why a boring food-themed oval would be included here! DS Desert Hills was also fairly uninspired in its original form, though at least there’s a bit more room for improvement there, perhaps. I’m also a little concerned about the Crown City racetrack being part of two different cups; not sure what’s going on there or how those tracks will be different, but I guess we’ll find out.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Boo Cinema. — Boo Cinema looks like a very creative racetrack.

On the character roster, my main of Dry Bones is included, which was important for me personally! And obviously the cute cow is going to be a fan favourite, as will new additions like the Hammer Bro and Monty Mole. But again… Mario Kart 8 Deluxe still comes out on top here, and there are going to be some pretty disappointed players whose favourite drivers aren’t coming back this time. The likes of Isabelle and the Villager from the Animal Crossing series, Link from Zelda, Diddy and Funky Kong, and most of the Koopalings from the Super Mario series don’t seem to be included. There are also noteworthy omissions from Mario Kart Tour – the phone game that has proven to be quite popular. King Bob-Omb, Donkey Kong Jr., and Peachette are all missing. And where oh where is Pink Gold Peach?!

There also appear to be no Mii characters or other user-created characters. Again, this could be a bit of a blow to players who liked to put themselves into the Mario Kart experience.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Cow. — I can’t be the only one who thought this character would have a different name, right?

I’m not especially disappointed that underwater driving seems to have been removed. In most cases in Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8, underwater sections felt pretty samey, especially in tracks that weren’t really designed with that in mind. Amsterdam Drift is a case in point; its bland concrete channels filled with crystal-clear water felt nothing like the city they were supposed to represent. Having said that, removing a feature is something rare for the Mario Kart series… and Mario Kart World seems to have sacrificed several popular features and ways of racing.

In addition to underwater racing, we’re losing the glider and anti-gravity, too. This is going to be more of a limitation than you realise, as it’s going to impact which tracks can be brought into the new game in future. Courses like Mario Kart 8′s Mario Circuit, which used anti-gravity in a big way, or Piranha Plant Cove, which was almost entirely underwater, seem to be ruled out as future inclusions due to these changes.

Screenshot of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course Pass showing Dry Bones racing on Piranha Plant Cove. — Dry Bones racing on Piranha Plant Cove.

And we’re still just getting started with removed features. Battle Mode seems to have gotten a significant downgrade, not only in terms of there being fewer battle types available, but also with a lack of dedicated battle arenas. The Direct didn’t focus on Battle Mode for long, as it’s seemingly an afterthought in Mario Kart World, but from what we did see, all of the battle mode footage seems to be taking place on regular racetracks. Some of the tracks may have areas cordoned off to turn them into makeshift arenas, but that’s hardly the same thing has creating dedicated, hand-crafted ones. Fans of Battle Mode (a category into which I do not fall) may not be thrilled with these changes.

Then we come to the vehicles themselves. Kart customisation has been entirely removed. Instead of choosing wheels, bodies, and gliders separately – as we did in Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8 – karts now come as complete units. There are different models to choose from, sure, but again the lack of customisation means there’s less choice than in previous titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had literally hundreds of possible combinations, but Mario Kart World is narrowing this down with pre-made karts and bikes.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing the vehicle select screen. — There are no customisation options for vehicles this time.

200cc mode has been present in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart Tour, but again it was noticeably absent from the Nintendo Direct. Is it possible that this mode is locked by default and needs to be unlocked through gameplay? Sure… but then why hasn’t Nintendo said so? Is it possible that this mode is locked and needs to be paid for to unlock it? That was the case in Tour, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the reason for Nintendo’s radio silence. I’m gonna level with you – I’m a 150cc racer! 200cc has always been a bit too fast for my taste, but again it’s not just about what I want or what I’d miss. The fact that this mode – which is popular with some of Mario Kart’s biggest fans – is missing is significant.

So let’s recap. There are fewer battle modes with seemingly no dedicated battle areas. One-third as many racetracks as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Missing drivers, including some fan-favourites from the most recent game in the series. No vehicle customisation. No underwater or anti-gravity racing. And possibly no 200cc mode. If that’s the sum total of what’s been removed, it begs the question… what’s going to take the place of all of these missing features?

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Mario in Battle Mode. — Battle Mode appears to have received a downgrade.

Mario Kart World’s marketing thus far has really hyped up its open world. That’s the main new feature; an inclusion so big it’s literally in the game’s title.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: an open world is not the right choice for a lot of games. Too many franchises and series that try to emulate this popular style not only don’t do a good job, but they lose what made their earlier iterations so successful and/or unique in the process. There are plenty of examples of bland open worlds that are just too empty and too devoid of meaningful gameplay to be fun… and parts of the Mario Kart World Direct and marketing material are making me feel nervous in that respect.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing the game's map. — *Mario Kart World’*s map.

If the free roam mode were an entirely optional thing, I guess I’d say it wasn’t a huge deal. It would still be frustrating in some ways that Nintendo chose to add this open world area at the expense of some of the features, characters, and gameplay components we talked about above, but if it’s an optional thing that I can turn off and not engage with… that’s tolerable, right? But Mario Kart World is being built from the ground up around this open world mechanic… and I’m concerned that it’s going to have a negative impact on the main thing I want out of a Mario Kart game: fun, arcadey racing.

Driving from one racetrack to the next, either in Grand Prix mode or in one of the Knockout Rallies, could be a lot of fun, but that’ll depend on how interesting the in-between areas actually are. Some of the free roam highways and roads looked pretty straightforward, with not many twists or turns and no noticeable obstacles aside from a few cars. But what really concerns me the most is that in this mode – which is apparently the default – races are knocked down from the usual three laps to just one.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing the free roam title card. — How interesting will this free roam mode actually be?

To reiterate that: instead of racing three laps of each racetrack, the default option in Mario Kart World will be to race one lap, with these in-between sections taking up the rest of your time. Even if the open world is bigger, more interesting, and laid out better than I’m expecting based on what I’ve seen so far… that can’t be right, can it? The whole point of a Mario Kart game is to race around fun, well-constructed, cleverly-designed racetracks. To cut back on the main aspect of gameplay for this open world aspect just strikes me as being wrong; it’s as if Nintendo’s own developers and producers don’t realise what people want, expect, and enjoy the most in a Mario Kart game.

There have been open world racing games before. Forza Horizon 5 is one – and that’s a game I happen to really enjoy. But games like that are designed in such a way that every road and off-road track can be raced on, and I just don’t get that impression from Nintendo’s marketing material so far. If you’ve played Forza Horizon 5, for example, you’ll know that basically every road in the game is included in at least one race, and there are all kinds of different vehicles, different races to get involved in, and different challenges out in the open world. There’s no distinction between the racetrack and the open world; every road can be driven on in free roam mode and raced on in a variety of different races. That doesn’t appear to be true of Mario Kart World, which seems to have 32 racetracks separated by open world areas.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing four different free roam scenes. — Four examples of the game’s open world away from the racetrack.

The Nintendo Direct was the best opportunity to sell Mario Kart World and to show off how dense and full of stuff to do its open world is. Based on what was on display, I’m just not feeling very confident in this aspect of the game. And when the open world is so important to Mario Kart World that Nintendo is even willing to cut out laps of the main racetracks in Grand Prix mode, that isn’t great.

As far as I could see, there are four things to do in the open world. Firstly, you can drive from one racetrack to another in either the Rally or GP modes. Secondly, there are switches to hit which allow you to collect blue coins. What these coins do or whether there’s any point to them beyond a collect-a-thon wasn’t clear. Third, there’s a second kind of coin referred to as a “Peach Medallion” to collect. Again, what these do isn’t clear. Finally, there are question-mark panels to hit – but what these do, and what the point of hitting them is, wasn’t explained.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing a challenge/mission in free roam mode. — Do these challenges and collect-a-thons serve a greater purpose… or are they just filler?

Mario Kart isn’t a big, deep narrative experience. I don’t care about “spoilers” in a game like this, because there really isn’t anything substantial to spoil. So to me, this feels like a pretty big marketing fail on Nintendo’s part. By not explaining these open-world features in a bit more detail, Nintendo has left me with the impression that the blue coins, medallions, and question-blocks are basically going to be akin to the pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV insofar as they don’t do anything, add nothing of substance to the game, and just serve to pad things out with unnecessary busywork for players. They could be an attempt to compensate for the lesser number of racetracks while offering a half-hearted justification for the open world format.

I could be wrong about that – and if so, I’ll definitely make a note of that if and when I play the game for myself. But speaking as someone who used to work in video games marketing, the fact that I’m coming out of this presentation with such a poor impression of the game’s biggest new feature and key selling-point? That’s not good, and Nintendo needs to do more in the weeks before Mario Kart World launches to clarify what some of these semi-hidden collectables will actually do, and if there’s going to be more to the open world than has been revealed so far.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Yoshi finding a coin. — Yoshi closes in on a hidden coin.

In theory, an open world Mario Kart game is not a bad idea. But the open world side of the game – if it’s going to be implemented in this way as a core feature around which basically the entire rest of the game is being built – needs to have more to offer than we’ve seen so far. A few random collectables doesn’t, in my view, justify sacrificing a dozen or more dedicated racetracks that could’ve been added to the game, and driving in between races doesn’t seem like it’s gonna feel all that special if all there is to drive on are straight highways or empty off-road fields and patches of dirt. This free roam mode could be a fun idea if it were just a little additional area for players to muck about in while waiting in a multiplayer lobby, or to kill time with a friend on the couch. But when the entire game is built around an open world like this… let’s just say I hope it’s better than it looks and has much more going on than we’ve seen so far.

Art styles are a subjective thing, and there’s no denying that Mario Kart World looks better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did. But I’ll be blunt: I don’t think it looks a lot better. The art style is basically the same as it was in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and while there’s more texture to some parts of the game – like tyres, for example, or the metal on a Bullet Bill – I’m just having a hard time seeing the graphics as being a significant upgrade given the price hike.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Bullet Bill. — This is definitely the best Bullet Bill has ever looked.

Mario Kart World will be, at launch, the most expensive racing game on the market. Heck, it’s technically the most expensive video game of all-time as no other Switch 2 titles are launching at £75/$80. But when you take even a cursory look around at other racing games, even in the arcade racing space, Mario Kart World looks positively last-gen. Again, this isn’t a criticism of the graphics or art style on their own, but rather how the game is priced relative to its competitors and how the price is seen in relation to the most recent entry in the series.

After more than eleven years and two entire console generations, Mario Kart World ought to be a massive step up in visual terms. But it isn’t. It’s a step up, sure, I won’t try to deny that. But it doesn’t feel like a game that can really push the Switch 2 to its limits. Even if we compare the Switch 2 to the previous-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4, there are games on those consoles which looked better and did more with graphical fidelity than Mario Kart World is seemingly aiming for.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing photo mode (and the main characters from Super Mario Kart on a billboard). — Is *Mario Kart World* a significant enough visual and graphical upgrade given its high price?

In this respect, I feel like Nintendo is cheaping out. The corporation knows it has a winner in the Mario Kart series (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold something like 60 million copies on the Switch) so there’s less of a need to push the boat out. Resources that could’ve been spent on improving the game’s overall visual style and graphical fidelity have been reallocated, because Nintendo feels confident that the new game will sell incredibly well no matter what.

There was a moment in the Mario Kart World direct where my favourite racer, Dry Bones, does a little spin and momentarily faces the camera. That animation seems practically unchanged from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (and trust me, I’ve spent hundreds of hours with Dry Bones in that game, so I know what his trick animations look like!) Neither the animation nor the character model itself look or feel noticeably different to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and I’m left underwhelmed by that. Nintendo has had years to work on improving the way Mario Kart looks… this new entry in the series feels like the least-impressive upgrade so far, at least in graphical terms.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Dry Bones performing a trick. — This animation is lifted directly from *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*.

Nintendo isn’t the only company to be graphically stuck, of course. I noted before the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launched that this console generation was likely to be the least-impressive so far in terms of graphical upgrades, and I think four-and-a-bit years of cross-generational games have more than born that out! But Nintendo has been years behind Xbox and PlayStation in terms of graphical fidelity, so there was an opportunity with the Switch 2 and Mario Kart World to get closer to what current-gen (or even just last-gen) consoles were capable of. That opportunity doesn’t appear to have been taken, at least not fully.

So Mario Kart World looks better, but only iteratively so. Its deliberately cartoony style and bright colours covers some of that up, and I wouldn’t say anything about the game looks bad. But from my perspective, nothing about it blew me away, either – and again, this comes back to the price point. For $80, and as the most expensive racing game of all-time, does Mario Kart World look good enough? Is the graphical upgrade significant enough to justify a $20 price hike from a mere one generation ago?

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Mario racing on a snowmobile. — This is the best Mario Kart has ever looked… but not the best it *could* have looked with a bit more effort.

Mario Kart World is going to add some new features that look like a lot of fun. I noted above that anti-gravity racing is gone, but replacing it will be grinding on rails and hopping on vertical surfaces. These look like they have some potential to open up different ways to race, and I’m in favour of that. Gliders may be gone, but racing in the air isn’t, with karts seemingly transforming into planes at different points. Again, this looks like it could be a lot of fun, and while it’s not exactly ground-breaking in the way the introduction of gliders was in Mario Kart 7, I’m at least pleased to see it remains a part of the Mario Kart experience.

Then we have a feature that I can already tell is gonna be controversial: re-winding gameplay! Speaking for myself, I can see this having a very specific use: practicing particularly difficult jumps or shortcuts. Think about it: how many times have you played a track with a very precise shortcut, only to fail it and have to re-start? This re-wind feature seems like it’ll help players who want to practice certain parts of racetracks, and I don’t really have an issue with that. I don’t see it being especially useful in actual races, though, but it almost feels like an accessibility feature in some respects, which if you know me you’ll know I’m keen on in games in general.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing the rewind feature. — There’s a use for this feature. A limited use, sure, but still a use.

After proving to be a big hit in Mario Kart Tour (and Super Mario Odyssey, too) character costumes are coming to Mario Kart World. I like this – and I like the idea of unlockables! I just hope that Nintendo isn’t planning on selling skins like they did in Tour, trying to pretend like the most expensive racing game of all-time is a free-to-play mobile title. As I won’t be buying a Switch 2 at launch, I’ll be able to keep an eye on this from afar, and if it seems like a crappy skin marketplace is going to be added, that’ll be a huge red flag against Mario Kart World for me.

I gotta say, though, the way some of these costumes are unlocked feels a bit… weird. I mean, the way it was explained is that you visit some kind of roadside food truck, acquire a dish, and then your character is transformed. When I watched the Switch 2 Direct, I thought it was funny that Mario ate a cheeseburger then was wearing a stereotypically “American” outfit. That couldn’t be on purpose, I thought! But no, that’s literally how this mechanic works. Eat sushi and you get a Japanese costume. Eat a burger and your character turns into an American. I guess if you want to get a Spanish outfit you eat paella? Or if you eat fish and chips you turn British? It’s funny in some ways… I guess. But it also feels like it’s kind of stereotyping whole countries and cultures, boiling them down to one dish and one type of outfit. It also wasn’t made clear how many alternate outfits are present in the game – and whether characters like Dry Bones will have any. It seems like every character should have alternate appearances if this consuming food mechanic is a universal thing, but again this wasn’t explained in any of the marketing material.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Luigi with a pizza. — Mamma mia! That’s-a one spicy pizza pie!

There are things I like in Mario Kart World. Some of the new items look interesting, like the coin shell and the ice flower. Kamek’s magic could be interesting, too, though I suspect it’ll be somewhat limited. I like the idea of character costumes even if I’m not entirely sold on how they’re unlocked and implemented. And there are some fun looking racetracks – both brand-new ones and reimagined retro courses. If Santa Claus gave me Mario Kart World for free, I would play it, I’d enjoy at least parts of it, and it would probably end the generation among my most-played Switch 2 games.

But a game can be good and still underwhelming, delivering a fun experience while failing to live up to the expectations that have been set for it. By pricing the game so high, Nintendo has set expectations that its marketing material strongly suggests Mario Kart World will not reach. Given the corporation’s penchant for monetisation and microtransactions, I’m also concerned that things like new tracks, new drivers, new costumes, and even items might be sold separately, driving up that sky high price even further.

Still frame from the Mario Kart World Nintendo Direct broadcast showing Bowser's Castle. — It’s Nintendo headquarters… I mean Bowser’s Castle!

So that’s how I feel coming out of the Mario Kart World Direct.

Nintendo has, in my view, not handled this situation particularly well. Mario Kart World’s marketing campaign is overwhelmingly dominated by its record-setting price point, meaning everything is being viewed through that lens. The sky high price comes with sky high expectations, and Mario Kart World may struggle to meet them for some players – such as myself. Of particular concern is the open world – will there be enough to do and enough variety of driving experiences in between the racetracks to make it a worthwhile addition to Mario Kart? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I hope this has been interesting – and not too depressing. If you’re beyond hyped for Mario Kart World, please keep in mind that all of this is just one player’s entirely subjective opinion, and I’m not trying to tell anyone how to feel or that they shouldn’t be excited for this game. In many ways, I’m still excited to play a new Mario Kart game. I’m just a little concerned that it won’t be as spectacular as it arguably should be given its price point, and as someone who used to work in games marketing, I’m left decidedly underwhelmed by the campaign Nintendo has created for its new console’s flagship launch title.

Mario Kart World will release alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 on the 5th of June 2025. Mario Kart World (and other titled mentioned above) is the copyright of Nintendo. Some promotional art courtesy of IGDB and/or the Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Nintendo Switch 2: The Price Problem

Fri 11.04.25Dennis

When I took a look at Nintendo’s Switch 2 broadcast earlier this month, I noted that the price for games has gone up – and that could be offputting for some players and families. It turns out that Nintendo’s self-inflicted price problem has blown up and quickly became one of the biggest talking points coming out of the presentation… so today I thought we could look at the issue in a bit more detail. We’re also going to answer a deceptively simple question: will it matter? Or by the time the console launches, will most people simply brush off the price hike and buy one anyway?

First of all, let’s separate the price of the Switch 2 console itself from the price of at least some of its flagship games. £400/$450 – which is the current price at time of writing, prior to any tariff-related adjustments – didn’t strike me as being terrible. It’s more or less in line with the current-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, sitting somewhere in between those consoles’ cheaper and more expensive variants. But is that the right price point for a Nintendo console – particularly one which is a hybrid, and far less powerful than its competitors?

Screenshot of Smyth's UK website showing the Switch 2 listing. — The Switch 2 will sell for £430 here in the UK.
*Image Credit: Smyth’s UK*

In 2018, I paid £280 for my Nintendo Switch. That’s just seven years ago, yet the price of a Nintendo console has gone up by 42% in that short span of time. That doesn’t feel right the more I think about it – and going back to earlier console generations, this is Nintendo’s biggest price jump… ever. In the ’90s, the price of Nintendo’s consoles stayed at $199 in the United States, even as inflation set in. The GameCube in 2002 cost the same $199 at launch as the Super NES had in 1991. From there, Nintendo consoles jumped up an average of 22% each generation from the GameCube to the original Switch. You can check out the numbers and do the sums for yourself if you like – all this information is publically available online.

All of this leads to a reasonable question. What is the Switch 2 offering to justify a 42% price hike over its predecessor?

It isn’t innovation. As we discussed last time, Nintendo seems content to double-down on the Switch format, not doing anything radically different. The Wii U, Wii, Nintendo 64, DS, 3DS, and other Nintendo machines all offered some kind of new or innovative way to play when they launched, but the company seems to have thrown in the towel on that front – at least for this current generation.

Still frame from the Nintendo Direct: Switch 2 broadcast showing Elden Ring. — *Elden Ring* – as it will appear on Switch 2.

It isn’t better graphics, either. The Switch 2, as I noted in my response to the Nintendo Direct, looks okay, but nothing blew me away in graphical terms. Some titles – like Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy – look noticeably worse on the Switch 2 than they do on other consoles or PC. Look at the trees in the screenshot above – see how flat and two-dimensional they look? Compare that screenshot from the Switch 2 to a comparable one from Elden Ring running on a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series console and see how there’s a significant downgrade.

So the Switch 2 is, in essence, an iterative improvement on the original Switch format. It retains the branding, the same colour scheme, the same cartridge format, the same hybrid nature, and the same controls, too. Graphically, it may be an incremental improvement – but it’s going to be running cutting-edge titles in a noticeably worse way than its two similarly-priced competitors. Some of the biggest games around – Grand Theft Auto VI most noticeably – won’t run or even attempt to run on the system, too.

Still frame from the Nintendo Direct: Switch 2 broadcast showing Mario Kart World. — *Mario Kart World* running on a Switch 2 in handheld mode.

But people don’t buy a Nintendo console to play Elden Ring, right? Not as their primary console, anyway. Most folks I’ve spoken to have enjoyed the Switch’s portability, and have commented on the novelty of playing full AAA games like The Witcher 3, Monster Hunter, or Minecraft on a portable device. But those same people have, almost universally, owned a PC or another console which they’ve used as their “primary” gaming machine.

Look at the best-selling Switch games: they’re almost all Nintendo originals. Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Breath of the Wild, the Pokémon series… these are the games people buy a Switch for. And in comparison to the current Switch, there’s no doubt that the likes of Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Pokémon are going to look better on the new machine. Nintendo has even shown off “enhanced editions” of some popular Switch games that will get visual upgrades on Switch 2.

Is the $450 price point too high for a console like that, though?

A stock photo of a hand holding a stack of $100 bills. — Is the Switch 2 overpriced?

Speaking for myself, I won’t be buying a Switch 2 this year. My original Switch felt like a good deal at under £300, but I’ve only seriously played four games on it in the seven years I’ve owned it: Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I’ve tried my hand at a few other games, but that’s it. Four games in seven years. And I won’t be the only person in that position… the reality is that Nintendo consoles have a pretty specific use, and the days of people choosing a Nintendo console instead of an Xbox or PlayStation are pretty much gone. So… who’s gonna pay $450 for a secondary console? Or a console that their kid is asking for?

By pitching the Switch 2 at the same price point as an Xbox, a PlayStation, and more importantly, handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, Nintendo is inviting comparisons to those devices. A Steam Deck, which starts at $349 in the United States, would be a much more versatile machine in many ways, and arguably a better purchase than a Switch 2 for someone looking to play games on the go. Can Nintendo really win over players and parents at this price point?

Promo photo of a Steam Deck. — The Switch 2 will be more expensive than a base model Steam Deck – and almost the same price as an Xbox Series X.

Really, the only thing the Switch 2 has going for it are its exclusives. And I gotta be honest here: the Nintendo Direct really only showed one which I could see being a system seller. Donkey Kong Bananza is the kind of game you buy when you’ve already got the console and you’re shopping for things to play. There’s no new Mario game or Mario spin-off. And there’s no Animal Crossing title, either, which could’ve taken advantage of the casual audience that showed up in droves for New Horizons. The Switch 2’s “killer app,” at least at launch, is Mario Kart World. That’s it. Everything else has either much more of a niche audience or just… won’t shift consoles on their own.

I don’t want to undervalue Mario Kart World. The game does look good, no question. Nintendo has always had the premiere kart-racer, and that shows no signs of changing! But as I said in my look at the Switch 2 Direct… I can’t justify £430 (which is the bundle price for the Switch 2 + Mario Kart World here in the UK) to play one game. And this is where the next problem comes in, because for a lot of people… one game might be all they can afford.

£75 ($80 in the US) for Mario Kart World is just obscene. Not only is it a ridiculous price for a simple kart racing game, but it’s a massive jump from the price of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – and other games on the current-gen Switch.

I paid £41 for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, a similar price for Mario Kart 8 when I was one of about seven people who owned a Wii U, and I paid £32 for Mario Kart Wii in early 2009. Even allowing for inflation – which has punched all of us in the face in the last few years – we’re talking about game prices almost doubling from the Switch to the Switch 2 in some cases. I don’t have receipts for every Switch game I’ve bought, but the ones I could find average out at around £45. At the high end I’d pay £50, at the lower end closer to £30 or £35 for a brand-new Switch game. Even going from £50 – the RRP for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – to £75 is a jump of 50% from one generation to the next; if a new Animal Crossing game is similarly-priced it’ll have basically doubled. These are massive increases, there’s no two ways about it.

Still frame from the Nintendo Direct: Animal Crossing broadcast showing an animal villager being surprised. — The next Animal Crossing game could easily be £75/$80 too.

There does seem to be some flexibility with pricing, as Donkey Kong Bananza will be less costly than Mario Kart World. So perhaps Nintendo is aiming to use the highest price only for its flagship titles, with “lesser” games in second-tier franchises coming in at the slightly lower price point. That’s not a bad idea in theory – and it’s something that the games industry has always done. But if the “lower” price for titles like Donkey Kong Bananza is still north of £60/$70… that’s not gonna feel like much of a saving.

There was talk earlier in the year of Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar potentially pricing Grand Theft Auto VI at $80, $90, or even $100 when it launches, and Nintendo’s price hike may well have cemented that – if it wasn’t guaranteed already. And this is another area where players are rightly concerned: if Nintendo gets away with jacking up its prices, what’s to stop everyone else in the industry from following suit? Gaming could be about to get a lot more expensive – less than five years after the basic price of many titles already leapt up by $10.

Still frame from the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer showing a character waving her arms in celebration while riding in a car. — Take-Two and Rockstar must feel like celebrating right now!

This is not entirely Nintendo’s fault, of course. And there’s truth to the argument that these price rises were going to happen sooner or later anyway, if not with the Switch 2 then with Grand Theft Auto VI, and if not then then at the very latest by 2028 or 2029 when new Xbox and PlayStation consoles launch. But I don’t think that absolves Nintendo of blame; despite what the corporation’s mega-fans might want to tell you, it’s a greedy, money-grubbing company that will do anything to make an extra buck or two. Look at the Pokémon series as a prime example: two nearly-identical versions of most games are released. Why? To wring extra money out of Pokémon’s biggest fans. Nintendo, unlike most other gaming powerhouses, rarely puts its titles on sale – and if it does, the discounts are far less generous than those you’d see elsewhere. Despite its attempt to cultivate a family-friendly image, Nintendo is as ruthless and greedy as every other big corporation out there – something hammered home by this price hike.

So the question players will have to wrangle with is this: no matter how good a game like Mario Kart World might look, could it possibly be worth $80? Is any game worth that much? And given that at least one DLC or “season pass” seems like a guarantee, is Mario Kart World going to be worth the $110-140 that the complete version will cost? I’m a Mario Kart fan and have been for decades, but when you start talking about the next entry in the series hitting triple figures like that… I mean, it’s pretty offputting.

There are die-hards who turn up for every Nintendo game and every console – and the company knows it has those people in the bag. But where Nintendo has found success over the past twenty years has been with a more casual audience. People who don’t play a lot of games might pick up a Switch to play one or two party games or cozy titles like Animal Crossing. Folks who already have a PlayStation or Xbox might pick up a Switch as a secondary console to play some first-party Nintendo games or to play their favourite titles on the move. The price point of Switch 2 games really gets in the way of that casual approach. It transforms the way folks will think about the console and its games from a secondary machine or a casual multiplayer experience into a bigger investment. And that could be seriously detrimental to its prospects. If Nintendo has mis-read where the bulk of its audience is, and misunderstood the reasons for the Switch’s success, this unashamed greed could prove the Switch 2’s downfall.

With all that being said, my gut feeling at this point is that the Switch 2 will find an audience. It may not launch to the unparalleled success of its predecessor right away, and it might never catch the Switch’s incredibly impressive 150 million sales. But I don’t think we’re looking at the next Virtual Boy or even another Wii U situation; there are enough players invested in Nintendo’s core titles to make the Switch 2 at least somewhat profitable. And, despite what we’ve talked about, there’s evidence from players already that price rises are acceptable. There will be complaints, no question – but at the end of the day, there are plenty of examples of players being vocal and upset about the price of a new game, only for that game to sell really well. It happened at the start of this current generation when prices went up, it’s happened incrementally with premium special editions and the like, and I see no reason why it won’t happen for Nintendo this time.

Still frame from Nintendo's website showing the price of Donkey Kong Bananza. — *Donkey Kong Banaza* will cost more than most other big releases this year, like *Assassin’s Creed Shadows* and *Kingdom Come Deliverance II*.

What all this means, then, is that gaming is about to get even more expensive. If you think PlayStation and Xbox will sit idly by and let Nintendo raise its prices while they don’t… I’m afraid you’re going to be proven wrong. It might not happen on the day the Switch 2 launches, but as we’ve already seen from Xbox and PlayStation this generation, if they can get away with it they will. And if there was any lingering fear at Take-Two headquarters about jacking up the price of Grand Theft Auto VI, I think we can safely say that’s gone, too. If GTA 6 launches later this year as scheduled, we might be looking at $90 or even $100 for AAA games across the board by this time next year.

Inflation has impacted games companies. But when they’re also making record profits… I really don’t have a lot of sympathy. Nintendo’s share price recently dropped a little due to tariff-related shenanigans that have impacted basically every publically-traded corporation, but the company made record profits across the Switch’s lifespan. “Game development is too expensive” doesn’t really fly as an excuse when Nintendo made $3.25 billion in profit last year.

Still frame from the Nintendo Direct: Switch 2 broadcast showing three Nintendo developers holding a Switch 2 console. — Three of Nintendo’s senior developers.

Most of us in the real world haven’t seen our incomes rise with inflation, and even in the games industry that’s true for developers and other employees. As Nintendo jacks up prices by 40% for its consoles and 33% for games, do you really think that money is going into the pockets of the folks who work there? Is anyone at Nintendo – aside from the executives, naturally – getting a 40% pay rise? I doubt it.

Food for thought, anyway, if you’re considering buying a Switch 2.

Gaming is getting more and more expensive, that’s for sure. With Nintendo pitching the Switch 2 at a comparable price point to Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as well as portable PCs, while jacking up the prices of its games beyond the current industry standard… all I can really forsee at this stage is comparable price hikes from other corporations. But maybe Nintendo’s gamble won’t pay off. Maybe we’ll look back on this decision in a couple of years’ time and say that the hefty price tag doomed the Switch 2 before it could even get out of the gate. I’m not rooting for it to fail, but I will be keeping an eye on the situation!

The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on the 5th of June. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 are available now. The Switch 2, Super Mario, Mario Kart World, and other properties discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct: Thoughts and Impressions

Thu 03.04.25Dennis

Yesterday was a big day for the entire world. No, not because of Trump’s tariffs… there was a Nintendo Direct all about the upcoming Switch 2! I thought it could be interesting to break down what was revealed (and talk about a few things that weren’t, too) so that’s what we’re going to get into today.

First of all, I have to admit that I’m surprised about the name and branding, as well as the overall look of the console. Last year, I said that I felt pretty sure that Nintendo wouldn’t use the name “Switch 2,” and that the console would likely come with a new colour scheme to distinguish itself. I was wrong on both counts… and I hope that won’t lead to any confusion. Switch 2 game cards are going to be the same size and come in similar packaging, with the same red colour. There could be some disappointed kids on Christmas morning unwrapping a Switch 2 game when they only have an original Switch – and I’m a little surprised that Nintendo didn’t do more to help the console differentiate itself from its predecessor.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing three Nintendo executives and the Switch 2 console. — Nintendo executives Kouchi Kawamoto, Tetsuya Sasaki, and Takuhiro Dota presented the Switch 2 broadcast.

The same is true of the name. Every Nintendo console so far has had a unique name, even if those names were similar. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System followed the Nintendo Entertainment System, for example, but where a lot of folks seemed to get confused was with the Wii U. “Switch 2” is much more straightforward, so I don’t think there’ll be anywhere near the same level of confusion from the general public! But I am a bit surprised that the new console retains the Switch name, colour scheme, branding, and even really the same design. There are changes, particularly with the new Joy-Cons, but on a superficial level it’s hard to tell the consoles apart.

And I guess Nintendo is playing it safe. The Switch has been a massive success, so why risk doing something new and innovative when there’s clearly still a huge demand for this kind of hybrid system? The drawback, as a player, is that Nintendo has been the last of the massive game companies to really invest in innovation, and if they’re stepping back from that… it kind of leaves the gaming landscape feeling pretty static going into the second half of the 2020s. I mean, no one really expects a new Xbox or PlayStation to do something wild and unexpected; Nintendo has been the only game in town when it comes to inventing new control schemes and new ways to play. Not all of those have worked, of course, and playing it relatively safe is probably the smart move from a business point of view. But there was nothing earth-shattering in the Switch 2 Direct in the same way as there was when the original Switch, Wii U, Wii, or even GameCube were announced.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing the Switch 2 console. — The Nintendo Switch 2.

Even though my platform of choice these days is PC, I confess that I really only use the mouse for strategy games; I generally prefer to use a control pad most of the time. But if there’s one thing I could say about the Switch 2 that feels different and interesting, it’s using a Joy-Con like a computer mouse. Nintendo isn’t new to this, by the way – there was a SNES mouse in the 1990s that was used in titles like Mario Paint. But it’s a first for a home console in the current generation, and Nintendo seems to be leaning into the mouse idea in a big way. I can see it being phenomenally useful in games like Civilization VII, which will be coming to the Switch 2, and I’m sure fans of first-person shooters will appreciate the idea of using it in titles like Metroid Prime 4, too.

What most intrigues me, though, is the idea of using both Joy-Cons at the same time – basically like having two mice. I’ve never seen a game which played that way, yet if you think about it, the possibilities for dual-mouse gameplay seem almost limitless! It’s something quite simple, yet it’s never been tried before (or if it has, it never caught on). Nintendo showed off a basketball-inspired game called Drag X Drive which seems to use the two Joy-Cons in this way – but I hope it won’t be the only game to offer that kind of control scheme. Drag x Drive looks great, and it’s wonderful to see some disability representation in a presentation like this, too. I’d really like to see what other developers might be able to do with this way of controlling a game.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing the Joy Con controllers and Drag x Drive. — Using two Joy-Cons like this could be a really creative way to play games.

We’ll talk more about games in a moment, but if we stick with hardware for now… I was a bit surprised that Nintendo didn’t go into more detail about the Switch 2’s specs. We got a bit of information about the built-in screen, which will now be 1080p (full HD) instead of 720p, and that the Switch 2 can also scale up to 4K when docked. But there wasn’t a lot of meat on the bones; what kind of processor does the system have, how much VRAM, and pretty basic things like that weren’t mentioned.

I have to assume that this was a deliberate choice – that Nintendo knows the internals aren’t spectacular, so opted to talk about cameras and voice chat instead. From a totally unscientific look at the Switch 2 Direct – with the obvious caveat that a video presentation compressed for YouTube isn’t going to look its absolute best – I was underwhelmed with the graphics. It didn’t help that most games shown off aren’t brand-new, but nothing about the graphics on display really impressed me. If I had to guess, I’d say the Switch 2 is probably about on par with something like an Xbox Series S, which in turn was comparable to the previous generation of home consoles. So we’re talking about graphical fidelity that might’ve looked great in 2012… but is nothing special in 2025. That’s nothing new for Nintendo, of course, and it isn’t to say that (most of) the games on display didn’t look good! But it is notable that there doesn’t seem to be a significant graphical leap considering the price of the console and its games.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Welcome Tour. — We didn’t get much of a look at the Switch 2’s internals this time.

One part of the Switch 2 that has me nervous is the magnetic Joy-Con connection. Despite Nintendo’s promises, the dual magnets to hold the controller in place when in handheld mode just don’t seem as sturdy as they would need to be to keep the console safe. The way it was explained in the Direct also made it seem like something that could be accidentally knocked, so even if the magnets are as strong as advertised, the mechanism to keep them working might be vulnerable to bumps, drops, and knocks. If you want to screw with your friend when they have a Switch 2, flicking the little magnet button might be a naughty way to mess up their gameplay!

Alright, let’s talk about price. The console itself doesn’t feel over-priced. It’s an increase from the Switch, but after eight years (and an inflation problem in the interim) that’s to be expected. But the price of games has jumped up quite a lot, too, with Mario Kart World seeming to retail at £66 for a digital-only version and a whopping £75 for a physical game cart in a box. That’s more than the so-called “standard price” of most other video games on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles, at least here in the UK. Assuming other titles will be similarly-priced, the Switch 2 seems like an expensive proposition right now.

Screenshot from Smyth's showing the Switch 2 pre-order page. — The Switch 2 – with *Mario Kart World* included – retails for £430 here in the UK.
*Image: Smyth’s UK*

There are other gripes with the way things are priced, and a lot of this is the typical and expected anti-consumer shite from Nintendo that the company’s fans always try to pretend doesn’t exist! Selling the Switch 2 camera separately is fine; not everyone is going to want one. But charging £50 for what looked like a cheap, crappy webcam that, even in Nintendo’s own marketing broadcast, didn’t seem to output a particularly high-quality image? That feels like highway robbery.

Why on earth is Switch 2 – Welcome Tour something to pay for? Nintendo bundled Wii Sports with the Wii when that console launched, introducing players to the Wii remotes and motion controls. If there are things I need to know about my new Switch 2, and Nintendo has created an interactive presentation for the express purpose of explaining those things… it’s not unreasonable to expect that to be included in the price, is it? The console is going to be £400 ($450 in the United States) at a minimum, so why be so stingy with this Welcome Tour thing? It also feels like an exceptionally bone-headed move… who’s really going to buy Welcome Tour, even if it’s only like £5? I can’t see it being a popular item.

I can’t help but feel Nintendo missed a trick with its Game Chat feature, at least based on the way it was marketed in the Direct. Being “alone together” would’ve been great… five years ago when it was lockdown! But now? I know online gaming is huge and it’s gonna find an audience, but the choice of marketing language just strikes me as odd. It’s as if Nintendo thinks people are still stuck at home, desperate to find ways to connect. There were other ways to show off this feature without harkening back to the covid era which, quite frankly, a lot of people want to forget.

Game Chat, on its own, is nothing new or revolutionary. People have been using voice chat while gaming for literally decades at this point, so Nintendo is unusually late to the party. I do, however, like the promise of a microphone that can isolate a voice and cut out background noise, and a camera that can crop out the background. Neither of these things are new; streamers have been using green screens to appear in their live streams for years. But to have it work smoothly, in real-time, with several people at once… that’s impressive. If it works as advertised!

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing a gamer using the Switch 2 Camera. — The Switch 2 will have a camera accessory.

Let’s get into the games! After all, what good is a console without any games?

I’ll do the third-party titles first, because I don’t really have that much to say about them. As I said above when we were talking graphics, none of the third-party games blew me away. In fact, Elden Ring in particular seemed to have gotten a noticeable downgrade, at least based on gameplay and screenshots that I’ve seen. The trees in particular looked exceptionally flat and two-dimensional, and I just didn’t think the game looked its best. The same was true of Cyberpunk 2077, which looks and runs great on my PC but seemed downgraded and less visually impressive on the Switch 2.

On the one hand, these are large, demanding games, so the fact that they’ll run at all on Switch 2 is impressive in itself. But… Cyberpunk 2077 is a game approaching its fifth anniversary and that launched on last-gen hardware (albeit in a poor state). So, the fact that it doesn’t look great on the Switch 2 seems to suggest that the internal hardware is lacking, which could have a knock-on effect for games later in the console’s lifespan. Maybe Switch 2 games in 2025 will look pretty good, but by the time we get to 2029 and a new PlayStation and Xbox are in the offing… what will players make of the Switch 2’s capabilities by then?

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Elden Ring. — *Elden Ring’*s open world has never looked… flatter.

I’ve been intrigued by IO’s Project 007 since it was announced, and I’m a tad disappointed that we didn’t get so much as a whiff of gameplay. The game was teased… but that’s all! It’s not a bad thing necessarily, and it’s great for Nintendo fans to know a new Bond game is coming to Switch 2. But given that the game was prominently included in the Switch 2 Direct, I would’ve liked to have seen something more!

Onward to Nintendo’s own games!

So… the Switch 2 is launching with two cartoony racing games? Did I get that right? In addition to Mario Kart World, there’s also going to be Kirby Air Riders, which is the sequel to a GameCube title that I think I might’ve played once. As with so many things Nintendo does… this has confused me. By all means, have both games on the Switch 2. But should they both be releasing in the same year, perhaps just weeks apart? And should they have both been shown off as part of the new console’s marketing campaign? Really, Nintendo… you couldn’t have prioritised another game for 2025 and pushed Kirby Air Riders to next year? It just seems… repetitive.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Kirby Air Riders. — Did the Switch 2’s launch announcement really need *two* cartoony racing games?

When the Mario Kart World broadcast arrives later this month I might have more to say! But for now, I like the look of the new game. I’m not sold on the “free roam” idea necessarily, but it could be a fun addition and a way to shake things up. Games like Forza Horizon have done fun things with more of an open world design, and as long as there’s content and not just empty roads and fields, it should be okay. The Mario Kart series has always given players options, so adding new modes like “free roam” and the knockout race should be fun. I’m not sure how much I’d personally play either, but I can see them both becoming beloved by some Mario Kart players.

There seem to be character costumes in Mario Kart World, which is fantastic. And new mechanics seem to include transforming vehicles (I saw a boat, a plane, and a snowmobile), bouncing off walls, and even grinding on rails and cables. I’m not sure how big all of these new features will be, or whether they’ll only be available at certain places in certain racetracks – that’s almost certainly gonna be the case for the big articulated lorry that we saw! But these features all look like a lot of fun. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been great on the Switch, and I’m hopeful for Mario Kart World’s prospects on the Switch 2. I just hope Nintendo won’t ruin the game by overly monetising features like alternate costumes.

Mario Kart World is getting its own dedicated Direct in a couple of weeks, so there might be more to add then. Be sure to check back!

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Mario Kart World. — *Mario Kart World* is the Switch 2’s big launch title.

The final game to talk about is Donkey Kong Bananza. I was hoping for a new 3D Donkey Kong title – the first since Donkey Kong 64 a quarter of a century ago – and Bananza looks… well, it looks okay. I was kind of getting more of a Yooka-Laylee vibe than an Astro Bot vibe from the reveal, if that makes sense. I’m not sure it’ll be the first game I buy for the Switch 2, but if it reviews well I’ll definitely give it a try. I enjoyed Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64, and it’s definitely a treat to welcome back DK for another 3D adventure.

There were a couple of absences from the game lineup, though. There was a tiny glimpse of what looked like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but other than that there was no mention of the series. Given that New Horizons is the best-selling Switch-exclusive title, that’s a bit of an oddity in my opinion! I guess that means a new Animal Crossing game isn’t imminent. There was also no new 3D Mario game – nor a 2D Mario game or a Mario sports title, come to that. A new 3D Mario title is unlikely to be too far away, and Donkey Kong Bananza is clearly intended to be in the same space for players. But I was a little surprised to see absolutely nothing from either of these big titles which I assume are in development.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing Donkey Kong Bananza. — Donkey Kong is back for his first 3D adventure in a quarter of a century!

The final thing to talk about is pre-ordering. If you’re a massive Nintendo fan, you pay for Switch Online, and you play a ton of games… you still might not be able to pre-order a console. Why? Because even if you’re a paid Switch Online member and have been for years, if you haven’t opted in to marketing emails from Nintendo, you can’t pre-order from the Nintendo shop. What utter dog shite is that?

I had hoped Nintendo would’ve learned from the Wii and Switch about ensuring there’ll be enough consoles to meet demand, but apparently not. Nintendo seems to be deliberately setting up pre-orders in such a way as to assume there won’t be enough to go around… or, if I put my cynical hat on for a moment, to create an artificial and forced sense of scarcity. An attempt to drive up sales by playing on fans’ fears of missing out is just scummy, and I really hope that there will be enough Switch 2 consoles for everyone who wants one on launch day – and especially later in the year as Christmas approaches.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct showing the console and its release date. — Given the weird pre-order requirements, will there be enough Switch 2 consoles for everyone who wants one on launch day?

So I think that’s everything from my notes!

Will I buy a Switch 2? Probably… but it’s unlikely to be in 2025. I really do like the look of Mario Kart World, and as someone who’s been playing Mario Kart since the first game back in the SNES days, I’m definitely excited to try it out for myself. On its own, though, Mario Kart World is a big ask when you’re talking about spending £430! Maybe when there’s news of a new 3D Mario game and/or the next Animal Crossing title, the Switch 2 will feel more like a “must-buy!”

So if you’re planning on pre-ordering a Switch 2, I guess you’re glad to hear that there’s at least one fewer competitor out there for what could be a limited number of consoles at launch!

The Switch 2 Direct was interesting, but I think it’s too early to really judge how successful the console will be. On the one hand, the original Switch has been a resounding win for Nintendo. But on the other, the high price of games on Switch 2 could be a hindrance, and while I could be alone in this, I feel that the new console’s design and marketing haven’t given it a strong identity of its own. Piggybacking on the Switch’s success could prove to be a masterstroke for Nintendo… but someone at the company said the same thing about the Wii U drawing on the popularity of the original Wii, and look how that turned out!

After the Mario Kart World Direct later this month, I may have more to say about that title. And as the year rolls on and the Switch 2 launches, I’ll definitely be checking out the reviews. I daresay I’ll have more to add before too long – so be sure to check back from time to time for more coverage of Mario Kart, the Switch 2, and Nintendo in general. I hope this look at the Switch 2 Direct has been interesting!

The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on the 5th of June. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 go live on the 8th of April. The Switch 2, Super Mario, Mario Kart World, and other properties discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Switch 2: Five Games Nintendo Should Learn From

Tue 04.02.25Sat 08.02.25Dennis

Now that we have a bit more information about the Nintendo Switch 2, I thought it could be interesting to look ahead. My first-ever home console was a Super Nintendo, and I’ve also owned an N64, Wii, 3DS, Switch – and I was even one of about seven people who owned a Wii U ten or so years ago. So I like to think I have a tiny bit of a track record when it comes to Nintendo!

I gotta admit that I’m surprised about the Switch 2. Nintendo are the kings of innovation in gaming, with each of the company’s consoles having something different to entice players. The Switch 2 will be the first console in several generations (since either the GameCube or the Super Nintendo, depending on how we think about it) to play it so exceptionally safe. If I were being deliberately unkind, I might even suggest that the Switch 2 looks underwhelming and repetitive.

Still frame from the Nintendo Switch 2 trailer. — The Switch 2 in docked mode.

Until we’ve got a better look at the internals of the Switch 2, though, we won’t know for sure how different the machine really is and what its capabilities will be. I’m hoping to put a Switch 2 on my list of things to buy this year (or in 2026, if it won’t be launching in time for Christmas) but that will depend to a great degree on what games the console launches with – and how much better they might look compared to the current iteration of the Switch.

The Switch has some great games, that isn’t even a remotely controversial statement! And I’ve definitely been surprised to see that some very big, demanding games have survived being ported to the platform in a playable state. I’m thinking of titles like Hogwarts Legacy and The Witcher 3 in particular, but I’m sure there are others.

When it comes to Nintendo’s first-party titles, the Switch has excelled, too. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons ought to be in anyone’s top ten, with all three games taking established series and putting a new spin on them.

And it’s games I’d like to talk about today.

For all the innovation and advances that Nintendo has made, there are other companies in the gaming space that have gone beyond what Nintendo and the Switch have been capable of. As technology has improved, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the Switch has, in some respects, held back Nintendo’s developers. Over the past few years, there have been quite a few games released in genres that Nintendo used to dominate… titles that have gone above and beyond the company’s recent output.

The Switch 2 will be Nintendo’s first console since 2017.

Today, we’re going to look at five games from the last few years that Nintendo needs to learn from in order to make their games on the Switch 2 the best they can be. Some fans will always be satisfied with more of the same – and that’s great! If you’re in that camp, that’s okay and I don’t intend any of this as some kind of attack. Speaking for myself, though, I’ve played several games in recent years (and watched gameplay from other titles, too) that genuinely eclipse anything Nintendo has created. Partly that might be down to the limitations of the Switch – but it’s also down to the inescapable fact that other companies and developers are innovating and pushing the boundaries in a way that Nintendo hasn’t been.

If Nintendo is to make the Switch 2 a success, then the company will need to read the room! Player expectations are always changing, and Nintendo can’t afford to remain stagnant and try to coast on past successes. A new console – with new, more powerful hardware at its heart – is an opportunity to catch up on a decade-plus of evolution and enhancements in game development, bringing at least some of Nintendo’s flagship series and franchises into the 2020s for the first time.

So let’s take a look at five games that I think Nintendo can learn from.

As always, a couple of caveats. Firstly, please keep in mind that all of this is the subjective opinion of just one person. If I make a point you disagree with, highlight a game you hate, or recommend a change that you think doesn’t need to be made… that’s okay! Nintendo fans are a passionate bunch, but there ought to be enough room in the fan community for civil discussion and polite disagreement.

I’ve also tried to be realistic in my selections. I’m not going to try and argue that Nintendo should turn the next Mario game into a gritty Red Dead Redemption II open-world, or that the next Animal Crossing ought to be an L.A. Noire-style murder mystery. I’ve chosen titles in either the same genre or a similar space that I believe Nintendo can learn from as the first few Switch 2 games are being worked on.

With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at the list!

Game #1:
Palworld
Pokémon franchise

Promo screenshot of Palworld showing a yellow monster with a large gun. — A gun-toting monster from *Palworld.*

This is the game that really inspired me to put this list together! Last year, Palworld was a surprise hit. It took the monster-battling sub-genre and put its own spin on it, bringing in huge numbers of players in the process. I know several die-hard Pokémon fans who absolutely adore Palworld, and even looking in from the outside, I can see many ways in which the game goes beyond anything the Pokémon series has ever done.

Recent Pokémon titles have been pretty stale and stagnant – if they even worked at all. Sure, they might add new monsters to the roster or be set in a different region of the franchise’s world, but Pokémon’s basic gameplay hasn’t changed in years. The series needs a good shake-up, and Palworld’s success should be the kick in the backside that Nintendo, Game Freak, and the Pokémon Company need.

Promo screenshot of Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet showing the three starter Pokemon. — The starter Pokémon from *Pokémon Scarlet/Violet.*

Unfortunately, things aren’t looking great on this front. Nintendo has inexplicably chosen to try to sue Palworld and its developer out of existence with a frivolous lawsuit, something that shames Furukawa, Miyamoto, and all of the other cowardly executives. As I wrote last year: the history of gaming is one of piecemeal innovation, with companies from all across the industry seeing what works and building on it. Pokémon wouldn’t exist without the role-playing games, deck-building games, and top-down fantasy titles that came before it, and Nintendo doesn’t have the right to claim ownership of an entire genre.

So I hope, once the dust settles and the lawsuit is inevitably dismissed, Nintendo can do what it should’ve done from day one: learn what worked in Palworld and what players liked, and apply those findings to the next Pokémon game. That doesn’t mean copy Palworld beat-for-beat, but taking the best bits and the things players loved the most and using that knowledge to make Pokémon better.

Game #2:
Sonic Mania
2D Mario

Promo screenshot of Sonic Mania. — Sonic and Tails.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder has been very well-received by Nintendo fans – and that’s great! Ever since 2D Mario games returned from a decade-long hiatus almost twenty years ago, though, they’ve more or less retained the same art style. Wonder definitely added a lot of new things to the mix, and there have been new power-ups and levels with different settings… but maybe it’s time to take a step back and really go back to Mario’s roots.

Sonic Mania is a fantastic title that has a really interesting development history. It was originally a fan project, but Sega saw the potential in the game and swooped in, licensing it as an official entry in the Sonic series. And I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Sonic Mania is one of the best Sonic games since the Mega Drive days.

Promo screenshot of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. — Mario in *Super Mario Bros. Wonder*.

I’d love to see Nintendo really lean into the NES or SNES visual style with their next 2D Mario game. It could be a side-project rather than a full mainline game, and I wouldn’t necessarily expect an “old-school” 2D Mario as the Switch 2’s big launch title. But as a love letter to fans in Super Mario’s 40th anniversary year… what could be better?

Sonic Mania genuinely feels like a 16-bit Mega Drive game, bringing back not only the visual and art style of that era, but gameplay mechanics, too. After all the talk of doing better and pushing the boat out, maybe this seems like a bit of an oddity – and I fully accept that. But as someone who really got into gaming in the early 1990s, I would love nothing more than to return to that style of 2D platformer. Sonic Mania could be the template for how to do that – and do it right.

Game #3:
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Animal Crossing series

Promo screenshot of Disney Dreamlight Valley showing the furniture placement screen and a custom character. — A player showing off their home in *Disney Dreamlight Valley*.

If you read my review of Disney Dreamlight Valley a couple of years ago, you might remember me saying that the game took basically all of my complaints about Animal Crossing: New Horizons and fixed them, while also adding in compelling characters and story missions to boot. I’m not sure that the next Animal Crossing needs a “main quest” of sorts… but there are so many other things that Dreamlight Valley does well.

Firstly, Dreamlight Valley has much more freedom in terms of decorating – both inside and out. With a simple button press, everything from small items of furniture to houses and trees can be moved, placed, and deleted, and there’s a near-unlimited amount of free choice in where things are placed and how many things can be placed. New Horizons, thanks to the Switch’s limited processing power, is notoriously laggy when too many items are placed outdoors – but the next game in the series should, at least, not suffer from that limitation.

Still frame from the Animal Crossing: New Horizons expansion pack trailer. — Even with its expansion pack, *New Horizons* wasn’t all it could’ve been.

Dreamlight Valley’s characters also feel more compelling and unique. Partly that’s because everyone gets a quest or series of quests, but it’s also because each character has a distinct personality – reflected not only in their choice of outfit and decoration, but dialogue, too. One of my biggest criticisms of New Horizons was how awfully repetitive the dialogue got after only a short amount of time – and without mini-games or other events to spice things up, as well as such a small number of villager “types” – I found I was getting the exact same line of dialogue over and over and over again from different characters.

In terms of design, customisation, character interactions, and more, Dreamlight Valley not only eclipses Animal Crossing… it blows it out of the water. There are pitfalls to be avoided, sure – Dreamlight Valley is too heavily-monetised for my taste – but it should be seen as a template for how to improve the Animal Crossing formula.

Game #4:
Doom Eternal
Metroid Prime series

Promo screenshot of Doom Eternal showing a first-person viewpoint. — *Doom Eternal* is fast-paced and fun.

With Metroid Prime 4 due for release on the Switch this year – presumably before the Switch 2 launches – there’s limited room for serious improvements. But if the Metroid Prime series continues and will get a new entry in the years ahead, the fast-paced combat of Doom Eternal should be the high bar that the series aims for.

I haven’t played a Metroid Prime game since the GameCube days, so maybe I’m not the best person to offer advice on this series! But I know what I look for in a single-player first-person shooter, and of all the games in that genre I’ve played over the years, none felt as energetic and exciting as Doom Eternal. With the Switch 2 offering the chance for a serious upgrade, the next Metroid Prime game could have more enemies on screen at the same time, a wider range of enemy types, more weapons, and so on.

Promo screenshot of Metroid Prime 4 showing the HUD, a weapon, and several enemies. — *Metroid Prime 4* is due for release this year on the Switch.

Doom Eternal’s grappling hook mechanic also worked exceptionally well, and something like that could be a fine addition to the Metroid Prime series, too. Adding in some platforming and puzzle-solving elements along with fast-paced combat could be a ton of fun.

I’d also be remiss not to mention the fantastic soundtrack that the modern Doom titles have had. A hard rock/heavy metal soundtrack was pitch-perfect for those games, and added so much to the wild action and thrill of gunning down hordes of demons. Metroid Prime doesn’t need to go down the heavy metal route, of course, but a soundtrack that helps bring the game to life and fits with its design philosophy will be essential.

Game #5:
Astro Bot
3D Mario

Promo artwork for Astro Bot. — *Astro Bot* is everything a 3D platformer should aim to be in 2025.

A moment ago, we talked about the next 2D Mario game and how I’d like to see the series go back to its roots – both in terms of gameplay and visual style. But 3D Mario should really aim to go above and beyond, pushing the Switch 2’s hardware to its limits while retaining the charm of titles like Super Mario 64 and Odyssey. PlayStation’s Astro Bot – which was in the running for game of the year on many publications’ lists in 2024 – is exactly the kind of game Nintendo should be paying attention to.

I have to admit that I haven’t played Astro Bot for myself; I don’t own a PS5 and, as much as I might want to, I can’t justify the expense of buying one just to play one game! But I’ve seen a lot of gameplay online, and Astro Bot looks like the kind of game that knows what it’s trying to be… and absolutely nails it.

Screenshot of Super Mario 64 showing Mario in the castle lobby. — *Super Mario 64* is still one of my favourite games.

Many critics have noted – quite correctly – that Astro Bot is drawing inspiration from Nintendo’s 3D platformers. But graphically and in terms of level design, it seems to go beyond them, too. Super Mario Odyssey, arguably the best and certainly the biggest 3D Mario game, is now almost eight years old, so fans are absolutely right to expect to see significant improvements when the next entry in the series is ready. Astro Bot shows how beautiful a 3D platformer can look with modern hardware, and it’s also a masterclass in level design.

I’m pretty sure that Nintendo will be hard at work on the next 3D Mario already. We’ve caught a glimpse of a new Mario Kart in the recent Switch 2 teaser, so that could well be the console’s big launch title. But a new 3D Mario is unlikely to be far behind. I hope some of the developers and producers have played Astro Bot to get a feel for how that game works and to see what it does well.

So that’s it!

We’ve taken a look at five games that I think Nintendo needs to examine closely and learn from as the Switch 2 and its games are in development.

The Switch 2 is definitely on my wishlist – if for no other reason than a brand-new Mario Kart game is always gonna be something I’ll want to play! But I’m curious to see how much more powerful the console can be, and whether Nintendo (and other third-party developers, too) are going to be able to fully take advantage of that. Better graphics and shinier-looking games should be a guarantee – but I’d love to see Nintendo also paying attention to the improvements and evolution in some of these genres. Although there’s been less of that in the last ten years than there was from, say, 1995 to 2005, there are still plenty of areas where Nintendo can improve.

When we learn more about the Switch 2 in April, I’ll definitely be sharing my thoughts on how the console is shaping up. I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground for news on launch titles, too! So when we have more news about Nintendo and the Switch 2, I hope you’ll join me here on the website. Until then, I hope this has been a fun and interesting look ahead.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be officially shown off in April and will launch in 2025 or early 2026. All titles discussed above are the copyright of their respective publisher, developer, studio, and/or corporation. Some promotional art and images courtesy of Nintendo and IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Mario Kart 9: Let’s Predict the Retro Racetracks!

Wed 04.09.24Dennis

Last year, I put all ninety-six of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s racetracks into a tier list! Since then, I’ve kind of taken a break from writing about Nintendo’s premiere kart racing series; with no new tracks being added and with Mario Kart Tour also on its last legs, there hasn’t been a lot to say. But with Nintendo planning to launch its next console within the next year-ish, it’s quite possible that a new Mario Kart game could be closer than we think! With that in mind, I thought it could be a bit of fun to predict which racetracks from previous games might be in Mario Kart 9 at launch.

Those last two words – “at launch” – are critical here, because I believe that Nintendo will see Mario Kart 9 as a kind of live-service title, building on what was accomplished with Mario Kart 8′s DLC, Tour, and finally the Booster Course Pass. Across Mario Kart 9′s lifetime, I expect to see new racetracks added periodically – and perhaps new and different variants of tracks as well. So I guess that’s my first prediction about Mario Kart 9: the game will be an ongoing “live-service” type of experience, perhaps with some kind of additional charge to download all of the new racetracks as they’re created… or god forbid, a monthly subscription and microtransactions!

A tier list showing all the racetracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. — This is my full *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course Pass* tier list, in case you missed it last year!

For this list, I’m going to assume that Mario Kart 9 will launch with the same number of racetracks as Mario Kart 8 did in 2014. I was one of about seventeen people who owned a Wii U at the time, so in case you weren’t – or in case you’ve forgotten because it was literally a decade ago – Mario Kart 8 arrived with 32 racetracks. Sixteen were brand-new and sixteen retro tracks returned from earlier games in the series. I’ll be picking sixteen retro tracks today that either seem very likely to be part of the next Mario Kart game or that I’d really like to see included.

As always, an important caveat: this list is the entirely subjective opinion of one Mario Kart fan. Nothing I say is in any way “objective,” so if you hate all of my choices or I exclude a racetrack that seems blindingly obvious to you… that’s okay! There’s enough room in the Nintendo fan community for polite discussion and differences of opinion. Secondly, I don’t have any “insider information,” and I’m not trying to claim that any of these racetracks will be part of the next Mario Kart game. I’m not even certain that Mario Kart 9 is in development – and a port of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + The Booster Course Pass could be just as likely to be part of the launch lineup for Nintendo’s next console.

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing Dry Bones on a racetrack. — Dry Bones racing on SNES Mario Circuit 3.

I’ve placed my sixteen retro racetracks in four “cups” – just like they would appear in a real Mario Kart game. I’ve tried not to pick too many tracks from the same game, nor exclude any of the games in the Mario Kart series. While I’ve prioritised racetracks that didn’t appear in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass, there will undoubtedly be some retro racetracks from that game and its expansion pack, so I haven’t excluded them.

Phew! With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at my predictions!

The Dennis Cup

Track #1:
SNES Vanilla Lake 1

Screenshot from Mario Kart Tour showing Vanilla Lake 1.

I genuinely thought we’d get a Vanilla Lake track in the Booster Course Pass – but we didn’t! This snow and ice track was part of Super Mario Kart way back when, and it provided a bit of variety thanks to its slippery surface and wintery theme. Of the two Vanilla Lake tracks in Super Mario Kart, the first one actually has a little more variety with a narrow section near the finish line and a couple of patches of melted/broken ice as hazards to avoid. I think there’s a lot that Nintendo could do with this track, in spite of its pretty boring circular layout, as we’ve seen with other recreated SNES and GBA tracks.

Track #2:
3DS Wuhu Mountain Loop/Maka Wuhu

Screenshot from Mario Kart 7 showing Maka Wuhu.

Mario Kart 7 was the first game in the series to have racetracks split into sections instead of laps – and Wuhu Mountain Loop was an incredibly fun and diverse racetrack as a result! Based on the island setting of Wii Sports Resort, Wuhu Mountain Loop takes racers on a real journey right across the island, and includes beach scenes, a road, a town, a cave, an underwater section, and a long glide to the finish line. Unlike most racetracks – which only use one or two themes – Wuhu Mountain Loop has basically everything that Mario Kart 7 had to offer.

Track #3
Wii Toad’s Factory

Screenshot from Mario Kart Wii showing Toad's Factory.

I know this is a minority opinion… but I really don’t enjoy Toad’s Factory. Its layout isn’t anything special, there are a couple of awkward pinch points, and its musical accompaniment is one of the worst in Mario Kart Wii in my opinion. All that being said, Toad’s Factory is probably the most memorable and unique Wii racetrack that hasn’t yet made a return. Speculation was rife that it would be part of the Booster Course Pass, and it feels all but certain to join the roster of the next Mario Kart game… even if I wish it wouldn’t!

Track #4:
Tour Piranha Plant Pipeline

Screenshot from Mario Kart Tour showing Piranha Plant Pipeline.

Not to be confused with the 3DS track Piranha Plant Pipeway, this Tour track is the only one from the game not to have been brought into the Booster Course Pass. As such, I feel it’s a dead cert to join the next Mario Kart game. I haven’t played this one for myself, but from the gameplay I’ve seen online it looks like a fun romp through some of the Mushroom Kingdom’s famous warp pipes. There are a couple of different variants, so this could be one that has a different layout for each lap as we’ve seen with other Tour tracks.

The Chris Pratt Cup

Track #1:
N64 Luigi Raceway

Crop from the Mario Kart 64 guidebook showing Luigi Raceway.

Every Mario Kart game needs one or two relatively straightforward racetracks to ease newbies into the experience, and Luigi Raceway from Mario Kart 64 fits the bill. When I first played it on the N64 I remember being blown away by the big screen above the tunnel that showed my driver in action – that was an incredibly cool feature at the time! This racetrack returned in Mario Kart 7 and Tour, so I think it’s a pretty good candidate for a full-scale remake.

Track #2:
DS Luigi’s Mansion

There have been plenty of dark, spooky, ghostly racetracks across the Mario Kart series… but none are as unique as Luigi’s Mansion. Based on the GameCube game of the same name, this racetrack takes the haunted house theme in a really fun direction. There’s a swamp and part of a forest outside, and the race through the mansion passes by several locations from the first game in a series that’s now established itself as one of Nintendo’s best-sellers. If a fourth Luigi’s Mansion game is in the offing, bringing this racetrack back could be a great decision.

Track #3:
Wii U Animal Crossing

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing Dry Bones on Animal Crossing.

I just adore this racetrack. I love how there are four different versions for different times of year, the music is beautiful, and the racetrack is overstuffed with characters, buildings, and other references from the Animal Crossing series. New Horizons is the second-best-selling Switch game, and a new entry in the series is surely coming, so adding this racetrack into the next Mario Kart game is a great way to keep the series in players’ minds. The only reason I could see Nintendo opting not to include this racetrack is if the developers of Mario Kart 9 wanted to create a four-track Animal Crossing cup, with different racetracks based on different parts of the Animal Crossing island.

Track #4:
Tour New York Minute

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing Dry Bones on New York Minute.

I would argue that there were probably too many Mario Kart Tour city racetracks in the Booster Course Pass, and by the end the novelty of racing through real-life locations had begun to wear off. With that in mind, I doubt that all or even most of the cities will return when Mario Kart 9 launches – though they may be added later, if my theory of regular racetrack additions proves accurate! If Nintendo picks only one of these to bring back at the beginning, though, I hope it’s New York Minute. I adore the jazz soundtrack, the city and its locations feel really great, and I even recognised some of the places from my own visit to New York City some years ago.

The “Why Does Pink Gold Peach Exist?” Cup

Track #1:
GBA Lakeside Park

Screenshot from Mario Kart Super Circuit showing Wario on Lakeside Park.

I love this track’s primaeval feel, with a jungle and volcanoes in the background. The volcanoes also begin to erupt once the race reaches lap 2 – something pretty creative for the Game Boy Advance! Though it doesn’t have a ton of Mario or Nintendo theming, there’s a lot to love about this track’s aesthetic and design. It’s also been brought back in Tour – but a proper remake, perhaps incorporating new features like gliding or underwater racing, could be an absolute blast.

Track #2:
Switch Squeaky Clean Sprint

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing Dry Bones on Squeaky Clean Sprint.

Shrinking down Mario and the gang for a race around a bathroom was a surprising amount of fun in the Booster Course Pass! The race down the plughole, complete with muck and grime, felt truly icky the first few times I raced on this track, and there’s just something humourous about a bathroom setting that makes Squeaky Clean Sprint feel… well, fun! There are a few ways that I could see it being adapted for new styles of play, too, perhaps with some way of shrinking and growing racers through different sections of the track, for example.

Track #3:
N64 Bowser’s Castle

Crop from the Mario Kart 64 guidebook showing Bowser's Castle.

Every Mario Kart needs at least one retro Bowser’s Castle track… right? For me, the Nintendo 64 version of this Mario Kart staple is still the high-water mark that others have yet to reach. Giving it a full remake, perhaps adding in a couple of new features or places where gliding or anti-gravity are present, could work wonders. This track’s theming, music, obstacles, and layout are damn near perfect, though, so I hope the developers don’t change it too much!

Track #4:
GCN Mushroom City

Screenshot from Mario Kart Double Dash showing Mushroom City.

Mushroom City is one of a handful of racetracks from the GameCube to have never returned – and I think it’s time to change that! Moving vehicles always make for interesting obstacles in Mario Kart, keeping races on the same track feeling different and perhaps a bit more tense! Mushroom City is certainly a good example of how well this can work, and its night time setting in an urban cityscape is something a bit different for the series, too.

The Mario’s Moustache Cup

Track #1:
Switch/Tour Merry Mountain

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing Dry Bones on Merry Mountain.

I adore Merry Mountain’s Christmas village theming, and the musical accompaniment is perfect, too. Maybe the final downhill portion could be worked on to make it a bit more interesting, but I really can’t fault this wonderful Christmassy track. Both Mario Kart Tour and the Booster Course Pass can lay claim to this one; it was released for both games at about the same time. It’s always a blast to see Mario and the crew racing through Santa’s village, past a flying Christmas train, and down the mountain to the finish line!

Track #2:
3DS Shy Guy Bazaar

Screenshot from Mario Kart 7 showing Shy Guy Bazaar.

Desert racetracks in Mario Kart are seldom my favourites. They tend to be a bit too one-note and bland – but Shy Guy Bazaar put a totally different spin on the theme. Set at an Arabian Knights-style marketplace after sunset, the track just has a really nice vibe to it that’s totally different from any other desert track in the series. I hoped it would come back in the Booster Course Pass – but maybe Nintendo has been saving this one for Mario Kart 9!

Track #3:
SNES Ghost Valley 1

Screenshot from Mario Kart Tour showing Ghost Valley 1.

Boo Lake’s remake in the Booster Course Pass showed what Nintendo can do with a retro ghost-themed track, and I think we need to see more racetracks from the first game in the series! Ghost Valley 1 has a fun shortcut that, with a little bit of work, could be adapted in all sorts of fun and interesting ways. I like the boardwalk and the creepy yet understated music as well as a fun layout. Ghost Valley 1 could be the perfect track to race through next Halloween!

Track #4:
GCN Rainbow Road

Screenshot from Mario Kart Double Dash showing Rainbow Road.

My heart says that Nintendo should take another crack at recreating N64’s Rainbow Road because that’s my favourite, and my head says that SNES Rainbow Road will be back for the fifth game in a row because of how popular it is – but this time I hope Nintendo revisits one of the only Rainbow Road tracks that has never been recreated. This version, from the GameCube, has some really fun features in its own right, as well as a cool design and a great soundtrack. Bringing back tracks that haven’t been seen in a while should be part of the next game – and there’s room for at least one Rainbow Road in the lineup!

So that’s it!

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing a racer reversing. — Did your favourite make the list?

Those are my totally-not-official predictions for the racetracks that Nintendo could choose to include in the launch version of Mario Kart 9 – or whatever the next game in the series will be called!

I’m in two minds about when we could see a new Mario Kart game. On the one hand, the upcoming launch of a new Nintendo console and the fact that Mario Kart 8 is now more than ten years old should surely mean that a new entry in the series is imminent – perhaps even as a launch title for the new console. On the other, the Booster Course Pass only wrapped up a few months back, and there’s a case to be made that porting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to the new console instead of creating a brand-new game is the way to go. Players are still enjoying the Booster Course Pass – and I’ve only played some of the tracks in the final couple of waves a few times apiece. So… I genuinely couldn’t tell you whether Mario Kart 9 is going to arrive next year or not for several years!

Screenshot from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe showing two racers. — Dry Bones using a super horn to overtake Baby Daisy at Sunshine Airport.

That being said, I hope this has been a bit of fun. I tried to concentrate on racetracks that haven’t had a lot of attention in recent years, as well as a few of my personal favourites. It’s amazing how often those two categories overlap, now that I come to think of it! I had a blast going back to revisit some of these racetracks while putting together this list, at any rate.

Whether we get a brand-new Mario Kart game in the next few months or whether we’ll have to make do with a port, I hope you’ll stay tuned here on the website. When we eventually get news about Nintendo’s next console and its launch lineup, I’ll do my best to take a look and share my thoughts.

Until then… see you on the racetrack!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass DLC are available now for Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart Tour is available for iOS and Android devices. The Mario Kart series – including all titles and properties discussed above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Thoughts on Nintendo’s New Console

Sat 31.08.24Sat 31.08.24Dennis

A few weeks ago, Nintendo broke the news that we’ve all been waiting for: they plan to release a new console sometime in the next fiscal year. The company did so in an incredibly barebones, investor-focused Twitter/X post, but that was enough to get the rumour mill going and to send Nintendo fans into a frenzy! It’s gotten to the point where Nintendo had to say that it won’t be talking about its new console ahead of the latest Nintendo Direct broadcast just to avoid fans and spectators getting upset.

Although no details about the console have been announced – and its release window is any time from April 2025 to March 2026 – today I thought it could be interesting to look ahead and speculate about what the console might be… as well as what it might not be! My usual caveat applies: I have no “insider information.” All I’m doing is speculating and perhaps taking a look at a couple of prominent rumours.

This Tweet/X post officially confirmed that a new Nintendo console is in the works.

First of all, let’s talk about the name. Thus far, when communicating in English, Nintendo has referred to its next machine as “the Nintendo Switch successor console.” Some fans have taken to using the names “Switch 2” or “Switch Pro” basically as placeholder titles whenever the console is being discussed – but I’m confident that Nintendo won’t use either of those names! In fact, I doubt very much whether Nintendo will re-use the “Switch” branding at all, and I expect the new console to have a brand-new monicker.

Although the Switch has been a successful console that has sold incredibly well for Nintendo, it’s not the company’s core identity. Sony has PlayStation and Microsoft has Xbox – and those gaming brands have become well-known for those corporations. But Nintendo is Nintendo – and its consoles have always been known by their names or nicknames. Furthermore, the only time Nintendo has tried to capitalise on the well-known branding of a console to help popularise its successor, it failed spectacularly!

The Wii U did not succeed at replicating the Wii’s success.

The Wii U tried to recycle or retain the “Wii” branding, with Nintendo incorrectly assuming that it would be a selling-point. It turned out not to be, in part because the confused naming and branding led many casual players and parents – a core part of Nintendo’s audience over the past couple of decades – not to fully understand what the Wii U was. Even as late as 2014, two full years after the console’s underwhelming launch, I was still encountering players who believed that the Wii U was nothing more than an accessory for the original Wii.

Nintendo will have learned a lesson from that, and that leads me to beleive the new console will have a new name, and that the company will fully break with the “Switch” branding. As Nintendo has done in the past, a new colour is even likely to come along to help visually brand the new machine. The GameCube had indigo, the Wii had white, the Wii U had a kind of aqua-blue, and the Switch has had bright red. I don’t know what the new colour will be – but I think we can safely assume it won’t be Xbox green or PlayStation blue!

Every Nintendo console (of the past twenty years, at least) has had its own distinct colour scheme.

As for the console itself… I’m in two minds at this point. Will Nintendo stick with the handheld-home console hybrid format that has worked so well for them with the Switch? That seems to be the prevailing wisdom; why change something that’s clearly working and that gamers clearly want, after all? But on the other hand, for the past twenty years Nintendo has been focused on innovating and trying out new and different ways to play. We saw that with the Wii’s motion controls, with the Wii U’s gamepad and asymmetrical multiplayer, and with the Switch’s hybrid system. Will the company be content to simply build a more powerful version of the Switch… or will this desire to innovate mean that Nintendo’s new console will look completely different?

We’ve seen in recent years other companies trying to replicate Nintendo’s hybrid success. PlayStation has a handheld accessory for the PlayStation 5, allowing players to take their favourite PS5 games on the go… at least within their own house. And handheld PCs like the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally are taking the handheld gaming console to new heights of performance. These devices and others are all, I would argue, firmly inspired by Nintendo… but they also surpass what the Switch is capable of in different ways. They also offer players who were unimpressed with the Switch a more powerful handheld experience.

Other companies have jumped on the hybrid model that the Nintendo Switch pioneered.

Perhaps the next Nintendo console might look more like the PlayStation 5 and less like the Switch, with a home console for players who want to play on the couch and a handheld accessory for gaming on the go. If the two systems were linked, sharing a single account, players could have both and get the “best of both worlds.” Or maybe it will look like a beefier, more powerful Switch – a handheld console with a dock to connect it to a TV or bigger screen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nintendo follow Xbox and PlayStation in releasing two models – one that has a slot for game cartridges and one that’s digital/download only.

Beyond those ideas, though, I really do wonder whether Nintendo’s desire for innovation will lead to a very unpredictable console! Having experimented with motion controls, could the new Nintendo machine have a more refined and accurate motion controller, for example? Or could it ditch the controller altogether, opting for a gesture-based interface like Microsoft tried to achieve with Kinect? Maybe Nintendo will ditch physical buttons and analogue sticks in favour of a touch-screen interface, reaching out to players who are used to gaming on phones and tablets. Any of these things – and many more that I can’t even think of – seem plausible right now!

Nintendo has never been afraid of innovating – like when they released the bazooka-looking Super Scope for the SNES!

Then there’s the question of games. Nintendo is already working with other companies in the games industry to bring third-party titles to the new console. Development kits have been sent out to some of the industry’s biggest names, so we can expect to see some popular titles and upcoming games join the system on release. As for first-party games, though… I’m not sure what to expect.

There has only just been a new Zelda title – Tears of the Kingdom was released in mid-2023. And Mario just got his latest 2D platformer a few months ago, too. Both of those games could be ported to the new console – and I expect they will be if for no other reason than to pad out the launch lineup. But Nintendo will have to do more than that; the company needs a “killer app” to really get players excited on launch day.

Mario has just had another 2D adventure on the Switch.

There are a couple of games that I think Nintendo might be planning on releasing alongside the new console. The first is a new 3D Mario game – Odyssey was almost seven years ago already, so surely the next game in that series has to be in development. As with the name “Switch 2,” don’t expect to see Mario Odyssey 2 – I’m confident that Nintendo will have a new adventure planned for its mascot! But a new 3D Mario title could build on the success of Odyssey in many ways, and take 3D platforming to new heights.

The second game that I increasingly feel Nintendo will be planning to launch either alongside the new console or within its first few months is Animal Crossing. Now, I’ve been critical of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Switch… but the game sold incredibly well, and is the best-selling Switch-exclusive game. No, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe doesn’t count: that’s a port! So with Animal Crossing having exploded in popularity, Nintendo would be well-advised to get the next entry in the series ready in time to launch alongside its new console!

A new Animal Crossing game could be on the cards.

I mentioned Mario Kart 8 Deluxe there… and while I truly believe a new Mario Kart game is coming some time soon, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ended up being ported to the new console, too. Perhaps it would be bundled with the Booster Course Pass – as Mario Kart 8 was bundled with its Wii U DLC packs when it was ported to the Switch. But in lieu of Mario Kart 9 and with the Booster Course Pass having only recently finished adding new racetracks and characters, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Nintendo choosing to double- or triple-down on that game as a relatively easy money-maker on its new console.

So that’s where we’re at, at least as I see it. The name “Switch” is almost certainly going away, and I fully expect to see a brand-new console with a new name, new design, new colour scheme, and so on. Nintendo will surely seek to take advantage of more online features, more live-service/recurring revenue ideas, and the like… but I still believe we’ll get a machine that can be used like a regular old home console. I’m not convinced we won’t see some brand-new gimmick, too – perhaps something that’s not on anyone’s radar right now!

If Nintendo plans to launch its new console next spring – say in April or May – then we could see a full announcement as soon as next month. Regardless, as and when that happens I’ll do my best to take a look at it here on the website – so I hope you’ll check in for that! Until then, I hope this has been an interesting look ahead.

The new Nintendo console is currently scheduled for release between April 2025 and March 2026 to coincide with Nintendo’s next fiscal year. All properties, games, and other titles discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Palworld: No One Owns A Genre…

Fri 26.01.24Dennis

I have very little interest in the new survival/monster game Palworld. I’ve never engaged with titles like Monster Hunter or Pokémon, so the game just wasn’t on my radar. But an issue has come up for Palworld that I think is an important one not only for the games industry, but for entertainment and media as a whole, and I felt compelled to add my two cents to the conversation.

If you haven’t heard, Palworld has been accused of “ripping off” or plagiarising the long-running Pokémon series. The game uses some familiar designs for its monsters, and although I haven’t bought it or played it for myself, I understand that some elements of its gameplay are similar, too, with players being able to “catch” monsters and use them in battles.

Sheep-like critters with machine guns in a promo screenshot for Palworld. — Sheep-like critters with machine guns in a promo screenshot for *Palworld*.

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, who jointly own and develop the Pokémon series, have even commented on this, with the latter releasing a statement saying that they “intend to investigate” Palworld and “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights.” I’ve linked to The Pokémon Company’s full statement at the end of this piece so you can read it in full if you’re interested.

Whether you like Palworld or not, the issue this raises is a genuinely interesting one – and it’s one that the games industry hasn’t really wrangled with for a long time, at least not in public. The basic question is this: can any company claim ownership of, and potentially patent, trademark, or copyright, an entire genre, style of game, or gameplay mechanic?

Promo screenshot from Pokemon Violet featuring a character holding a red and white ball. — Do Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have a monopoly on designs and gameplay elements?

The answer should be obvious: no, of course not, don’t be stupid. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo can’t own the concept of a game with battling monsters any more than Rockstar could own the open-world sandbox crime genre, or PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds could own battle royale. The developers of PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds tried in vain to claim ownership of the battle royale genre, even going so far as to try to sue Epic Games, creators of Fortnite, over the perceived “copying.” That lawsuit went nowhere – and rightly so.

I’m old enough to remember when first-person shooters were literally called “Doom clones.” Doom popularised the first-person shooter in the early 1990s, and on the back of its success, dozens of other FPS titles were developed. But Doom’s creators didn’t lawyer up and try to prevent anyone else from making a first-person shooter at the time, nor did Rockstar go after the likes of the Saints Row series in the mid-2000s.

Screenshot from Doom (1993) showing a gun being fired. — *Doom* (1993) popularised – but did not invent – the first-person shooter.

Going all the way back to the earliest video games, new titles have come along that used similar styles, designs, and gameplay elements. Some of these games have gone on to innovate, pioneering entire sub-genres and gameplay mechanics, and if they’d been shut down or prevented from existing by excessive copyright lawsuits or patents, gaming today would be in a much worse place. The history of gaming is one of piecemeal innovation, and of companies jumping on popular genres, innovating, and pushing boundaries.

There were first-person titles literally decades before Doom, with 1980’s Battlezone in particular being a noteworthy progenitor. And there were crime games and open-world titles years before Grand Theft Auto III came along. So in neither case can the developer claim to have wholly independently “invented” something, even if their title was the one that popularised it. That was the fundamental flaw in the PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds lawsuit.

Promo image advertising PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (a.k.a. PUBG Battlegrounds). — *PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds* didn’t win its lawsuit against Epic Games.

Stepping away from gaming, we can look to cinema and even literature for other examples. No one would try to make the claim that only Tolkien should be allowed to write fantasy, or that fictional races like elves and orcs are somehow copyrightable. Nor would anyone be able to argue that the owners of 1927’s Metropolis should be able to trademark the entire sci-fi genre. That isn’t how art and media work or have ever worked.

Look at a film like Galaxy Quest, or a TV series like The Orville. Both lean heavily on the Star Trek franchise for inspiration (and parody), but Paramount wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if it tried to take their creators to court. And once again, that’s because Paramount doesn’t own the sci-fi genre, or even the “explorers on a faster-than-light spaceship seeking out new life” sub-genre of sci-fi. Anyone is allowed to tell their own stories – as long as they don’t use trademarked names or characters for profit.

Still frame from Old Wounds, the premiere episode of The Orville, showing the bridge of a spaceship. — *The Orville* pays homage to the Star Trek series in more ways than one.

If Palworld had its own Pikachu or Charizard, maybe Nintendo and The Pokémon Company would have an argument here. But from what I’ve seen, the game’s monsters all have unique names, and while they may look similar to critters from the Pokémon series… so what? You can’t claim ownership of any and all yellow-haired monsters in every video game. That’s the kind of claim that would be laughed out of court.

Maybe The Pokémon Company and Nintendo have been complacent, because there hasn’t really been a serious challenger to the Pokémon series before. Monster Hunter exists in a similar space, as do games in the Digimon series, but Pokémon has been a force unto itself for a long time. Perhaps the sudden arrival of Palworld struck a nerve, or perhaps Nintendo is worried because recent Pokémon titles haven’t been well-received.

Promo screenshot of Palworld featuring a yellow monster holding a gun. — I can see why *Palworld* appeals to fans of the Pokémon games.

But none of that actually matters. Palworld has as much right to exist as any of the 873 Pokémon games, and if its better than anything that The Pokémon Company has done in recent years… well, they’ll have to adapt and do better. They’ll have to make better games, actually finish working on them before releasing them, and maybe even look at some of the features included in Palworld that players have enjoyed. Pokémon has arguably been pretty stagnant for a while, at least from what I can see looking in from the outside, so a kick up the backside from a genuine competitor could be just what the series needs. Complacency breeds stagnation and ultimately decline, but competition can revitalise a flagging series.

Rather than seeing Palworld as a problem to be crushed, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo should view its entry into the marketplace as a window of opportunity. After years of having the monster-battling space all to themselves, there’s now the potential to look at how other developers might handle that kind of game – and even opportunities to learn and grow. But that would take the kind of critical thinking that Nintendo doesn’t always have a knack for!

Screenshot from Pokemon Blue (1996). — The Pokémon series has been running for decades, so a challenge and shake-up couldn’t hurt.

Either way, Palworld is here to stay. I can’t imagine that the game will be pulled from sale or forced to be shut down because of a complaint from Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, because any threat of legal action would surely be doomed to failure – as it has been every other time it’s been tried by other publishers and developers. Even if we accept that Nintendo and The Pokémon Company originated the monster-battling sub-genre (which is very much up for debate, as Pokémon itself is a variation on the role-playing game genre), they don’t get to claim ownership of it exclusively. And even if Palworld uses similar designs, visual styles, and gameplay mechanics… none of those things are copyrightable. This argument will go nowhere.

I will concede that, from what I’ve seen, parts of Palworld do look similar to the Pokémon series. And from the point of view of a fan or player, I can absolutely understand wanting to leave it a negative review pointing that out, or even to boycott it and refuse to play it because of its perceived “ripping off” of the Pokémon series. That’s absolutely fine on an individual level – and I can definitely appreciate why some Pokémon fans might see things that way. But that’s very much a personal, individual decision – and one that has no bearing on any copyright law or trademark case!

For my money, Palworld is a title I’m happy to skip. It’s not my thing – just like Pokémon isn’t. But I found this argument to be interesting – particularly when The Pokémon Company itself weighed in. I doubt we’ll hear much more about this; if The Pokémon Company has decent lawyers, they’ll tell them pretty quickly that nothing in Palworld comes close to violating copyright laws. But hey, I’ve been wrong about these things before… and in a way, I’d quite like to see this issue litigated, especially if it ends up embarrassing Nintendo and The Pokémon Company and costing them a lot of money!

You can read the full press release from The Pokémon Company by clicking or tapping here. (Warning: Leads to an external website)

Palworld is out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X consoles. Palworld is the copyright of Pocket Pair. All other titles discussed above are the copyright of their respective publishers, developers, and/or distributors. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List: Part 2

Wed 15.11.23Wed 15.11.23Dennis

A couple of weeks ago, I put all 48 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s racetracks into an internet-friendly tier list! But the Booster Course Pass has seen the launch of another 48 racetracks over the past couple of years, and now that the sixth and final wave has landed, it’s time to give each one a ranking!

The same rules apply as last time: racetracks will be given one of six rankings from F-tier at the bottom to S-tier at the top, and I’ll be basing their positions on criteria such as track layout, theming, music, and just how much fun I have with each one overall. Racetracks I hate or never choose to play will be at or near the bottom, and the ones I adore will be close to the top.

So what was the state of play when we ranked the first set of racetracks? I’m glad you asked!

F-tier: three racetracks,
D-tier: five racetracks,
C-tier: ten racetracks,
B-tier: twelve racetracks,
A-tier: twelve racetracks,
S-tier: six racetracks.

You can see the first tier list above, complete with all of the racetracks we ranked last time. If you want to check out the full list, including my comments on all of the above tracks, you can find it by clicking or tapping here.

I’ve enjoyed the Booster Course Pass on the whole. The decision to release racetracks in waves was fun, and gave me a reason to keep dipping back into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There have also been some wonderful inclusions from past games, as well as some wild new additions to the Mario Kart series. All in all, the Booster Course Pass has been good fun, and feels like good value for the asking price. When you consider you’re doubling the amount of racetracks from the base game, as well as getting a few new characters, the cost definitely seems reasonable to me!

Racetracks will be listed in the order in which they appear in the game, beginning with Wave 1 and ending with Wave 6. Each track will be given a tier ranking of either F, D, C, B, A, or S, and I’ll provide my reason(s) for my decision. Please keep in mind that not only is this just one person’s subjective take on the Booster Course Pass… but also that this is just for fun. If you hate all of my choices, that’s totally fine!

With all of that out of the way, let’s rank some racetracks!

Tour Paris Promenade (Golden Dash Cup)
Tier: A

Paris Promenade is a wonderful encapsulation of everything Paris wants to be, and in that sense it’s the exemplar of what Mario Kart Tour aimed to achieve with these city-themed tracks. Having visited Paris as a tourist (with a friend acting as a local guide) I have to say that the city itself is probably the worst I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit; it’s an absolute dump. But its idealised version makes for a fun racetrack, and hits all of the tourist hotspots that you’d expect, including the iconic Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Élysées.

I also absolutely love the accordion melody that accompanies the track; it feels wonderfully French!

3DS Toad Circuit (Golden Dash Cup)
Tier: B

Toad Circuit gets a lot of stick from people who say it’s “boring,” but I actually don’t mind it. It was a great first track to introduce new players to Mario Kart 7, and it’s been recreated in more or less its original form here. It was a solid track then, and it remains a solid track now. It’s a pretty basic layout set at a modern raceway – much like other tracks from other games with the “Circuit” name. But there’s nothing wrong with it at all, and I’m perfectly content to race through it.

Decent music, decent theming, and a decent layout come together to make a racetrack that’s… well, decent.

N64 Choco Mountain (Golden Dash Cup)
Tier: D

I felt that Choco Mountain stood out on the Nintendo 64… but this recreation feels decidedly mediocre. The all-brown colour palette manages to feel more akin to dirt than the titular chocolate, and I just don’t find much visual interest in the racetrack or its theming. There aren’t any really challenging points that are fun to master, and this is one of those racetracks where there isn’t one glaring flaw… but rather a lot of smaller things all come together to make it unappealing.

Nice bluegrassy music, though.

Wii Coconut Mall (Golden Dash Cup)
Tier: S

Coconut Mall is elevated to S-tier thanks in no small part to an absolutely amazing soundtrack! Honestly, the musical accompaniment to this racetrack is one of the best in the entire Mario Kart series, and I love the upbeat, fun energy that it brings. Coconut Mall is a fun setting in its own right, with a cartoony shopping centre to race through that’s something a bit different from other offerings in the game. There are plenty of twists, turns, and jumps – and the conversion of the final ramp into a glider section was a great way to update this track with newer Mario Kart mechanics.

There are so many positives here that Coconut Mall absolutely deserves its S-tier ranking!

Tour Tokyo Blur (Lucky Cat Cup)
Tier: C

There’s nothing particularly wrong with Tokyo Blur… but there’s not much about it that leaps out at me, either. I’m surprised, in a way, that Nintendo opted to go for Tokyo instead of Kyoto – the city where the company is headquartered. But maybe they’ll do that in Mario Kart 9 or Mario Kart Tour 2… who knows? Truth is that I’m waffling right now to fill some space because I really can’t think of much to say about a decidedly mediocre racetrack. It was nice to visit Tokyo and have a non-Western city included in the Booster Course Pass.

I just wish that Tokyo Blur had been a bit more… memorable.

DS Shroom Ridge (Lucky Cat Cup)
Tier: B

I like Shroom Ridge. It’s essentially a newer version of N64 Toad’s Turnpike; a racetrack with moving vehicles as obstacles, but with a somewhat more complicated layout. There are a few dips, sharp turns, and generally a bit more theming and scenery. Traffic poses a unique challenge, and darting in between different cars and vans manages to feel like good fun.

Races on Shroom Ridge can be chaotic – but the good kind of chaotic!

GBA Sky Garden (Lucky Cat Cup)
Tier: F

I don’t enjoy Sky Garden. Its “racing on clouds” schtick is dull, and the white-blue-and-tan colour palette isn’t the most exciting, either. The layout is pretty basic, and while we could say that’s to be expected for a racetrack that debuted in Super Circuit on the Game Boy Advance… look at what Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass have done with several GBA and even SNES tracks. There was more that could’ve been done here – but even then, the bland theming would have let it down.

There’s a neat shortcut that can be fun to pull off online, though.

Ninja Hideaway (Lucky Cat Cup)
Tier: B

I should endeavour to play Ninja Hideaway more often, because it’s a racetrack with a unique Japanese-inspired theme that’s a lot of fun. It’s great when a racetrack offers branching paths that take more or less the same amount of time to traverse; it keeps things interesting and varied. Ninja Hideaway also has an easily-missed shortcut that involves breaking a wooden barrier, and an exciting glider section where landing on a higher or lower path is possible.

The theming carries this one a long way – but underneath all that, it’s still a great track to race through!

Tour New York Minute (Turnip Cup)
Tier: S

I adore New York Minute. The jazz soundtrack feels perfect for the “city that never sleeps,” and racing around Central Park and through the Rockefeller Center – where Nintendo’s official shop is situated – is an absolute blast. It’s been more than fifteen years since I last set foot in New York City, but several locations felt genuinely familiar to me, showing just how well the Booster Course Pass (and Mario Kart Tour) have recreated famous landmarks.

Could this be the best of the real-world city tracks? Read on to find out!

SNES Mario Circuit 3 (Turnip Cup)
Tier: S

Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking (again), but I absolutely love SNES Mario Circuit 3. As I said in the first part of this list when discussing SNES Donut Plains 3, everything I loved about Super Mario Kart is present here, and although the racetrack is flat and its theming is basic… the wave of nostalgia that washes over me every time I boot it up is more than enough to carry it into S-tier. I had so much fun with Super Mario Kart in the SNES days… to think I’m still racing through some of these tracks more than thirty years later is funny to say the least!

Definitely a blast from the past – but a solid racetrack in its own right, with a couple of fun shortcuts to pull off, too.

N64 Kalimari Desert (Turnip Cup)
Tier: S

Am I giving out S-tier rankings like they were E’s at a rave… or is the Turnip Cup just that good? Kalimari Desert is one of my favourite racetracks from the Nintendo 64, and the adaptations made to it for the Booster Course Pass take it to another level. I adore racing through the train tunnel, and that each lap takes a different path. I love that there are different routes to take, glider options, and a sneaky shortcut. And the musical accompaniment is just fantastic.

Kalimari Desert’s “American Southwest” theming felt wonderful on the Nintendo 64 – and if anything, it feels even better on the Switch!

DS Waluigi Pinball (Turnip Cup)
Tier: A

I’m not sure what Waluigi has to do with pinball… but there’s no denying that this is a great racetrack! I have fond memories of playing pinball – not at an arcade, but at a leisure centre. That pinball machine was a Star Trek: The Next Generation one, and it was an absolute blast! Everything you’d expect to see in a pinball machine is present in this racetrack, and dodging the giant rolling balls can be challenging! Waluigi Pinball is also the longest racetrack in the game, which is neat. Some tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe can feel a tad short… looking at you, N64 Rainbow Road!

A great soundtrack, a fun and unique theme, challenging obstacles, and an exciting layout all come together to make Waluigi Pinball a great racetrack.

Tour Sydney Sprint (Propeller Cup)
Tier: B

Sydney Sprint takes racers through the Sydney Opera House and across Sydney Harbour Bridge. Those are basically the only two landmarks I know of in the city – the latter from seeing it lit up on New Year’s Eve – so from my point of view at least, it’s a racetrack that hits the major highlights of the city it’s recreating! I like the layout of the racetrack, with each lap feeling different from the last and the final lap actually going “backwards” from the direction the race started.

A solid city track.

GBA Snow Land (Propeller Cup)
Tier: B

I love snowy and wintery racetracks, and GBA Snow Land is a perfectly creditable addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s growing roster of those. The penguins add something a little different midway through, as the track veers off the road and onto a frozen lake. There’s a particularly complicated shortcut that really only works if you have a mushroom and you absolutely nail your drifting alignment… but pulling it off online, in the final lap, and jumping from being in tenth place to first in a matter of seconds? That’s pure racing bliss.

The wintery theming is doing a lot for Snow Land, but it’s a fun racetrack with a cool (get it?) shortcut.

Wii Mushroom Gorge (Propeller Cup)
Tier: A

Mushroom Gorge was great fun on the Wii, great fun on the 3DS, and it’s great fun again here on the Switch. The addition of an optional glider section makes the multi-mushroom jump section different, and perhaps a tad easier for players who find the bouncy mushrooms a bit tricky. I’m not wild about the musical soundtrack, but if that’s my only complaint about this well-laid-out racetrack… that’s not too bad!

A racetrack that’s an absolute blast – and that can lead to some fun and chaotic moments online!

Sky High Sundae (Propeller Cup)
Tier: F

Although it doesn’t officially have the “Tour” prefix, it’s worth pointing out that Sky High Sundae debuted on Mario Kart Tour shortly before it arrived in the Booster Course Pass. Food-themed racetracks are pretty “meh” for me, as I think I said last time, and Sky High Sundae really has nothing going for it. The music is uninteresting, the theming is dull, and the plain oval layout is pretty uninspired, too. Anti-grav does nothing to cover up Sky High Sundae’s flaws.

A racetrack that I almost always avoid.

Tour London Loop (Rock Cup)
Tier: A

I was born in London… and if you’d told me a few years ago that there’d be a Mario Kart track set in that city I don’t think I’d have believed it! London Loop hits most of the landmarks you’d expect: Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the Thames, Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch, and the London Eye being the ones that spring to mind. The soundtrack is fun, each of the three laps takes a different route, and there are many of the London/British staples that tourists and visitors love to see, like phone boxes and double-decker buses.

A fun track that captures the spirit of London.

GBA Boo Lake (Rock Cup)
Tier: D

I appreciate that Boo Lake features an actual lake in this reimagined version… but even a dash of underwater racing can’t salvage what is a pretty bland and uninteresting racetrack. There just isn’t all that much going on here: a fairly minimalist soundtrack, a plain boardwalk to race on, and only one pinch point that offers anything resembling a challenge.

Still, Boo Lake can be a bit of fun at Halloween!

3DS Alpine Pass/Rock Rock Mountain (Rock Cup)
Tier: B

On the 3DS, Alpine Pass (as we know it in the UK) felt like a racetrack that was there to showcase the all-new gliding system. As a result… maybe it wouldn’t be totally unfair to suggest that other parts of the racetrack were less of a priority. Still, there’s a fun soundtrack and some great theming, and I like that the glider sections come with the option to either rush back to the ground or keep sailing through the air. Both approaches feel like they have merit.

A lot of gliding… but most of it is fun!

Wii Maple Treeway (Rock Cup)
Tier: S

Maple Treeway is a beautiful autumnal racetrack that I’m so glad has returned. It looks stunning in 1080p HD on the Switch, and racing up and down a massive tree while the leaves are turning shades of red, orange, and gold… it’s just an incredible experience. The wigglers offer a bit of a challenge, there’s an interesting alternate route if you have a mushroom, and replacing the bouncing net with a short glider section mixes things up a bit.

Oh, and the music! The soundtrack to Maple Treeway is one of the best in the entire Mario Kart series without a doubt!

Tour Berlin Byways (Moon Cup)
Tier: B

Berlin Byways has one of the best musical accompaniments in the Booster Course Pass, and that really helps this city racetrack stand out. It’s been years since I’ve been to Berlin, but a couple of the racetrack’s tourist sites – the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall – felt familiar. I love the addition of Whomps in the Berlin Wall, too – that was a bit of fun, and a surprisingly bold move from Nintendo given that it might’ve seemed flippant and thus controversial.

All in all, a fun dash through the German capital.

DS Peach Gardens (Moon Cup)
Tier: B

Peach Gardens was always a decent racetrack in both its original form and when it was recreated on the Wii. It’s been shaken up this time around with its final lap now running most of the racetrack in reverse. This is a really fun inclusion, and really transforms Peach Gardens into something a bit more special. Racing through the gardens at Peach’s castle was always a neat idea, and although not much has changed visually from the racetrack’s original version on the DS, the titular garden looks better than ever.

Not many Mario Kart racetracks let you go backwards!

Merry Mountain (Moon Cup)
Tier: S

Although Merry Mountain is another racetrack that, if it was being honest, should come with the “Tour” prefix… I can’t really fault it! I love Christmas, and this racetrack’s “Christmas village” theme is beautiful. Part of why I love snowy and wintery racetracks is because of the association with the holiday season, so having an overtly Christmas-themed racetrack in the game for the first time is just fantastic. The music is great, the theming is fantastic, and there are a few fun twists and turns before the racetrack ends with a long, straight run to the finish line.

Merry Christmas! And no, it’s not too early to say that.

3DS Rainbow Road (Moon Cup)
Tier: A

This might be the best version of Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – even though it isn’t my all-time favourite Rainbow Road! This racetrack was a blast on the 3DS, and its recreated version takes all the beauty and wonder of racing through outer space to a whole new level. I love the soundtrack, which brings back the N64 Rainbow Road theme as part of a new, longer musical track, and hopping from the titular rainbow road to planetary rings and the surface of the moon will always be loads of fun.

3DS Rainbow Road really nails that feeling of wonder and magic that the racetrack should have.

Tour Amsterdam Drift (Fruit Cup)
Tier: F

Amsterdam Drift fails at the only real task it had: it doesn’t feel like Amsterdam. The racetrack spends far too long underwater in empty, featureless concrete ditches with crystal-clear water that don’t resemble Amsterdam’s world-famous canals in any way. And the rest of the track isn’t much better, either. The musical accompaniment isn’t noteworthy – nor does it have any features reminiscent of the Netherlands or Amsterdam – and the city sections feel bland and uninteresting. The tulip garden was a nice touch – but can’t salvage this racetrack.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, and it deserves better than this!

GBA Riverside Park (Fruit Cup)
Tier: B

Riverside Park is fun – if a tad short! Jumping through a waterfall will always feel great, and the walking piranha plants are a different take on a familiar obstacle. There are a couple of turns that are fun to drift around, and because Riverside Park isn’t too long, when racing online you’re usually never too far off the pace – making it easy to catch up if you fall behind.

A good example of how to upgrade a classic track without completely changing it into something new.

Wii DK’s Snowboard Cross/DK Summit (Fruit Cup)
Tier: A

I don’t like comparing racetracks from different games to one another… but I can’t help it here because comparisons with Mount Wario are inescapable! DK’s Snowboard Cross might’ve cracked its way into S-tier were it not for Mount Wario taking the same concept and doing it far better. DK’s Snowboard Cross was outstanding on the Wii – and has been recreated in more or less its original form here. But having seen Mario Kart 8′s take on the same idea… it doesn’t seem quite as impressive as it once did.

I love racing through the half-pipe near the finish line – and there’s no denying that this is still a great racetrack.

Yoshi’s Island (Fruit Cup)
Tier: D

Yoshi’s Island is one of only two racetracks to make its debut in the Booster Course Pass. And it’s a shame it’s so disappointing! The theming here is on point, and I will absolutely give credit to Nintendo for recreating the look and feel of Yoshi’s Island. But the racetrack’s layout is dull and it comes with a glaring flaw: that awful flying button that unlocks a slightly shorter elevated path near the end of the lap. There are times when the button is literally unreachable; it’s drifted too far such that it becomes completely impossible to hit it no matter what angle you take from the glider ramp.

That’s poor design, in my view, and drags Yoshi’s Island down a peg.

Tour Bangkok Rush (Boomerang Cup)
Tier: D

I’ve never been to Bangkok, so I’m hardly a good tour guide to the Thai capital. But even with that caveat, I cannot believe that one of the most interesting, important, and noteworthy features of Bangkok is a multi-storey car park. It’s mind-boggling to me that this was included in the racetrack given that there must’ve been other touristy sights worth racing past. Beyond that weird inclusion, though, Bangkok Rush doesn’t do anything to stand out from a growing roster of city tracks.

It’s great to get another city outside of Europe and North America, though.

DS Mario Circuit (Boomerang Cup)
Tier: C

I’m not convinced that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe needed yet another “Circuit” track. Nintendo has made a significant alteration to DS Mario Circuit, adding a forested section with a sleeping Wiggler that wasn’t part of the original version. The inclusion of a couple of tight turns that are relatively fun to drift around just before the finish line help drag DS Mario Circuit out of D-tier… but only just.

A racetrack that just feels… unnecessary.

GCN Waluigi Stadium (Boomerang Cup)
Tier: D

Waluigi Stadium was near the bottom of the list in both Double Dash and Wii, and this revised version doesn’t do enough to make it feel any better or more interesting. The generic “motorsport stadium” theme is bland, the halfpipe sections are functionally useless, and there just isn’t much going on to elevate Waluigi Stadium into being anything better than the sum of its parts. It was a disappointment in both of its earlier appearances, and it is again here.

Waaagh!

Tour Singapore Speedway (Boomerang Cup)
Tier: B

Singapore Speedway is a lot of fun. It feels almost futuristic in places; a reflection, no doubt, of the city-state’s renowned infrastructure and technological prowess. Being set after dark makes the city and its buildings pop, and racing through Chinatown is a change of scenery from the high-rises and neon-lit skyscrapers of the rest of the racetrack.

Maybe it isn’t the best city track… but it’s far from the worst!

Tour Athens Dash (Feather Cup)
Tier: D

Athens Dash is another like Amsterdam Drift where I just don’t feel like its theming has been handled well. Athens – modern Athens, that is – has more to offer than the ruins of Ancient Greece, yet this racetrack ignores all of that and sticks only to the ruins of the Parthenon and the rest of the Acropolis. Including at least one modern building or attraction should’ve been possible, even if the racetrack were to keep its focus on the ruins. Athens Dash leaves me conflicted, because as enjoyable as parts of it are, I feel like it’s missing the point. Some of the buildings in the background are incredibly low-poly, even for a Tour track.

There are also a couple of genuinely confusing points in the racetrack that aren’t well-signposted.

GCN Daisy Cruiser (Feather Cup)
Tier: B

Daisy Cruiser is just… nice. It’s a pleasant track to race around with a sweet musical accompaniment and a fun theme. This version of the racetrack hasn’t really been enhanced beyond where it was in Mario Kart 7 (when it was recreated for the first time), but there’s nothing wrong with that. The underwater section had already added a lot, and it’s hard to see where else to take Daisy Cruiser without losing some of what makes the racetrack as fun to play as it is.

I like the sliding tables in the dining room, those always win a chuckle!

Wii Moonview Highway (Feather Cup)
Tier: A

Yes! Moonview Highway is back! I’d been hoping to see this racetrack make a return, as I’ve long felt it was underappreciated on the Wii. One of the more difficult racetracks in the game thanks to a combination of road traffic and some tight turns, Moonview Highway is a blast. It hasn’t been changed too much from its original incarnation, which is great – but I do lament the loss of Mii characters staffing the toll booths!

A fun, challenging racetrack that I’m happy to play over and over again.

Squeaky Clean Sprint (Feather Cup)
Tier: A

I didn’t think I was going to like Squeaky Clean Sprint when it was first announced. It just seemed, from those clips, like a pretty generic and uninteresting racetrack… but I was so very wrong about that! Ribbon Road proved that shrinking down Mario and the gang for a race was a great concept, and Squeaky Clean Sprint makes such good use of its “toy-sized racers” idea. Racing down the plug hole of a bathtub – past accumulated grime and dirt – felt genuinely icky the first few times I did it, and there’s something about the bathroom setting that’s just comical and fun. The design of the track itself is great, too, with alternate routes opening up in the second and third laps.

A surprise, to be sure… but a welcome one!

Los Angeles Laps (Cherry Cup)
Tier: F

What’s the one landmark that comes to mind when you think about LA? The Hollywood sign! Not only does Los Angeles Laps not race past the most famous landmark on the entire American Pacific coast, but it doesn’t even appear on the hills in the background. Instead, Los Angeles Laps worms its way through the most bland and generic city, with only the brief beach section near the start feeling like anything vaguely inspired by LA or California. And what was going on with that diversion through an oil field?

A boring, generic racetrack that ignores the most iconic emblem of the city it’s meant to represent.

GBA Sunset Wilds (Cherry Cup)
Tier: C

Sunset Wilds came within a hair’s breadth of a B-tier ranking… but then Nintendo opted to rip out its most unique feature! One of the best tracks from Super Circuit – and, I’d venture, one of the best desert racetracks in the entire Mario Kart series – Sunset Wilds lived up to its name in both its original incarnation and when it returned in Mario Kart Tour. The sun would actually set – with the final lap of the race taking place after the sun had gone down. For some reason, this version removes that iconic feature.

The racetrack left behind is still enjoyable… but it’s missing a key element of what made the original so much fun.

Wii Koopa Cape (Cherry Cup)
Tier: B

Koopa Cape was a blast on the Wii, and this version is almost as good. I don’t like the changes made to the warp pipe section; removing the obstacles and rushing water changed things a bit too much. But despite that minor downgrade, Koopa Cape is still fun to race through, and the river section in particular can lead to some fast-paced and hectic fun.

A solid addition to the lineup, all things considered.

Tour Vancouver Velocity (Cherry Cup)
Tier: B

Vancouver Velocity has some cute autumn and winter theming that I appreciate, and racing through both a park and an ice rink adds a bit of visual diversity to what could’ve easily been yet another city track. The anti-gravity section shakes things up, too. There’s also a pleasant soundtrack along with a night time setting that, again, adds something a little different to help Vancouver Velocity stand out a little.

The ice skating Shy Guys are cute, and I love seeing the aurora in the sky.

Tour Rome Avanti (Acorn Cup)
Tier: C

There’s nothing especially wrong with Rome Avanti, and it balances its historical and modern sites far better than Athens Dash. But there’s not a lot about it that leaps out at me, either, and along with a fairly convoluted criss-crossing layout, I just don’t find it a ton of fun to drive. I like the Chain Chomps in the Colosseum, and again the night time look gives Rome Avanti something to help it keep its head above water. But I guess I just don’t see much else about it that’s all that special or memorable.

Still, the standard of driving is far higher than anything ever seen in the real Rome!

GCN DK Mountain (Acorn Cup)
Tier: B

DK Mountain is fun, and it comes with a great musical accompaniment! The cannon section can feel painfully long, but once that’s out of the way, the race down the mountain/volcano feels fast-paced and exciting. The angry face on the volcano looks better than ever in this version of the racetrack, too, which is fantastic, and the return of the dangerous bridge just before the finish line was a much-needed inclusion! There’s a lot to love here.

Oh, and this version retains the shortcut from Double Dash and Wii (that I’ve never been able to successfully pull off!)

Wii Daisy Circuit (Acorn Cup)
Tier: A

Daisy Circuit always felt like an underappreciated racetrack on the Wii, and I’m glad to see it make a return. It’s not got an especially complicated layout, but the inclusion of the original shortcut – now with an added glider ramp – does provide an option if you have a mushroom to use. I like the aesthetic and music of Daisy Circuit, and racing around a sweet little seaside town at sunset will always feel like a ton of fun.

Probably one of the best racetracks to have the “Circuit” name!

Piranha Plant Cove (Acorn Cup)
Tier: A

Piranha Plant Cove is another track that should come with the “Tour” prefix, but we can forgive it because of how much fun it is! The use of the word “Cove” conjures up images of pirates, and this racetrack’s underwater ruins theme kind of plays into that. I like the night time setting, and it’s fun to get a racetrack that’s almost entirely underwater – only the second in the game after Dolphin Shoals to really lean into the underwater racing idea.

A fun concept that has been executed well – and a racetrack that looks outstanding on the Switch.

Tour Madrid Drive (Spiny Cup)
Tier: B

The best part of Madrid Drive is also the shortest: driving through the football stadium! But this short section definitely elevates a racetrack that can feel, in parts, a bit samey in a game with so many other European city tracks from Tour. In a way, Madrid Drive drew the short straw by being the final city track in the game; it’s easy to feel bored of the concept by this point. But its art gallery is fun, the Wiggler in the city square is just plain random, and the aforementioned football stadium – complete with ball-kicking Goombas – gives the track a unique element to help it stand out.

Not the best city track, perhaps… but definitely not the worst!

3DS Rosalina’s Ice World (Spiny Cup)
Tier: A

I love icy and wintery racetracks, and Rosalina’s Ice World really leans into the magic and wonder that snow and ice can provide. Heavily inspired by Super Mario Galaxy, the racetrack has a lot of those magical, mystical elements that really compliment its ice road setting. It was great fun on the 3DS, and this recreation feels faithful to the original while bringing much more visual detail.

As the final icy track in the game, Rosalina’s Ice World delivered!

SNES Bowser Castle 3 (Spiny Cup)
Tier: B

I adore the way in which the original Bowser Castle music from Super Mario Kart has been adapted here. The heavy metal cover brings it in line with the music for Mario Kart 8′s Bowser’s Castle – which is great! Overall, though… I can’t help but feel that this version of SNES Bowser Castle 3 is a little too different from its original appearance. Heck, it’s basically a brand-new racetrack altogether. It’s a good track, don’t get me wrong… I guess it just doesn’t give me the same nostalgic vibes as other SNES racetracks have.

It’s great to get another Bowser’s Castle track in the game, though!

Wii Rainbow Road (Spiny Cup)
Tier: A

I feel a little sorry for Wii Rainbow Road, because it would have almost certainly made S-tier were it not for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe having so many other versions of this iconic racetrack. By the time I reached Wii Rainbow Road at the end of the Booster Course Pass, I couldn’t help but feel it was just a little too samey. That’s not its fault at all, and the way it’s been recreated here is still wonderful. But it gets a little lost amongst other versions of the racetrack – including the 3DS one discussed above.

A solid end to the Booster Course Pass, though.

So that’s it!

We’ve put all 96 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Booster Course Pass racetracks into our tier list. Let’s take a look at the final standings, shall we?

F-tier: seven racetracks,
D-tier: eleven racetracks,
C-tier: fourteen racetracks,
B-tier: twenty-eight racetracks,
A-tier: twenty-four racetracks,
S-tier: twelve racetracks.

Let me just add those up on my calculator… yep, that’s all ninety-six racetracks officially ranked! Check out how the tier list looks:

As I said at the beginning, all of this has just been the wholly subjective (and occasionally arbitrary) take of one person. I’m a huge fan of Mario Kart – and I have been since the very beginning. I think you can see that there are far more racetracks in the upper half of the list than the lower half, and even those racetracks that I don’t enjoy every aspect of can still be fun to race through from time to time.

This has been a fun experiment. I’ve never made a tier list before, but the format is surprisingly good fun. I can already think of a few more ideas for tier lists… so this might become an occasional part of the website going forward!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the different Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Booster Course Pass racetracks. I’ve certainly had fun racing through all of them – though I was clever this time and took my time instead of trying to rush through all of them in quick succession! Now that the final wave of the Booster Course Pass has landed, I think it’s an easy recommendation for any Mario Kart player. Doubling the number of racetracks in the game really does expand it and give it a boost – and with Mario Kart 9 potentially still a ways off, that’s a good thing in my book!

I have more than 200 unused screenshots of Dry Bones (my favourite Mario Kart driver, if you couldn’t tell) racing around practically all of the racetracks in the game, so maybe I’ll put together some kind of gallery of those in the days or weeks ahead. And be sure to stay tuned for more Mario Kart and Nintendo content here on the website in future! If we start to get news about a new Nintendo console, Mario Kart 9, or anything else in that vein, I’ll do my best to cover it and share my thoughts.

Until next time!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now for Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Booster Course Pass, and the Super Mario series are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Twelve Mario Kart racetracks that can stay in the dustbin

Thu 02.11.23Thu 02.11.23Dennis

Yesterday, Nintendo announced which eight racetracks have made the cut and will be included in the final wave of the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And spoiler alert, but there are some incredibly fun ones! Returning to SNES Bowser Castle 3 – in its upgraded form – is perhaps the one I’m most excited about, but there were several others that look like an absolute blast.

But that got me thinking: which racetracks haven’t been included in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or the Booster Course Pass? Nintendo has obviously been saving some real classics for Mario Kart 9, including some highly-requested fan-favourites. And with the Switch’s successor console potentially only a year or so away from launch… that seems absolutely fair enough! One of my only real concerns with the Booster Course Pass has been that Nintendo has used up a lot of good, solid racetracks – potentially leaving fewer to be remade next time around.

While there are some racetracks whose omissions from the Booster Course Pass will undoubtedly have upset fans, those aren’t the ones we’re going to look at today! Instead, we’re going to focus on a handful of racetracks from across the Mario Kart series that I’m perfectly happy to consign to the dustbin – permanently! These are racetracks that I didn’t enjoy either in their original games or when they returned as retro tracks in later games.

It goes without saying that all of this is the entirely subjective opinion of one person! If you love any or all of these racetracks, please don’t take it personally! We all like different things, and this list is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek fun. I’m a huge fan of Mario Kart, and the fact that I’ve found a handful of racetracks to dislike doesn’t change that.

Racetracks will be put into one of three “cups” (which have been given dustbin-appropriate names) just like they would be in any other Mario Kart game. And any racetrack that has appeared in a Mario Kart title is fair game. I’ve tried not to select too many tracks from the same entry in the series.

With all of that out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

Empty Baked Bean Tin Cup

Wario Stadium
Mario Kart 64

Wario Stadium’s unforgivable flaw is that it’s just… boring. There’s nothing interesting or exciting about the titular stadium or the dirt track set there, and while it has a decently twisty layout, all that manages to do is drag out the racetrack too much. There are a couple of turns that can be challenging to take, but even those aren’t anything to write home about. The musical accompaniment isn’t spectacular, either.

Probably Mario Kart 64′s least enjoyable offering.

Baby Park
Mario Kart: Double Dash

As you’ll know if you’ve already checked out my Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tier list, I detest Baby Park. The racetrack’s plain oval layout is bad enough, but what’s worse is how random it is. If you hit a run of bad luck you can end up in last place not because of any skill issue, but by sheer chance. That might keep things “interesting” in some online races… but it doesn’t feel like a lot of fun most of the time.

An admirable attempt to try something different… but one that did not succeed.

Desert Hills
Mario Kart DS

I’m not the biggest fan of desert racetracks. One or two per game might be okay, depending on what else they bring to the table apart from sand. But DS Desert Hills really only has sand. There just isn’t much else going on here that’s any different, and the racetrack has an incredibly bland colour palette that doesn’t offer much by way of visual interest either. Mario Kart can do better desert racetracks than DS Desert Hills – and it has done so on multiple occasions.

With that in mind, what place could there be for a racetrack like this one?

Sweet Sweet Canyon
Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I’m not wild about food-themed racetracks in Mario Kart, and nothing about Sweet Sweet Canyon jumps out at me as being especially fun or memorable. The bland colour palette drowns in tan, brown, and yellow tones, and the inclusion of an underwater section doesn’t seem like it adds much. There are no fun secret routes or shortcuts to learn, and Sweet Sweet Canyon tends to end up as a racetrack I skip every time I play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Those massive donuts look delicious, though!

Dirty Nappy Cup

Toad’s Factory
Mario Kart Wii

There was speculation that Toad’s Factory might’ve been one of the racetracks to join the Booster Course Pass, but you know what? I’m glad that it didn’t! This is probably my least-favourite track from Mario Kart Wii, and one I’d seldom choose to play. The idea of a racetrack set at an operational factory is a fun one… and there were moments in Toad’s Factory that came close to living up to the promise. But there were also annoying pinch points, a pretty basic layout, and one of the worst pieces of music in Mario Kart Wii to drag it down.

I’m all but certain that Toad’s Factory will be back in the next Mario Kart, though!

Yoshi Desert
Mario Kart Super Circuit

Most of what I said above about DS Desert Hills also applies to GBA Yoshi Desert. Desert tracks too easily fall into the trap of being one-note and uninteresting, and while Yoshi Desert gets some credit for being one of the first desert racetracks in the Mario Kart series… even that’s not enough to save it. Also included in Super Circuit was the wonderful Sunset Wilds – a racetrack that took the desert theme in a completely different direction. Yoshi Desert is nothing in comparison!

Yoshi Desert returned in Tour, though… so maybe it’ll be back in a future Mario Kart game, too.

Koopa Beach 2
Super Mario Kart

I adore Super Mario Kart, and I’m not sure that it’s always fair to compare unenhanced SNES tracks with the best that modern Mario Kart has to offer. But that being said, Koopa Beach 2 is a pretty basic track even by Super Mario Kart standards, consisting of a fairly plain oval on a beach. There isn’t much else to say; at least Koopa Beach 1 had some moments of island-hopping to mix things up. This track just… doesn’t have a lot to offer.

Compared with other beach-themed racetracks, Koopa Beach 2 just comes up short.

Amsterdam Drift
Mario Kart Tour

I have a particular criticism of Amsterdam Drift: it doesn’t really feel like Amsterdam. The main reason for that is how much time is spent racing underwater. Now I know that Amsterdam’s canals are famous… but it just felt to me like too much of this racetrack was taken up with underwater racing in these deep ditches that had no points of interest within them. If the racetrack had been called “Canal Crunch” or something, and wasn’t meant to be a representation of Amsterdam, maybe that would’ve been okay.

But the racetrack fails at its one and only objective as far as I’m concerned.

Cigarette Butt Cup

Daisy Hills
Mario Kart 7

To be honest, it was a toss-up whether to include Daisy Hills or Mario Circuit from the 3DS… but Daisy Hills claims the “win” on this occasion. While there are some moments of visual interest and a soundtrack that’s at least okay, Daisy Hills is one of those easily-overlooked racetracks that just feels bland and generic. The brown dirt track, green grass, and blue sky combo has been seen on so many different racetracks with better layouts or more memorable musical accompaniments that it doesn’t feel interesting in the slightest here.

I’d almost forgotten that Daisy Hills existed.

Hyrule Circuit
The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 DLC
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

You may disagree with this pick if you’re a big fan of The Legend of Zelda… but as someone who never played any of those games, I just don’t feel any connection to Hyrule Circuit. The nicest thing I can say about it is that it’s neat to race through a castle that isn’t filled with molten lava, but in every other way this track just feels bland and generic. I don’t think its gimmick of a hidden path that could be opened by hitting switches was particularly well-implemented, either.

Plenty of Zelda theming (I assume, anyway) but I just don’t care about that in the least.

Yoshi Falls
Mario Kart DS

Yoshi Falls is a plain oval with a few boost panels. Its brief waterfall sections are so short that they’re easily overlooked, and there just isn’t much else that’s exciting or even memorable about such a plain racetrack. The giant Yoshi egg gives it a small amount of visual interest, I guess, but even that’s not enough to salvage this one.

Yoshi has indeed fallen.

Rainbow Road
Super Mario Kart

SNES Rainbow Road is a great track, an all-time classic, and a nostalgic punch in the face for those of us who loved Super Mario Kart! So why on earth is it on this list? Simple: it’s been recreated in the last four Mario Kart titles (7, 8, 8 Deluxe, and Tour)… so it needs a break. Bringing it back again in Mario Kart 9 would be repetitive, and transforming the racetrack in the way some other retro tracks have been would take away from its unique charm.

Give SNES Rainbow Road the day off and bring back other racetracks instead!

So that’s it!

I hope your favourite wasn’t on the list… but if it was, sorry! Actually no, I’m not sorry… because this is just one person’s entirely subjective take, and we’re all entitled to our views on this wonderful kart racing series.

There’s only a few days left until the sixth and final wave of racetracks arrives for the Booster Course Pass… and with the development of new tracks for Tour seemingly coming to an end as well, does that mean production is shifting toward Mario Kart 9?! It’s been almost a decade since Mario Kart 8 debuted on the Wii U, so it’s about time for a new entry in the series! I hope that Nintendo doesn’t include the racetracks listed above in the next game… but if they’re present I daresay I’ll get over it! Not every track can be an absolute favourite, but I think every Mario Kart game so far has managed to have far more good ones than bad.

So I hope this was a bit of fun! Stay tuned, because the second part of my Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tier list is in the works! You can find the first part, in which I ranked all 48 racetracks from the base version of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, by clicking or tapping here. And you can find my dedicated Mario Kart webpage by clicking or tapping here.

See you on the track!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now for Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Booster Course Pass, and the Super Mario series are the copyright of Nintendo. Images of GBA Yoshi Desert, SNES Koopa Beach 2, and 3DS Daisy Hills courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List: Part 1

Fri 27.10.23Fri 27.10.23Dennis

As promised, I’m going to put all of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe racetracks into an internet-friendly tier list! In this first part, we’re going to look at all 48 of the racetracks that come with the base version of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Next time, when I’ve had a chance to fully play through all of the Booster Course Pass additions, I’ll put those 48 racetracks into a tier list as well – so stay tuned for that around the holidays or in the new year.

So… what’s a tier list? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Rather than ranking every racetrack from 1-48 – which would be pretty difficult, especially with tracks in the middle – each track is going to be given a rating. There are six possible ratings based on the “tier list” formula that you may have seen elsewhere online.

F-tier racetracks will be at the bottom; these are the worst or least-enjoyable tracks that I’d almost never choose. Next is D-tier: a step up from the worst of the worst, but still racetracks I either generally dislike or hate a particular aspect of. C-tier racetracks are right in the middle and have no major flaws… but relatively few impressive elements. B-tier is a step up from average; these are racetracks that are fun, but not quite perfect. A-tier is where we start to see the best that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has to offer! And finally, S-tier racetracks are the absolute cream of the crop.

Why is “S” the uppermost tier? Why not A or A-star? Truth is… I have absolutely no idea. But that’s how other people have made their tier lists, so I’m sticking with the same basic formula and nomenclature. I guess I could Google it… but there’s no time for that now. We’ve got racetracks to rank!

It goes without saying that this tier list is the wholly subjective opinion of one person! I have my own criteria for determining what I like and what I dislike… and if you disagree or hate all of my rankings, that’s okay! There’s plenty of room for differences of opinion, and I’m in no way trying to say that this is the “objective,” definitive way that everyone should rate the racetracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This is just my opinion, and I share it in the spirit of light-hearted fun.

I’ll be going through the racetracks in the order in which they appear in the game and assigning each one a tier. With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Mario Kart Stadium (Mushroom Cup)
Tier: B

Mario Kart Stadium is a great introduction to the game. It’s not an especially complex racetrack – but it shouldn’t be, as it’s the first one that players will try out. The theming is fine, being set at a modern speedway at night, and Mario Kart Stadium introduces players to gliding and anti-gravity. The anti-grav section is pretty basic, but again, this is the first track in the game.

All in all, a solid start.

Water Park (Mushroom Cup)
Tier: C

Water Park is a racetrack I’ll occasionally choose. I like the theme park vibe that it gives off; it reminds me somewhat of the likes of Disneyland or Sea World. But nothing about Water Park screams “Mario Kart” to me. There isn’t much to firmly place the racetrack – which is only the second in the game – in the Mushroom Kingdom or the Mario franchise, and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be “generic.”

The very definition of a C-tier racetrack, I suppose!

Sweet Sweet Canyon (Mushroom Cup)
Tier: D

Another racetrack that just feels incredibly generic, Sweet Sweet Canyon is one I’d rarely choose to play. It has a very uninteresting colour palette, with lots of yellow, brown, and tan tones that all sort of blend into one, and a musical score that isn’t particularly memorable. The food theme is just kind of “meh” for me, and I know that Mario Kart can do better. It’s not the worst track in the game or anything… just not a particularly fun one.

And that’s coming from a fatso who loves sweets and doughnuts!

Thwomp Ruins (Mushroom Cup)
Tier: B

Thwomp Ruins has some fun theming, being set in an ancient temple that feels like something you might expect to see in the Tomb Raider series! The titular Thwomps are present at several key points along the racetrack, providing an extra challenge, and there are a couple of alternate paths to race along, as well as anti-gravity and underwater sections. There’s also a couple of excellent shortcuts if you have a mushroom (and the skill to use it right!)

This is definitely one to choose if you want a frantic race online!

Mario Circuit (Flower Cup)
Tier: C

There are several great racetracks where anti-gravity feels crazy and exciting… but Mario Circuit isn’t one of them. It’s only if you look into the background and see upside down or sideways trees and other detritus that you’ll even realise you’re racing in anti-gravity… and I just think that’s not great. Mario Circuit isn’t bad; it has a great soundtrack and I’ll always appreciate seeing Peach’s castle.

The layout just feels uninspired, and while there are long anti-gravity sections, they don’t feel all that special.

Toad Harbour (Flower Cup)
Tier: S

In 2013, I was lucky enough to play a preview build of Mario Kart 8 at a press event – and Toad Harbour was the racetrack I got to try out. It was the ideal track for such a demo, as it’s damn near perfect! Taking inspiration from both New York City and San Fransisco, this harbourside racetrack is incredible. Its theming is on point, it has a great soundtrack, and the addition of trolleybuses as moving obstacles keeps each lap feeling different and fun.

Definitely one of the best that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has to offer – and no, I’m not just saying that because I got to play it before anyone else!

Twisted Mansion (Flower Cup)
Tier: B

Twisted Mansion is hands-down the best ghost-themed racetrack in the Mario Kart series to date. It brings together the ghostly Boos – mainstays of the Mario franchise – with elements from the Luigi’s Mansion games, and its haunted house aesthetic sticks the landing. The layout of the track itself is perhaps Twisted Mansion’s weakest element, because aside from the anti-grav section near the start, it doesn’t feel especially innovative. There’s a neat shortcut and an underwater-into-glider section… but other than that, the theming and music are doing most of the heavy lifting here.

Still, that’s more than enough to make Twisted Mansion a fun racetrack!

Shy Guy Falls (Flower Cup)
Tier: C

I love the idea of Shy Guy Falls way more than the execution. This is another track where Mario Kart 8′s signature anti-gravity mechanic just feels lacklustre. I never really manage to get the sense of racing up and down a waterfall; the racetrack’s waterfall sections feel like driving through a river. There’s nothing in the distance or surrounding the waterfall to really evoke the wonder of this setting – not until the very last second. The rest of the theming also feels pretty bland, but I’ll give Shy Guy Falls points for being decently pretty to look at.

There’s a tricky shortcut toward the end that’s a pain to learn… but it can be fun to pull off when racing online or with friends!

Sunshine Airport (Star Cup)
Tier: A

Sunshine Airport is a blast. There are so many little details in the theming that tie this racetrack into other parts of the world of Super Mario, including destinations on the departures and arrivals boards in the airport lobby. Racing along an active runway with a plane coming right at you is also an incredibly tense and exciting moment. I love the way that the track twists and turns, offering multiple paths around an aircraft or across its wings.

Sunshine Airport also has a great musical accompaniment!

Dolphin Shoals (Star Cup)
Tier: B

A racetrack that’s almost entirely underwater could’ve come across as being a bit too gimmicky, but Dolphin Shoals pulls it off well enough. I like tropical beach racetracks, and the crystal clear waters of Dolphin Shoals definitely play into that. The titular dolphins are only present for a brief moment, which is a bit of a shame – but the return of the giant eel from Super Mario 64 as an actual part of the racetrack was a masterstroke!

I’ll definitely give Dolphin Shoals extra points for being something a bit different.

Electrodrome (Star Cup)
Tier: S

Electrodrome is amazing. It’s one of the few tracks where two alternate anti-gravity routes are close enough that you can see other racers – and seeing people racing upside down (from your perspective, at least) is an absolute blast. The music here is fantastic, and the nightclub/discotheque theme is absolutely unique. This is the kind of racetrack that could only work in Mario Kart!

Oh, and the dancing piranha plants bopping in time to the beat? Adorable.

Mount Wario (Star Cup)
Tier: S

Two S-tiers in a row? Wow, the Star Cup is really doing some incredible things! I love snowy, wintery racetracks – when done well – and Mount Wario represents a fun twist on the standard snowy circuit that has been present throughout the Mario Kart series. Racing down a mountain (after jumping out of a plane) is a ton of fun, and the slalom skiing section toward the end is one of the most exciting in the game. There are so many twists and turns and changes in the scenery as you descend the mountain.

Mount Wario is one of the best snowy tracks in the entire Mario Kart series without a doubt.

Cloudtop Cruise (Special Cup)
Tier: D

Cloudtop Cruise has a long cannon section that I’m not wild about, a lot of plain white clouds at the beginning and end, and… not much else. The music isn’t great, the theming isn’t anything special, its one shortcut is a little too easy to pull off, and because the cannon takes such a long time it leaves you incredibly vulnerable to shells and other items.

This just isn’t a racetrack I’m all that bothered about, and I almost never choose to play it.

Bone Dry Dunes (Special Cup)
Tier: C

Argh, this is painful! I adore Dry Bones (if you haven’t figured that out by now), so to rank his first-ever track so low isn’t where I’d have wanted to be. But to tell the truth, I’m being generous giving this one a C-tier ranking, and it’s only Dry Bones’ presence that carries an otherwise bland and uninteresting desert racetrack over the line. I don’t care for the music, the track layout is pretty boring, and there are a couple of pinch points where I always seem to run off the track or into a fence.

There were so many ways to create a Dry Bones-themed racetrack… why go for such a boring desert?

Bowser’s Castle (Special Cup)
Tier: A

Mario Kart 64′s version of Bowser’s Castle is probably the best of the bunch, but this version of the iconic Mario Kart racetrack has to be a close second. There’s everything you’d expect to find in King Koopa’s castle – lava, giant statues, and even lasers! The heavy metal soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to this difficult racetrack, too. There are plenty of obstacles to dodge, from lava plumes and fireballs to punching statues and rolling rocks, making this one of the most challenging racetracks in the game.

Definitely not the first racetrack to show to a beginner – but a ton of fun nonetheless!

Rainbow Road (Special Cup)
Tier: C

I don’t hate this version of Rainbow Road, but when I compare it to other absolutely iconic racetracks bearing the name… I find it comes up short. The space station idea could’ve worked well for another track with a different name, but I feel it gets in the way here and detracts from the whimsical magic of Rainbow Road. The music isn’t quite up to par with other versions of the racetrack, either.

The twisting anti-gravity paths (with no guard rails) do pose a challenge, though – and I can appreciate that, at least.

Wii Moo Moo Meadows (Shell Cup)
Tier: A

Moo Moo Meadows has always been a fun, relatively gentle racetrack – as was its predecessor, Moo Moo Farm. I like the American setting of this cattle farm; it reminds me of several farms that I saw while living in the United States. The soundtrack is just pitch-perfect for that kind of locale, too, and the overall theming carries Moo Moo Meadows a long way!

The cows on the farm are too cute! Extra points for adorableness!

GBA Mario Circuit (Shell Cup)
Tier: C

GBA Mario Circuit, in this modified form, feels like a less-exciting version of Mario Kart Stadium. The layout of both racetracks is similar, even down to the anti-gravity section with a tight turn. I will give points for adapting a fairly plain racetrack in a novel way, and for finding a way to shoehorn anti-grav racing into a retro track that never had it in its original form. But as with most tracks with the “Circuit” monicker, GBA Mario Circuit is nothing special.

I don’t hate it, but it’s not one I’m going to choose very often.

DS Cheep Cheep Beach (Shell Cup)
Tier: A

The tropical beach theme carries Cheep Cheep Beach a long way – but I like the adaptations made for underwater racing in this version of the racetrack, too. The tropical musical accompaniment is great, the sunshine, sand, and clear waters are beautiful in 1080p HD, and there are a couple of places where different routes open up. There’s a lot to love here!

Cheep Cheep Beach is definitely one of the better retro courses.

N64 Toad’s Turnpike (Shell Cup)
Tier: B

I detested this racetrack on the Nintendo 64, but the updated version has definitely improved things. Maybe I’m misremembering, but I feel that the N64 version was a lot less forgiving, with either more road traffic or less space in between the vehicles causing more frequent collisions – and after spinning out in Mario Kart 64, it took longer to get going again than it does in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Updating this racetrack has been good, then – but the anti-gravity path is utterly useless, and the occasional glider moments don’t really add much, either.

Still, a solid reworking of one of my least-favourite racetracks from Mario Kart 64.

GCN Dry Dry Desert (Banana Cup)
Tier: D

A boring desert track without much going for it… Dry Dry Desert scrapes its way above the dreaded F-tier because it has a brief underwater section themed around an oasis that breaks up the otherwise drudging monotony of this bland, uninteresting racetrack. Were there really no better options from Mario Kart Double Dash to recreate?

Aside from the oasis section – which you’ll race through in a matter of seconds – it’s hard to find another redeeming feature in this one.

SNES Donut Plains 3 (Banana Cup)
Tier: S

Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but I adore Donut Plains 3. The track has had less done to it than something like GBA Mario Circuit, but the subtle new additions really elevate it and make it something special. Underwater racing is now present, and I love how one of the bridges has fallen into the lake. The music hits all of the nostalgic notes for me, as someone who played and loved Super Mario Kart in the ’90s, and although it’s a relatively short and flat racetrack… I can’t fault it.

Donut Plains 3 brings back incredibly fond memories.

N64 Royal Raceway (Banana Cup)
Tier: A

If we were ranking the original versions of these racetracks, Royal Raceway would be in the S-tier without a doubt. But this updated version took away one of its most iconic and defining elements: the off-road area in front of Peach’s castle. This part of the racetrack was a little “Easter Egg,” allowing players to stop racing for a moment and enjoy driving in front of the iconic setting of Super Mario 64. Stripping it out feels unforgivable… but I still love Royal Raceway in spite of this shameful omission!

Great music, a fun, twisty layout that’s perfect for drifting, and another nostalgic punch definitely justify Royal Raceway’s A-tier ranking.

3DS DK Jungle (Banana Cup)
Tier: B

DK Jungle is a lot of fun. I love the Donkey Kong Country theme, as the first entry in that series is one of my all-time favourites from the SNES era, and this racetrack adapts it well. Or rather, it adapts the newer Donkey Kong Country Returns! The jungle feels dense and almost claustrophobic, and the banana temple is weird but totally on theme. The soundtrack is another absolute bopper, too!

The only thing I’d have added is some kind of DK-themed coin to replace the standard coins.

DS Wario Stadium (Leaf Cup)
Tier: F

I’m just flat-out not interested in anything Wario Stadium brings to the table. I don’t care for the music, the layout, or the generic “motorsport stadium” theming, and as a result it’s got to be one of my least-used racetracks. As a dirt track in a crowded stadium with jumps, at a couple of points I get almost a Motorcross Madness vibe from Wario Stadium… but even that can’t salvage what is a generally unenjoyable track.

Not sure what else to add, really.

GCN Sherbet Land (Leaf Cup)
Tier: C

Although I’m a big fan of snowy and wintery racetracks in general, GCN Sherbet Land feels decidedly average. I like the ice-skating Shy Guys, and I appreciate the addition of an underwater section in this adaptation. But nothing else about Sherbet Land really jumps out at me, and compared to other winter tracks, it comes up short. It’s not atrocious, and if I’m in the mood I’ll definitely play through it along with its wintery cousins. But most of the time, this is one I tend to skip over to get to more enjoyable racetracks.

The winter theme is definitely doing a lot of work to keep Sherbet Land out of D-tier status!

3DS Melody Motorway/Music Park (Leaf Cup)
Tier: A

Melody Motorway (as we know it in the UK) is fantastic. I love that driving across the various instruments actually changes the racetrack’s musical accompaniment – and hitting a “wrong” note leads to an off-key note being played! This feature alone adds a lot to Melody Motorway – but the racetrack also has a fun optional glider section, the ability to perform tricks in time with the beat, and a twisty layout that keeps things interesting.

Melody Motorway did for the 3DS what Electrodrome did for Mario Kart 8 – and this updated version is pitch-perfect!

N64 Yoshi Valley (Leaf Cup)
Tier: C

Yoshi Valley was a blast on the Nintendo 64. You couldn’t tell at a glance whether you were in first place or fifth, and the whole racetrack had a uniquely chaotic energy as a result. However, upon returning to Yoshi Valley… I think it’s one of those tracks where the concept is let down somewhat by the execution. A multitude of winding, maze-like paths that frequently cross over and intersect one another is a really fun idea, but the way it’s implemented in Yoshi Valley means there’s one “optimal” path and a bunch of others that you’d be almost silly to choose.

I do like the big Yoshi egg, though, and this is another one that hits me with the nostalgic feels.

DS Tick-Tock Clock (Lightning Cup)
Tier: B

I tend to overlook Tick-Tock Clock, but it’s undeniably a fun racetrack. The name and design harken back to the level of the same name in Super Mario 64, but the racetrack puts its own spin on the “clock mechanism” idea. The use of rotating platforms is neat, and the changing clock hands that can provide a shortcut is a clever concept, too. And once again, there’s some great music to bring it all together.

A fun racetrack… and one I should endeavour to use more often!

3DS Piranha Plant Pipeway/Piranha Plant Slide (Lightning Cup)
Tier: A

Piranha Plant Pipeway feels like a creative and fun take on the warp pipes that have been featured in every Mario game going all the way back to the ’80s. The underground sections of the racetrack really nail the feel of some of those early Super Mario Bros. underground levels, and there’s a fun underwater section to boot. It’s not the easiest racetrack to get the hang of, and there are several points where it’s easy to topple off the track or oversteer. But the challenge is part of what makes it great!

Who knew going down a warp pipe could be so much fun?

Wii Grumble Volcano (Lightning Cup)
Tier: D

Grumble Volcano’s gimmick of having pieces of the track fall away is interesting – and one I’d like to see reproduced on a better racetrack! I’m just not sold on the theming here, and the colour palette of the track doesn’t help it stand out. We’ve already got lava in racetracks like Bowser’s Castle… and even on the Wii, I didn’t really see what Grumble Volcano had to offer beyond its gimmick.

Not a racetrack I choose very often.

N64 Rainbow Road (Lightning Cup)
Tier: B

I’m so conflicted about this one. Rainbow Road – as it appeared on the Nintendo 64 – is one of my all-time favourite Mario Kart racetracks… but this version feels much less enjoyable than it ought to be. I think the key to the success of that original version was its relative simplicity: the neon characters in the background, the occasional Chain Chomps on the road… and that was all. Mario Kart 8 filled in too much of the background, created an entire city underneath the racetrack, turned the neon signs into bursts of fireworks, and added a flying train. But the real unforgivable mistake was making it last for only a single lap! In its original form, maybe Rainbow Road was slightly too long. But this one-lap version is too short.

Cracking music, though!

GCN Yoshi Circuit (Egg Cup)
Tier: B

Here’s an embarrassing admission: it took me way too long to realise that Yoshi Circuit is in the shape of Yoshi’s sprite! That layout provides for some surprisingly tight turns and fun twists, which elevate a racetrack that’s visually quite plain into something a bit more special. I love pulling off the waterfall shortcut – even though I’m not good enough to nail it every time – and when racing online, this is another track that can become quite frenzied.

This racetrack was a pleasant surprise when I bought the DLC for the original version of Mario Kart 8.

Excitebike Arena (Egg Cup)
Tier: A

A plain oval sounds like it should be boring as all hell to race around, but Excitebike Arena’s unique randomisation aspect really keeps it feeling fresh and fun every single time. Obstacles and ramps are randomly placed on the track, and there are more than 200 possible variations depending on where they end up. I also like the callback to Excitebike, a game I remember playing on a friend’s Nintendo console in the late ’80s or early ’90s. Excitebike was a fun game for its time… and it’s nice to see that Nintendo hasn’t forgotten some of these old classics!

The randomisation definitely lifts this track up… but the theming is great, too.

Dragon Driftway (Egg Cup)
Tier: C

I don’t hate Dragon Driftway… but I just can’t think of anything about it that’s in any way noteworthy other than its vaguely Chinese aesthetic. The dragon-themed track is fun enough, I suppose, but unless you’re driving slowly enough to admire the scenery that’s not really good enough to take Dragon Driftway into a higher tier. There are a couple of decent turns and good use of anti-gravity, but again… none of that really stands out to me all that much.

A fairly forgettable racetrack, but one where the theming helps it keep its head above water.

Mute City (Egg Cup)
Tier: S

I was a huge fan of F-Zero on the SNES (along with its sequel, F-Zero X, on the Nintendo 64), and it’s a colossal disappointment that Nintendo continues to sit on the series and do nothing with it! But I suppose an F-Zero Mario Kart track is a nice addition. Mute City is a blast, and as a racetrack it really manages to nail the F-Zero feel. The speed, the boost panels, and the futuristic cityscape all bring back wonderful memories of a series of old-school racers that Nintendo has all but forgotten.

The F-Zero sound effects were a nice touch, too!

Wii Wario’s Gold Mine (Triforce Cup)
Tier: C

Wario’s Gold Mine was decent on the Wii, but changing the minecarts from obstacles into moving boost panels really nerfed a significant portion of the racetrack. The overall mine theme isn’t spectacular, either, but I will give credit for the rollercoaster-like dip at the beginning and a fun piece of music. These two elements carry Wario’s Gold Mine a long way!

When I downloaded Mario Kart 8′s DLC on the Wii U, this wasn’t one of the tracks I was most excited to see.

SNES Rainbow Road (Triforce Cup)
Tier: B

SNES Rainbow Road is a classic, don’t get me wrong. And it makes sense to add it to the Mario Kart game that’s been around for the longest amount of time. But at the same time… SNES Rainbow Road had already been recreated several times, including in Mario Kart 7. This version doesn’t do much that 7′s hadn’t already, and I’d rather have seen SNES racetracks like Bowser Castle or Vanilla Lake brought back for the first time than play Rainbow Road again.

All that being said, it’s a challenging racetrack that looks great on the Switch – and it’s another one that brings back those nostalgic SNES memories!

Ice Ice Outpost (Triforce Cup)
Tier: B

I wasn’t sold on Ice Ice Outpost at first. It didn’t feel particularly special the first few times I tried it out, but it’s a racetrack that’s definitely grown on me since the DLC for Mario Kart 8 landed. I like that the iceberg/glacier theme takes the typical wintery track to a slightly different place, and while understated, Ice Ice Outpost’s musical accompaniment is solid.

The dual path design – complete with easily-missed shortcuts – is also something a bit different.

Hyrule Circuit (Triforce Cup)
Tier: D

Having never played any of the Zelda games, I have no connection to the land of Hyrule nor any frame of reference for the inclusions made in Hyrule Circuit. And it’s for that reason that this racetrack doesn’t do much for me. It’s neat to race through a castle that isn’t filled with molten lava for once… but that’s really all that Hyrule Circuit has to offer. For fans of Zelda, I can absolutely see this being a B- or even A-tier track, though. I liked the idea of hitting switches to unlock a hidden path… but the execution was poor and this feels too difficult to achieve consistently. Or maybe I’m just bad at video games!

All things considered, this racetrack just isn’t for me… and I’m okay with that.

GCN Baby Park (Crossing Cup)
Tier: F

This absolute abomination should be nowhere near Mario Kart! Okay, maybe that was too harsh. But Baby Park might be my least-favourite racetrack in the entire game. It’s boring as all hell, consisting of a single, short, unembellished oval. If this was Nascar, maybe that would be okay! Races on Baby Park also feel horribly unbalanced, as it’s too easy to hit a run of bad luck (or good luck, conversely), meaning that races end up feeling less about skill and more about random chance.

If this gets picked online, I might actually disconnect from the lobby rather than play through it!

GBA Cheese Land (Crossing Cup)
Tier: F

Oof, the Crossing Cup is off to a rough start. Cheese Land on the Game Boy Advance had a lot more personality than this bland, uninspired desert track. The titular cheese is all but absent, replaced by the most generic-looking sandy dirt that not only fails to live up to the racetrack’s name, but also feels incredibly boring and too similar to other desert tracks.

I appreciate the attempt to add anti-gravity, but that doesn’t do anything to salvage this thoroughly disappointing racetrack.

Wild Woods (Crossing Cup)
Tier: A

Wild Woods is a surprisingly fun addition to Mario Kart 8 – and the first step toward saving the reputation of the Crossing Cup! Its theming reminds me of books like The Faraway Tree, and the whole racetrack gives off a kind of “enchanted forest” vibe that’s really gentle and sweet. This stands in contrast to a very fast-paced racetrack with a rushing water section, lots of anti-gravity, and some tricky corners!

Races on Wild Woods can take unexpected turns, and the pacing of the racetrack overall feels fantastic.

Animal Crossing (Crossing Cup)
Tier: S

I’m a huge fan of the Animal Crossing series, and this racetrack is absolutely incredible. I love the “four seasons” idea, and the autumn and winter variants in particular are beautiful. Animal Crossing includes practically all of the major buildings, characters, and locales from New Leaf (the game upon which it was based), and racing through this wonderful setting feels absolutely amazing. The music is also inspired by the soundtrack to New Leaf – and has different variants for the four seasons.

Until Merry Mountain was released as part of the Booster Course Pass, Animal Crossing was the only track with any Christmas theming!

3DS Koopa City/Neo Bowser City (Bell Cup)
Tier: A

When I first played Mario Kart 7, I found Koopa City to be too difficult. I’m not sure if that’s been toned down very much in this revision or whether I’ve just gotten a little better at it, but in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe I’ve definitely come to appreciate the racetrack a lot more. I no longer quiver in fear when I see it pop up! The environment is a ton of fun, and something completely different from other Bowser-themed racetracks. In fact, Koopa City feels closer, in some respects, to an F-Zero racetrack than it does to Mario Kart. And yes, I mean that as a compliment!

A rain-soaked futuristic city with some sharp turns makes for a fun and challenging racetrack.

GBA Ribbon Road (Bell Cup)
Tier: B

Ribbon Road reminds me of a Dreamcast game called Toy Racer that I had a bit of fun with around the turn of the millennium. Shrinking down the racers and placing them in a bedroom surrounded by toys is a really fun idea, and I think Ribbon Road executes it quite well. If you pay attention to the background, there are a lot of references to other Mario and Nintendo games, which is fun, and reimagining some of the typical enemies and obstacles to be toys was neat.

Oh, and the rippling section of the track is a ton of fun to land tricks on!

Super Bell Subway (Bell Cup)
Tier: A

I like trains, so Super Bell Subway’s theme definitely sits right with me! I also love the subtle additions of things like graffiti to the titular subway, as it implies that graffiti and vandalism are a thing in the Mushroom Kingdom! There’s a fun shortcut to pull off if you have a mushroom, the moving trains take up a lot of real estate on the racetrack to pose a unique challenge, and there’s a great soundtrack to boot.

All in all, a solid addition to the lineup.

Big Blue (Bell Cup)
Tier: A

Rounding out this first set of racetracks is Big Blue, the second track based on F-Zero. And it’s another fun one! I like the rushing water section, the boost panels, and the incredibly fast-paced final third of the racetrack. Seeing jets (or spacecraft?) performing acrobatic feats in the background is a ton of fun, and Big Blue also manages to really recapture the F-Zero feel.

A fun and exciting way to wrap up the first 48 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe racetracks!

So that’s it… for now!

When I’ve had time to play through the final wave of Booster Course Pass racetracks – which aren’t out yet, but will be released before Christmas – I’ll put together the second part of this tier list. So we’re really only at the halfway point! I feel pretty confident about many of the Booster Course Pass tracks that have been released so far, but there are a few I’d like to spend a bit more time with before settling on an “official” ranking.

Speaking of rankings, let’s take a look at the tier list as things stand after the first 48 racetracks!

Here’s the breakdown:

F-tier: three racetracks,
D-tier: five racetracks,
C-tier: ten racetracks,
B-tier: twelve racetracks,
A-tier: twelve racetracks,
S-tier: six racetracks.

After going back to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and replaying all 48 of these racetracks to capture screenshots for this piece, my poor arthritic thumbs need a break! I haven’t played Mario Kart quite so intensively for some time, and I’m definitely feeling the effects.

So I hope this was a bit of fun. I have a bunch of extra screenshots of Dry Bones racing around almost all of these racetracks, so I might put together a gallery of those sometime in the new year. And please don’t forget to come back after the final wave of the Booster Course Pass lands to see the second part of this list!

Eight Ideas for the Next Mario Kart

Wed 18.10.23Wed 18.10.23Dennis

With the Booster Course Pass dumping new racetracks, characters, and content onto Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, it’s been a while since we looked ahead to what might come next for Nintendo’s flagship racing series. Although it seems pretty clear that the opportunity for Nintendo to launch a brand-new Mario Kart game on the Switch has come and gone, a new Nintendo console might be right around the corner. That can only mean one thing: Mario Kart 9 is on the way!

Okay, maybe I’m getting a little too excited. But with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe being the Switch’s top-selling game, and the Booster Course Pass giving it a bit of a refresh, I’m absolutely convinced that Nintendo will want to get a new title in the series onto the Switch’s successor console as quickly as possible – perhaps in time for the new machine’s first holiday season. If, as has been rumoured, a new Nintendo console might launch next year… we could be a mere twelve months away from Mario Kart 9!

A screenshot from Mario Kart DS. — Can you spot the mistake in this beta version of *Mario Kart DS*?

Or not. But either way, today we’re celebrating my dedicated Mario Kart webpage going live by considering five ideas that I think could make for neat inclusions in the next Mario Kart game – or in any game after that, if Nintendo doesn’t see fit to include them this time! If you missed the Mario Kart page, you can find it using the drop-down menu above… or just click or tap here to head there directly! All of my Mario Kart content will be available there – including my tier lists of all the racetracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is something I’m currently working on! So check back for that at some point soon.

Before we go any further, I’ll give my usual caveat: I have no “insider information.” I’m not claiming that Nintendo is planning to include anything we’re going to discuss today in Mario Kart 9 – and I don’t even know for certain that Mario Kart 9 even exists or is in development! Also, everything we’re going to consider today is the entirely subjective opinion of one person – so if you hate all of my ideas or I don’t include something that seems obvious to you, that’s okay! We’re all entitled to our opinions on this wonderful racing series.

With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at my ideas!

Idea #1:
A first-person mode.

A screenshot of Mario Kart 7's first-person perspective. — First-person racing in *Mario Kart 7*.

The first and only time that the Mario Kart series has offered a first-person view came in Mario Kart 7. In that game, it was possible to see the race from a first-person perspective – but only when also using the 3DS’ gyroscope to steer. It was a bit of a gimmick on the 3DS, and I didn’t use it extensively – but there’s something about racing in first-person that’s just fun.

I’d love to see Mario Kart 9 bring this back, using the more powerful hardware of Nintendo’s next console to allow us to get up close and personal with some great-looking karts and bikes. It would be a blast to be able to race in first-person mode using a standard control pad, without having to be tied to a gyroscope or motion controls, too.

A screenshot of Forza Motorsport (2023). — First-person racing in *Forza Motorsport*.

A first-person perspective is something offered by many racing games on other platforms, and is something most driving and racing titles have done for a long time. The Mario Kart series has long stood apart from racers that take themselves more seriously… but that doesn’t mean Nintendo can’t take inspiration from other titles in the racing space!

Racing in first-person puts you in the middle of the action, and it would also be a great excuse for Nintendo to design different steering wheels, handlebars, and kart interiors. There’s a lot of fun to be had here – and I hope Nintendo’s sole experience with a first-person mode in Mario Kart 7 won’t shoot down this idea.

Idea #2:
A logo maker (like in Mario Kart DS).

Recreating the website’s logo in *Mario Kart DS*!

Mario Kart DS allowed players to draw their own custom logos using a pretty basic in-game logo maker. Making a personal icon instead of using the generic ones made for each character adds a bit of customisation and personality to the game – and that’s always something fun to see!

Again, with more powerful hardware on the way, there’s the potential to expand this feature far beyond the capabilities of the Nintendo DS. Players could even get the option to give karts and bikes custom liveries – something seen in games like Forza Horizon 5, for example. But even if that’s not practical, making custom logos and taking them online would be a ton of fun.

The logo as it appears on a standard kart.

There’s obviously the potential for abuse here, unfortunately. And as we’ve seen in the past, some players will draw rude, offensive, or just plain silly things. But as we’ve seen with custom designs in the Animal Crossing series, for instance, it’s possible to give players these options in a way that’s safe and appropriate for sensitive eyes. Nintendo wouldn’t need to have a whole team of content monitors checking everyone’s logos… just make sure that it’s easy to report anyone with an inappropriate logo so they can be sanctioned.

I’m a big fan of customisation in games – even though I have the imagination of a sleep-deprived pigeon and the artistic skills to match. This could be a whole mini-game in itself… and I’d love to see some of the wonderful and creative ideas that other racers come up with!

Idea #3:
Identical stats for every racer and vehicle.

This is a subject I’ve covered already – and you can find that article by clicking or tapping here. But to summarise: Mario Kart is unbalanced. What that has meant is that there’s one “ideal” combination of driver + kart that, in many races, everyone online is using. It’s not a lot of fun to race online against eleven Waluigis all riding the same Wiggler kart!

Recent tweaks to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe haven’t actually helped this issue – they’ve just shifted the ideal combo to another character and another kart. So my proposal is simple: dump the stats and make every racer and vehicle behave the same way. This would completely negate the problem and open up the next Mario Kart game to allow players to choose who they want to race with and how they want to race.

Complicated stats in *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*.

I find it disheartening, sometimes, to join an online race only to see almost everyone has picked the same kart and driver. Part of the fun of Mario Kart is mixing it up and trying out different combos. With such cosmetic variety, it seems a shame that, in order to remain competitive online or in time trials, there’s really only one (or at the most two) options that are viable.

Mario Kart isn’t a racing simulation, so things like tinkering with stats to get more horsepower… it just seems unnecessary. It would simplify Mario Kart in one way, but it would also open it up and diversify it in another.

Idea #4:
Racetracks with different variants.

The *Booster Course Pass* version of Kalimari Desert has different routes for each lap.

Mario Kart Tour introduced racetracks with different layouts and variants – and I think this is something that could be carried into the next main Mario Kart title. In the Booster Course Pass, several racetracks have different layouts for each lap, which is neat – but I’m thinking of racetracks with completely different layouts that could either be chosen or selected at random.

This could be a relatively easy way to add variety to the next game’s roster of tracks without having to create wholly new tracks with new assets. One variant of a track could be a simple loop, but a second could add additional twists and turns, for example. Both variants could use the same background, textures, and even some parts of the racetrack – like the start/finish line – as well as music. But there’d be something different for players to get stuck into each time.

It would be nice to get some varied tracks in the next game.

Mario Kart 8 launched in 2014 – and it looks set to reach its tenth anniversary before a brand-new mainline Mario Kart game will be ready. If Nintendo hopes to keep Mario Kart 9 around for even half as long, finding ways to keep the game varied and interesting to players will be essential. If the game came with 32 racetracks, but some of those had two, three, or even four different variants, that would go some way to accomplishing that objective.

I expect that the next Mario Kart title will be a kind of live-service experience, with Nintendo making changes and updates on the fly. Some of these updates could add new racetrack variants, which is something Nintendo has already done in Tour. That would be a possibility, too.

Idea #5:
Character costumes and outfits!

Mario in swimwear from *Mario Kart Tour*.

It would be great if every character could have different costumes to choose from. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, there are different colours for Yoshi – but I’d love to extend this to every character in the game. And not just different colours, either, but costumes and hats that transform the look of our favourite drivers.

This could also be a way to simplify the roster. Mario variants (like Metal Mario or Tanooki Mario) could be merged into one, with those outfits being available to players who choose Mario. That doesn’t have to happen, but it could open up the driver list to new and exciting characters!

Princess Peach in a blue dress in *The Super Mario Bros. Movie*.

For other characters, different colour variants, costumes, and hats could all be included. I think Tour has done something like this, so clearly it’s something Nintendo has already been toying with. I think there’s a ton of potential to really mix it up – and it would be great fun to see what outfits people would choose when racing online!

At the end of the day, this is another point about customisation and personalisation. Without having to create entirely new character models, Nintendo could add a whole lot of variety to Mario Kart 9 and allow us to really get a tailored, personal experience from the game.

Idea #6:
Designs from The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Kart racing in *The Super Mario Bros. Movie*.

After spending a lot of money on it, I’m surprised that Nintendo has made no effort so far to cash in on the wild success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. There’s a ton of potential in bringing elements from the film into the next Mario and Mario Kart games… and the sooner the better!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie included a kart-racing sequence, and it was one of the most exciting and entertaining in the entire film! The sequence included several designs based on vehicles from the Mario Kart series – but also some brand-new designs, too. It would be great to see even one of these make its way to the next Mario Kart game.

There were also characters from the movie who could be included. Mario’s parents, for instance, or the penguin king from the opening act. Even including some of these designs as alternate costumes for characters like Luigi, Peach, and Donkey Kong would be a great way to connect with the success of the film.

Creating a racetrack – or better yet, four racetracks in the “Movie Cup” – would also be a fantastic idea. New tracks could draw on the film’s locations in both the real world and the Mushroom Kingdom, taking advantage of the new designs and adaptations that were created. Obviously a game will never be able to completely recreate the art style of a big-budget animated picture… but it could certainly take those designs as a starting point.

Idea #7:
Crossover characters from other franchises and properties.

“More characters” is always going to be a request when we’re talking about a new Mario Kart game – but that’s not really what I’m suggesting here! I think it’s a given that Mario Kart 9 will have an expanded driver roster, bringing in old favourites like Diddy Kong and newcomers to the Mario universe like Cappy.

Instead, what I’m hoping to see are licensed characters from other games and franchises. We’ve already seen Link from the Zelda games, characters from Splatoon, and Isabelle from Animal Crossing… but Nintendo can do better than that, surely!

Although it seemed unfathomable in the ’90s, when Sega and Nintendo were fierce competitors, we’ve seen Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog team up on several occasions over the past few years. Sonic is absolutely the kind of character I’m thinking of – but it needn’t stop there! Characters from games that have been popular on the Switch, like Minecraft or Fall Guys, could be great inclusions, too.

If Nintendo could strike deals with some of the gaming world’s big studios and publishers, there’s almost no limit to the character possibilities for the next Mario Kart game. Even just within the Nintendo extended family, though, there are literally dozens if not hundreds of possibilities.

Idea #8:
More real-world vehicles.

Mario Kart 8 launched in 2014 with a surprising merchandising tie-in: Mercedes! Three Mercedes cars were reimagined as karts in Mario Kart 8, and have been retained in the Switch version, too. Although it was definitely a bit of a surprise to see the likes of Dry Bones and Wario driving scaled-down versions of real-life cars… it was a ton of fun, too!

I don’t pretend to be an expert on merchandising and product placement, so I have no idea how easy or difficult it might be for Nintendo to license real-world vehicles. But the success of the Mercedes tie-in surely makes it something worth considering!

Car manufacturers are clearly open to this idea – otherwise why would they license their vehicles for games like Forza Motorsport? I’m not saying that Nintendo could necessarily get the likes of Lamborghini or Koenigsegg to sign on… but then again, why not? Scaled-down supercars could be an absolute blast… and maybe there could be something like a Tesla or other electric vehicle, too.

The possibilities are limitless, really – there could be classic cars, modern racing cars, and more. If we really branch out, we could look at monster trucks, lorries… even trains!

So that’s it!

We’ve considered eight possibilities for the next Mario Kart game. I’d love to see everything we’ve discussed above when the next game launches… but I’m not sure how likely all of these things are! Still, it was a bit of fun to speculate and fantasise about what Mario Kart 9 might look like.

So I hope this has been an interesting look ahead. As I said at the beginning, I have no “insider information,” and it’s likely that none of the things we’ve been talking about today will make it into any future Mario Kart game. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to consider what the next Mario Kart game might look like! With the series being a mainstay of Nintendo consoles, and a new console potentially launching in the next eighteen months… we might be closer to a new Mario Kart game than it seems!

Remember to check out my dedicated Mario Kart webpage for more speculation and discussion. You can find it by clicking or tapping here.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now for Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Booster Course Pass, and the Super Mario series are the copyright of Nintendo. Some images used above courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

I wonder why Nintendo didn’t think of this…

Thu 22.06.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers are present for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Because I was anticipating news about the next wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass racetracks, I found myself tuning in to yesterday’s Nintendo Direct broadcast. From my point of view, the games shown off by and large aren’t “my thing,” with a lot of attention on the likes of Pokémon, Pikmin 4, and an update for Splatoon 3. But there was news of an upcoming Mario game thrown in there, too… and I’m blown away by how utterly ridiculous some of Nintendo’s decision-making continues to be.

Nintendo never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and this one is possibly the biggest open goal that the company has missed in years. Right now, Nintendo should be seeking every opportunity to cash in on the wild success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a film which has already become the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of all time – surpassing the likes of Frozen, Minions, and every film in the Toy Story series.

Nintendo has missed a golden opportunity to capitalise on the success of *The Super Mario Bros. Movie*.

But instead, the company announced Super Mario Bros. Wonder – a game that has nothing to do with the film, doesn’t make any attempt to use a similar art style, and introduces new game mechanics and power-ups that the film didn’t include. Nintendo has had years to prepare for the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and while I wouldn’t say I was expecting an old-school tie-in game or straight adaptation, I certainly did expect Nintendo to take advantage of the film’s success. There was scope to release a new game that loosely followed the plot of the film, or that at least used familiar settings and a comparable visual style. It’s a profoundly odd decision to follow up the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie with what looks to be a bog-standard 2D Mario game that has nothing in common with the film.

Likewise for the Booster Course Pass. In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a karting sequence was one of the best and most action-packed moments, bringing a lot of fun to the table. The film also re-introduced some classic Nintendo characters in supporting roles, like Cranky Kong, as well as a kingdom of Penguins who were conquered by Bowser. Any of these characters would have been welcome additions to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – cashing in on the film’s success while it’s still fresh in the minds of audiences.

Promotional screenshot of *Super Mario Bros. Wonder*.

But instead, Nintendo opted to bring back characters from Mario Kart Double-Dash and Mario Kart 7. That’s not a bad thing per se, but again it’s a wasted opportunity for the company to take advantage of the success of their big feature film. The Booster Course Pass section of the Nintendo Direct broadcast was pretty lacklustre anyway, with only one new track shown off and no release date mentioned beyond a vague promise of “summer 2023.”

At least the character of Kamek, who played a supporting role in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, was included! There’s an interesting fact about Kamek that you may not be aware of: the character was originally supposed to be playable in Mario Kart 64, even appearing in promo material and in a demo build of the game. Kamek was subbed out for Donkey Kong at the last moment, shortly before release.

Finally, a quarter of a century after being cut from *Mario Kart 64*, Kamek is joining a mainline Mario Kart title!

To get back on topic, I think that Nintendo has missed a golden opportunity to capitalise on the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which received critical acclaim and has been riding high at the box office. While the detailed CGI used for the film would be impossible to fully recreate on the Nintendo Switch, the same art style could certainly be used, and a game that includes locations and characters from the film seems like a really obvious idea that the company appears not to have even considered.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t look great, in my view. It looks gimmicky in the way other modern Nintendo 2D games have been, and I doubt very much if the likes of “Elephant-Man Mario” are going to be incorporated into the long-running series in a big way in future. I love a good 2D platformer, don’t get me wrong, as it was exactly this kind of game where I first cut my teeth as a young player. But what we saw at the Nintendo Direct just looked… unspectacular.

Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be the shot in the arm that 2D Mario games have been needing. Maybe this game will be the Nintendo Switch’s swansong and will eclipse the Zelda games, Mario Odyssey, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I’ve been wrong about these things before, and while Wonder isn’t on my “must-buy” list right now, I’ll certainly check out reviews and see what players and critics have to say when it’s released later this year.

I’m surprised, though, that Nintendo has made no attempt to leverage the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The company has a reputation for abandoning even the most successful projects, and for ignoring requests from fans. So I guess we shouldn’t be all that shocked! I wonder how much more money the company would be making if it listened, if it provided more ongoing support for its own successful games, and if it found ways to better capitalise on its own successes. But hey, that’s Nintendo’s problem!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder will be released for Nintendo Switch in October 2023. Wave 5 of the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be released in “Summer 2023” for Nintendo Switch. All titles discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots/promo art courtesy of IGDB and/or Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Film review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Thu 01.06.23Thu 01.06.23Dennis

The first part of this review is free from major spoilers. The end of the spoiler-free section is clearly marked.

Let’s-a go!

It’s time to review The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has finally made its way to on-demand streaming after wrapping up its exclusive theatrical run. And straight away I can tell you this: I had an absolute blast with Mario, Peach, Luigi, and the rest of the Nintendo gang! The Super Mario Bros. Movie is definitely one of the best non-Disney animated films that I’ve seen in a long time, and it absolutely has to be a contender for the title of best animated picture of the year.

The film puts a twist on the typical story of the Super Mario series, but brings all of the familiar faces that fans of Nintendo’s games would expect. There are so many references, callbacks, and cameos that it’s impossible to count, and speaking as someone who’s followed Nintendo’s games for more than thirty years, I appreciated every single one of them!

I’ve followed Mario for quite some time…

But this isn’t just fan service that only the hardest of hardcore Nintendo lovers can enjoy. The film is accessible to newcomers, too, with a pretty barebones, easy-to-follow story that doesn’t get bogged down. In fact, the story progresses from chapter to chapter with a real light-footedness, with no scene or sequence lingering too long. For kids, and especially for a generation raised on short-form videos and TikToks, I suspect the timing and pacing of the film will be pitch-perfect!

For me… well, I could’ve entertained a story that was at least slightly denser, one that didn’t hop so readily from point to point. There were some moments that felt unearned, perhaps, as Mario seemed to very easily and readily accept his fate in the Mushroom Kingdom, and friendships that appeared to form very quickly. But this is a film for kids – and with a story with such strength and heart, picking on any of these things feels gratuitous and unnecessary.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie accomplished the difficult task of taking elements from the games and making them into something truly worthy of a place on the big screen. The music of the Mario series was reimagined in a style I can only describe as “epic,” with the familiar tunes from the video game series transformed into an heroic score. Visually, the film leaned heavily into the aesthetic of the games – but used its budget to make Mario, Peach, and the Mushroom Kingdom look better than ever.

There had been some criticism of the decision to cast Chris Pratt as Mario, but I felt he did a perfectly creditable job in the role. Mario has never needed to be voiced this extensively before, so bringing in an experienced actor – while not necessarily everyone’s first choice – was the right call. The rest of the voice cast likewise put in excellent performances, and their characters came to life as a result.

Mario was voiced by Chris Pratt – pictured here at the film’s premiere.
*Image Credit: IMDB*

There were a couple of sequences in the first few minutes of the film that I felt might be too scary for very young children – and it’s worth being aware of this if you have very young kids or children who are especially sensitive. These sequences didn’t linger for very long nor have much of an impact on the story overall, but I suspect they may have gone a little too far for at least some children in the audience.

Overall, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an absolute blast, and one I highly recommend. If you don’t mind spoilers for the admittedly rather formulaic and predictable story, stick around, because we’re going to talk about a few story details up next.

This is the end of the spoiler-free portion of the review! Expect spoilers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie from here on out!

Up first, let’s talk about how The Super Mario Bros. Movie puts a twist on the typical “save the princess” trope. Peach is presented as someone familiar with the world of the Mushroom Kingdom, and thus she has the upper hand over Mario, the newcomer. Through a pretty quick montage, Mario is the one who has to learn the ropes; Peach already knows how the power-ups work and how battles in this universe are fought.

But that means Mario needs someone to save; a reason to set out on this adventure and face off against Bowser. Luigi, who’s the easily-frightened younger brother, is perfect for this role. Mario sets out on a quest not to save a random princess – but to save his brother. It’s a perfectly-executed twist on what is a pretty tired and outdated formula, and it works perfectly.

Princess Peach is so much more than just a damsel in distress this time!

The karting sequence was perhaps my favourite in the entire film! I’ve been a Mario fan for years, sure, but Mario Kart is definitely one of my all-time favourite series. The way it was incorporated into the film was hilarious, and it was a surprisingly tense sequence as Bowser’s troops dropped in uninvited. Many of the items from the Mario Kart games were present – banana skins, shells, bullet bills, and even the dreaded blue shell! It was a fantastic sequence, and Rainbow Road has never looked better or more beautiful!

Although the designs of many of the vehicles were based on the Mario Kart games, there’s potential for a future Mario Kart release to take advantage of some of the new designs created for the film. In fact, the time to cash in on that is now, so Nintendo really ought to consider updating Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with things like Toad’s off-road kart and the Koopas’ combat vehicles. It would even be possible to include one or two of the prominently-featured characters from the film as new characters for the game.

The world of the Mushroom Kingdom was brought to life through some excellent animation work, and Illumination is to be commended. The cartoony aesthetic of the Mario games was familiar on the big screen – but it looked better than ever. Peach’s castle, first seen in the iconic Super Mario 64, looked fantastic, and the bright, happily-lit Mushroom Kingdom stood in stark contrast to the “dark lands” and Bowser’s castle.

It’s also fair to say that these classic Nintendo characters have literally never looked better, too! There was previously-unseen detail not only in the main characters, but in every minor background character, too. Whether we were looking at Dry Bones, Shy Guys, Toads, Koopa Troopas, Kongs, or anyone else, the animation was fabulous and consistent. There wasn’t a single moment where I felt that the animation work was sub-par or out-of-place.

To return to the film’s story, one thing I admired was a willingness on the part of Nintendo – a company that hasn’t always shown itself to have a sense of humour about its properties – to recognise the inherent silliness in Bowser’s scheme. Bowser wanted to force Peach to marry him, yet the specifics of how he possibly expected that to work had never been elaborated upon until now. Of course it makes sense that Peach would reject him – and the way in which this was played, with a nod and wink to the audience, was great.

I don’t think it had ever been canonically established where Mario and Luigi hailed from, nor how Peach and the others came to exist in the Mushroom Kingdom. So The Super Mario Bros. Movie had free rein to decide on its characters’ origin stories. Now, I could be wrong about this, as I’m no expert on the minutiae of Nintendo lore, but I’ve always assumed that Mario was Italian – not Italian-American. The decision to give him an Italian-American origin, and in the New York borough of Brooklyn, no less, feels like an oblique homage to 1993’s Super Mario Bros. – the live-action film that did so much to dissuade Nintendo from ever again taking its brands and franchises to the cinema!

The main characters at the end of the film.

So let’s wrap things up. Who is this film for? While I’d say that Nintendo fans and players will absolutely get more out of The Super Mario Bros. Movie than those unfamiliar with its source material, the easy-to-follow story and fairly basic characters should make it accessible to almost anyone – including the youngest kids. There’s a lot to enjoy here!

That being said, there are a handful of faults that keep The Super Mario Bros. Movie from being the greatest kids’ film I’ve ever seen. Some of its plot points – like the friendship between Mario and Toad, or Peach’s plan to defeat Bowser – were raced past incredibly quickly in a film that didn’t spend more than a couple of minutes on any scene or sequence. I could have happily spent a bit longer watching some of these things play out.

All in all, though, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of the better animated releases of recent years. It was a treat to see Mario and the gang taking part in a new kind of adventure, and while I have to hold up my hands and say that 1993’s Super Mario Bros. is one of those “so bad it’s good” films that I consider somewhat of a guilty pleasure, this new animated outing surpasses it in practically every way. If you’re looking for a fun way to spend an hour-and-a-half, and especially if you’ve spent some time with Nintendo and Mario already, it’s very easy to recommend The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is available to stream now and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray later in the year. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the copyright of Nintendo and Illumination. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Rebalancing Mario Kart

Tue 30.05.23Tue 30.05.23Dennis

If you’ve spent a reasonable amount of time playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online, chances are you’ve been in races where practically everyone uses the same combination of driver and kart. Usually this ends up being Waluigi – Luigi’s “evil twin” – for reasons that will become clear in a moment. I’d been wanting to talk about this phenomenon for a while, but the recent release of Wave 4 of the Booster Course Pass brought some changes to the game that make it even more timely.

In short, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is unbalanced. The way the game is set up means that each driver and each kart component have their own individual stats, and when there are differences between these elements, that almost always means that there’s one golden combination that ends up being, by as close to objective standards as possible, “the best.” There’s a reason why more than 90% of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe world records all use the same character and build!

Prior to Wave 4, many time trial world records used this combination of Waluigi, roller tyres, Biddybuggy/Buggybud, and paper glider.

Nintendo has made an incredibly late attempt to rebalance this, with Wave 4 of the Booster Course Pass giving a bit of a boost to other characters and kart components, but the only real result of that will be that the best possible combination will change – possibly from Waluigi to Rosalina, in this case. In a few weeks’ time, online races will be full of Rosalinas instead of Waluigis… until the next time Nintendo tries to rework things.

For most players, I guess that this doesn’t really matter. At my low level, online multiplayer lobbies are still pretty varied, and in single-player mode I can just pick whatever combo I like the look of or feel like trying out. But I think the balancing issue in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe speaks to a bigger issue with the game, and while I would absolutely argue that trying to fix it now, almost a full decade after the original release of Mario Kart 8, is far too late and honestly just plain dumb, there are definitely lessons for Nintendo to learn as the franchise moves forward.

Pink Gold peach and Paris Promenade on a promo image for *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*.

It’s disappointing that there hasn’t been a Mario Kart 9, and that the next entry in this long-running series is now almost certain not to be released until Nintendo launches a new console. I held out hope for a while that a new game might’ve launched last year to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Kart – but alas, it didn’t happen! As we look ahead, though, I have no doubt that Nintendo would want to create a new game for their new console – and with the Switch’s 6th birthday fast approaching, that could be within a year or two!

So when we think about Mario Kart 9, there are definitely lessons to learn from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The first is that racing online has become a huge part of the experience for many folks – even casual players like myself. Online gaming has grown a lot since the Wii U’s release back in 2012, and for many players it’s a core part of the Mario Kart experience now. A new game has to be created with that in mind – even though I hope it will retain robust single-player and local multiplayer modes, too!

It’s hard to believe that *Mario Kart 8* is almost a decade old and was first released on the Wii U!

But most importantly for what we’re talking about today, I think that the idea of individual character and kart stats has got to go. This isn’t a “hard-core” racing simulation – it’s a casual, fun game with a brightly-coloured cartoon aesthetic aimed at players of all ages. We don’t need stats to tinker with like we might in a game of Forza Motorsport or Project CARS; Mario Kart simply isn’t that type of racer.

The fact that most players online and practically every time-trialler end up picking the exact same racer and kart every time kind of detracts from the experience. It makes races feel less unique and less… well, fun. Although characters having weight classes has been a part of Mario Kart going all the way back to its first title more than 30 years ago, if having these stats means that some characters just aren’t viable choices… maybe it’s better to scrap them altogether.

Mario Kart doesn’t need complex stats calculations. This isn’t *Forza Motorsport*!

In short, if every character and every kart behaved the same way, the differences between them would be purely cosmetic, and players would have a lot more fun picking the character they liked best or the kart they thought looked the most fun instead of being forced to choose from a very narrow range of options. I mean, if you don’t like Waluigi, it can’t be all that enjoyable to feel like you have no choice but to pick him every time you race online. Can it?

Even if Nintendo completely shakes up the way stats work for each kart and character, if differences remain there will always end up being better and worse options; it’s unavoidable. If the goal here is to give players more choices, and to make the character and kart options matter, then really the only way to achieve that is to drop the stats idea altogether and have every character behave the same way.

A trio of *Mario Kart Tour* characters – some of whom may be added to *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe* one day!

I don’t think that this would make races any less entertaining. Far from it, I think it would open up higher-level competitions to look completely different, and the same for time trials and world records, too. Sure, it might not “make sense” that a huge kart with monster truck wheels driven by a tall, husky character would be just as fast as a sleek racecar piloted by a tiny driver… but this is Mario Kart. You’ve got sentient tortoises and literal babies racing against ghosts and a plumber’s evil twin across tracks made from clouds or mushroom-trampolines. We’re way, way past “realism!”

So that’s my proposal in a nutshell: dump the stats. Obviously this can’t happen in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – nor should it, as that would completely change a long-running game and probably invalidate a bunch of world records that people worked hard to achieve. But when it comes to Mario Kart 9, I think it would be a great way to rebalance the game and to bring diversity back to racers and karts. If such a move were combined with a great variety of racetracks that offered a range of obstacles and shortcuts, as well as plenty of items for players to blast each other with in competitive races, there’d still be lots of ways to have fun.

Racing around one of the newly-added DLC racetracks.

At the end of the day, when practically everyone online ends up picking the same racer and kart combo anyway, at least doing things the way I’ve suggested would mean people could pick the cosmetic/aesthetic options that they liked best instead of being forced to use a particular character whether they like them or not. For online racing, and especially at higher levels, it seems like a good idea to me, anyway!

As to the changes Nintendo introduced in the Booster Course Pass… I’m on the fence. I can understand the intention behind making this kind of change, as it’s basically a scaled-back version of my own proposal. But in an established game that’s been out in some form for almost a decade… these kinds of changes can upset players, and I can understand that. It’s better to work on this while the game is still in development, and that’s why I’ve suggested that Nintendo should look at how this issue arose. Tackling the root cause – stats – will mean it should be able to be avoided by the time the next game in the series is ready!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass: Who are the mystery characters?

Fri 07.04.23Sat 08.04.23Dennis

The latest update to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC brought with it a big surprise: the returning character of Birdo! I genuinely couldn’t care less about Birdo, to be honest with you; I didn’t like her in Super Mario Bros. 2 and I’ve never been fussed about having her as a playable character in Mario Kart, either. But that’s beside the point!

The Booster Course Pass has updated the game’s character roster, and in addition to Birdo there are now five mystery characters who will presumably be added later this year. On this occasion, I thought it could be fun to make a few educated guesses about who these mystery characters might be… as well as pick five of my own that I’d add if I had the option!

If you read my review of the Booster Course Pass last year, you’ll know that I think it’s been a decent addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe… but it isn’t anywhere near as much fun as a new game would’ve been. The addition of new characters, however, certainly has added an extra element to the game – and as the original version of Mario Kart 8 was released almost a decade ago, that was sorely needed!

I’m breaking this list into two parts. The first part will be characters that I consider likely additions, based on their appearances in Mario Kart Tour – a game that the Booster Course Pass is heavily borrowing from. The second part will be my “fantasy” picks. I’m sticking to five characters in each half of the list – because there are currently only five vacant character slots.

Let’s jump into the list!

Part 1: Mario Kart Tour characters

With only one exception, all of the racetracks added in the Booster Course Pass so far appeared first in Mario Kart Tour. The character of Birdo, who was a surprise addition in the latest update, also appeared in Tour before joining the roster. So in my view, characters who are already part of Mario Kart Tour are far more likely to join Mario Kart 8 Deluxe than anyone else!

With that in mind, here are five of my favourite contenders.

Tour character #1:
King Bob-Omb

Two versions of King Bob-Omb can be seen in this promo screenshot from *Mario Kart Tour*.

King Bob-Omb first appeared in Super Mario 64, and his turn in the driver’s seat in Mario Kart Tour is the first time he’s appeared in the series. It was also his first time as a playable character, having been a boss or enemy in a number of Mario spin-off titles. King Bob-Omb is a heavy character who could join the likes of Bowser and Wario in that category, and as a villain, he could be a lot of fun to race with.

Tour character #2:
Kamek

Promo art for *Mario Kart Tour* featuring Kamek.

Kamek was originally intended to be a playable character in Mario Kart 64, even appearing in the game’s demo version and in some promotional material released by Nintendo. For unknown reasons, Kamek was subbed out for Donkey Kong before the game’s final release – and that was probably the right call! A quarter of a century later, Kamek made their first appearance as a playable character in Mario Kart Tour, and I think they’ve gotta be in contention to join the main game!

Tour character #3:
Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong as he appeared back in the Nintendo 64 era.

Diddy Kong was a playable character in two previous Mario Kart titles: Double Dash and Wii. On the Nintendo 64, Diddy even had his own game: Diddy Kong Racing, which was a fun multi-vehicle arcade racing title. It’s a surprise in some ways that Diddy Kong hasn’t appeared in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, especially as the Switch port added a lot more characters than the Wii U original. Diddy Kong feels like a strong candidate to add to the game!

Tour character #4:
Pauline

Mayor Pauline as she appeared in *Super Mario Odyssey*.

Because Mario Kart 8 was made years before Super Mario Odyssey, none of the characters from that game made an appearance. But with Odyssey proving so popular – and selling so well – it makes a lot of sense for characters like Pauline to cross over. Cappy is also a great candidate, but Pauline could join Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina to give players another female racer to choose. Pauline originally appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong – making her one of the original characters in the Mario series.

Tour character #5:
DK Junior

DK Junior’s pixellated character model in *Tour*.

This one is a bit of a wish, to be honest! But back in the SNES days, DK Junior was one of my favourite characters to race with when I played Super Mario Kart. His return in Tour is the first time the character has been seen since. It could be a blast to bring him back, especially as Super Mario Kart has recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary.

Part 2: My Picks

Karting in *The Super Mario Bros. Movie*.

There are a whole host of Nintendo and Nintendo-adjacent characters that I can think of who’d be a ton of fun to play as in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe! The game has already expanded beyond the world of Super Mario, bringing in characters from the Zelda, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing franchises. So there’s plenty of scope to cast an even wider net!

These characters are less likely to appear than those above – but if I had my way, all five of them would join the party!

Pick #1:
Sonic the Hedgehog

Ever since Sega’s unceremonious exit from the console wars shortly after the turn of the millennium, Sonic has teamed up with his old mascot rival Mario on more than one occasion. As strange as it was to see these two long-time adversaries working together, they make a great pair! Although Sega has its own racing games, several of which feature Sonic, perhaps the time has finally come to have Sonic line up alongside Mario in the definitive kart racing series.

Pick #2:
Minecraft Steve

Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, and has sold more than 3.5 million copies on the Nintendo Switch alone. Steve – Minecraft’s iconic default player character – would be a fun and unexpected addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. He’d be no more out-of-place than the likes of Link, and it could be a really fun way to bring two gaming powerhouses together!

Pick #3:
Tom Nook

Joining Isabelle and the Villager from the Animal Crossing series could be extreme venture-capitalist Tom Nook! Tom Nook was a lesser part of Animal Crossing: New Leaf – the Nintendo 3DS title upon which Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Animal Crossing inclusions are based – but he went on to play a much larger role in New Horizons. As the second-best selling Nintendo Switch title of all time (despite being unfinished and offering less to do than its predecessor) it would make a lot of sense for Nintendo to take advantage of New Horizons!

Pick #4:
Fox McCloud (Star Fox)

Fox McCloud as he appeared in promo art for the SNES title *Star Fox*.

I absolutely adored Star Fox on the Super Nintendo – though the franchise now feels like one that Nintendo has put on the back burner. With 2023 being the franchise’s thirtieth anniversary, bringing Fox McCloud into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe could be a great way to celebrate! Nintendo could do more with the Star Fox series, and I’m surprised that no new game has been forthcoming on the Switch.

Pick #5:
Doom Guy

The Doom series has a history on Nintendo devices, and there was even an exclusive: Doom 64 was only available on the Nintendo 64 (until a recent port brought it to PC, that is!) Doom and Nintendo also had an unexpected team-up in 2020, when the launches of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal coincided, leading to some fun collaborations. Doom is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and it could be a blast (pun intended) to bring a character like Doom Guy into a totally different kind of game!

So that’s it!

I hope this was a bit of fun as we look ahead to some of the characters who may (or may not) be joining the roster of drivers in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It now seems all but certain that there won’t be another Mario Kart game until the Switch’s successor console is launched, and while that’s a disappointment in more ways than one, the Booster Course Pass has at least convinced me to dust off my Switch and jump back into the game. Adding new racetracks has certainly padded out Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and extended its playable lifespan, and new characters will do the same.

Who would you choose to add to the lineup? There must be hundreds of Nintendo and non-Nintendo characters that could make for fun or interesting inclusions in a future Mario Kart title, so we’ve only scratched the surface today! Still, I hope it was interesting to consider who might line up on the grid!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass are out now for Nintendo Switch. The Booster Course Pass will add more racetracks and characters in two more “waves” across 2023. The Mario Kart series – including all titles discussed above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Eight racetracks I’d add to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Wed 21.12.22Wed 21.12.22Dennis

It’s official: I’ve given up on seeing Mario Kart 9 any time soon. That game most likely won’t arrive until the Nintendo Switch’s successor console is released, which is a shame if you ask me! 2022 has been the Mario Kart series’ thirtieth anniversary, and with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe being just an extended port of a Wii U game released back in 2014, I felt that the time was right for a brand-new entry in the series. But Nintendo disagreed, and instead what we’ve had this year has been the Booster Course Pass – downloadable content for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe that’s slowly adding extra tracks to the game in “waves” of eight at a time.

Let’s set Mario Kart 9 and its associated disappointment to one side for now and focus on the Booster Course Pass. For the money, I reckon the Booster Course Pass is pretty good value – or at least it will be when all of the tracks are ready! Only half of the new racetracks have been released at time of writing, so your mileage may vary on how much value for money you think you’re getting!

As I said when I reviewed the Booster Course Pass, several of my favourites from past editions of the series have already been added. Racetracks like Kalimari Desert, from the Nintendo 64, and Coconut Mall, from the Wii, have been included in the Booster Course Pass already, and would likely have made a list like this if I’d made it a few months ago! But there are still plenty of racetracks from past iterations of Mario Kart that I’d love to see updated – so that’s what we’re going to look at today!

I’ve tried to pick tracks from different entries in the series, some of which I’m more familiar with than others. I haven’t invented any brand-new racetracks this time around; these are all tracks that have appeared in one or more Mario Kart titles. For obvious reasons, I haven’t picked any tracks that are already part of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or the Booster Course Pass! And as always, my usual caveats apply: I have no “insider information,” and I’m not trying to claim that any of these racetracks will be part of the Booster Course Pass in future. Finally, all of this is just the subjective take of one person! If I don’t include your favourite racetrack, or include a track you absolutely hate, that’s just the way it goes!

With all of that out of the way, let’s begin!

Trekking Cup:

Racetrack #1:
^SNES Bowser Castle 2

We’ll start by going all the way back to the Super Nintendo! Super Mario Kart may seem rather basic by today’s standards, but it’s where the series began – and it was one of my most-played games of the mid-90s! There were three Bowser Castle tracks, all of which used the same basic aesthetic, and on this occasion we’re going to pick Bowser Castle 2, from the Flower Cup.

Bowser Castle 2 has the infamous “STOP” sign if players take a wrong turn, and that could be something fun as relatively few Mario Kart tracks have anything quite like it; a dead-end path that leads to nothing but lava! The track also splits into two roughly equal paths at one point, and has several hops over the lava. As we’ve seen with other older racetracks, Bowser Castle 2 could be adapted to incorporate anti-gravity or gliding sections.

Racetrack #2:
^Tour Singapore Speedway

One of the surprise hits for me from the first three waves of the Booster Course Pass has been the inclusion of real-world cities. I talked extensively about New York Minute in my review of the Booster Course Pass as I think it’s one of the best racetracks in the game, but I’ve also really enjoyed what Mario Kart has done with Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, and London. At time of writing there aren’t many more Tour-exclusive tracks that could be added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so I’m picking Singapore Speedway this time.

Singapore would join Tokyo and Sydney to represent another non-European city, and while I’d love to see many more real-world cities represented as I feel it’s a fun concept, of the cities that Nintendo has chosen to adapt so far, Singapore feels the most interesting. As the world’s only real city-state, Singapore is a unique place – and I’m sure it’ll be fun to race through!

Racetrack #3:
^N64 Frappe Snowland

I like the music that accompanies this winter-themed track, and I think it would be fun to see it updated. Out of 72 racetracks in the game (at time of writing) only five are winter- or ice-themed (six if you include the winter variant of the Animal Crossing track). So there’s definitely room for another snowy, wintertime track in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

As happened with Kalimari Desert when it was added to the Booster Course Pass, there’s scope to reimagine parts of Frappe Snowland, updating them for the Switch. The jump could be replaced by a glider ramp, an anti-gravity hill could be added, and the final part of the lap, with towering walls of snow, could become narrower or even change shape with each lap.

Racetrack #4:
^Wii Moonview Highway

One of the few Wii tracks not to have been ported to another game, Moonview Highway is notorious for its difficulty. Some fans consider Moonview Highway to be one of the hardest tracks in the entire Mario Kart series – so perhaps some adaptations would need to be made to mitigate this before it could join Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!

Moving traffic is always a difficult obstacle in a racetrack, and has proven tricky going all the way back to Toad’s Turnpike on the Nintendo 64. But as annoying as they can be, moving vehicles keep players on their toes and ensure that every lap – and indeed every race – feels different. I also really like the theming of Moonview Highway; the night time setting, the rising moon, and the combination of city and forest sections make it a visually interesting and distinct racetrack.

Dennis Cup:

Racetrack #1:
^3DS Shy Guy Bazaar

There are plenty of desert levels in the Mario Kart series (and several already in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) but for me, Shy Guy Bazaar has always been a little different. It picks up a vaguely Arabian-inspired theme, with some of the buildings and the main marketplace using that aesthetic. Most other desert tracks in the Mario Kart series take place across dunes or ruins, so having one set in the marketplace of a living town definitely makes Shy Guy Bazaar unique.

I have very fond memories of Mario Kart 7. When the game was released, I was working in a large office in a big city, and I had several colleagues with whom I’d play the game using the 3DS’ download play feature. It was great fun to take part in some very competitive races! Shy Guy Bazaar may not be Mario Kart 7′s best-remembered racetrack – but that’s just another reason to bring it back!

Racetrack #2:
^{Arcade GP} Diamond City

Now we’re heading into some real uncharted territory! Beginning in 2005, Nintendo created a series of arcade machines based on the Mario Kart series, each of which featured a handful of new and unique racetracks. At time of writing, none of these tracks have made it to a home console, remaining arcade exclusives. That means relatively few players have had the chance to try any of these racetracks – and I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s high time to change that!

Diamond City has a fun look – at least based on what I’ve seen of it. A Wario-themed near-future city with some Japanese elements, the racetrack is at least superficially different from others set in big cities. The layout is more than just a simplistic oval, with a tight turn at the beginning, and there are plenty of places where anti-gravity, gliding, or even underwater sections could be included.

Racetrack #3:
^N64 Unfinished Town

If you thought we were getting into some weird territory with the arcade version of Mario Kart, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! This racetrack was seemingly abandoned during development on Mario Kart 64, never making it into the final game. However, thanks to the tireless work of modders and data-miners, the track’s existence was confirmed, and a playable version has even been recreated from files that were uncovered.

The racetrack known simply as “Town” is actually pretty basic from what I can tell, following a fairly straightforward route through a generic town setting. Had work on the track continued, perhaps more theming would have been added! The concept remains interesting, though, and as a slice of Mario Kart history, I think it would be incredible to finally allow this unfinished track to see the light of day in an official release.

Racetrack #4:
^GCN Rainbow Road

In true Mario Kart style, we finish with Rainbow Road! The version from Mario Kart: Double Dash has yet to be remade, and I think it would be great to bring it back here. Like other Rainbow Roads it’s a difficult racetrack, but one whose verticality could lead to a truly excellent reworking that would really showcase Mario Kart 8′s anti-gravity feature in particular.

There are already four Rainbow Roads in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – so what’s one more? The tracks are all different enough from one another to be distinct, so there’s no harm in including this version of Rainbow Road. With only four tracks from Double Dash in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at time of writing, bringing back another from the GameCube era would be no bad thing, too.

So that’s it!

I think we’ve picked some different racetracks that would make for fun and exciting additions to the Booster Course Pass – although I’d be happier, in many ways, if they’d be part of a brand-new game instead! But in lieu of Mario Kart 9, the Booster Course Pass is definitely filling a gap, and has convinced me to pick up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all over again. I suppose in that sense it’s achieved its aim!

This time, I tried to pick racetracks that haven’t gotten as much attention, or that haven’t been remastered or made many appearances outside of the games in which they originally appeared. I’d be happy to see any of these tracks return to the Mario Kart series – and if none of them make it into the Booster Course Pass then maybe they’ll crop up in a future title!

I’ve been having a good time with Wave 3 of the Booster Course Pass. The track Merry Mountain in particular is just what I want to see at this time of year, and it’s been a blast racing through that Christmassy village! London – the place where I was born! – also features in Wave 3 as one of the more interesting (and longest) city tracks shown off so far, and it’s been a blast to replay racetracks like Maple Treeway too.

So I hope this was a bit of fun; some fantasy racetrack additions from a long-time Mario Kart fan. I certainly had a good time going back to replay some of these tracks or just looking at gameplay videos. What better way to celebrate Mario Kart’s thirtieth anniversary?

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass are out now for Nintendo Switch. The Booster Course Pass will add more racetracks in three “waves” across 2023. The Mario Kart series – including all titles discussed above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Brokénmon

Wed 23.11.22Dennis

I’m not any kind of Pokémon fan. I haven’t played the card game, watched the cartoon, nor have I tried any of the 100+ video games in the series and its various spin-offs. But as someone who watches the games industry and its shenanigans, I feel compelled to add my two cents to the conversation surrounding the latest entries in the long-running series: Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

If you didn’t know already (and you didn’t gather from the title of this article), Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have become the latest games to fall victim to one of the worst trends in modern gaming: the dreaded “release now, fix later” business model. To put it bluntly, both games (which are 99% the same game, but Pokémon as a series has been intent on ripping off its biggest fans since the first titles were released more than twenty-five years ago) are buggy messes. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are unfinished at best, and players have found what is arguably the worst experience ever in the long-running series.

The three starter Pokémon – which I’m told are all new for *Pokémon Scarlet* and *Pokémon Violet*.

Today we’re talking about the Pokémon series. But this “release now, fix later” approach has been tried by many different companies over the last few years, and after every big blow-up I think – and hope – that this will surely be the last one. Whether it’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, Cyberpunk 2077, or even 2013’s Star Trek, every time one of these unfinished messes is pushed out too early by a corporation that should know better, I hope that we’ll finally see the back of this truly irritating trend. But it just keeps happening!

Pokémon is one of the biggest names in gaming, and certainly one of the biggest franchises on Nintendo hardware, so you’d think that The Pokémon Company, Nintendo, and developers Game Freak would want to ensure the highest possible quality. With Pokémon Legends: Arceus released just this January, and Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl released last November, it’s not like there’s been a dearth of games in the series lately, nor is Nintendo exactly struggling for money; the company has sold almost 90 million Switch systems and made a quarterly profit of just over $1bn in the three months up to the end of June.

An excerpt from Nintendo’s most recent financial statement.

Why bring up the financials? Well, it’s simple: there was no need to rush this game out of the door. A few weeks or even a few months of extra development time could have solved many of the issues that players have been complaining about, turning a disappointing experience that will be forever tainted in players’ minds into a perfectly creditable new entry in this long-running series. I don’t claim to assess Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet from the point of view of a fan, so I can’t tell you how well-received the new setting, new characters, and new critters might’ve been. But as someone who used to work in the games industry, I can tell you this: it’s very difficult to recover from a bad launch, and it’s nigh-on impossible to change opinions about a game after it’s already out in the wild and criticism is spreading.

And I don’t understand how corporations in the games industry consistently fail to learn this lesson. Very occasionally a title like No Mans Sky will take a disastrous launch and turn it around, but even then, that game forever comes with a caveat in the minds of many players – and many more will forever choose to skip it in favour of other titles that weren’t released too soon. And for every No Mans Sky there are dozens of Anthems and Aliens: Colonial Marines that never win back the support of players. And the jury’s still out on 2020’s most notorious mess, Cyberpunk 2077.

Promo image for *Pokémon Scarlet* and *Pokémon Violet*.

So why did Nintendo do this? There was no need and no benefit to releasing an unready game – and plenty of dangerous consequences. As a brand you have to say that Pokémon feels rock-solid, but it only takes one or two rotten releases to turn fans away, and while Pokémon was a unique proposition when it launched in the 1990s, other games and series have since come along and could pose a challenge. The history of the games industry is littered with once-celebrated franchises that are now either entirely dead… or worse, relegated to nothing more than crappy mobile releases.

Nintendo needs to learn lessons from this, as do The Pokémon Company and Game Freak. While internet connectivity makes it technically and logistically possible to launch a game in an unfinished state and patch out the bugs and glitches later, it’s been proven time and again to never be a good idea. Once the narrative sets in that “Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are buggy and unplayable,” it becomes very difficult to change – and once a game is routinely picking up 0/10 or 1/10 scores from players, that’s more than enough to cost sales.

A player character in an out-of-bounds area.
*Image Credit: Beta Brawler on YouTube*

But there’s also a lesson for us as players and consumers, too. The most important takeaway should be this: pre-ordering is never a good idea. I’ve lost count of the number of games that were released to poor reviews or in a disappointing state, and when there are so few benefits to pre-ordering – especially for digital games where scarcity isn’t a concern – there’s just no need to do it. It’s better to wait and see how well a game is received – especially if, like me, you don’t have a huge amount of disposable income to spend on video games.

That’s before we consider the advantages of waiting. Obviously if a game is released in an unfinished state, waiting even just a few weeks can mean the difference between an awful experience and a significantly better one, but it’s also possible to see significant price drops or sales. Games that don’t perform well at launch can be heavily discounted within a very short span of time. Even the Nintendo eShop has sales from time to time, so unless you’re the hardest of hardcore Pokémon fans, it can make a lot of sense to wait and exercise a little patience and caution. Perhaps it’s too late to do that with Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet (though I hear rumours of Nintendo issuing refunds to some disgruntled players) but it’s definitely something to keep in mind for future releases.

A visual bug in *Pokémon Scarlet* or *Pokémon Violet*.
*Image Credit: Beta Brawler on YouTube*

It’s unfortunate that the games industry has worked itself into such a rotten state that we have to say “be cautious” even about games that we want to be excited for – but that’s the reality of where we’re at. Corporations have continued to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable, and while some games – like Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet – generate a degree of backlash as a result, the sad fact is that this will happen again, perhaps as soon as next week. Even companies with good reputations – like Nintendo or CD Projekt Red – can get themselves into trouble, and we shouldn’t be afraid to call them out for it. It’s poor behaviour, and while Nintendo is definitely getting a kick in the wallet, it likely won’t be enough to dissuade the company from misbehaving again.

For Pokémon fans who feel let down, I feel ya. I’ve been there too – and unfortunately, so have most players at one time or another. It’s never a pleasant feeling when a game we’re hyped or excited for turns out to be a disappointment, and it’s even worse in a case like this where just a little extra development time would, in all likelihood, have resulted in a much better product.

Definitely steer clear of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet for now. I hope that Nintendo and Game Freak get their acts together and patch out as many of these bugs and glitches as they can as quickly as they can – but for now, it’s one to avoid.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are out now for Nintendo Switch. The Pokémon franchise – including all titles discussed above – is the copyright of Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and/or Game Freak. Some screenshots and promotional artwork courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass: thoughts and impressions

Wed 17.08.22Wed 17.08.22Dennis

I’ve got to be honest with you right at the start: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass disappointed me before I’d raced a single lap… or even downloaded it. That’s because I was really hoping to see Mario Kart 9 this year; a brand-new game with new features rather than just an expansion pack for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The original version of Mario Kart 8 released for the Wii U back in 2014 (though I played a preview build at a press event in 2013; lucky me!) so I’ve been waiting to see what Nintendo would do next for a long time. This Booster Course Pass just felt underwhelming when it was announced compared to what I’d been hoping for.

With 2022 being the thirtieth anniversary of the Mario Kart series (Super Mario Kart was released for the SNES all the way back in 1992), and with Nintendo’s love of celebrating big milestones and anniversaries, again the timing for a new game felt right. But I guess Nintendo is sticking to the “one Mario Kart game per console” thing, and the Booster Course Pass is intended to throw players a bone and give the game a bit of a refresh as the Switch enters what must be the latter part of its life. I have no doubt that there’ll be a Mario Kart 9… but now it seems like it’ll be on whatever console Nintendo makes in the years ahead rather than coming to the Switch.

Pink Gold Peach in a promo image for the *Booster Course Pass*.

But the Booster Course Pass makes Mario Kart 8 Deluxe “feel like a new game,” right? That seems to be the cliché that a lot of folks have trotted out to describe the expansion pack. I’d answer that question with a firm “no.” An expansion pack like this refreshes the game, gives it a new lick of paint and shuffles things around, but the same Mario Kart 8 gameplay and visual style is still front-and-centre, even as new racetracks are added. For players who’d been getting bored of that, or who had drifted away from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in search of new experiences, this will be at best a shot in the arm; a temporary boost to bring them back for a while. But the novelty of the new courses will fade faster than it would had there been a brand-new game this year.

But is it fair to judge the Booster Course Pass by that standard? No expansion pack is really intended to be a wholly new game, and there are undoubtedly some fun tracks that have been added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe this time around. Not only that, but the format that Nintendo has used here is a fun one; tracks will be added in “waves” of eight at a time until the end of 2023. The total number of tracks added by the time the Booster Course Pass is complete will be forty-eight – doubling the number of racetracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The *Booster Course Pass* includes tracks from past Mario Kart titles.

I quite like the “wave” approach to the expansion pack. Building up the Booster Course Pass slowly over the span of a couple of years keeps the game feeling fresh for longer compared with dumping all of the racetracks at once in a single event. Your mileage on that may vary, though, and there’s nothing wrong with holding off on picking up the Booster Course Pass until late 2023 when the final wave of racetracks has been added. At a cost of £20 ($25 in the United States) it felt a bit steep at first for only eight additional racetracks; the value of the Booster Course Pass will feel a lot better when all forty-eight are playable!

So who is this expansion pack really for? I don’t think it’s necessarily the natural next step for the Mario Kart series in general, rather the Booster Course Pass is for people who’ve started to get bored of what Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has to offer. Once you’ve played Rainbow Road, Toad Harbour, and GBA Cheese Land a hundred times apiece, this expansion pack shakes things up and provides some new layouts, new scenery, and a bit of a new challenge. For someone new to the Nintendo Switch and/or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I’d say you don’t have as much to gain by picking up the Booster Course Pass at this stage, but it could be worth it later on. It just depends on how repetitive you begin to find the forty-eight courses that come with the base game!

The *Booster Course Pass* may feel like better value in a year’s time.

I’ve made a couple of lists here on the website of racetracks that I’d want to see in a future Mario Kart title, and two of my favourites have appeared already in the first couple of waves of the Booster Course Pass. As with racetracks across the rest of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, older tracks have seen more changes to both mix things up and to fit with the game’s anti-gravity, flying, and underwater mechanics that weren’t present in earlier titles.

Both Coconut Mall and Mushroom Gorge, which were tracks that debuted on the Wii, feel more or less unchanged in the Booster Course Pass. Both tracks were fantastic in Mario Kart Wii and make wonderful additions here. Their musical accompaniments are likewise neat, and both feel like a nostalgia blast! I have fond memories of playing these racetracks with friends during the Wii days, and replaying them in HD on the Switch has been a blast.

Kalimari Desert and Choco Mountain have returned from the Nintendo 64, and the former in particular is one of my all-time favourite Mario Kart racetracks. Choco Mountain is a fun course, although I would say that its all-brown colour palette makes it feel a little bland, and that’s something that could’ve been worked on or adapted for this new version.

Kalimari Desert, though, is absolutely fantastic in the Booster Course Pass. It’s more linear this time around – each of the three laps follows a definite route, meaning players don’t have as much choice when it comes to taking risky shortcuts through the tunnel or over the train tracks. But the adaptations that have been made are fantastic and really showcase the course at its best. There’s something about the “American Southwest” aesthetic that I’ve always loved about Kalimari Desert, and seeing it brought into the modern day thanks to a visual and gameplay overhaul has been wonderful. Although the track also appeared on the 3DS back in 2011, this new version feels like the definitive take on Kalimari Desert.

Kalimari Desert is one of my favourite Mario Kart tracks… ever.

Mario Kart Tour is a crappy mobile game that is bedevilled by many of the pay-to-play and pay-to-win microtransactions that blight the mobile gaming scene. As a result I’m not familiar with most of its racetracks, so the inclusion of several in the Booster Course Pass has given me my first real opportunity to play them. At time of writing (wave two) there have been four racetracks from Mario Kart Tour added; there may be six more to come for a total of ten.

I’ve been lucky enough earlier in my life to have visited both Paris and New York – the settings for two of the Mario Kart Tour tracks included in the Booster Course Pass – and I have to say that New York Minute in particular really hit me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. There were some genuinely recognisable locations in Central Park and the downtown area that I vividly remember travelling to with friends years ago, and again I wasn’t expecting this brand-new track to give me the nostalgic feels in the way that it did! The music for New York Minute is one of the best in the game; the perfect jazz accompaniment to a beautiful racetrack.

New York City comes to *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*!

The Mario Kart Tour tracks also have fun and varied layouts, with each of the three laps taking different routes. I think this keeps things interesting and makes it a lot harder to just drive on “autopilot” even after playing each of the tracks a dozen times. The three other Mario Kart Tour tracks – Paris Promenade, Tokyo Blur, and Sydney Sprint – all hit a number of tourist attractions and key locations in their real-world settings, and it’s something both fun and a little different to race through a Mario Kart track based on a real-life locale.

Having first played Super Mario Kart in the early 1990s, not too long after it was released here in the UK, I’m a dab hand at practically all of the SNES courses that have been included in Mario Kart 8! The sole SNES inclusion in the Booster Course Pass (again, at time of writing after wave two) is Mario Circuit 3, and it’s perhaps the least-interesting from my perspective. Not much has been done to the course’s layout, and with Donut Plains 3 as part of the base game I guess it just wouldn’t have been my first choice. There are better SNES courses, like one of the Vanilla Lake tracks or possibly a Bowser Castle or Koopa Beach that might’ve offered a bit more diversity. That isn’t to say Mario Circuit 3 is bad, just that as an addition to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe it doesn’t offer as much originality as some of the other SNES courses could’ve.

Though there’s nothing wrong with SNES Mario Circuit 3 per se, there are other SNES tracks that might’ve been more fun.

Rounding out the retro courses we have Toad Circuit from the 3DS, which is fine, Snow Land from the Game Boy Advance, which is a cute winter-themed track with an icy road, Waluigi Pinball from the DS, which is one of the most unique concepts on show in the Booster Course Pack so far, Sky Garden from the Game Boy Advance, which reminded me a lot of Cloudtop Cruise from the base game in terms of the way it’s been adapted, and finally Shroom Ridge from the DS – a racetrack with traffic.

There are two brand-new tracks, too: Sky High Sundae and Ninja Hideaway. I like food-themed tracks, so Sky High Sundae was a visual treat! It’s also one of the rare tracks to fully take advantage of Mario Kart 8′s anti-gravity racing feature, which is neat. Ninja Hideaway is a Japanese-themed track with a couple of flying sections that break up what is otherwise a pretty basic layout – albeit one with a fun aesthetic.

So that’s the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I’ve tried to judge the additional racetracks on their own merits as much as possible, and there are definitely some fun inclusions that make Mario Kart 8 Deluxe worth returning to for lapsed players and those who’d been getting bored of the same lineup over and over again.

However, I can’t shake the feeling that it would’ve been better for Nintendo to include these tracks as part of a new game: Mario Kart 9. There could’ve been transformational gameplay changes, perhaps some new drivers from both Nintendo titles and from games and series that have found success on the Switch in recent years, and while the visuals wouldn’t be significantly improved due to the limitations of the Switch’s hardware, changing things up from a gameplay perspective would’ve been worth doing. The Booster Course Pass adds a lot of content and a lot of value to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but a new game this ain’t.

For what it is, though, and for the price, the Booster Course Pass has plenty to offer. There are some fun tracks that I hadn’t played before as well as several blasts from the past that really hit the right nostalgic notes. I daresay the Booster Course Pass will keep Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at the top of the Switch charts now that we’re well into the second half of the console’s life – though whether it’s worth picking up now and trying out each wave of tracks as they arrive or whether it would be better to wait and pick it up in the latter part of next year is going to be up to you.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now for Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass is available as an expansion pack for an additional fee. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass, and all other titles and properties discussed above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Five amazing Nintendo 64 games

Sat 30.10.21Fri 11.03.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers are present for some of the entries on this list.

Nintendo recently launched the so-called Switch online “expansion pack” – representing incredibly poor value, but that’s beside the point. Included with the subscription are a handful of Nintendo 64 titles which the Switch can emulate. It just got me thinking about one of my favourite consoles and some of the amazing games I enjoyed back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

I upgraded from a Super Nintendo (or SNES) to a Nintendo 64 at Christmas 1997, and the console was my primary gaming machine for about three years until I picked up a Dreamcast shortly after the turn of the millennium. Though I had a PC as well at the time, it was underpowered compared to the console and couldn’t come close to matching it. Though we often think of PC gaming in 2021 as being the gold standard that consoles have to try to measure up to, it wasn’t that long ago where even an expensive PC would struggle in gaming performance next to a dedicated games console – and the Nintendo 64/PlayStation generation was certainly part of that era!

A transparent blue Nintendo 64 console – and its controller.

The Nintendo 64 was my first experience with proper 3D graphics. I’d played PC games with 3D environments before, and other games with 3D sprites, but it was only when I sat down to play Super Mario 64 that I got to fully experience a 3D virtual world. It felt like the future back then – and considering that the Nintendo 64 pioneered a number of features that are still part of gaming today, I guess I was right about that!

Aesthetically, I love the design of the Nintendo 64 and its controller. The chunky three-armed device was intimidating at first; “I don’t have three hands,” I remember thinking, “so how am I supposed to hold it?!” But having an analogue stick was a neat feature, one that felt like a massive upgrade from the wobbly joysticks or D-pads of past consoles I’d been able to play on. Navigating the new 3D environments needed a controller suited to that purpose, and the Nintendo 64’s analogue stick delivered – even if it seems a little primitive when compared to the controllers we enjoy today! Having a “trigger” also made shooting games feel all the more immersive.

A Nintendo 64 controller. What a weird design!

The Nintendo 64 had a stellar lineup of games – several of which I only got to play years later as they were unaffordable to me when I was younger and broke! Now I’m old and still broke – but at least there’s emulation! Actually, the Nintendo 64 was the console that got me into the emulation scene back in the early 2000s. After upgrading to a more powerful PC I found that I could emulate the console quite well, and had a blast re-playing a few favourites as well as playing titles I missed out on first time around. I can’t condone emulation – it’s a legal minefield and you should be careful – but if you have a decent computer and know what you’re doing you’ll have a far better (and cheaper) time than you would if you paid for a Switch online “expansion pack!”

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I’d say that the games of this era represent a transitional stage for the video games industry as a whole. Most Nintendo 64 titles feel like a half-step between the rather basic, toy-like games of earlier generations and the bigger, more in-depth and cinematic titles that we’d enjoy a few short years later. The move from 2D to 3D didn’t immediately lead to masterpieces like Shenmue or Knights of the Old Republic, but the rapid pace of technological change meant that those kinds of games were finally possible. The Nintendo 64 has some games that tried very hard to tell more adult-oriented stories, and it was around this time that I felt video games as a whole had a heck of a lot of potential to be something more.

This was an era of transition for video games.

So on this occasion – twenty-five years on from the Nintendo 64’s 1996 debut – I thought it would be fun to look at five of my favourite titles. These are just a few of the games that, for me anyway, made the Nintendo 64 great. My usual caveat applies: I’m not saying these five games are “objectively the best” Nintendo 64 games out there. If you hate all of them or don’t see your favourite on the list, that’s okay! There are plenty of Nintendo 64 games out there, and we all have our personal favourites. These are just a few of mine!

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the list – which is in no particular order.

Number 1: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

A few years before Knights of the Old Republic would come along and absolutely blow me away, Shadows of the Empire took me on an outstanding Star Wars-themed adventure. A third-person action-adventure game with nary a Jedi nor the Force in sight, players take control of the Han Solo-inspired Dash Rendar for a wild romp across the galaxy – set during and just after the events of The Empire Strikes Back!

What I adored about Shadows of the Empire was the diversity of gameplay on display. Not only could Dash run and gun in a 3D world that looked so much better and felt way more immersive than any 2D Star Wars game I’d played previously, but he could also pilot several different vehicles – a Snowspeeder taking on AT-AT walkers on Hoth, his own spaceship, swoop bikes, and more.

Shadows of the Empire came at a time when the old Expanded Universe was really ramping up, and along with a novel and comic was technically considered canon until Disney expunged the Expanded Universe in 2013. However, being an official project with a high degree of involvement from Lucasfilm meant that the game slotted in well to the Star Wars universe, feeling genuinely connected to the events and characters of the films.

Number 2: Super Mario 64

Of course we’re going to talk about Super Mario 64! This was the only Nintendo 64 game I had at first, and I played it for hours and hours! Though I’d played some games on the PC – like Doom – which used pseudo-3D environments, and others which used 3D sprites for 2D gameplay, Super Mario 64 was the first truly 3D game that I played. The difference in how immersive and realistic the game felt, and how it conveyed a sense of scale that really made me feel part of its world are feelings I have never forgotten even a quarter of a century later!

Booting up Super Mario 64 for the first time was a wild experience, one that has stuck with me ever since. But the game itself was fantastic, too, with Mario on a quest to save Princess Peach by battling Bowser and his minions inside painting worlds. The unique premise allowed Super Mario 64 to show off a range of different levels and different environments, and new gameplay mechanics – some of which were inspired by past Super Mario titles – allowed a far greater degree of environmental interaction than ever before.

One level in Super Mario 64 that stands out is Wet-Dry World. Players could change the amount of water in the level, raising and lowering it both by jumping into the painting at different heights and within the level itself by touching special items. The idea that Mario could change the environment in real-time, and then use that gameplay mechanic to solve puzzles, was absolutely genius! And the game is full of other examples of this kind of radical, utterly transformative gameplay.

Number 3: GoldenEye 007

GoldenEye took the first-person shooter concept and honed it, making excellent use of the Nintendo 64’s control pad and analogue stick. Without GoldenEye it’s hard to see how other first-person shooters on console – like the Halo series, which arrived a few years later – would have been possible. It was a pioneering title, and surely one of the best film adaptations of all time!

The Nintendo 64 upped the number of control pads and thus the number of players from two on the SNES to four – meaning four-way deathmatches were possible! Split-screen was the order of the day, of course – this was long before online gaming was commonplace – and among my friend group four-player matches were relatively rare. But when we could get a few friends together, playing GoldenEye was a blast! It had fun, fast-paced shooting, well-designed levels with plenty of variety – from maze-like corridors and small rooms to expansive larger environments – and 3D graphics that put you right in the action.

GoldenEye didn’t create the first-person shooter genre. But it took full advantage of the Nintendo 64’s impressive hardware to feel streets ahead of earlier titles – and even many games that were released around the same time. Fully 3D environments and characters instead of 2D “billboard” sprites and a plot that vaguely followed the events of the film made for a fantastic all-around title. Rare would further hone many of the techniques on display when they created Perfect Dark a few years later.

Number 4: F-Zero X

You might’ve expected me to put the venerable Mario Kart 64 on this list – especially considering how many times I’ve talked about that game here on the website! But F-Zero X doesn’t get the love it deserves, so on this occasion we can put Mario Kart 64 to one side and look at a different Nintendo 64 racer. F-Zero X is a futuristic-themed racing game, with players in spaceship-like hovercars – and they go really fast!

F-Zero X is an incredibly fast-paced racing game, meaning you often need lightning-fast reflexes! It was a blast, and the unique futuristic aesthetic set it apart from practically every other racing game on the market at the time.

Maybe F-Zero X didn’t have the best graphics. It certainly didn’t push the Nintendo 64 to its 3D limits in the way some other titles did. But despite that, it was an incredibly fun racing game, and were it not for Mario Kart 64 I might be tempted to call it my favourite racer of the era! There’s an odd charm to F-Zero X that I can’t quite put into words; it’s a genuinely different game, and that alone made it a ton of fun.

Number 5: Jet Force Gemini

Rescuing a Tribal in *Jet Force Gemini*!

Had it been made today, Jet Force Gemini would surely have kicked off a whole franchise! As it is, this Rare-developed title remains a one-off, but it’s an incredibly fun and exciting sci-fi adventure. Jet Force Gemini is one game I would absolutely pick to bring back for a full remake, because it seems such a shame to me that it’s all but forgotten, abandoned in the Nintendo 64 era.

An action-adventure title set in a unique sci-fi world, Jet Force Gemini had a fun and engaging story. It also had smooth shooting and a trio of fun main characters who each got a turn in the spotlight. The game had beautifully-designed levels, with some being pretty big and expansive offering different paths to get to the end.

Rescuing the Tribals – cute teddy bear-like critters – was an additional gameplay element that added a lot to each level, though the game’s insistence on finding every single one could feel like padding sometimes! But the Nintendo 64 era saw games trying out new gameplay mechanics, and the idea of having hidden collectibles would be honed and refined in future titles. Overall, Jet Force Gemini was a lot of fun – and I’d love to see its world and characters return one day.

So that’s it! Five amazing Nintendo 64 games.

There were loads more titles I could’ve chosen, so stay tuned! This is a topic I may revisit in future. The Nintendo 64 was a great console with some fantastic games. Though it does represent a half-step between older, more basic games and the immersive, cinematic experiences that were soon to come, it’s also a console that pioneered or refined many of the concepts upon which newer games – and even games today – rely.

The Nintendo 64 also had plenty of amazing games in its own right, and while it is an interesting machine from an interesting era in video game history, it’s also a console that I had a lot of fun with in the late 1990s. Back then it didn’t feel like a half-step – it felt cutting-edge, bringing 3D worlds to life and showing off far more realistic graphics than I ever thought possible! It isn’t just the nostalgia talking – the Nintendo 64 was a fantastic machine.

All titles mentioned above are the copyright of Nintendo and/or their respective developer, publisher, owner, etc. Some images courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons finally gets an update… and paid DLC

Sat 16.10.21Fri 15.04.22Dennis

Shortly after Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched in March last year, here’s what I had to say about the game in my review: “When I compare New Horizons to New Leaf, a game that I played way more and for way longer, I feel at least a little disappointed. New Leaf seemed to offer more to do when the shine of playing a new game wore off, and it certainly offered significantly more in terms of playing with friends…”

Many of the criticisms I made of the game – most notably the lack of a significant multiplayer offering and mini-games to play with friends – still hadn’t been addressed, and as 2021 wore on the “updates” that were released for the game were incredibly threadbare. Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, chose to make last year’s holiday-themed updates only valid for one year, meaning much of 2021 was actually spent re-adding holiday events like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas that had already been added in 2020.

Re-adding last year’s holiday events has taken up most of 2021 for *New Horizons*.

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Direct, which premiered yesterday, had the difficult task of making amends with a fanbase that has become disenchanted with the game over the past year or so. Many of New Horizons’ biggest fans hadn’t held back from criticising the game and Nintendo for the lack of proper updates and the lack of communication in 2021, and while the game remains one of the Switch’s best-selling titles, there has been a sense for some time that a lot of folks were simply burnt out and no longer enjoying the experience.

Games have a natural lifespan, so under normal circumstances I’d say that’s just to be expected! But the Animal Crossing series has always been an outlier in that regard; the games challenge players to play long-term, even just for a few minutes a day, but the repetitiveness of the activities and dialogue, combined with no significant updates or new additions, meant New Horizons’ welcome wore out far more quickly than any previous entry in the series.

Brewster and the coffee shop are returning from past games in the Animal Crossing series.

Right off the bat, yesterday’s Nintendo Direct offered a lot of new content, and it’s coming soon – in just under three weeks’ time. The addition of a coffee shop, new islands to visit by boat, a parade of shops (on a separate island), the return of classic characters, more customisation options, more DIY options (including cooking), and an expansion of other aspects of island life, with new items, more storage space, and the like are all incredibly welcome additions. The new update will give players a lot to sink their teeth into – and will probably convince me to either pick up the island I haven’t touched in months or restart the game for a new experience.

However, I do have a few points of criticism. The first is that these updates feel, for the most part, like features that could and should have been part of the game when it arrived in 2020. New Horizons wasn’t exactly threadbare when it launched, but it was missing a number of important features that were part of older games in the series that hampered its longevity. As I’ve said on more than one occasion, New Horizons is basically a “release now, fix later” title.

Kapp’n is another returning character from past games in the series.

The second concern I have, and perhaps the most significant one, is that I don’t see these updates improving the game’s long-term prospects in any meaningful way. They’re going to be a ton of fun… at first. Players who’ve stuck with New Horizons since launch will be thrilled at finally having new things to do, and new players will discover a game that feels much more feature-rich. But when it comes to long-term playing, things like new island tours by boat or a first-person camera are going to lose their shine pretty quickly – just like terraforming and other features did when the original version of the game launched last year.

These new features paper over the cracks and don’t do anything to address New Horizons’ longstanding issues. There was no mention in the Nintendo Direct broadcast of new villager dialogue, for example, which is something the game desperately needs. Anyone who’s sunk a significant amount of time into New Horizons can tell you that villagers simply don’t have much to say after a while, and what they do say is incredibly repetitive. This also extends to Isabelle’s utterly useless “announcements” at the beginning of each day – she usually has nothing of consequence to say, has only a handful of different lines of dialogue, and ignores many goings-on around the island.

No, Isabelle… it really f**king doesn’t.

New Horizons wants to offer players a home-away-from-home on a fantastical island, and the neighbours players will have and befriend are a vital part of that experience. But because the villagers have so little to say, with some common in-game occurrences literally having only one line of dialogue, it makes playing the game feel incredibly repetitive to the point of becoming off-putting. Add into the mix that there are only eight villager “personality types” yet ten villager slots, and you’re always going to have at least two villagers who have identical dialogue even under the best possible conditions.

This was a prime candidate for an overhaul. Unlike adding new gameplay features, new dialogue requires far less development time and far fewer resources. The game’s modest file size could easily handle double the current amount of dialogue – if not more. While the addition of new features like the coffee shop will give villagers a few new things to say, at the end of the day they’re still going to largely be saying the same things that they always have. Once the novelty of some of these new features has worn off, players will be back where they started.

Failing to improve and expand villager dialogue feels like a wasted opportunity – one which seriously hampers *New Horizons’* long-term prospects.

Also missing from the update were multiplayer mini-games. This is a feature I’ve argued needs to be part of New Horizons on several occasions now, and while it’s possible it will come in future as paid DLC, I don’t think that’s good enough. New Horizons currently offers incredibly bad value for players who want to play with friends – Switch Online isn’t free, after all – as there really isn’t anything substantial to do in multiplayer. Nothing in this update will change that, because players will be stuck with the same things to do as before: tour their friend’s island, talk to villagers, and that’s it.

Even some of the features that this update has added feel less than they could’ve been. The coffee shop and parade of shops are in fixed locations – in the museum or on a different island. Yet with a small amount of extra effort, surely Nintendo could’ve given players the option to place new shops and new buildings around their islands? As things sit at the moment, players have one shop, one tailor’s shop, and the museum as buildings that can be placed. Islands are decently-sized, so there was scope to add at least two or three new buildings. Giving players the option to create their own parade of shops would have been fun, and it feels like a missed opportunity that the update has added no new buildings at all.

Couldn’t some of these shops have been optional additions to a player’s island?

I’ve heard some fans argue that they’ve finished designing their island now, so they wouldn’t know where to place a new building. But that’s why something like the coffee shop could have been an option: either included as part of the museum or as a separate building like it was in New Leaf.

The main shop itself has also been ignored by the new update. New Leaf offered players five levels of shop expansion, but New Horizons only has one – and it seems like that’s all there will ever be. The shop doesn’t carry a huge amount of stock: six items at the most (if seasonal items are available). There was scope to expand the shop in the same way as the museum has been expanded, growing it to make it more useful – and to give players something to aim for and work towards.

The shop is staying in its current form.

The aforementioned parade of shops, which will be present on a separate island, could have been part of a shop expansion as well. Gardening items, different wallpapers and rugs, and other such things could have been given their own section within the shop if adding more new buildings to the island was off the table – or as an alternative option.

Kapp’n doesn’t feel like he has a lot to offer based on what we saw in the broadcast. Players have already been able to visit random islands via the airport, and adding a second way to visit a second set of random islands feels like something that will have limited use and, at least based on the way I play the game, is likely not to be used very often. Even if there are multiple new plants, shrubs, and trees, once these have been found and collected I don’t really see what else Kapp’n is going to be useful for – and this really comes back to what I was saying about the update’s longevity.

Players could already visit random islands via the airport… Kapp’n doesn’t seem to offer much that’s different.

Gyroids were never my thing in past Animal Crossing games, but they were always a part of the series so it’s nice to see them return. Brewster, the character who runs the coffee shop, was a big fan of Gyroids, so it makes sense that they’d be part of the update that brought him back. The addition of new items, new furniture, wallpapers, and the like is good, and the ability to hang items from the ceiling is likewise an extra dimension to customisation. None of that will be earth-shattering, but I love a game with customisation options, so adding more ways to customise and to make the island and player’s home feel unique is certainly a good thing.

The addition of town ordinances, which were present in New Leaf, will change things up a little and improve the quality-of-life for some players. Being able to shift the island’s activity to earlier or later in the day should allow some players with tight schedules the ability to play more at a more convenient time, and that’s a positive thing. Again, though, I feel like this should really have been part of the game from the beginning – it was part of New Leaf in 2013, so it can hardly be called a “new” feature.

Perhaps the one addition that interested me the most was the DIY expansion, particularly cooking. The addition of new vegetables and new crops seems to have opened up a range of new DIY recipes for food – and this looks like something that has the potential to be a lot of fun. New Horizons does have a number of food items already, but adding new ones and different ones that can be created is certainly something I find interesting.

DIY has been a double-edged sword in New Horizons sometimes, though. Item durability – a feature copied from the likes of Minecraft – is almost never handled well in any game, and it doesn’t work well in New Horizons. Having to constantly replace broken tools rapidly stops being fun – if it was ever fun – and the fact that DIY doesn’t work particularly well or especially intuitively has hampered the experience. For example, being able to craft more than one item at a time – particularly for one-time use items like fish bait – would massively improve the experience, as would the ability to craft tools in one step instead of two. Neither of these quality-of-life improvements has been added to New Horizons.

Being able to cook different dishes seems like a fun feature – and something actually new!

The addition of a first-person photo mode looks like fun, but the kind of gimmicky fun that I might use a few times at the most. New hairstyles might be fun for some people – and being able to represent different types of hair in a game is no bad thing. More K.K. Slider songs might be your thing… but it’s definitely not mine!

Being able to set up ladders at particular cliffs is something I can see being useful, even as the number of available inclines is slightly expanded. Also allowing players to navigate smaller gaps in between furniture is likewise something that will be useful in certain circumstances. I wouldn’t say that either are groundbreaking, but smaller quality-of-life improvements like these were definitely needed.

The ability to permanently set up ladders is a small addition, but a decent one.

So let’s talk about money. Everything we’ve discussed so far will be added for free, and that’s no bad thing. New Horizons did promise free updates when it launched. But this update will be the last free one for New Horizons, and the first paid DLC has already been announced.

Considering that there are still missing features, and that some quality-of-life additions, like new dialogue and improvements to crafting, haven’t been made, I can’t be the only one who feels it’s rather bold of Nintendo to begin demanding $25 for an expansion to the game – especially considering the expansion is based on 3DS title Happy Home Designer, and thus is hardly something we can call “new.”

*New Horizons* is getting its first paid DLC.

It also means that multiplayer mini-games – if they ever come to New Horizons, and it would be such a shame if they didn’t – will now almost certainly be paid DLC as well. The Happy Home Paradise DLC seems like it could be the first of many, and next year could see at least one or two more paid DLC packs as well – which would greatly increase the cost of playing New Horizons in full.

Happy Home Paradise looks like an updated riff on the Happy Home Designer concept. It does add new things, like partition walls, countertops, and so on, some of which can be brought to a player’s main island home as well. I’m not going to argue that Happy Home Paradise should’ve been free – though it absolutely could have been if Nintendo was a more customer-friendly company – but I’m not sure the timing is right considering that the base game will still be missing key features even after this latest – and final – update.

One of the features present in the DLC pack is the ability to build partition walls.

Version 2.0, which will be the final free update for New Horizons, still doesn’t get it over the line. The game is still going to be missing important features that previous entries in the series had. Some of these features – like multiplayer mini-games – gave the Animal Crossing series much of its long-term value, and without them it’s hard to see New Horizons being a game that will live up to the legacy of its predecessors. Don’t get me wrong, practically all of the additions and updates look like fun… but they look like short-term fun at best.

In addition, the game’s final update will do nothing to address player criticisms and complaints about a number of quality-of-life issues, some of which are pretty major. The lack of expanded dialogue for villagers, the lack of fixes for basic DIY issues, and a number of other points have all been ignored by Nintendo in their rush to blitz through New Horizons’ free updates so they could begin selling paid DLC. As a result, New Horizons in its base form is still not good enough for the kind of game it wants to be – and even the addition of this first paid expansion pack won’t address these concerns.

Adding a coffee shop doesn’t fix what’s fundamentally missing from *New Horizons*.

There are things to look forward to on the fifth of November, and I’m debating whether to jump back into the game or even start a new file in the run-up to the update going live. However, I’m already predicting that many of the new features added into the game will have a relatively short shelf-life, and while they may very well carry New Horizons into the beginning of 2022, the game’s longer-term prospects are still pretty poor.

I judge New Horizons based on how much I enjoyed its predecessor, New Leaf. I played that game on and off for more than seven years because it just had so much to offer and so much going on to convince me to keep coming back. I got bored of New Horizons within a couple of months, and while two months and 100+ hours is definitely a lot of time when compared to many other games, by Animal Crossing standards that’s nothing. Unfortunately everything I’ve seen from this update, and its paid DLC companion, tells me that New Horizons is going to get a short-term fix that will tide fans over for a little while but ultimately does nothing to address the game’s real longevity.

Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong – maybe New Horizons was never meant to be the kind of long-term project that its predecessors were. Perhaps gaming has just changed too much in the past decade or so such that a long-term experience was never something that most players were interested in. If that’s the case then I’m judging New Horizons unfairly. Maybe it was just never meant to be the long-term experience that I expected.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch. Version 2.0 will launch on the 5th of November 2021 as a free update, and Happy Home Paradise will launch also on the 5th of November 2021 as paid DLC. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons needs a BIG update this summer

Tue 27.07.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

Some of the biggest fans of Animal Crossing: New Horizons are beginning to sour on the game, having come to realise something I commented on last year: New Horizons feels incomplete, as though it were released before it was ready. At time of writing it has been basically three months since the game was last updated (version 1.10 came out on the 28th of April) and that update hardly added anything of consequence to the game.

New Horizons was released along with the promise of a plethora of updates, with many publications picking up the same figure: updates would continue to roll out for the game for at least three years. Less than half of that time has elapsed, yet many fans are questioning whether the next update will be the last, such has been the lack of care and lack of communication from Nintendo.

Nintendo has not done a good job at updating *New Horizons*, nor at keeping players informed about what’s coming next for the game.

Nintendo seems content to roll around in the money it’s made from sales of the game, no longer caring that the players who paid £55 or $60 are becoming increasingly dissatisfied. The company’s attitude seems to be “we’ve already got your money, so piss off.” After such a long time with no news and no updates, in order to win back the support of the folks who should be the game’s biggest fans Nintendo has to go all-in with the next update and bring something big to the table.

There are many, many things wrong with New Horizons in mid-2021 that make the game so much less than it could be, and a poor relation in many respects to its predecessor: 2013 Nintendo 3DS title Animal Crossing: New Leaf. As I said recently, New Horizons effectively offers players nothing to do in multiplayer, and is not worth paying for a Switch Online subscription. There simply isn’t anything to do aside from visit a friend’s island, because when you get there and you’ve had a look around, that’s it. There are no mini-games to play, there’s nothing different to collect, and compared to New Leaf – a game with such a fun multiplayer mode that I was still dabbling in it with friends more than seven years after the game’s release – New Horizons is absolutely boring.

Multiplayer mini-games on the tropical island were a huge part of *New Leaf* and are wholly absent in *New Horizons*.

The addition of multiplayer mini-games would be transformative for New Horizons as an online social experience, even if a dedicated level or area to play them wasn’t included. Simply being able to play a selection of mini-games on your island or a friend’s would give players a reason to return to the game and play together; such an incentive is sorely lacking in the current version of the game. It doesn’t seem like something that would be too difficult to implement, either, especially if it were done from the town square on a player’s island with no new characters or areas needing to be added to the game.

The next thing New Horizons needs is something it shouldn’t need… last year’s holiday events. For some inexplicable yet typically stupid Nintendo reason, 2020’s updates only added holiday-themed events (Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) for the calendar year 2020. That means that the holidays are not present for 2021 and onward, and since New Horizons has an in-game calendar and strongly encourages players to play in real-time, this makes no sense. Why were the holidays even removed for 2021? Which incompetent moron thought that made sense?

Why were holiday events (like Toy Day, pictured above) not added for years other than 2020? That makes no sense at all.

Re-adding the holidays means Nintendo has created more work for its developers at a time when coronavirus is still having an impact on the games industry, disproportionately so in Japan. This has arguably slowed the pace of development on updates for the game, as the need to go back and re-do last year’s content is going to take time away from other aspects of development. It shouldn’t have happened to begin with, but at the very least the holiday events need to be re-added as soon as possible – and not just for 2021, either.

There are myriad quality-of-life improvements that the game is crying out for, too. Villager dialogue is perhaps the biggest, because to call the things villagers say “repetitive” would be unnecessarily kind. I’m by no means the world’s biggest New Horizons player (I sunk a little over 120 hours into the game in 2020) yet I’m completely burned out on talking to any of the villagers on my island. Even returning to the game after an absence of several months quickly became dull and boring because most of the villagers have only a handful of things to say in any given situation.

Villager dialogue is incredibly bland and repetitive.

For example, when walking into a villager’s home and finding them crafting an item, each villager “type” (of which there are only eight) has literally only got one line of dialogue that they repeat every single time. There are only eight villager types, yet there are potentially ten villager spots on a player’s island, which means a minimum of three characters will always have identical things to say. This compounded the lack of dialogue variety for me, especially when I found myself with three or four of the same villager type.

While we’re on the subject of dialogue, Isabelle’s daily announcements should either be changed to actually tell players what’s going on or else scrapped altogether. Isabelle was a popular character in New Leaf, but with Tom Nook assuming a larger role in the Resident Services building in New Horizons she takes on a much smaller role, and the daily announcements were clearly intended to expand that. But as with the villagers, Isabelle has only a handful of things to say, and these get incredibly repetitive.

Her daily announcements would be a great way to communicate to players things that might be taking place on the island: visiting special characters, for example. Yet Isabelle never mentions any of these, instead repeating the same uninspired line about what she supposedly watched on television. It’s just boring.

New Horizons doesn’t need voice actors to come in and record new lines for hours and hours. All of this is text-based, so writing a few more lines – or a few thousand more, even – wouldn’t be beyond Nintendo’s capabilities, and would scarcely even pad out the game’s modest file size when compared to some of the other things fans have been requesting, such as bringing back absent characters and items.

The game is in dire need of more updates and more things to do.

Speaking of which, there are several characters who could make an overdue return to the game. One of the most-requested absent characters is Brewster, a pigeon who ran a coffee shop in past games. The coffee shop could return too, either as an addition to an existing building or better yet, by being a brand-new building for players to place on their islands. Timmy and Tommy’s shop could also be expanded further, allowing it to sell more than the half a dozen or so items it currently offers each day. There’s also scope to bring in a dedicated shoe shop, gardening shop, fortune teller’s shop, or Gracie’s ultra-luxurious item shop. Whether any of these shops, which were present in New Leaf and City Folk, will make it is anyone’s guess, but many fans are asking for more shops and places to visit on their islands.

Tortimer and Kapp’n, who were present in New Leaf and earlier entries in the series, could also make a return, perhaps appearing in the town square to oversee mini-games. Though of course it would be great to get a new location for the mini-games à la New Leaf, in order to simplify things I’m sure players would be more than happy to see them visit their island like other special characters do.

The Roost – another missing feature from past games in the series.
*Picture Credit: Animal Crossing Wiki*

Games have a natural lifespan, and for folks who’ve sunk hundreds or even thousands of hours into New Horizons, perhaps they were always eventually going to hit the wall and arrive at the end of the road. But considering that, for me at least, the previous entry in the series managed to give me seven years’ worth of casual enjoyment, for New Horizons to have lasted less than eighteen months before even its biggest fans have become bored and burned out is poor. I think we were all expecting better from Nintendo.

A big update this summer would go a long way to making up for it, and would bring back many lapsed players – like myself, as I haven’t checked in with my island in months at this point! The addition of new buildings, like the coffee shop, would be fantastic, but what the game desperately needs is mini-games and a compelling multiplayer offering, and that really ought to be Nintendo’s focus. As I said last time, New Horizons doesn’t have a multiplayer mode in its current form. It pretends to, but when you actually try it out you find very quickly that there just isn’t anything to do. Folks who bought Switch Online to play this game surely feel they got swindled.

*Animal Crossing: New Leaf* can feel rather empty or even boring.

New dialogue for existing characters and villagers would also spice things up and give players a reason to actually play the game once again. A game that aims to be a gentle, slow-paced “life simulator” loses so much when the villagers on your island who are supposedly your friends feel like one-dimensional, incredibly repetitive video game characters instead of making a basic effort to make them seem like more than that. Considering all of the in-game dialogue is text, I don’t see why New Horizons can’t simply add more. It would be incredibly easy to do and wouldn’t compromise the game in any way, nor even make it significantly larger on disc.

So there we go. New Horizons needs to do something big in fairly short order to pacify its remaining playerbase and to convince folks that this once-celebrated game isn’t just a one-trick pony. Well over a year on from its release it still offers less than New Leaf did at launch in 2013, and for a game that had such promise I think that’s a real shame. I ended my original review of the game last year by saying this: “I was still playing New Leaf earlier this year, seven years on from its release. Will I still be playing New Horizons after such a long time? If I’m still alive and kicking in 2027, remind me to come back and tell you.”

Unless the game gets a significant update – and soon – there’s not even a question of playing New Horizons in 2027. I won’t even be playing it in the second half of 2021.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch. The Animal Crossing series – including New Leaf, New Horizons, and all other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some promotional screenshots courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

The OLED Nintendo Switch disappoints fans… good.

Thu 08.07.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

Just to clarify: I don’t want to revel in someone’s disappointment. There are valid reasons to look forward to a brand-new Nintendo console and all of the improvements that such a device could bring to upcoming games. But I was very pleased to see that the rumours about an impending “Nintendo Switch Pro” have come to naught on this occasion.

There’s a moral to this story, one which we all need to be aware of in the age of the internet: don’t believe everything you read! Not long ago I talked about how a single Twitter post sent the online Star Trek fandom into a spiral of clickbaity articles promising the return of a major character, and in this case it seems that unspecified, unsourced, anonymous “rumours” led many Nintendo fans and commentators to expect the imminent announcement of a brand-new console.

The Switch OLED version has led some fans to feel disappointed – they were hoping for something more.

It’s incredibly easy to start a rumour. Sign up for an account on a popular forum, post your bullshit, claim to have “sources” close to the company or production concerned, and Bob’s your uncle. Rumour started. Watch with glee as the internet goes wild for whatever nonsense you’ve decided to peddle. I can’t count the number of articles I’ve seen that were kicked off by these so-called “leaks,” including about major games like Grand Theft Auto 6, huge films like Star Wars Episode VIII, and many more besides. Practically all of them turned out to be completely wrong, and those few that got something right seem to have done so more by chance than because of anything legitimate.

In short, don’t believe rumours that you read on the internet, especially those which concern the games industry. Even if you read something in the mainstream games press, on a usually-reliable website, or even see something on a YouTube channel with multiple millions of subscribers, it could all be based on nonsense. Check the sources of whatever publication or outlet is reporting these rumours. Where did they get it from? If it’s an “anonymous leak” or the publication refuses to say where the rumour comes from, it should be dismissed out of hand. I’ve said on more than one occasion here on the website that I’d rather not discuss a story that turns out to be true instead of jump in and comment on every non-event sparked by one of these ridiculous anonymous posts.

Any idiot with an internet connection can start a rumour.

Obviously the reason we’re talking about all of this is because Nintendo has finally revealed to the world the latest iteration of their Nintendo Switch console, and after months of rumours that a brand-new machine was in the offing, a lot of Nintendo superfans are feeling disappointed.

The Nintendo Switch is barely four years old, having been launched in March 2017. Though early console generations could be relatively short, for the past several generations we’ve seen double that – there were eight years between the launch of the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, for example. It’s not good business sense for Nintendo to launch a completely new console this soon after the Switch’s launch; doing so would leave the millions of players who’ve only just bought one feeling like they made a mistake, and would sour Nintendo’s carefully-constructed brand.

The rumoured Switch Pro was alleged to be a machine which would have had its own exclusive games; titles which wouldn’t work on the original 2017 Switch or the Switch Lite, and this horrible naming confusion would have made the Xbox Series X and Wii U debacles look positively genius by comparison.

The rumoured “Switch Pro” has failed to materialise.

So I’m glad that the Switch OLED has turned out to be a bag of nothing; a minor upgrade with a shiny new screen, better stand, and not a lot else to offer. When one of the biggest features Nintendo can brag about in the new device’s marketing is that the dock is a different colour, you know there’s not much worth talking about!

The Switch still has years’ worth of life left in it. It’s not impossible to think it could pass the decade mark and run alongside the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X for the entirety of this generation. Its limited internal hardware will mean that ports of brand-new games will become difficult to impossible, but as game streaming rises to become a big deal in the industry, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to see a “Switch Streaming” app sometime soon that would allow players to stream games to their console that otherwise wouldn’t work. Developing something like that seems like a far better use of Nintendo’s time than making a Switch Pro.

The Switch is barely four years old – there’s plenty of life left in it yet!

Nintendo is uniquely positioned in the video game marketplace. Not only does the Switch offer Nintendo’s own, generally high-quality titles from Animal Crossing: New Horizons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it also allows players to take all kinds of games with them on the go. The unique selling point of the console has proven to be wildly popular with gamers of all stripes, and ditching it or mothballing it in favour of a new project would be a wasted opportunity. The Switch has already sold over 85 million units in just four years – and is already hot on the heels of the Wii, which sold just over 100 million. It’s not a stretch to think that the Switch could literally become the best-selling console ever, stealing the crown currently held by the PlayStation 2.

So it’s absolutely appropriate for Nintendo to continue to invest in the Switch. This latest iteration is just that: an iteration. A minor adjustment of the Switch to appeal to new fans and perhaps to convince some folks to upgrade to get the shinier screen. The Switch’s future success will be built on games, though, and I’m sure Nintendo has plenty of ideas in the pipeline there as well.

A sequel to *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* is coming soon.

It’s also worth mentioning the very rocky launch that both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have endured, with shortages of key components leading to far fewer consoles being available. Even now, eight months later, tracking down a console at its recommended retail price is still difficult, and in some parts of the world is completely impossible. Any new Nintendo console would face similar issues, and with the shortage of components not looking like it’s going to ease up any time soon, such a device would have had a rough launch.

I’m sorry if you feel disappointed that there isn’t going to be a new Nintendo console this year, but in my opinion it’s for the best. There are some great positive reasons to stick with the Switch family of systems instead of trying to pre-emptively create something new, and there are plenty of negative reasons that should tell any wannabe-manufacturer that now is not a great time to consider launching new hardware. As I said at the beginning, rumours and leaks don’t mean anything. In 2021, with so much junk flying around online, unless something is outright confirmed by an official source it should always be looked at with a healthy degree of scepticism.

So I think this was the right call by Nintendo, and I hope they plan on sticking with the Switch beyond 2021 as well. There are some great Switch games out already, and I have no doubt that there are many more to come.

The Nintendo Switch and all other properties mentioned above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Ten racetrack theme ideas for Mario Kart 9

Tue 18.05.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

With Nintendo planning a digital presentation for next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo – more commonly known as E3 – rumours abound as to what they could talk about. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2? A new 3D Mario game? A new Donkey Kong title? Those are all contenders, and I would posit that Nintendo would be unlikely to put out a major E3 broadcast unless they had something big to say! But there’s still the prospect of a new Mario Kart game – something I’ve discussed on a couple of occasions already.

Super Mario Kart was released for the SNES in 1992, which means that next year will be the Mario Kart series’ 30th anniversary. In recent years we’ve seen a number of anniversary-themed events from Nintendo, and I can’t help but feel that they’ll do something to acknowledge Mario Kart. E3 would be the ideal time to announce Mario Kart 9, then, in time for the title to be released in the first half of next year!

Maybe I’m wrong about that, though – and as I always like to say, I have no “insider information!” But regardless, it’s always fun to talk about the Mario Kart series and the prospects for a new title. Having already talked about a number of older racetracks I’d like to see come back, a roster of Nintendo characters who could be drivers, and even a handful of non-Nintendo characters who could join the fun, this time I want to talk about the possibilities for new racetracks – specifically, what theming Nintendo could use.

Past Mario Kart games had a number of Nintendo-themed tracks – such as Royal Raceway, based around Princess Peach’s castle, DK Mountain, which obviously pays homage to the jungle home of Donkey Kong, and of course the Bowser Castle tracks. But many Mario Kart titles also had more generic or non-Nintendo tracks too – things like Vanilla Lake, Choco Island, Sweet Sweet Canyon, and even Rainbow Road are all based less on specific Nintendo properties than just generic theming. My list will include a mix of both kinds of racetrack!

So let’s take a look, shall we?

Number 1: The museum from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The upgraded museum as it appears in *New Horizons*.

A racetrack based around Animal Crossing: New Horizons seems like a given considering how popular the game has been since it launched! But rather than a generic island – or perhaps as well as one – I think a racetrack themed around New Horizons’ museum could be neat. I do still check in with my New Horizons island from time to time, partly because I still haven’t collected every last bug, fish, fossil and work of art! The museum is one of the game’s most interesting locations, and would make a fun setting for a racetrack.

Starting in the lobby, players would race through four areas: the bug room, fossil exhibit, art gallery, and aquarium. The aquarium offers the potential for underwater racing – if that feature is coming back in Mario Kart 9 – so there’d be at least two terrains as well as a variety of scenery! The higher levels of the museum would also offer space for jumps and tricks. But above all, it would be a different take on the expected “Animal Crossing island” track that I think would take a lot of folks by surprise.

Number 2: The Last Resort hotel from Luigi’s Mansion 3

The Last Resort hotel is the setting for *Luigi’s Mansion 3*.

I know, I know. My playthrough of Luigi’s Mansion 3, which I commenced in the run-up to last Halloween, still needs to be finished. And I will get around to it eventually! But for now, let’s consider how The Last Resort hotel could make for an amazing racetrack! The Mario Kart series has never shied away from spooky, ghostly racetracks, and given the popularity of Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Switch, incorporating it into Mario Kart 9 makes a lot of sense.

Players could start in the basement garage and race to the top in a one-way route broken into three segments. That would put a twist on several of the similar one-way downhill tracks in Mario Kart 8! Ghostly apparitions could make for interesting moving obstacles, and above all, the track would have the potential to be a lot of fun. There could certainly be jumps or aerial sections, though I’m not sure about racing underwater.

Number 3: A track based on the world of Minecraft

This kind of ties into my idea of having Minecraft Steve as a playable racer! Minecraft has been popular on the Nintendo Switch – just as it has been on practically every other console – and considering that Nintendo and Microsoft have happily worked together to bring Minecraft Steve into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, why not go one step further and have a Minecraft-themed racetrack?

The open worlds of Minecraft have a multitude of biomes and terrains, and there’s scope for anti-gravity racing up cliffs or down deep caverns, underwater sections through seas and rivers, aerial sections jumping off mountains or into the sky – and that’s before we even get to the Nether or the End! There could even be a Minecraft cup with four racetracks based around this game – though maybe that’s a bit much!

Number 4: Bubblaine from Super Mario Odyssey

Remember when the internet went wild for Mario’s nipples? We live in strange times…

There’s bound to be at least one racetrack based on a location from Super Mario Odyssey in the next Mario Kart title, so I’d like to propose Bubblaine! The Mario Kart series has previously featured a number of beach-themed tracks, but this would be the first to be based on an actual level from a mainline game. There’s even the possibility for a track based on Bubblaine – or the other water level from Odyssey, Lake Lamode – to be fully underwater, with no above-water sections at all. That could make for an interesting twist!

I like beach-themed racetracks in Mario Kart. They’re relaxing and often have great music, and though Bubblaine wouldn’t necessarily be unique in the Mario Kart series, it could pick up the baton for beach racetracks.

Number 5: New Donk City from Super Mario Odyssey

New Donk City played a big role in the marketing campaign for Odyssey, and it seems at least possible that Nintendo would want to capitalise on the name and imagery for Mario Kart 9 as well. There have been urban racetracks in the Mario Kart series before but none quite like New Donk City.

Just like how street circuits like Monaco or Singapore are popular in Formula 1, the closed-in nature of New Donk City’s network of roads could make for a fun racetrack. With tall buildings to potentially jump from, and Mayor Pauline’s iconic song forming the basis for the soundtrack, this one has a lot of potential to be a fun – if slightly tricky – racetrack!

Number 6: The Galar Region from Pokémon Sword & Shield

A promo screenshot of a city in the Galar Region.

I’ve never played a Pokémon game. Make of that what you will! But Pokémon Sword & Shield have been successful on the Nintendo Switch – despite the so-called “Dexit” controversy the games generated! Although Pokémon has always been a franchise strongly associated with Nintendo, no Pokémon characters or locales have appeared in the Mario Kart series – at least, not yet.

I don’t know too much about the Galar Region other than it’s based on my native United Kingdom, but that in itself could make for a fun concept for British Nintendo fans! There have been some Pokémon characters included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so it’s not impossible to think that a crossover between two of Nintendo’s biggest exclusive properties is on the cards.

Number 7: The city of Kyoto, Japan

Now we’re leaving the realm of video games behind to look at some racetrack themes from the real world. Kyoto – which was the capital city of Japan for more than 1,000 years before it moved to Tokyo – is where Nintendo is headquartered. Many of the company’s developers live and work in the city, and know it intimately. It could be a lot of fun for them – and for us as players – to bring the city to life as the basis of a racetrack.

A Japanese-themed racetrack is a win-win for any Mario Kart title in many ways. The game’s Japanese audience would be pleased to see a representation of their home, and there are many in the west who love all things Japanese and would be equally thrilled. Kyoto makes a lot of sense because of its connection to Nintendo, and we could see recreations of famous landmarks like the Imperial Palace, To-Ji Temple, Kyoto Tower, and Teramachi Street.

Number 8: A food-themed racetrack

Choco Island and Choco Mountain, which appeared in Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 respectively, kicked off a trend of Nintendo including at least one racetrack with a food theme in most mainline Mario Kart games. In addition to chocolate we’ve had the likes of Cheese Land and Sweet Sweet Canyon. It would be great to keep this trend going with another foody track, perhaps one based around Japanese cuisine?

A restaurant could make for a fun setting, and would allow shrunk-down racers to drive through the kitchen, into the dining room, across tabletops, past plates of food, and so on. Mario Kart has always been a series which is happy to set logic aside when it comes to theming, so why not?

Number 9: Ice or a glacier

Ice and snow have appeared a lot in Mario Kart.

There have been plenty of snow- and ice-themed tracks in past Mario Kart games, and I’m sure the next entry in the series will bring at least one to the table. There’s scope for a track set on a glacier to have an environmental theme, especially if the glacier were melting! Perhaps each lap could see more and more of the glacier melt away, until the final lap has players racing through a track that’s more water than ice.

Regardless, snow and ice are tricky surfaces to race on, and can be made to feel extra slippery under the wheels of players’ karts. This alone makes them fun and challenging in equal measure, and I hope there’ll be at least one track with this kind of icy, wintry theme in Mario Kart 9.

Number 10: An alpine or mountain stage

A picture-perfect Alpine village and lake.

The famous cycling races Tour de France and Giro d’Italia both run stages through the Alps, and it’s something along those lines that I’m thinking of here. Mountainous racetracks in Mario Kart tend to either be snowy or have some other theming, but I quite like the idea of racing along past a mountain village, pine trees, and the like, in a track with an alpine setting.

The Alps border several countries, including France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, so elements from those cultures could be incorporated into the theming of the track. This could also be a one-way track divided into segments instead of a loop to run laps around.

So that’s it. Ten theme ideas for Mario Kart 9 racetracks!

Still the best version of Rainbow Road… change my mind!

Because Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is just a port of a Wii U game, there hasn’t been an original Mario Kart title released for the Nintendo Switch yet. I know that’s kind of splitting hairs, but it provides a small amount of hope that we’ll see another title in the fun kart racing series before this generation is over. The Switch should still have several years’ of life left, so if we don’t get Mario Kart 9 this generation it could be a while before we see it.

I’m hopeful, then, of a new Mario Kart game sometime soon. Whether it will be announced at E3, or whether it will be connected to the 30th anniversary of the series are just guesses on my part – but I think both are educated guesses. It makes sense to me, at any rate!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now on Nintendo Switch. All other titles and properties mentioned above are copyright of Nintendo or their respective studio, developer, publisher, and/or owner. Some screenshots and promo artwork courtesy of the Mario Wiki. Some stock images courtesy of Pixabay. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Ten non-Nintendo characters who (probably won’t) appear in Mario Kart 9!

Fri 23.04.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

A few days ago I had a lot of fun putting together a short list of (mostly) Nintendo characters who I think should appear in Mario Kart 9 – whenever that game may come! As a follow-up, I thought it could be interesting to consider a few characters from outside of Nintendo’s walled garden who could also join the fun. If you’d like to check out the original list, you can find it by clicking or tapping here.

Mario Kart 8 and later Mario Kart 8 Deluxe pushed the boat out as far as the roster of drivers is concerned, including characters from outside of the Super Mario series for the first time, including Link from The Legend of Zelda series, Isabelle from Animal Crossing, and two characters from the Splatoon games. However, it would be a first for the series to include non-Nintendo characters!

Isabelle, from the Animal Crossing series, is a driver in *Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*.

Although the Mario Kart games haven’t done so yet, Nintendo has proved itself willing to open up to other companies’ franchises and characters in recent years. We’ve seen Minecraft Steve, for example, as well as characters from the Castlevania, Persona, and Dragon Quest series appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch, so I think that demonstrates a willingness on Nintendo’s part to think outside the box when it comes to characters in popular titles.

Whether it will happen, though, is completely unknown! And to reiterate what I always say: this is pure guesswork and a wishlist from a fan, nothing more. I’m not claiming to know for a fact that any characters listed below will appear in Mario Kart 9 – or even if such a game is currently in development. With the 30th anniversary of the Mario Kart series coming up in 2022 I think it’s possible that we might see a new game, but even that’s just a guess on my part!

With that out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

Number 1: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega)

Sonic as he appears in *Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020*.

Of all the characters on this list, Sonic is arguably the most likely to crop up in Mario Kart 9. Not only is he a character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but there have been a number of Nintendo games over the last decade or more in which he’s been prominently featured. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games in 2007 marked his debut alongside Mario, and since then the duo have appeared together in five more Olympic-themed titles.

It would’ve seemed unthinkable in the ’90s for Mario and Sonic to appear together; they were the mascots of competing companies! It was only when Sega retired from manufacturing their own consoles shortly after the millennium that Sonic appearing on Nintendo hardware was even a possibility, but he’s since become a mainstay. He’d make for a fantastic character, and having already featured in his own kart racer, he definitely knows a thing or two about driving!

Number 2: Pac-Man (Bandai Namco)

A 3D rendering of Pac-Man from 1999’s *Pac-Man World*.

Another character who appeared in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pac-Man is a gaming icon from the medium’s early days. Originally an arcade game created in 1980, Pac-Man spawned a whole host of titles in a series that continues to this day. Though the games have no real story or plot, Pac-Man was arguably one of the first video game characters, and was, for a time, symbolic of the games industry as a whole. His simple design became iconic, and even today Pac-Man is instantly recognisable.

As with Sonic above, even a few years ago the idea of a collaboration between Nintendo and Pac-Man (short of licensing one of the games to their consoles) wouldn’t have seemed possible. But as companies continue to pool their resources and work together, it could make a lot of sense for both Nintendo and Bandai Namco (or should that be Bando Namcai?) to bring Pac-Man to Mario Kart 9.

Number 3: Fall Guy (Epic Games/Mediatonic)

Three Fall Guys seen in a recent Nintendo Direct.

If I’d been in charge of the development of cute obstacle course/battle royale title Fall Guys, I would have prioritised a Nintendo Switch release. Regardless, the title is finally going to be released on Nintendo’s console, months after it’s PC and PlayStation 4 debut. The Fall Guys themselves are adorable little jelly bean characters with a huge variety of costumes, and their cartoon aesthetic would fit perfectly with Nintendo’s long-running kart racing series.

The recent Epic Games buyout may complicate matters, but with Fall Guys coming to Switch I really feel it has a shot at being successful on that platform – especially if Mediatonic can get cross-platform play up and running. If the game is a hit, bringing a Fall Guy to Mario Kart 9 would be fantastic, and something Nintendo could absolutely consider doing. It would arguably benefit Fall Guys more, with the character’s inclusion serving almost as advertising, but that should just be an incentive for Epic Games to allow this crossover to go ahead!

Number 4: Master Chief (Microsoft)

The Master Chief in *Halo: The Master Chief Collection* concept art.

The inclusion of Minecraft Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate shows that Microsoft is quite happy to work with Nintendo, and a number of their recent moves – like their partnership with EA – have opened up the possibility of further collaborations and crossovers with big games companies. With that in mind, could the Halo series’ iconic protagonist end up as a racer?

Halo games, as first-person shooters, are quite violent, so perhaps Nintendo would opt not to include such characters for the sake of keeping the game family-friendly. But Master Chief’s design isn’t aggressive or scary, and I think he could be made to fit. It would be a fun collaboration between two of modern gaming’s big powerhouses.

Number 5: Doom Guy (Bethesda/Microsoft)

*Doom Eternal* promotional artwork featuring the character known as Doom Guy.

Though visually similar in some respects to the Master Chief, Doom Guy has a surprising history with Nintendo. Not only was Doom 64 a Nintendo 64 exclusive in 1997, but last year saw a bizarre yet strangely wholesome internet-inspired team-up with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In short, Doom Eternal shared a release date with New Horizons, and because of the polar opposite nature of the games, fans began ironically pairing up Doom Guy with Animal Crossing characters – notably Isabelle.

Nintendo could take advantage of the memes and jokes by bringing Doom Guy into Mario Kart 9. On the surface, maybe he isn’t a great fit for the series. But there’s nothing offensive about his character design, and if last year’s fan art showed us one thing, it’s that Doom Guy can be made to look adorable and cartoonified!

Number 6: Two Point Hospital Doctor or Nurse (Sega)

Two Point Hospital is a spiritual successor to 1997’s Theme Hospital, a classic of the “tycoon” genre. It was ported to the Nintendo Switch last year after releasing for PC in 2018, and has gone on to be a surprising success on the platform. As with many tycoon games there isn’t really one principal character to pick out, but a generic doctor and/or nurse could be a fun addition to Mario Kart 9.

One of the great things about Two Point Hospital is its cartoon aesthetic; a deliberate choice that mimics the title’s origins in tycoon games of the 1990s. That look just happens to be perfect for the Mario Kart series, which means a Two Point Hospital character would be a natural fit.

Number 7: A Palico (Capcom)

A Palico as seen in the trailer for *Monster Hunter Rise*.

I’ll let you in on a secret: the Monster Hunter series has never seemed like my thing. The latest title in the series, Monster Hunter Rise, is available for Nintendo Switch, but despite loving the visual style, the core gameplay of hunting and killing so-called “monsters” – which seem to be docile animals living their own lives not troubling anybody – holds absolutely no appeal to me!

Regardless, the latest title is a big hit on Switch, and Palicoes are cute little felines or cat-like characters that accompany the player character during the game. It seems like this kind of cute critter would be a perfect fit for Mario Kart 9 – even if I don’t personally care for the game they originate from!

Number 8: Zagreus (Supergiant Games)

Promotional art for *Hades* featuring Zagreus.

Hades has to be one of the best indie games I’ve played in recent years, and was recently featured in a Nintendo Direct presentation as the game is getting a full physical release (i.e. on a game cartridge) for Switch. It’s an absolute blast, and if you haven’t tried it I can’t recommend it enough – if you’re okay with a game in which you die over and over again!

Zagreus, son of Hades, is the game’s protagonist, adapted from the character present in Ancient Greek mythology. His anime-inspired style is… well let’s just say I’m not an anime fan. But as a character he’s interesting and fun to root for in Hades, and with some minor adaptations I’m sure he could fit in with the rest of the racers!

Number 9: Ori and Sein (Microsoft/Moon Studios)

Ori and Sein in *Ori and the Blind Forest*.

I’d almost forgotten that both Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps had been ported to the Nintendo Switch, but both games were a good fit for Nintendo’s platform and seem to have sold reasonably well. This entry is technically two characters, but they could be rolled into a single racer as Sein’s design might not lend itself to being an independent driver!

The Ori games are surprisingly sweet but also challenging in places, and Ori would certainly fit right in with the Mario Kart series from an aesthetic point of view. It would be great to see the Ori series, which already has a Switch presence, join up with Nintendo for an additional collaboration!

Number 10: Geralt of Rivia (CD Projekt Red)

Geralt as he appears on the box art of *The Witcher 3*.

Though I still haven’t played The Witcher 3 – or the prior two entries in the series, come to that – it’s held up as one of the best games of the last ten years, and protagonist Geralt of Rivia has since cropped up in a couple of unexpected places! Perhaps his next adventure could be joining Mario and friends for a go-kart race?

The Witcher 3 was one of the most ambitious titles to bring to the Nintendo Switch, considering the size and complexity of the game, but by all accounts it’s a solid port. A lot of folks have been enjoying taking Geralt with them to play on the go, and his recent appearance in Soul Calibur VI shows that CD Projekt Red are clearly amenable to collaborating with other companies. He would be a strange choice, perhaps, but a lot of fun nevertheless!

Bonus: Battle-Cars (Epic Games)

Promotional art for *Rocket League* showing two Battle-Cars.

One of the most surprising things in Mario Kart 8 was the inclusion of Mercedes-Benz car parts, as part of a deal Nintendo struck with the famous car manufacturer! We could absolutely consider other manufacturers or vehicles that would be cute to see in the next Mario Kart game, but for now I thought it could be fun if Nintendo could team up with one of the other top car games out there – Rocket League!

I’m atrocious at Rocket League and have been since the first time I played, but the game is a lot of fun. A buyout by Epic Games saw the title move to a free-to-play model, which has been good in some ways. There are a number of different vehicle styles, and any could be adapted to make a fun kart in Mario Kart 9. Perhaps three or four different styles would be enough so as not to overwhelm the title!

So that’s it. Ten characters – and one bonus set of vehicles – that Mario Kart 9 should – but most likely won’t – include!

If I’m right that Nintendo plans to do something next year to mark the series’ 30th anniversary, a new game would be top of the list. And in the spirit of celebration, bringing a whole roster of characters from across gaming to join one big Mario Kart party would be a great thing for Nintendo to do. Some characters that Nintendo has worked with in the past, like Sonic the Hedgehog, seem far more likely than others, but it would benefit practically every company involved in the games industry to allow Nintendo to license one or two of their characters. After all, it’s a fantastic advertisement for the game they’re originally from!

I’ve been a huge Mario Kart fan since I first sat down to play Super Mario Kart in 1993 or 1994, back when I owned a SNES. That title only had eight racers to choose from, and the series has come a long way since then – while managing to retain the fun. As games got better and I played the likes of Shenmue and Knights of the Old Republic I began to favour titles with a strong focus on story; there are few titles I considered fun for their gameplay alone. The Mario Kart series has always been one of them! Whatever happens next year, and whenever Mario Kart 9 may come, I hope Nintendo try to bring in some new and different faces.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out now for Nintendo Switch, and is the copyright of Nintendo. All characters mentioned above are the copyright of their respective studio, developer, and/or publisher. Some screenshots and promo art courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still missing an incredibly basic feature

Wed 21.04.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

It’s been just over a year since the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch, the latest entry in a series that has been running since the GameCube era. And New Horizons has been incredibly popular, rising rapidly to become the Switch’s second best-selling game, behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Considering Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a glorified Wii U port (as are many Switch games, but that’s a battle for another day), I’d say that makes New Horizons the best-selling game that was made from the ground up for the new console! Am I splitting hairs? Well, maybe.

I spent a lot of time with New Horizons in the weeks after its launch. With over 120 hours played it became one of my most-played games of 2020, and I gave it the “best casual game” award as the year drew to a close. But shortly after publishing my review of the game – which you can find by clicking or tapping here, by the way – I put it down for almost six months. When I picked it up again, although there were a handful of updates which added different features, I was surprised to see that New Horizons is still missing something incredibly basic, a feature that would make the game infinitely more fun and increase its longevity substantially. I’m talking about mini-games.

*New Horizons* is missing something important.

New Horizons has a shit multiplayer mode. In fact, its multiplayer mode is so utterly threadbare that it isn’t a stretch to say that there’s literally nothing to do when playing with friends. You can exchange gifts if you have an in-game item your friend desperately wants, and you can check out the designs and scenery on their island, but that’s it. There isn’t anything to do together at all – and especially for players who paid extra for Nintendo’s Switch Online service only to be able to play New Horizons, that’s incredibly disappointing.

I wouldn’t have picked up Switch Online but for New Horizons. I certainly wasn’t going to pay to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online after Nintendo gated off what had previously been a free online mode behind their new paywall, and I was content to skip Switch Online altogether. But New Horizons – and a couple of friends of mine who play – convinced me to sign up, and were it not for the fact that I’ve played a couple of other titles online (and will hopefully pick up Fall Guys when it arrives later in the year) I’d feel I 100% wasted my money.

Do not buy a Switch Online subscription just to play *New Horizons*… it isn’t worth it.

To understand why, and why I’m so sour about this, we need to step back one iteration in the Animal Crossing series, back to 2013’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf. New Leaf introduced a number of new features when it debuted on the Nintendo 3DS, and unlike New Horizons, felt like a game that was actually complete when it launched. One of the most fun features, and the main reason I was still playing New Leaf seven years after its release, was an area outside of the main map called the “tropical island.” This area is absent from New Horizons – as are a number of other Animal Crossing staples, despite the game having a full year’s worth of updates under its belt.

The tropical island in New Leaf was more than just a different area to visit with different fruit trees and bugs to catch. It offered mini-games to play, and these could be played with friends – for free, by the way – via either of the Nintendo 3DS’ two multiplayer options (local or online). These mini-games were so much fun, especially when playing with a friend, and gave New Leaf a whole extra lease of life that, frankly, the main game did not have. New Horizons does not have this, and thus a key component of the Animal Crossing experience is lacking.

An example of a tropical island mini-game.

The mini-games New Leaf offered were incredibly varied. Some would put a timer on everyday Animal Crossing activities – like fishing or popping balloons. Others were entirely new for the tropical island, such as using a soft mallet to hit an out-of-control robot. For me – and practically everyone else I knew who played New Leaf – these mini-games were an incredibly important part of the fun, and a mainstay of multiplayer sessions.

The mini-games aren’t the only feature New Horizons is missing. There are many others we could point to, like the coffee shop, the ability to set town ordinances, additional expansions of the shop, the fortune-tellers, the shoe-shop, the gardening shop, and so on. Holidays were also missing at launch, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These were patched in later… but that’s no good for players who don’t have their Switch connected to the internet, or for whom data caps apply. Many kids play New Horizons, and I’m sure not all of them are allowed to connect their consoles to the internet.

“Toy Day” – a.k.a. Christmas – should not have been an update, it should’ve been part of the game at launch.

As I said once before, it’s hard to escape the feeling that New Horizons was released in an incomplete state. Although no major bugs or glitches are present, the game itself is missing key features, and can feel rather threadbare. New features, like terraforming, don’t make up for the lack of things like mini-games, not least because terraforming is a single-player-only activity!

I plan to do a full update of my review at some point soon, so I won’t dive too deeply into all of the missing or removed features here. But I would certainly make the case that these “free updates” are a lot less generous than they appear to be on the surface. All Nintendo is really doing is adding into the game features that should have already been present – features that were part of previous Animal Crossing titles that were removed, or not ready, when New Horizons launched.

At least we can still listen to K.K. Slider’s songs…

If I were in charge of the project, getting mini-games back into New Horizons in some form would be a priority. Nintendo spent much of 2020 adding holiday-themed events, including the aforementioned Halloween and Christmas, so perhaps now is the time to switch focus and make a big push to get mini-games back. Even if the tropical island itself doesn’t return as its own entire area of the map, the ability to play mini-games with villagers in single-player and with friends in multiplayer would quite literally transform the game and make it so much more enjoyable.

Right now, New Horizons doesn’t feel worthwhile to play with friends. After collecting all of the five different fruits (previous games even had more types of fruit!) and seeing their island, there’s really nothing to do. You can “make your own fun,” is what some super-fans and defenders of the game will say. But what fun can you make, exactly? Hide-and-seek works fine, I guess, with other players. But there’s no timed events, no special events like popping the most balloons or matching the right fossils; these things used to be part of Animal Crossing, and Nintendo opted to remove them. By doing so, New Horizons’ multiplayer is incredibly weak, and far, far worse than New Leaf offered eight years ago on much less impressive hardware. That shouldn’t have happened, and we shouldn’t let Nintendo get away with it.

2013’s *Animal Crossing: New Leaf* had a superior multiplayer experience.

I’ve already called out New Horizons for the incredibly poor way it handles save files; only allowing one island per console is a cheap trick to force players – and especially parents – to buy more Switch consoles. But the lack of in-game content, especially for multiplayer, deserves criticism too. Considering the game invites players to pay extra for Switch Online, the very least Nintendo could do is ensure that there was something for us to do.

I held off writing this piece for a long time, hoping that the next update or the next one after that would add in mini-games, the tropical island, or both. But after more than a year, New Horizons’ multiplayer remains in a useless state. There’s very little fun to be had playing with friends, and that situation shouldn’t go unnoticed. I’ll happily recommend New Horizons to players looking for a fun single-player experience – albeit with the caveat that it will probably be better and have more to offer in another year or two’s time. But as a multiplayer game, and especially as a reason to buy a Switch Online subscription? 0/10. Impossible to recommend New Horizons in its current state.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch, and is the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is the Mario anniversary game I should’ve bought!

Sat 17.04.21Mon 14.11.22Dennis

Nintendo showed off two big projects last year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Super Mario franchise: Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. Perhaps pushed by the awful forced scarcity of Super Mario 3D All-Stars – which was removed from sale arbitrarily last month – but also excited at the prospect of replaying Super Mario 64, that was the game I picked up on release day. And it was an underwhelming experience; £50 not particularly well-spent.

Don’t get me wrong, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is okay, and for someone who’s never played any of the games included I could recommend it under some circumstances. All three games work, and there have been some very minor improvements to the way Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy look. But that’s all you got for £50 – three games, the newest of which is from 2007, slightly tweaked. Super Mario 64, one of my favourite games of all time and the title I was most excited to replay, looks pretty crappy in the 3D All-Stars collection, with a strange frame resolution that leaves black bars around all four sides of the screen. They couldn’t even get it to fit the screen top to bottom! Even an emulator can manage that!

The pretty crappy way *Super Mario 64* looks in the *3D All-Stars* collection is disappointing and a little offputting.

So I was unimpressed with the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, and it’s the one game in the last couple of years that I genuinely regret purchasing. I broke my own rule about day-one purchases, and picked it up without waiting to see any reviews or gameplay assuming that Super Mario 64 alone would make it worthwhile. Given that the version of Super Mario 64 is itself underwhelming, the entire collection felt disappointing and was certainly very overpriced.

The other Mario game announced for the 35th anniversary was Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. 3D World had been a Wii U title, so this is a port, but Bowser’s Fury is entirely new. Even though it’s been out for a couple of months now I avoided picking it up. I don’t have an unlimited budget for video games – or anything else, come to that – and after my recent disappointing experience with Super Mario 3D All-Stars I was not overly keen on spending more money on another Mario title. But earlier this week I got a reasonable deal on a second-hand copy and decided to give it a shot.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is unquestionably the title I should’ve picked up instead of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. It’s superior in practically every respect. The Wii U gameplay has been perfectly ported to the Switch, and while it perhaps doesn’t look quite as shiny as Super Mario Odyssey, it’s a perfectly acceptable 3D platformer with a cute Mario aesthetic that matches the rest of the franchise. And the cat costumes are just so adorable – I’m a cat owner (I have four) and I love practically anything cat-themed!

Bowser’s Fury is a brand-new mode made for the Switch. To call it a “mode” is a bit uncharitable, as Bowser’s Fury could just as easily be a standalone game in its own right. Perhaps not a full-priced one, as it’s relatively short, but it easily stands up against other Switch titles in terms of how much fun it is to play. The new addition adds a lot to Super Mario 3D World, elevating the experience of the original Wii U title. And it’s fair to say that, without Bowser’s Fury, Super Mario 3D World on its own would be a harder sell – especially for someone like me who’s already played it.

Gameplay-wise, Nintendo’s expected high quality is present, with no major bugs, glitches, or crashes getting in the way. And I’m having fun playing Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, which I really haven’t been able to say about the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection.

Nintendo have had some great successes since the Switch launched in 2017. It seems clear to me, though, that the 35th anniversary of the Super Mario franchise was originally supposed to be bigger. Bowser’s Fury is really the only new game that’s been part of the celebration, and while we know that Nintendo suffered a lot of production delays due to the pandemic, that doesn’t account for all of it. Super Mario 3D All-Stars felt rushed; a collection cobbled together at the last minute perhaps because Bowser’s Fury wasn’t ready.

Unfortunately, talk of a new or updated “Switch Pro” is hanging over Nintendo at the moment. Having ported over the main Mario games present on the Wii U, now could have been the time for the company to build on the successes of Super Mario Odyssey and now Bowser’s Fury, launching new titles in the franchise. With the 30th anniversary of Mario Kart coming next year, perhaps a new title in that series could be in the offing. But this rumour of a potential new console needs to be cleared up as soon as possible – fans need to know what they can expect from Nintendo in the short-to-medium term.

Bowser’s Fury takes advantage of the Switch’s hardware to do things that Super Mario 3D World couldn’t have managed on the Wii U. And that offers a pathway forward; an opportunity to build on its successes and develop new titles in the series for the current console. With the number of units sold rapidly approaching the numbers Nintendo saw with the Wii, shifting focus to new hardware now seems positively stupid. The Switch easily has four or five years’ of life left in it at the very least, and there should be many more games in the vein of Bowser’s Fury to come. I hope this talk of a new console or a variant which will have exclusive titles can be put to bed ASAP so Nintendo fans can focus on enjoying the current system to its fullest.

For my money, Bowser’s Fury makes Super Mario 3D World worth the buy. If you weren’t one of the nine people besides me who owned a Wii U a few years ago, the base game is also great and will be new to you as well. On its own, Super Mario 3D World isn’t as good as Super Mario Odyssey, but it’s a solid title in its own right. The cat suits which are the game’s big new feature are more than just a visual gimmick, as the power-up they offer does change the way Mario (and the other characters) interact with the game world.

I don’t have any friends to sit down with on the couch and play Super Mario 3D World with. Wait, that sounds sad! What I mean is that the game offers a multiplayer mode for up to four players, and while I haven’t been able to take advantage of that for myself, if you have people to play with, you’ll get a classic-feeling Super Mario experience that can be enjoyed together.

I was left disappointed last year with Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Nintendo’s anniversary of the Super Mario series. But it turns out that I just bought the wrong game. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is an appropriate celebration of Nintendo’s mascot and his 35th birthday, and I’m glad to have picked it up.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was developed and published by Nintendo and is out now for Nintendo Switch. The Super Mario franchise – including all titles mentioned above – is the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Fifteen Nintendo characters who NEED to be part of Mario Kart 9

Wed 14.04.21Mon 14.11.22Dennis

A while ago I took a look at some racetracks from past Mario Kart games that I’d love to see return in Mario Kart 9 – whether that game ends up coming to the Nintendo Switch or whether it’s not made until a new console is out. This time I want to look at some characters from other Nintendo games (and a couple of non-Nintendo games) who would be amazing to add to the roster of drivers in Mario Kart 9. There are so many fun characters that have been created over the years, and with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe expanding the list, why not go all-in and add these ones too?

For the purposes of this list I’m assuming that all of the characters from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be returning. After all, why wouldn’t they? So I’m not including anyone on my list who was part of the most recent entry in the series! Instead I want to focus on characters who’ve never been playable in Mario Kart.

*Mario Kart 64′*s Rainbow Road is one of my all-time favourite tracks!

In 1993 or 1994 I first played Super Mario Kart on the SNES. From almost the first moment I was hooked, and had great fun with the cute, silly kart racer. It even prompted me to try go-karting for myself, which was a fun experience! I’ve been fortunate enough to play every Mario Kart game to date – some more than others – on their original hardware, and while it would be unprecedented for Nintendo to launch a second Mario Kart game on the same console, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is just a port of the Wii U title. Maybe that means Mario Kart 9 is closer than we think!

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Kart’s 1992 release, and thus the 30th anniversary of the entire Mario Kart series. Given Nintendo’s love (bordering on a fetish, really!) of anniversaries and anniversary events, perhaps some kind of celebration is on the cards. Maybe they’re even working on releasing Mario Kart 9 in time for the 30th anniversary!

Nintendo recently launched the (underwhelming) *Super Mario 3D All-Stars* for Mario’s 35th anniversary. Might a new game be planned for Mario Kart’s 30th?

Who’s your favourite Mario Kart racer? Ever since their first appearance in Mario Kart Wii, mine has been Dry Bones – the skeleton koopa troopa. He’s just so cute! I even have a figure and a plush toy of him somewhere in my collection! But there are many wonderful characters in the various Mario Kart games, and several different versions of some of the big ones. Mario, for example, has a baby version, a metal version, a gold version, and even a tanooki version! While there are some great characters to play with already, I can still think of more!

My usual caveat applies: I have no “insider information.” I don’t know if or when Mario Kart 9 will be released, whether it will come out on the Switch, or which characters may or may not be included. This is simply a wishlist from a fan of the series – nothing more!

With that out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

Number 1: Tom Nook

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is second only to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the all-time bestseller list for the Switch, and with the huge popularity of the game, it makes a lot of sense to include more Animal Crossing critters in Mario Kart 9. Isabelle and a generic Villager are already present, but it would be amazing to see Animal Crossing mainstay – and everyone’s tanooki best friend – Tom Nook join the lineup.

As with all Animal Crossing characters, Tom Nook has a unique, cartoonish look that’s perfect for Mario Kart. No changes would be needed to the way he looks, and it would be possible to have several different outfits for him, including seasonal variants and even holiday-themed ones, based on his different outfits in New Horizons.

Number 2: K.K. Slider

Sticking with Animal Crossing, while there are plenty of characters who could join Tom Nook, few are more emblematic of the series than musician K.K. Slider. A regular visitor to players’ islands in New Horizons, the laid-back dog could take a break from jammin’ and join a kart race! I didn’t know this until recently, because I always felt K.K. Slider’s “songs” were a bit of a joke, but he has a real-world following. People actually enjoy listening to his music. Funny old world, eh?

There’s scope to add other Animal Crossing critters too, but most of the remaining mainstays – Timmy and Tommy, Sable and Mabel, etc. – come as part of a set, and it would be hard to include one but not others.

Number 3: Fox McCloud (a.k.a. Star Fox)

Back in the SNES days I adored Star Fox, Nintendo’s animal-themed space shooter! It was one of the first games I picked up for the console, drawn in simply by the box art as I was a huge fan of anything to do with space and sci-fi. Fox has recently appeared alongside Mario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but has never made an appearance in Mario Kart. As a pilot, surely he’d be a good driver!

The Star Fox franchise has felt underappreciated by Nintendo, with no new entry since 2016’s Star Fox Zero. Bringing back the series’ protagonist in a sure-fire hit like Mario Kart 9 could lead to a resurgence in popularity, with perhaps a new Star Fox game in the offing.

Number 4: A Goomba

The Mario Kart games have included many of Mario’s iconic adversaries as playable characters, going all the way back to the inclusion of Bowser and Koopa Troopa in Super Mario Kart. But Goombas have only ever appeared as obstacles on racetracks, never as a playable character. That wrong needs to be righted, and players should be able to finally give Goombas a break!

With so many other iconic Mario villains having had a turn in the spotlight, it would be really sweet to see a Goomba in the driver’s seat for once.

Number 5: Samus Aran

The only Metroid game I’ve ever played was Super Metroid on the SNES – though I did briefly toy with Metroid Prime on a friend’s GameCube. But there’s no denying that Samus, the series’ protagonist, is an iconic Nintendo character in her own right. Samus was actually one of the first female playable characters in all of gaming, with the reveal at the end of the first Metroid game in 1986 being a truly stunning moment for players!

Samus has been a regular fighter alongside Mario in the Super Smash Bros. games, but has yet to appear in Mario Kart. With characters beaming in from other franchises already, perhaps it’s time to fix that!

Number 6: The Animal Friends

This is a total cheat since it’s really a few separate characters, but I love them all so I couldn’t just choose one! Beginning in 1993’s Donkey Kong Country, DK has been able to call on various animals to aid him in his quest. Among my favourites are Expresso the Ostrich, Enguarde the Swordfish, and of course the iconic Rambi the Rhino!

Obviously the Mario Kart series would have a hard time including all of them, but it would be great to see at least a couple of these fan-favourites join the roster of drivers. Plus I think we’d all like to see how a swordfish could possibly drive a go-kart, and I think it’s worth doing for that reason alone!

Number 7: Chunky Kong

Sticking with the Donkey Kong series, DK’s cousin Chunky was introduced in Donkey Kong 64 but has only made minor cameo appearances since. He would obviously be one of the heavyweight drivers, alongside his cousin and the likes of Bowser, and that could be neat. Despite its lesser status among Nintendo titles, I really enjoyed what Donkey Kong 64 brought to the table, and it would be great to welcome back a character who hasn’t been seen since.

Chunky, despite his stature, had a very timid, almost cowardly personality, and that could be incorporated into his persona in Mario Kart 9 as well.

Number 8: A Thwomp

Another iconic Mario villain that has only appeared in Mario Kart as an obstacle, it would be really fun to see one of these sentient boulders get a turn behind the wheel! Thwomps have been part of Mario Kart going back to the SNES, and they make for difficult obstacles, especially for new players.

In recent years we’ve seen Thwomps included in many Mario titles, and they’ve become emblematic of the kind of opponents Mario faces on his adventures, along with Bowser, Koopas, and Goombas.

Number 9: Professor E. Gadd

Later in the year I hope to get back to writing up my playthrough of Luigi’s Mansion 3 – something I aimed to do last Halloween but never finished! Professor E. Gadd is Luigi’s ally in the Luigi’s Mansion games, setting up players with ghost-busting equipment and helping out as Luigi battles spooky spirits.

Despite the popularity of Luigi’s Mansion 3, we’ve only ever seen a couple of minor cameos outside of the main series. Bringing the professor into Mario Kart 9 would finally give him a major role!

Number 10: Hellen Gravely

Sticking with Luigi’s Mansion 3, bringing in the character who I assume is one of the game’s big bosses would be fantastic as well! Hellen Gravely worked with King Boo to kidnap Mario along with Luigi’s other friends at the start of Luigi’s Mansion 3, and she would make for an interesting racer! There aren’t that many female drivers in the Mario Kart series, and someone like Hellen Gravely would be a contrast to the likes of Princess Peach and Rosalina.

Just don’t tell me how Luigi’s Mansion 3 ends… I still need to finish it!

Number 11: Dorrie (a.k.a. the “Swimming Beast”)

Dorrie first appeared in Super Mario 64 as a friendly “Loch Ness Monster” type of critter, and has recently been seen in Super Mario Odyssey as well. Though Dorrie is far larger than the other racers, perhaps they could be scaled down to fit in a standard kart! Ever since Mario 64 I’ve liked the cute, Nessie-inspired design, and bringing Dorrie into Mario Kart 9 could be a ton of fun.

If racers with no hands like King Boo or Wiggler can drive karts, who says Dorrie can’t?

Number 12: Minecraft Steve

I know, I know. Minecraft isn’t strictly a Nintendo game (it’s owned by Microsoft) but it’s one of the most popular titles on the Switch, and retains a huge playerbase even as it approaches its tenth anniversary. Steve – the game’s silent protagonist – has appeared in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so clearly Microsoft are happy to collaborate with Nintendo in these cases!

Bringing an “outsider” like Minecraft Steve into Mario Kart 9 would really expand what the game is all about, and if it’s going to be connected to the 30th anniversary, that kind of celebration vibe could be perfect.

Number 13: Among Us Crewmate

Another non-Nintendo character from a hugely popular title, if Mario Kart 9 pushes the boat out and brings in a lot of drivers from different franchises, taking advantage of the current popularity of Among Us could be worthwhile. An Among Us costume is available in Fall Guys – which is itself coming to Switch this summer – so publisher InnerSloth are clearly willing to collaborate!

Among Us has proven itself to have staying power; it wasn’t just a fad that burned out quickly. If Mario Kart 9 is coming up any time in the next couple of years, it stands to reason Among Us will still be around, so a collaboration could make a lot of sense.

Number 14: Mayor Pauline

In the run-up to the launch of the Switch and Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline’s song Jump Up Superstar! was a huge part of Nintendo’s marketing push. Pauline also appears in the game itself as the mayor of New Donk City, one of the worlds Mario traverses. Pauline is based on the original “damsel in distress” seen in 1981’s Donkey Kong.

Pauline has recently been a playable character in Mario Tennis Aces, so clearly Nintendo have her in mind as a character to use in future. Bringing her into Mario Kart 9 just feels like a natural fit!

Number 15: Cappy

Speaking of Super Mario Odyssey, how could we possibly exclude Cappy? Mario’s ally – and hat – in Odyssey is a perfect character to include in Mario Kart 9! Most Mario Kart titles have drawn on the latest Super Mario games for inspiration, and including Cappy feels like an absolute no-brainer.

Cappy was a new character created for Odyssey, and thus hasn’t had an opportunity to make any major appearances outside of that game… at least, not yet!

So that’s it. Fifteen characters I’d love to see included in Mario Kart 9.

*Mario Kart 7* was a huge hit on the Nintendo 3DS.

Even with the 30th anniversary coming up next year, Mario Kart 9 could still be a long way off – we simply don’t know at this stage what Nintendo’s plans are for the next few years. There have been rumours of a wholly new console, despite the Switch being barely four years old at this point, and while I think that would be a mistake, it’s possible Nintendo plans to go down that route.

The Switch has been Nintendo’s roaring comeback after the failure of the Wii U, and that’s been great to see. Even though their paid online model is pretty crappy, and cut off a previously-free online mode for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch overall has been a resounding success. Mario Kart 9 would just be the icing on the cake.

The Mario Kart series – including all games mentioned above, as well as all individual racetracks, characters, and other properties – is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Fifteen games worthy of a second look in Spring 2021

Sun 28.02.21Mon 06.02.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Though there are no major spoilers, minor spoilers may still be present for a few of the titles on this list.

Anthem is gone, Cyberpunk 2077 is still a stinking mess, and there are delays aplenty across the games industry as the pandemic rolls on. What’s a gamer to do? Well, I might have the answer for you! Tomorrow will be the first day of March, and to me March has always meant the beginning of Spring. There are small snowdrops beginning to bloom in my garden, and the nights are getting shorter. A few times this past week I’ve even managed without the heating on in my house – much to the dismay of the cats!

There are still plenty of great games that – all being well – will be released this year. If you missed it, I put together a list just after New Year of ten of the most interesting titles! But considering the delays and that this time of year is typically fairly quiet in terms of releases, I thought it would be a great moment to consider a few games that deserve a second look. I’ve limited the list to titles that are readily available to buy on current-gen platforms and PC, so no out-of-print games this time.

Without any further ado, let’s jump into the list, which is in no particular order.

Number 1: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch, 2017)

Nintendo’s most recent karting game is a ton of fun. It’s the kind of arcade racer that has a very low bar for entry – anyone can pick up and play this fun title. But mastering Mario Kart 8 – especially if you choose to head online – is no small task, and there’s a surprising amount of skill involved to be truly competitive with the best players! I’ve adored the Mario Kart series since its inception on the SNES, and this version is the definitive Mario Kart experience… at least until they make Mario Kart 9!

Number 2: Fall Guys (PC and PlayStation 4, 2020, coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch this summer)

Among Us gained a lot of attention not long after Fall Guys was released last summer and stole at least some of the cute game’s attention! The fact that Fall Guys isn’t on mobile probably counts against it as far as finding a broader audience goes, but despite what some have claimed, the game is by no means dead. Season 4 – which promises to bring a new set of futuristic rounds – is being released soon, and for less than £15 (at least on PC) I honestly can’t fault Fall Guys. It’s an adorable, wholly unique experience in which your cute little jelly bean character runs a series of obstacle courses in a video game homage to the likes of Total Wipeout. Each round lasts only a couple of minutes, and it really is way more fun than words can do justice to! I’ve recently got back into playing after taking a break, and there’s plenty of fun still to be had.

Number 3: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC and Xbox, 2002)

You can find Morrowind on PC, and despite being an older title it’s compatible with Windows 10. There has been an active modding scene for almost twenty years at this point, so even if you’ve already played the base game it may still be worth going back for more. In my subjective opinion, Morrowind is the high-water mark of the Elder Scrolls series. It certainly offers players more to do than its predecessors or sequels – more NPCs to interact with, more factions to join, more types of weapons to wield and spells to cast, and so on. Especially if you hit Morrowind with some of the visual/graphics mods that are available, it can feel almost like a new game!

Number 4: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, 2002)

Another older title that you can find on PC, as well as on iOS and Android, Vice City was one of three Grand Theft Auto titles released between 2001 and 2005. Remember when Rockstar was able to put out more than one game per decade?! If you’ve had your fill of Grand Theft Auto V by now – and it’s been out for eight years, so I wouldn’t blame you if you were ready to play something else – maybe going back to one of the older games will be a nostalgic blast. Many fans of the series consider Vice City to be the best entry, and while I don’t think I’d go quite that far, I had a ton of fun with it back on the original Xbox.

Number 5: Banished (PC, 2014)

There are some great city-builders out there, but one of my favourites from the last few years is Banished. The game was built entirely by one person, which never fails to amaze me! It would still be a fantastic title if it had been made by a full studio, but the fact that the game and all its complex systems were programmed by a single developer is an astonishing achievement. Banished isn’t easy, even on lower difficulty settings, and it will take a little time to get into the swing of how to plan your town and manage your resources. But if you’re up for a challenge it’s a wonderful way to lose track of time!

Number 6: Skully (PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One, 2020)

Skully is a game that I’ve been meaning to write a proper review of since I picked it up last year, but it keeps slipping down my writing pile. From the moment I saw the trailer and heard the game’s premise – a 3D platformer in which you play as a disembodied skull – I was in love, and the game did not disappoint! The environments are beautiful and the game is plenty of fun. It manages to feel at points like an old-school 3D platformer of the Nintendo 64 era, and at others like a wholly modern experience. It’s also an indie title, and it’s great to be able to support indie developers wherever we can!

Number 7: Jade Empire (PC and Xbox, 2005)

If the demise of Anthem has got you missing the “golden age” of BioWare’s role-playing games, make sure you didn’t skip Jade Empire. The Xbox exclusive was overlooked by players in the mid-2000s, and while other BioWare games from that decade, like Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age Origins are all held in high esteem, the Chinese-inspired Jade Empire is all but forgotten. When Steam has it on sale you can pick up Jade Empire for less than the price of a coffee, and for that you’ll get what is honestly one of the best and most interesting role-playing games of all time.

Number 8: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (PC, 1997)

Starfleet Academy is unique among Star Trek games because it features the cast of The Original Series in video clips recorded especially for the game. These aren’t scenes from films or episodes of the show; you literally will not see them anywhere else. Starfleet Academy is a starship simulator, and while its visuals obviously don’t look as good in 2021 when compared to other titles, the overall experience is fantastic. You won’t find another game quite like it – especially because ViacomCBS has all but given up on making Star Trek games since the release of Star Trek Online!

Number 9: Forza Horizon 4 (PC and Xbox One, 2018)

I signed up for Game Pass in order to be able to play racing game Forza Horizon 4 – and it was totally worth it! The Forza Horizon series attempts to find a middle ground between true racing sims and arcade-style titles, and generally manages to do so quite well. Forza Horizon 4 has a map which represents parts of Great Britain, and that’s something unusual! I didn’t see my house, but it’s always nice when a game uses a familiar setting. There are plenty of fun cars to race in, and different kinds of races too, including going off-road.

Number 10: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Multiplatform, 2013)

Is it just me, or has every subsequent game in the Assassin’s Creed series struggled to hit the highs of Black Flag? Origins and Odyssey were decent, but even in 2021, I think that Black Flag is the definitive title in the franchise! There’s something about its pirate setting and the wonderful crop of NPCs that make Black Flag a truly enjoyable experience from start to finish. For a game that’s approaching its eighth birthday it still looks fantastic, too!

Number 11: The Last Of Us (PlayStation 3, 2013)

Despite its severely disappointing sequel, The Last Of Us is fantastic. If you’re looking for a game with amazing characters and a deep, engaging story, it simply can’t be bettered. I put The Last Of Us on my list of games of the decade as the 2010s drew to a close, and for good reason. Joel and Ellie’s trek across a hauntingly beautiful post-apocalyptic United States was absolutely one of the gaming highlights of the last few years. The characters are so well-crafted that they feel real, and every twist and turn in the intense storyline carries emotional weight. The game is being adapted for television, and I’m interested – cautiously so in the wake of The Last Of Us Part II – to see what will happen when it makes the leap to the small screen.

Number 12: Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC, 2018)

Though I know Age of Empires II is the title most folks prefer, I’ve always appreciated what the original Age of Empires did for the real-time strategy genre. If you’ve been enjoying the recent remake of the second game, it could be a great time to give the original a try as well. Age of Empires didn’t invent real-time strategy, but it was one of the first such titles I played after its 1998 release – and I sunk hours and hours into it in the late ’90s! There’s something about building up an army of Bronze Age warriors to smash an opponent’s town that’s just… satisfying!

Number 13: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, 2019)

I played through Jedi: Fallen Order last summer and documented my time with the game here on the website. Suffice to say I had a blast; the linear, story-focused title is exactly what the Star Wars franchise needed after the Battlefront II debacle! Having just seen the dire Rise of Skywalker I was also longing for a Star Wars story that I could actually enjoy for a change, and Jedi: Fallen Order did not let me down! I had a great time swinging my lightsaber across a galaxy far, far away… and I think you will too.

Number 14: No Man’s Sky (PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, 2016)

No Man’s Sky was incredibly controversial at launch. The pre-release hype bubble got wildly out of control, egged on by a marketing push that oversold the game. Remind you of any recent titles? But despite the backlash in 2016, Hello Games has since put in a lot of hard graft, and five years on No Man’s Sky genuinely lives up to its potential. Had it been released in this state I think it would have been hailed as one of the best games of the decade – if not of all time. I understand not wanting to reward a game that was dishonestly sold, and that the “release now, fix later” business model is not one we should support. But there’s no denying that No Man’s Sky is a great game in 2021, and if you haven’t picked it up since its 2016 launch, it could be worth a second look.

Number 15: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 (PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, 2020)

A full remake of the definitive skateboarding game is hard to pass up! In the Dreamcast era, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater launched an entire genre of skating games, and its amazing soundtrack is a nostalgic hit of late ’90s/early ’00s punk rock. The remade version, which you can pick up on Switch and the two new consoles later this year, is great fun, and has managed to do something rare for a remake: genuinely recapture the look and feel of the original title. Obviously the visuals are brought up-to-date, but the feel of the game and the way tricks are performed are fantastic. I was able to slip right back into playing as if I’d never put the Dreamcast controller down!

So that’s it. Fifteen games that I think are worth your time this Spring.

There are plenty of fun titles on the horizon, but some of the ones I was most looking forward to – like Kena: Bridge of Spirits – have recently been delayed, prompting me to look at my library and put together this list.

I hope this has inspired you to find something to play over the next few weeks! If not, stay tuned because there will be plenty more gaming-related articles here on the website. Happy gaming!

All titles listed above are the copyright of their respective studio, developer, and/or publisher. Some screenshots and promo artwork courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct – reaction

Thu 18.02.21Mon 21.11.22Dennis

Nintendo struck gold with their Nintendo Direct broadcasts a few years ago, advertising their upcoming games straight to their biggest fans. Nintendo Direct broadcasts have become one of the premiere events in games marketing, and the format has been emulated by a number of other companies – especially with the pandemic forcing the cancellation of big events like E3.

Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct was the first major broadcast that the company has done in some time, though. Over the last year or so, Nintendo Directs have focused either on third-party titles being ported to the Switch or on single games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This one promised to be different, showing off Nintendo’s plans for the first half of 2021.

The pre-Direct spiel sounded interesting.

2021 is an interesting year for Nintendo. The company has often used the anniversaries of major releases as the springboard for themed events, and this year marks a number of such anniversaries. The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, making this year the series’ 35th anniversary. Additionally, it marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo 64 – along with the 25th anniversaries of such classics as Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, and even Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. As you may recall, I’ve never been all that interested in the Zelda series, but I was very curious to see if there would be any mention of the Nintendo 64’s anniversary.

2021 is also the 20th anniversary of the launch of the GameCube – and with it such titles as Luigi’s Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee. The Wii launched in 2006, making this year the console’s 15th anniversary… so you get the picture. There are potentially a lot of anniversary-themed events coming from Nintendo!

It’s *Mario Kart 64′*s 25th anniversary later this year.

My most recent experience with a Nintendo game was underwhelming. Super Mario 3D All-Stars was fine… but not great. Nintendo’s approach to only release the game for a limited time meant that I rushed to pre-order it, but on reflection I wish I hadn’t. The version of Super Mario 64 contained in that package is actually worse in some ways than either the original or emulated versions – it has a weird aspect ratio meaning that, whether you play in handheld mode or docked, you’re stuck with thick black bars on all four sides of the screen. It’s really offputting.

But we’ve drifted off-topic! I went into yesterday’s Nintendo Direct with cautious interest but no plans to rush into a purchase or pre-order. However, with Nintendo’s predilection for anniversaries and the rumours of news about Mario and/or Zelda, plus the fifty-minute advertised runtime, I was expecting at least something of note.

Senior Nintendo manager Shinya Takahashi presented yesterday’s Nintendo Direct.

There were a few points of interest, but nothing that blew me away. This kind of “event” broadcast can be a double-edged sword for Nintendo, because on the one hand there was a lot of hype and interest over the last couple of days – but that hype can come crashing down if expectations are not met. And while I would say that, from my point of view, what was shown off was perfectly fine, there was nothing spectacular or that felt like an immediate must-buy. Fans expecting to hear about Breath of the Wild 2 or a big Zelda or Mario event will have certainly come away disappointed.

So let’s get into the announcements that were of interest to me. First, Fall Guys is finally making its way to the Switch! I suggested way back in August when I first played the game that it would be an absolutely perfect fit for the Switch, and I’m so glad to see developers Mediatonic agreed. The Switch has an install base of some 60+ million players, many of whom are interested in this kind of fun, pick-up-and-play title. I’ve recently got back into playing Fall Guys just in the last couple of weeks, and I’m seriously considering getting the Switch version too. The only downside is that Fall Guys will require Nintendo’s paid Switch Online service.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting a number of Super Mario-themed items. This is something that fans of the game had been expecting; a Mario crossover had been teased as early as last year. But from what we saw in the broadcast the items look like fun, and they’re all very much on theme! Earlier Animal Crossing titles had Nintendo- and Mario-themed items included, so this is one more missing feature that has been re-added rather than something altogether new – but that’s been a pattern with New Horizons since it was launched. My first impression was that the items look very similar to those in Super Mario 3D World – the remaster of which has just been released for Switch. Perhaps that is not a coincidence!

I’ve never tried the Splatoon games, though they’ve always looked like fun. Nintendo opted to use Splatoon 3 as the broadcast’s big finale – I’m not sure how well that worked given that the game isn’t coming until 2022, and that it’s very much a second-tier series in the Nintendo library. But it looks like more of the same – another fun game in what is held up as a fun series.

*Splatoon 3* was announced… but it isn’t going to be released for a while yet.

Speaking of 2022, there were several titles discussed or shown off that were coming either much later this year or not till next year. Ordinarily I wouldn’t remark on something like that, but the pre-broadcast statement (which you can see above) said explicitly that what would be shown off were games coming in “the first half of 2021.” Why set that expectation only to break it? If they had said “coming soon,” or something like that, there’d be no reason to comment. It just struck me as a little odd.

A notable port was that of battle royale first-person shooter Apex Legends. I’m not convinced Apex Legends will find a huge Switch audience, but if it allows players to sign in using their existing account then perhaps being able to play on the go will prove popular – as it has with other titles already. Hades, one of the best indie titles of last year, was already available digitally on the Switch but is now getting a physical release too. Hades was already a great fit for the Switch, and Nintendo’s console with its cartridge system is the one remaining place in gaming where physical copies of games are still widely popular!

Indie game *Hades* is getting a physical release.

Mario Golf: Super Rush is the latest in a long line of Mario sports titles, and looks like fun. Its Wii-like motion controls (using the Joy-con controllers) will surely win it some praise, and these arcade-style sports games are usually well-received, especially on Nintendo hardware. That was the only new Mario title announced. As for the Zelda series, after the director sought to reassure fans that Breath of the Wild 2 is coming along nicely, the Zelda series was treated to a remaster of Skyward Sword – which originally released in 2011. Not sure how well its mapping of the Wii’s motion controls to the Switch’s thumbsticks will work – but the option to retain the motion controls using the Joy-con controllers will still be present.

There was a strange re-release announced of 2005 Xbox/PlayStation 2 game Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse. I vaguely remember that game from the Xbox era – it has a fun premise but, if I recall correctly, was little more than average. So I was surprised to learn it’s being re-released not only for the Switch but also for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

*The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword* can be played using motion controls.

And that’s it really. There were some updates and new characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Hyrule Warriors, as well as updates announced for a couple of other titles. Nothing in yesterday’s Nintendo Direct was bad, but nothing really leapt out at me as being fantastic or a wonderful surprise. It was just… okay.

Therein lies the danger with hyping up an event like this. Nintendo hadn’t done a proper Direct broadcast in a while, so expectations were high for what may be announced. The pandemic has certainly slowed work in Japan – just as it has everywhere else – so it’s no criticism that they haven’t got more to say. That’s something I feel most people will understand. But given that there really wasn’t that much to say – and that some of what was shown off isn’t coming any time soon – perhaps there was a better way to do it than by hyping up a big broadcast like this one. I have no doubt that some Nintendo fans – especially those invested in Zelda and expecting something big – came away at least a little disappointed.

All titles mentioned above are the copyright of their respective developer, publisher, and/or studio. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

You can watch the full Nintendo Direct broadcast below:

For the love of God, don’t call it the “Switch Pro”

Fri 29.01.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

What is it with major games companies giving their flagship home consoles awful names? The name of the Xbox Series X was so confusing that on the day the console became available to pre-order, sales of the previous generation model Xbox One X skyrocketed. Many consumers will have been surprised when they ended up with the wrong machine!

Nintendo is no stranger to awful names. After the success of the Wii in the late 2000s, Nintendo wanted to keep the brand name going and launched the Wii U. But due to a combination of poor marketing and the confusing name, many consumers didn’t even realise that the Wii U was a new console, instead assuming that its tablet-controller was some kind of overpriced accessory for the original Wii.

Having been in this position once before, and having seen the reaction to Microsoft’s awful naming schemes, you’d think Nintendo would know better than to release a new console called the “Switch Pro.” But if rumours are to be believed, that is exactly what they plan to do.

Has Nintendo learned nothing from the Wii U?

Here’s the fundamental flaw in that approach: it’s the Wii U problem all over again. What is a Switch Pro? Is it like a PlayStation 4 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro – the same basic machine, running the same software and games, but with a bit of extra power to make those games look better? Or is it a whole new system which will run its own exclusive software that won’t work on the original Switch? Can you figure it out? Because I can’t.

I used to work in the video games industry. I spent several years with a large games company and I’ve done freelance work for a few others. If I, as a former industry insider and someone who knows a fair amount about gaming, can’t tell what a Switch Pro is supposed to be, what hope does the average consumer have?

Not only are Nintendo potentially risking a repeat of the Wii U fiasco, with the console failing to sell due to its confusing name, but they also risk upsetting existing Switch owners if there are going to be Switch Pro-exclusive titles. Imagine the disappointment of buying a game you believe will work on your Switch only to find the console you paid £200-300 for won’t run the game. Cue angry letters from members of the public, parents, and irate gamers.

The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017.

The name “Switch” is no more of a brand than “Wii” was in 2012. What people look for are the big names: Xbox, PlayStation, and of course Nintendo. The Nintendo Switch is its own thing, and Nintendo’s next console will need a new name to give itself a new identity – it can’t recycle the “Switch” branding because that’s inextricably tied to the current console and lineup of games. When there has already been the handheld-only Switch Lite, there will be an expectation from the public that a “Switch Pro” will simply be another variant – not a wholly new console.

That’s before we even get into the frankly rather troubling idea of Nintendo talking about launching a new console while the current machine is less than four years old. The past couple of console generations have been twice as long, and there’s a reasonable expectation when buying a new console that it will have a decent lifespan. Especially in the current climate, with all kinds of uncertainty hanging over people’s jobs and economic futures, it isn’t a great time to launch a new console.

Nintendo screwed up with the Wii U in 2012, and the release of the Switch less than five years later was a response to that colossal mistake. But with the Switch doing phenomenally well and with plenty of games either already out or coming up in the next few months, there’s no need for another machine at this stage. Some newer titles that are popular on other platforms – like Cyberpunk 2077, for example – won’t be able to be ported to the Switch because it’s a less-powerful device. But that didn’t stop people continuing to enjoy the Wii, and even when the Switch launched it wasn’t going toe-to-toe with the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, yet it outsold the Xbox One in less than four years and is on course to catch up to the PlayStation 4.

There are still some great games to come for the Switch.

There’s a lot to be said for being patient and reaping the rewards of the incredibly-successful Switch. Players of all ages and skill levels have responded very positively to this hybrid machine, and while any company in the games industry needs to have an eye on the future, I’d argue that now is not the time. Even Xbox and PlayStation could’ve squeezed another year or two out of their last-gen machines instead of rushing ahead with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launches a couple of months ago.

But we’ve drifted off-topic. The “Switch Pro” is a terrible name for a new console, one which will confuse a lot of parents and players, and end up upsetting people when they don’t get what they expected. If the Switch is coming to the end of its life – which it shouldn’t be, but we all know that Nintendo loves to artificially mess with these things – then a new console needs a new name.

Let’s not repeat the mistakes made by the Wii U and Xbox Series X!

Switch, Wii, Wii U, and other properties mentioned above are the copyright of Nintendo. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

The Nintendo 3DS has been discontinued – let’s look back at this unique system

Tue 29.09.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

With all the hype surrounding the upcoming next-generation consoles, one gaming story that flew under the radar over the last couple of weeks has been the discontinuing of the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS is arguably the last successful true handheld gaming platform – the Nintendo Switch is a hybrid, and the PlayStation Vita didn’t come close to matching the 3DS in terms of sales. As the console’s life comes to an end, I thought it would be a good opportunity to look back on some of its accomplishments.

I’ve never been massively interested in handheld gaming. I didn’t own an original Game Boy, and on past handheld systems, like the Game Boy Advance and the first Nintendo DS, I basically played Mario Kart and not much else. When home consoles and PC offered better graphics and generally more well-rounded experiences, that was how I preferred to play. Even when I was much more interested in gaming as a hobby, I was still content to wait to get home from work; I never felt that I needed a system I could play on the go. So that was the mindset I had as the Nintendo 3DS launched in 2011.

When I first encountered a 3DS, I confess to being unimpressed. Though the system did offer some improvements over the older DS, which had been released in 2005, it didn’t seem to be massively better, and the almost-identical dual screen design left me underwhelmed. Its autostereoscopic 3D felt like a total gimmick too; I was convinced that someone came up with the name “3DS” and then made a product to fit! There were a lot of reports at the time of the 3D screens causing headaches and migraines, and I believe Nintendo issued official advice not to use the device in 3D mode for more than an hour at a time.

So for a number of reasons I found the 3DS an underwhelming prospect at first. I had a Wii and an Xbox 360 by this point, so I wasn’t short of ways to play games, and having never really felt the need to play games while travelling or commuting I was content to give the console a pass. However, I ended up changing my mind for a couple of reasons. The first was that I really was quite keen to be able to play Mario Kart 7, and secondly my girlfriend at the time wanted to be able to play some 3DS titles together. What really sealed the deal, though, and convinced me that I needed to get a 3DS for myself was Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

Dedicating a new bridge in *Animal Crossing: New Leaf.*

I’d been dimly aware of the Animal Crossing series, but as someone who hadn’t owned a GameCube the first title wasn’t one I got to play for myself. New Leaf sounded fantastic, though, with lots of customisation options – and I do love a game with plenty of customisation! It was this game that finally pushed me into spending my money and buying a Nintendo 3DS.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a game I’ve sunk innumerable hours into in the seven years since it released. It was so much fun to play with a friend, with almost limitless single-player gameplay and a ton of fun mini-games to play in multiplayer. It’s also the kind of game that’s very easy to pick up for a few minutes at a time. I would find myself regularly picking up my 3DS during moments of downtime to perform a single small task in my town.

Mario Kart 7 was no disappointment either, and I had lots of fun with that title. Regular readers may remember that I used to work in the games industry, and for a time I worked in a large office where several colleagues also had 3DS consoles and enjoyed Mario Kart 7. We’d often get together during breaks or downtime and use the 3DS’ Download Play feature to race against one another wirelessly. It was great fun!

I loved the customisation options that Mario Kart 7 introduced. There were different kart pieces that could all be selected prior to the race, and that was an innovation for the series. Mario Kart Wii had introduced a broad range of karts, but Mario Kart 7 was the first entry to allow players to choose different tyres, different kart frames, etc. It also introduced a first-person viewpoint (which was seldom used), and the ability for karts to glide.

So those are undoubtedly my top two games from the system. Animal Crossing: New Leaf in particular was a game I was still playing even earlier this year; it has incredible longevity. Let’s look at a few other titles that did well on the system.

Obviously there were the obligatory Pokémon titles: Pokémon X & Y and Pokémon Sun & Moon released on the 3DS and though Pokémon has never really been my thing, I can acknowledge that the games are among the console’s best-sellers. Both titles (or all four, I guess) were considered iterative rather than transformative in the way the Switch title Pokémon Sword & Shield has been, but at the time they were well-received by fans.

Donkey Kong Country Returns was ported from the Wii, and obviously had to undergo a minor graphical downgrade to work on the less-powerful handheld system, but nevertheless was great fun. This was one of Nintendo’s big experiments with porting more modern titles to their handheld platform; older titles like Super Mario 64 had succeeded on the original DS, but there was a question-mark over how well a Wii title would work. Because Donkey Kong Country Returns is a 2D platformer, the 3DS held up remarkably well. Games like this also set the stage in some respects for the porting of “bigger” titles to the Nintendo Switch a few years later, and now it’s not uncommon to hear people say they can’t wait to play a Switch port of their favourite title so they can play it on the go.

The two main Mario games on the 3DS – New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3D Land did well too, and both were enjoyable. I loved Mario’s return to the 2D platforming genre on the Wii, and the 3DS title was more of the same. Super Mario 3D Land was okay, but didn’t really bring a lot to the table. It was criticised by some self-proclaimed “hardcore gamers” for offering players a way to skip tricky levels when they’ve been unable to get through after ten or more attempts. We could talk all day about difficulty options and accessibility – and perhaps we should one day – but suffice to say the argument was particularly stupid, as the inclusion of such options doesn’t change the main part of the game in any way.

Several Nintendo 2DS and 3DS variants in official marketing material.

Aside from games, the Nintendo 3DS leaned heavily into being a connected device that could do things like play YouTube videos and communicate with friends. It could connect to the internet via wi-fi, which was something home consoles at the time either couldn’t do or could only do with additional accessories. It also came out of the box with a basic augmented reality minigame, and thus was my first real experience with AR. Augmented reality never really took off in the way it could have, and in that respect feels gimmicky even today, but it was nevertheless interesting, and it’s something that the console was set up for – if any developers had been interested!

The 3DS had a camera that could not only take digital photos, but was also capable of taking autostereoscopic 3D photos. The 3D functionality in general was not something most folks were interested in, but again this is something that had potential in 2010/11 to take off, and if it had done so we would perhaps be hailing the 3DS as a pioneer! Remember it was around this time that 3D televisions were being pushed as “the next big thing” along with 3D blu-rays. Had the public been more receptive to 3D as a whole, some of these features would have surely been refined and reused.

The Nintendo 3DS came with a basic set of AR minigames.

Nintendo could see the writing on the wall for 3D, though, and released the Nintendo 2DS only a couple of years after the 3DS launched. The 2DS was marketed at kids, and was a less-expensive variant of the console that didn’t have the autostereoscopic 3D functionality. Partly released to overcome the worries of parents who’d heard about the problems that 3D could cause, the 2DS did well in that market. I couldn’t get past the fact that it didn’t fold up, though!

At a time when the Wii U’s failure threatened Nintendo as a company, the 3DS helped them tick over. It remained a profitable system, and even at the height of the Wii U’s problems in 2012-13, the 3DS continued to churn out titles and move units. The importance of its success in that period to Nintendo can’t really be overstated – without the money it was bringing in, Nintendo would have been in a much more shaky position.

The Wii U failed hard, but the Nintendo 3DS kept the company’s head above water.

Before Nintendo tried (and failed) to recapture the “hardcore gamer” market with the Wii U, the 3DS continued the trend of appealing to casual and occasional players in a much broader market. Titles like the Brain Age series, Sudoku Party, Nintendogs + Cats, and even Tomodachi Life appealed to many people who wouldn’t have considered themselves “gamers.” I know of disabled and elderly folks who enjoyed the 3DS for its casual puzzle and brain training titles, and the system was a gateway into the gaming hobby for kids who wanted to play some of the cuter titles. In that sense, the 3DS was an important platform, even if it wasn’t as transformative as smartphones and tablets.

The 3DS gave me one of my favourite games of the last decade in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and one of the best multiplayer experiences in Mario Kart 7. For those two games alone I can say it was a fun system, and I greatly enjoyed my time with it. As smartphones have become a major gaming platform, it’s hard to see how another dedicated handheld gaming system could replicate the 3DS’ success. Even Nintendo themselves have recognised this, releasing mobile games that feature some of their biggest characters and franchises. With the system being discontinued in 2020, it may be the last ever dedicated handheld gaming system that isn’t either a phone or tablet.

The Nintendo 3DS – and many of the games mentioned above – is the copyright of Nintendo. Promo screenshots courtesy of press kits on IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is… fine, I guess

Fri 18.09.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Super Mario 3D All-Stars (and its three constituent games).

Tempted by the promise of replaying Super Mario 64 – which remains one of my favourite games of all-time – I overlooked Nintendo’s godawful “forced scarcity” business model and stumped up £50 for Super Mario 3D All-Stars. And the game is fine. All three titles work, and in the short amount of time I’ve been able to spend with them today, there haven’t been any glitches or bugs that would make me feel it was somehow unfinished. And there shouldn’t be – these games are between thirteen and twenty-four years old, after all.

Let’s talk about this business model, then. I mentioned this when I talked about Super Mario 3D All-Stars shortly after its announcement, but the idea of releasing a game as a limited-time only thing is a blatant attempt by Nintendo to drum up more support than it would otherwise merit. Removing the game from sale – even as a digital download – after a mere six months is just awful, really, and there’s no excuse for it.

*Super Mario Galaxy* is one of three games in the collection.

This is a shameless marketing ploy, nothing less. And Nintendo is playing right into the hands of scammer and scalpers, who are already selling copies of the game for well over its asking price on sites like eBay. This is something that will only get worse as time goes by and as the deadline for buying the game next March passes.

I guess why I feel underwhelmed by Super Mario 3D All-Stars is that the game could be so much more than Nintendo chose to make of it. There are small details in the games that have been improved – such as the text in Super Mario 64, which has been upscaled. Some of the in-game icons have clearly been polished too; gone are the rough edges where a lack of pixels caused a blocky effect, replaced by the smoother lines a modern title can deliver. Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy have been upgraded to be in 1080p widescreen.

*Super Mario Sunshine* is now in widescreen.

But that’s all. Super Mario 64 doesn’t even get the 1080p treatment, and isn’t even in widescreen, leaving weird black bars on all four sides of the screen when played on a television. Sunshine and Galaxy are at least in widescreen, and as more modern games to begin with don’t look quite so out-of-place.

The soundtracks are a something-and-nothing addition. All three titles’ soundtracks are included, but can only be played via the Switch. If you don’t mind having the console on and doing nothing but listening to music, perhaps that’s okay. If you want to listen to it in the background while working or studying, perhaps that’s okay. If you want to do other things or if you want to listen to the music while on the go, you can’t unless you bring your Switch with you – hardly something easily done while jogging or engaged in any number of activities. An mp3 of the albums would have been a far better offering – perhaps redeemable via a code. As it is, all three albums are stuck on the Switch.

The soundtracks don’t really offer much by way of added value.

Perhaps I rushed to buy Super Mario 3D All-Stars too quickly. Perhaps I was taken in by Nintendo’s decision to artificially limit the game’s availability. Perhaps… something. Because I feel like for £50, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is quite a big ask. In a way it’s hard to argue that I didn’t get my money’s worth, because I picked up a slightly-updated version of one of my favourite ever games, got the chance to replay a great game I only rushed through once in like 2002/03, and a game that everyone says is amazing that I haven’t played yet. Yet it still feels like a lot of money for these games considering the newest of the bunch is from 2007. Maybe PC gaming, with its Steam sales and heavily-discounted older titles, has spoilt me!

For somebody who got into gaming this generation and thus missed playing all three of these games when they were new, I would recommend Super Mario 3D All-Stars. These are not just classic Mario games, all three are classics of the 3D platformer genre. Super Mario 64 in particular is a piece of gaming history and well worth any Nintendo fan and indeed any gamer’s time. The problem is that in its current form it still feels like a piece of history – its outdated controls and unimproved visuals will be offputting for some players.

*Super Mario 64* has weird black bars on all four sides. Not the best look.

Instead of releasing three titles in a bundle for £50, what Nintendo could have opted to do is to release them one by one after giving them a proper remaster. The engine used for Super Mario Odyssey a couple of years ago could certainly be repurposed, and the games rebuilt from the ground up akin to the work Capcom put into Resident Evil 2. A fully-remade version of any of these games would still have been a celebration of Mario’s past, and if they were to make all three they could retail for, say, £35 each or thereabouts.

Regardless, I knew what to expect from Super Mario 3D All-Stars. I can hardly say the game was not as advertised; it absolutely was as advertised. And again, for the price getting three awesome games – one of which I haven’t played in almost twenty years and one of which I’ve never played – is still good value, even if they haven’t been upgraded as much as I would have liked.

For Mario superfans, I think this is a must-buy. And for gamers who skipped these titles for whatever reason when they were new, it’s also a must-buy. For me… perhaps Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a shouldn’t-have-bought.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is out now on Nintendo Switch, but will only be available until the 31st of March 2021. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of press kits on IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Some interesting Mario projects for the franchise’s 35th anniversary

Sun 06.09.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

The Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary Nintendo Direct.

I don’t usually watch Nintendo Direct presentations, at least not unless I’m eagerly anticipating a title. I only own a handful of Switch games, as they often remain expensive even years after release. When I have a stack of unplayed PC games, spending £50 on a Switch game feels wasteful! This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Mario franchise, as Super Mario Bros. debuted in 1985. Though a 35th anniversary is hardly one of the “big ones”, rumours had been swirling for months that Nintendo would take the opportunity to do something significant in celebration of their most famous character and mascot.

Super Mario All-Stars, which features the original Super Mario Bros. as well as its first three sequels, was one of the first games I owned when I had a SNES in the early 1990s. I enjoyed playing through those games, and while the Mario series has never been my biggest fandom, it’s one that’s usually offered fun and well-made titles. Though I skipped the Mario Galaxy games, I’ve played many of the other mainline entries, including the recent Super Mario Odyssey.

*Super Mario Bros.* was released in 1985 – 35 years ago.

The main reason why I tuned in, though, was because there had been rumours of a remastered Super Mario 64 – perhaps my favourite entry in the series. I was at least a little disappointed that it hasn’t received an upgrade, as seeing that game with the visual style of Odyssey would have been spectacular in my opinion! But Mario 64 is coming back in its original form, bundled with Mario Sunshine and the first Mario Galaxy game as part of a collection called Super Mario 3D All-Stars.

The collection looks like a lot of fun, and being able to replay Mario 64 will be great. I’ve also only played Mario Sunshine once, in like 2002, so it’ll be fantastic to have a proper look at that game for the first time in a long time too. And as someone who’s never played Galaxy, perhaps now’s the time to give that one a try! But Super Mario 3D All-Stars comes with a stupid and artificial limitation – in true Nintendo style. I criticised Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the arbitrary decision to prohibit players having more than one save file per console, despite there being no reason for such a limitation. And Super Mario 3D All-Stars deserves all the criticism it gets for its forced scarcity business model.

*Super Mario 64* might be my favourite Mario title.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars will only be available for six months. At the end of March next year it will be removed from sale – both physically and digitally. I’ve never heard of such nonsense as a digital download game being removed from sale. It’s arbitrary and it’s clearly designed to drum up as much support as possible by playing on gamers’ fears of missing out. Many people, myself included, choose not to buy games at launch because they’re often discounted (or available pre-owned) a few weeks or months later. Super Mario 3D All-Stars, thanks to its unnecessary removal from sale, won’t be in that position, and thus the only way for players to get a copy is to snap it up as quickly as possible. This is a scummy tactic from Nintendo – a company that, despite its family-friendly façade, is no stranger to them. Resellers will be loving this – copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars will go for big money in six months’ time, and even Switch consoles with the game pre-installed will sell for a packet. Just look at how scalpers have been making money selling iPhones with Fortnite installed since the Epic Games/Apple fight. Something similar will happen in this case too.

It’s one of those difficult situations. I want to like this game, and I’m interested in playing it, but at the same time I don’t want to endorse or support a company that uses such an unfair and anti-consumer business model. Though I felt the same way with Animal Crossing: New Horizons I did ultimately buy the game… and I guess I will be one of the suckers who buys this one too. But I want to register my protest at its business model – which is so incredibly stupid. Nintendo won’t even see most of the benefit, as resellers and scalpers will take the profits. It’ll just screw over ordinary gamers.

It’ll be great to replay *Super Mario Sunshine*.

As it costs £100, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a bit beyond my budget! But the concept is fun, and I can see this becoming a must-have Christmas toy this year. Augmented reality is a neat idea, but the applications I’ve seen of it have always felt like little more than gimmicks. And usually the nature of augmented reality either necessitates every participant using a single platform or makes the experiences one-person things. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is basically just a remote control car with a camera strapped to it and a few gateways to drive through, but the Mario Kart branding, and being able to race around courses in the real world, hold some appeal.

The only drawback I can see is that it’s very much a one-trick pony. And considering most people don’t have huge homes, there will be limited options for setting up a racetrack. Once those options have been expended, the toy will perhaps be cast aside in favour of others, and while that is the nature of toys, £100 for something that looks like a day’s worth of interest at best from the average child means it feels like poor value. Some of Nintendo’s gimmicks are just there for the sake of it, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, the single-use nature of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit feels like it would be offputting except for Mario fanatics and wealthy parents.

*Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit* looks gimmicky, but fun.

It’s encouraging to see Nintendo making use of the Mario Kart brand, though. I’m still hopeful we’ll see Mario Kart 9 on the Switch before too long; I even made a list of tracks that could be included a little while ago. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit shows that Nintendo is still making use of the brand, and that raises expectations – at least a little – of a new game perhaps being in development. The original Super Mario Kart was released in 1992; with Nintendo making a big fuss about anniversaries, 2022 will be that series’ 30th so perhaps that could be a good time for a new iteration? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

The other big announcement was a port of the Wii U game Super Mario 3D World, which will bring with it what looks to be a new expansion pack titled Bowser’s Fury. I played this a few years ago, when I was one of about fourteen people who owned a Wii U, and while it was okay and I enjoyed the cat suits the characters can wear, I’m not in a mad rush to replay it so soon after its launch on that console. Nintendo have released some solid Switch titles since 2017, but they’ve also put a disproportionate amount of time into porting Wii U titles to the new system, and the result is that some franchises haven’t got the attention they deserved. Even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a port – there are a few extra characters and the DLC included, but nothing about the game is substantially different to the Wii U version. The Bowser’s Fury expansion for Super Mario 3D World may make the game worth a second look, but we didn’t see a lot of it in the direct and while it absolutely could be great, it could also turn out to be insubstantial and a bit of a let-down.

*Super Mario 3D World* is getting an update and a re-release.

The final game worth mentioning is a very strange one – Super Mario Bros. 35 is a multiplayer competitive version of the classic game, played with 35 players in homage to the title’s 35th anniversary. Defeating an enemy will send it into another player’s game, and it looks like whoever racks up the most points per level wins. Or something. I’m struggling to see how this will be all that fun – Super Mario Bros. simply isn’t designed for something like this, and if the game sticks with the original level design I think players could be overwhelmed with enemies. I know multiplayer isn’t usually my thing to begin with, but even with that caveat this doesn’t seem like a game that will be a lot of fun!

So my dreams of playing Super Mario 64 in the engine used for Odyssey will have to wait for another day! The 3D All-Stars collection is tugging me in both directions right now: it looks like fun, but I’m upset at its crappy anti-consumer sales tactic. Otherwise, despite the pandemic, Nintendo has managed to pull out several fun surprises to celebrate Mario’s 35th anniversary. Not all of them will be to everyone’s taste, but even a casual Mario player should be able to find at least one title that they’re interested in.

The Super Mario franchise, including all titles listed above, is the copyright of Nintendo. Some screenshots courtesy of press kits on IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Some great Mario Kart racetracks (that would be perfect for Mario Kart 9)

Thu 02.07.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

I was very fortunate in mid-2013 to attend a press event for the Wii U game Mario Kart 8. Well before the full game would launch in 2014 I got a brief opportunity to get my hands on the latest edition of Nintendo’s genre-defining kart racer, which scored me pretty significant bragging rights at the company I was working with at the time! The game blew me away with its improved visuals while retaining the exact same feel of playing a Mario Kart game that had been present in every iteration since Super Mario Kart on the SNES. Super Mario Kart, by the way, is one of two racing games I owned back in the SNES days – the other being Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing. I wonder if anyone besides me (and presumably Nigel Mansell) remembers that one!

So I’ve been a Mario Kart fan since the series debuted, and in that time I think I’ve played every iteration of the series. I didn’t own a GameCube in the early 2000s, but I played Mario Kart: Double Dash with friends when I was at university. I think that’s the only title in the series that I didn’t own at one point.

Nintendo usually releases one Mario Kart game per console, and with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch at the moment – where it’s been one of the console’s best-sellers since it launched – perhaps there won’t be a Mario Kart 9 any time soon. But Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is really just a port of the Wii U game; it isn’t a title unique to the Switch. That provides us a tentative glimmer of hope that Mario Kart 9 may still be coming sometime soon!

Recent Mario Kart games have recreated tracks from older entries, changing and upscaling them to fit the new game’s theme. With that in mind, here are some of my favourite racetracks from past games that would be amazing to see return whenever Mario Kart 9 comes around.

Number 1: Kalimari Desert (Mario Kart 64)

Mario Kart 64 might just be my favourite game in the series. It had an amazing set of tracks, including the definitive version of Rainbow Road. But we’ll come to that in a moment! Kalimari Desert is a western-themed track, and while its skewed oval shape is pretty basic, it features a train constantly going around on its own railroad – which can be used as a shortcut if you’re willing to take a chance!

I like the aesthetic of the American west. The desert, the mesas, the cacti; it’s all here in Kalimari Desert. The track has been recreated twice already: in Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS, and again in Mario Kart Tour.

Number 2: Vanilla Lake 2 (Super Mario Kart)

The Mario Kart series has some great snow or ice themed tracks. The first tracks to have this kind of wintry theme were the two Vanilla Lake tracks in Super Mario Kart. Vanilla Lake 2 isn’t an easy track in its original incarnation, with lots of obstacles and no clear racing line. It’s easy to fall into the large central lake with its jagged and uneven edge, and because of its basic square shape, Vanilla Lake 2 can be deceptively simple to new players.

The track was recreated once, but hasn’t been used since Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Game Boy Advance.

Number 3: Wuhu Island Loop/Wuhu Loop (Mario Kart 7)

Beginning in Mario Kart 7, a handful of tracks were longer than others, and instead of racing three laps, players race from a start line to a finish line. For the purposes of the game, tracks like Wuhu Island Loop are still split into three sections – the sections replacing laps. Mario Kart 7 is a game I had a ton of fun with, and Wuhu Island Loop is one of its better offerings.

When I worked in a large office in the early 2010s, several colleagues and I would sometimes get together and use the 3DS’ wireless networking function to play Mario Kart 7 during breaks and downtime. It really was a blast!

Number 4: DK’s Snowboard Cross/DK Summit (Mario Kart Wii)

Another snow-themed track here, but this one is based on a winter sports resort. Toward the end of the track is a really fun section based on a snowboard half-pipe, complete with snowboarding characters and patches of deep snow to avoid! It’s brilliantly done, and while it isn’t the easiest track it’s a ton of fun.

DK’s Snowboard Cross (a.k.a. DK Summit in North America; Nintendo seem to love arbitrarily changing names!) has only been seen in Mario Kart Wii, which I think makes it overdue for a return!

Number 5: Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 64)

As I mentioned above, Mario Kart 64 truly has the definitive version of Rainbow Road. Everything about the track is perfect: its complicated layout, the clever placement of obstacles, and the starry, atmospheric background featuring characters from the Mario series lit up as neon signs. The music that accompanies the track is phenomenal too, making the whole experience strangely nostalgic.

Rainbow Road has been recently recreated for Mario Kart 8, but for some reason Nintendo cut it short and players only get to enjoy one lap instead of three. The original Nintendo 64 version remains the best, and I’d love to see it return in its true form!

Number 6: Animal Crossing (Mario Kart 8 DLC/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe)

With Animal Crossing: New Horizons performing so well and becoming one of the Switch’s top-selling titles, I have no doubt that Nintendo will reference it in some way if there is to be a Mario Kart 9 this generation. However, the Animal Crossing track featured on Mario Kart 8 (originally as DLC on the Wii U) was based on Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It’s a very sweet track that really captures the essence of the sleepy Animal Crossing village perfectly.

Like the Animal Crossing village it’s based on, the track has four seasonal variations and looks different in each. It’s random which one will be chosen every time a player selects the course, which adds another small element of fun!

Number 7: Mushroom Bridge (Mario Kart: Double Dash)

Having not been a GameCube owner (I had an Xbox instead in those days) I’m less familiar with Mario Kart: Double Dash than other entries in the series. However, one track I loved to play with friends was Mushroom Bridge. Toad’s Turnpike on the Nintendo 64 introduced traffic as moving obstacles to race around, and Mushroom Bridge is in a similar vein.

Because the other vehicles on the track are moving, it can be difficult to predict where they’re going, adding an element of complexity to the race. And it’s great fun to sabotage an opponent, sending them careening into traffic!

Number 8: Toad Harbour (Mario Kart 8)

At the press event I mentioned at the beginning of the article, Toad Harbour was the track I got to play for myself. I believe there was one other track available, as well as one battle course – but I can’t remember what those were! Toad Harbour was a great choice to show off the Wii U’s greatly-improved graphics – the course is bright and sunlit, and there’s plenty of detail in its San Francisco-esque scenery.

If Mario Kart 9 opts to drop the anti-gravity racing that premiered in Mario Kart 8, Toad Harbour could be a great choice to adapt as its one anti-gravity section is optional.

Number 9: Bowser Castle 3 (Super Mario Kart)

Super Mario Kart had some very fun and interesting tracks, despite the limitations of the SNES. Bowser Castle 3 (which I always thought was called Bowser‘s Castle 3, with an -s) snakes around like a normal racetrack for the most part, but then there comes a point with the track splitting in two. The jumps lead to a number of smaller islands in the lava, and there are several possible routes across, adding an extra element to what was already a fun track.

The music for Super Mario Kart’s Bowser Castle tracks was also great! The track hasn’t been seen since Mario Kart: Super Circuit, so it’s a great candidate to bring back.

Number 10: Lakeside Park (Mario Kart: Super Circuit)

Lakeside Park is a pretty clever track. The first lap is normal, set in a jungle beside a lake. The intimidating-looking volcanoes seem like just a part of the background… until lap 2, when the sky goes dark and the volcanoes erupt! Chunks of lava then rain down the track, peppering it with additional obstacles.

Considering this was a Game Boy Advance title, there are some pretty clever things going on in Lakeside Park. The track would make a wonderful addition to Mario Kart 9.

Number 11: Peach Beach (Mario Kart: Double Dash)

When my friends and I used to play Peach Beach, we rather immaturely called it the “cock-and-balls” track… because c’mon, what else could that giant rock formation possibly look like? It’s even vaguely flesh-coloured. I’ve known many animators and developers having once worked in the games industry, and I guarantee that was done on purpose.

But we’re off-topic! Peach Beach is a fun track with some interesting obstacles and different terrains to get stuck into, and although it reappeared on the Wii I’d love to see it back again.

Number 12: Shroom Ridge (Mario Kart DS)

Another track featuring traffic, similar to Mushroom Bridge above, Shroom Ridge was one of my favourites from Mario Kart DS. Weaving in and out of oncoming traffic is difficult to master, so I think this track would be perfect for a more challenging grand prix.

It’s also one of the few Mario Kart DS tracks that hasn’t been seen since that game debuted in 2005, making it due for a comeback!

Number 13: Maple Treeway (Mario Kart Wii)

Maple Treeway is a beautifully atmospheric track with an autumnal setting. It has a fantastic musical accompaniment too, and a couple of more challenging parts. There’s nothing too tricky, however, and I just adore the setting, the music, and the whole layout of the track. It’s easily one of my favourites from Mario Kart Wii.

Mario Kart 7 brought back Maple Treeway on the 3DS, but I’d still like to see it return one more time – upscaled in full HD!

Number 14: DK’s Jungle Parkway (Mario Kart 64)

DK’s Jungle Parkway was a clever track when it debuted on the Nintendo 64 – straying off its fairly narrow track onto the grass verge would result in being hit with objects from the jungle background, further slowing you down! This feature meant it was a challenge to avoid oversteering and understeering to stay on the track – and meant it could be a lot of fun to push an opponent off!

DK’s Jungle Parkway reappeared on the Wii, but that version made a couple of changes (the objects no longer hit you when not on the track, and the big jump across the river forces you to go straight instead of taking a chance and cutting the corner) which I feel took away its uniqueness. I’d love to see it back with those features included!

Number 15: Daisy Circuit (Mario Kart Wii)

A nice, straightforward track that takes players through a town at sunrise (or sunset), Daisy Circuit is a sweet little track set to another great piece of music. There are no major obstacles to speak of, though there are two sections in the middle where a fountain and statue must be circumnavigated. It’s a nice, easy track that someone brand-new to Mario Kart could pick up and have fun with.

Daisy Circuit hasn’t been reused since it was first seen in Mario Kart Wii, which is a great reason to bring it back for Mario Kart 9!

Number 16: Shy Guy Bazaar (Mario Kart 7)

The Mario Kart series has a few recurring settings for its tracks, so it’s great when we get something genuinely different. Shy Guy Bazaar has a definite Arabian theme – almost like something from Aladdin – which is a great spin on the typical desert-themed tracks of other Mario Kart titles.

There are some unique obstacles, and the track has some narrow and wide sections, allowing for varied race strategies. It was one of my favourites from Mario Kart 7 – but I always felt it was underappreciated!

Number 17: Wild Woods (Mario Kart 8 DLC/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe)

Another track that was initially available as DLC on the Wii U, Wild Woods is a ton of fun. As I mentioned above, many Mario Kart tracks follow one of a limited number of themes; Wild Woods is something altogether different with its “deep, dark woods” setting – which is reminiscent of some old levels from the Donkey Kong Country series.

Tracks from Mario Kart 8 seem like they’d be well-suited to be brought into Mario Kart 9, and I’d love to see Wild Woods back.

Number 18: Mushroom Gorge (Mario Kart Wii)

Mushroom Gorge is a gorge-ous track. See what I did there? With both an outside section and a section in a cave, there was already a lot of fun to be had, but Mushroom Gorge also introduces giant mushrooms to bounce on – getting the speed and angle right for your bounce is incredibly important, lest you fall into a bottomless pit and have to be rescued!

The track did make a reappearance on the 3DS, but its fun and unique bouncy gameplay would be great to bring back for Mario Kart 9 too.

Number 19: Choco Mountain (Mario Kart 64)

Choco Mountain in Mario Kart 64, as well as the earlier Choco Island tracks in Super Mario Kart, always seemed to be ignored by players in favour of other tracks. I’m not sure if it’s because of the fairly bland all-brown colour scheme, but that’s one possibility. It’s a shame, because Choco Mountain in particular is a clever track with some difficult sections and unpredictable obstacles.

Choco Mountain was seen in Mario Kart DS as well, but I think it’s a candidate to get an HD makeover for Mario Kart 9!

Number 20: Sunshine Airport (Mario Kart 8)

One of the tracks used to market Mario Kart 8, Sunshine Airport has a lot to offer. Mario Kart 7 had introduced gliding, allowing players to soar through the air, and Sunshine Airport takes that theme and runs with it. The airport setting has some unique obstacles, and as somewhere completely different to race around, it’s lots of fun.

I particularly like the aircraft that sometimes pass you while racing, even though I’m always worried that they’re going to crash into me!

So that’s it. A handful of Mario Kart tracks from past entries in the series that I feel would be great to see given an overhaul and an update for Mario Kart 9. This article shouldn’t be interpreted as me having any “insider information” from Nintendo that a new game is in the works! Just to be clear: I have no idea if Mario Kart 9 is in development, or if it will be released on the Switch. It’s possible that Nintendo may not release another entry in this fantastic series until they launch their next console – whenever that could be! However, I think there is reason to be hopeful of a new Mario Kart title. As I mentioned, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is just a port of the Wii U game, and aside from collating the main game and its two DLC packs, doesn’t really offer anything substantially new. Secondly, Nintendo has seemed more open to changing things up this generation, particularly where sequels to its most successful titles are concerned: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is getting a direct sequel, for example.

As long as Dry Bones – the best character in the whole Mario Kart series – is playable in Mario Kart 9, I’ll be satisfied with whichever tracks Nintendo decides to bring back!

The Mario Kart series – including all games mentioned above, as well as all individual racetracks, characters, and other properties – is the copyright of Nintendo. Screenshots courtesy of the Super Mario Wiki. They are used under the principle of Fair Dealing. For further information, see my copyright policy. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.