Bringing Big Changes to Mario Kart With Just A Small Difference
Image Source: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart has been a staple Nintendo game since the SNES era with each game bringing something new. While some additions were retired, others have now become synonymous with the series. Mario Kart Wii introduced bikes and tricks, Mario Kart 7 introduced gliders and underwater driving, and Mario Kart 8 introduced anti-gravity. These things have become integral to the game’s driving mechanics that retiring any of them would limit the experience.
So what can be done to create a new Mario Kart experience? The mobile game Mario Kart Tour has been experimenting with track variants. You see this with real-world tracks and fictional ones in video games. Multiple routes are available, but only one will be configured for use at a time. The city tracks within Mario Kart Tour will be like this. For instance, you have London Loop 1, London Loop 2, and London Loop 3, each having a different route layout. Certain parts of the track are used in all layouts, but no two routes are exactly the same. The idea of multiple routes for individual tracks could be used for the next console game of the series, and it seems Nintendo will be testing out this idea.
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Kalimari Desert first graced the series in Mario Kart 64, with a racetrack and a railway line that intersected with each other at two points. Trains would act as obstacles at those intersections as racers crossed them on the railway track. While racers could go onto the railroad track itself, they would not gain any advantage from doing so. When the track was brought to Mario Kart Tour, no one expected a variation.
At the end of July 2020, the Wild West Tour of Mario Kart Tour brought the track back with a number 2 at the end of its name. How is this one different from the original? Kalamari Desert 2 takes racers onto that railroad track for the middle section of the race. This small change brings a new way to experience the track, and it is something I want to see happen with other Mario Kart tracks.
Image Source: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Whether a small alternate route or a major divergence from the original track, variants offer a way to add new tracks within the game while keeping the same environment. For example, rather than coming up with 40 new environments, Nintendo can stay with just 16 while having 40 tracks within the game.
This also allows for unique twists on returning tracks while keeping the original layout. Yoshi Falls from Mario Kart DS is a simple track that sees racers drive past three waterfalls, with the option to take a safer route over the bridges or through the water as it runs down the sloping track into the pool. The variant for the track could take racers through one of those waterfalls into a cave system, which would lead them back around to the finish line. Each track would have its main route with up to three other variants. I say three, as one of those variants would use sections of all the other variants to create one long track much like how city tracks from Mario Kart Tour were handled when brought into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of the Booster Course Pass.
However, introducing track variants does cause problems with how the Grand Prix mode works. Under the current system, only the main routes of each track could be used. Otherwise, you would end up with uneven cups and would be racing the same environments multiple times in a row. Perhaps a change in the Grand Prix mode is required to make use of the many playable tracks now available in the game. I propose that each character have a set of four tracks assigned to them that would be their Grand Prix (GP). You would select the character you wanted to use, then the character whose GP you wanted to tackle. This would introduce a different rival system to what is currently used with the most challenging driver on the tracks being the character whose GP you are racing on. Choosing the engine class for the races would still happen upon first entering the Grand Prix mode, and your efforts would still be given a star rating out of three. However, this new system means more GPs to tackle. Should the next game feature over 40 characters (just as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does), that would allow for many more GPs to tackle.
Image Source: IGN
A new way to use your coins could also enhance the Mario Kart experience. Since all the characters would not be unlocked from the start, the coins you collect while racing could be an excellent way of unlocking both characters and kart parts, but this time you get to select what you want to unlock. Completing a character’s GP for the first time with a gold (on any engine class) will give a coin bonus, which will help earn coins quicker.
The track variants, changes to the Grand Prix mode, and a new way to use the coins to unlock features would be a great addition to the Mario Kart series. Do you feel the same way, or would you rather go in a different direction?
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