Mario Kart 9 is an upcoming Nintendo Switch title under development by Bandai-Namco and Nintendo, and published by Nintendo. It is planned to be released on October 18, 2019. It is the ninth installment in the Mario Kart Series, not counting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart Tour, or Mario Kart Arcade Games. It will include all characters from previous mainstream Mario Kart games.
Not counting alternate costumes, there are exactly 100 characters (16 starting characters and 84 unlockables). All characters are classified by weight class (Feather, Light, Medium, Cruiser, or Heavy) and some have alternate costumes, like colored Yoshis.
Characters will be unlocked in groups known as tiers. The characters can be unlocked in any order from these tiers but Tier 2 characters cannot be unlocked until all Tier 1 characters have been unlocked, and so on. There will be 6 tiers and the roster will be organized based on them. Each tier is bigger than the previous tier. The roster rearranges once every character has been unlocked. There are 3 ways to unlock a character: beating them in Story Mode, completing a cup in Grand Prix, or completing certain Missions.
Below are all of the race courses included in Mario Kart 9. I left a note if the course uses this game's new mechanic: drilling, which sends you to a new area of the course for one lap. In addition, there will be a fifth cup for each Grand Prix (nitro and retro). Egg Cup, the new Nitro Cup will include courses from other Nintendo games. Meanwhile, Bomb Cup, the new Retro Cup will include two "all-star tracks", some of the best retro tracks that are returning for a 2nd time. It will also include one retro Bowser's Castle and one retro Rainbow Road.
Nitro Courses[]
Mushroom Cup []
Peach Castle - uses drilling (Drive through Peach's Castle)
Mii Apartments (Explore the apartments and the world of Tomadachi Life)
Arcade World (Travel through an arcade - and go through certain games - like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., and Pac-Man)
Koopa Cavern - uses drilling (Travel underground into a deep cavern resembling 1-2 in Super Mario Bros.)
Flower Cup[]
Mario Circuit (A race through the Mushroom Kingdom's roadways)
Daisy Theater - uses drilling (Go to the movies in the Mushroom Kingdom - maybe even into the movie itself)
Lakitu Cloud City (Visit the big city - in the clouds)
Monty Market - uses drilling (Drive through a supermarket full of Mario Kart items and food - beware the explosives aisle)
Star Cup[]
Chuck's Stadium - uses drilling (Travel through a football stadium during the big game between the Tokyo Chargers and the Los Angeles Koopas - travel through the stands, concession areas, and maybe even the broadcast booth)
Bowser Jr. City (Travel through the bustling city - resembling the Mario Sports Mix Bowser Jr. Boulevard)
Yoshi Beach (The biggest beach yet - travel down boardwalks, visit an underwater Koopa Kingdom, and travel by lifeguard stands, parking lots and Yoshis on the beach)
Broodal Space Odyssey (Travel through several kingdoms from Super Mario Odyssey - including the moon, New Donk City, and Tostarena Town)
Special Cup[]
Wet Wet Oasis - uses drilling (The oasis of Dry Dry Desert - you may even encounter the desert itself)
Mount Wiggler - uses drilling (A crazy mountain with an active volcano, some snowy mountaintop scenery, and about 15 different paths)
Bowser's Castle (Travel around Bowser's airship and castle)
Rainbow Road (Outer space's biggest interstellar highway - travel along, but beware of asteroids - and traffic)
Egg Cup (NEW)[]
Pallet Town (Travel through Ash's hometown in the style of Pokemon Let's Go!)
Gourmet Race (Race in a high paced racing arena with plenty of food - and hope you didn't eat too much ice cream during the race. Coins are replaced with Megamatos)
Hyrule Circuit 2 - uses drilling (Travel through the world of Breath of the Wild - and maybe even visit a shrine)
Animal Crossing 2 (Travel through the town and the city from Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch)
Similar to Super Smash Bros., there will be an item checklist. You can filter out items you dislike or do something crazy like Bullet Bills only.
Returning Items[]
All items from Mario Kart 8 (besides the Crazy 8) will return. The coin will return, but will not appear in item boxes, only on the tracks. Below is a list of all returning items:
Nifty Nine (Replaces the crazy 8 differences are that it gives you lightning instead of a coin and gives it gives a fake item box)
Black Shell (Functions the same as the arcade version, it's an exploding shell.)
Triple Black Shell
Yellow Shell (A durable targeting shell that hits three players)
Triple Yellow Shell
Gold Shell (A green shell that steals coins from victims)
Triple Gold Shell
Ice Flower (Get eight ice balls to throw that freeze victims for five seconds)
Propeller Mushroom (Gives you a boost forward and into the air and activates your glider)
Mechanics[]
All mechanics return from Mario Kart 8. We will also see halfpipe ramps from Mario Kart Wii return. In retro tracks from Mario Kart Wii courses and other tracks, they will be seen again. The new mechanic in this game is drilling, as mentioned earlier. There will also be a major focus on shortcuts. All nitro tracks will have at least one. Much like Mario Kart 8, some courses will be broken into sections rather than laps or have different amounts of laps.
Modes[]
The main menu will include the following buttons:
Single Player
Multi-Player I 2 I 3 I 4 I
Online I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I
Local Play I 1 I 2 I
Story Mode
Track Creator
Stats (Small Button on Bottom)
Mii Suits (Small Button on Bottom)
MKTV (Small Button on Bottom)
Labo (Small Button on Bottom)
Mario Kart Tour (Small Button on Bottom)
Help (Small Button on Bottom)
Single Player[]
Grand Prix[]
Start with all cups besides Egg Cup and Bomb Cup. Complete each cup at the following cc:
50cc
75cc
100cc
125cc
150cc
Mirror 150cc
200cc
300cc
After completing a cup in Grand Prix, you will unlock a character. You also unlock a character for completing the entirety of 100cc, a character for all of 150cc, and a character for all of 200cc Grand Prix. Blinky will be unlocked in your next race after unlocking all other characters, but cannot be unlocked through a specific Grand Prix cup. You unlock car parts from earning a certain amount of coins in any mode.
Time Trials[]
Same as Mario Kart 8. You can also race at 300cc.
VS. Races[]
Can be solo races or team races. You can also play Double Dash Mode, where two players/characters race in each cart, similar to Mario Kart: Double Dash. In Double Dash Mode, you can play Co-Op (with a friend) or Solo (control both characters in your cart). You can race using customized settings. You can customize # of races, # of CPUs (characters decided randomly, cannot be chosen), the method of race choice, cc (any multiple of 25 between 25 and 500), items included, types of karts used, and whether it should count toward stat-keeping.
Battle Mode[]
All battle types from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will return. The following battle courses will be available:
New Battle Courses
Block Mountain (Drive up a blocky mountain or explore inside or around it.)
Sunshine Cargo (Explore some cargo planes and gates around the airport while battling)
Dry Bones Underground City (Battle in the hidden underground city of Dry Bones)
Chuck's Field (Battle on the field at Chuck's Stadium)
Bowser Jr. Square (Battle in the downtown area of Bowser Jr. City)
Mission Mode returns from Mario Kart DS. This time around, there will be a lot more missions. The bosses here will also be found in Story Mode. There will be a total of 90 missions packed into 10 groups of 9. Each group will have one boss mission. All but a few missions will unlock characters. Which missions unlock characters will be decided randomly (differing for each player), but all boss missions will unlock characters.
Multi-Player[]
Play with up to 4 players in Grand Prix, VS. Races, and Battle Mode. Note that in VS. Races, there will be a maximum of twelve racers. If you play with 4 players, there will be a maximum of 8 CPUs. Twelve will also be the default.
Online Mode[]
Play online with up to 4 players in VS. Races and Battle Mode. You can even participate in VS. and Battle individual and team tournaments. All tournaments can include up to 192 players. There will also be online challenges similar to Mario Kart Wii that happen bi-weekly. They will be similar to missions and may include new courses or battle courses, including certain custom-made ones.
Local Play[]
Play with other nearby Nintendo Switch players in Grand Prix, VS. races, or Battle Mode.
Story Mode[]
Similar to Mario Super Sluggers and Diddy Kong Racing: you have a big map to explore with events all around: races, missions, and boss battles. You can play as any character you have unlocked and characters are unlocked after completing certain tasks in Story Mode. Your Story Mode roster starts with just Mario, when you unlock a character in Story Mode that you have not unlocked elsewhere, you unlock them in other modes. Along with this more challenges are unlocked as more characters are.
Track Creator[]
In Mario Kart 9, you can create your own tracks, combining elements of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Maker, F-Zero X, and Nintendo Labo Track Creators. You can even post your tracks onto the Mario Kart Server. They may be usable in certain tournaments. As well as this, Nintendo may use popular fan-made tracks for challenges.
Stats[]
View your stats, similar to Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8. You can even filter stats based on certain modes you play and your own filters. For example, if you want to host a Mario Kart tournament in person, you can create a separate set of stats that only includes races from that tournament. You can also filter out stats from online tournaments you played in.
Mii Suits[]
Scan compatible Amiibo to unlock different Mii suits based on certain characters. All Mario series Amiibo are compatible along with all the Smash Amiibo and some from other series. There will also be three more waves of Mario Amiibo, one coming at the game's launch, one during the holidays and a final one in the spring. All three waves include 8 Amiibo. The first wave includes Birdo, Bowser Jr, Toadette, Shy Guy, Nabbit, Wiggler, Kamek and Petey Pirhana. The second wave includes Lakitu, Pauline, Topper, Hariet, Spewart, Rango, Madame Broode, and Cappy. The Final Pack Includes Dry Bowser and The Koopalings. Between these waves, there will be restocks of the first two waves as well as Goomba and Koopa Troopa.
MKTV[]
Same as Mario Kart 8.
Labo Compatibility[]
Set your controller to the Labo Motor Bike or the Labo Vehicle Kit. This will be updated as more Toy-Cons with similar features are made. This can be used in all races that are not online.
Mario Kart Tour Compatibility[]
Connect Mario Kart Tour to unlock Mario Kart Tour courses and car parts. It will also unlock 8 retro tracks and 8 characters in Mario Kart Tour from Mario Kart 9. The Mario Kart Tour base game roster will be the same as Mario Kart 9's starting roster. All the tracks and characters that can be transferred can be bought in a DLC pack for $5 in the mobile game.
Help[]
Same as Mario Kart 8.
Mario Kart 9 DLC[]
There will be four DLC packs as well as a bonus pack that is earned from buying all four packs. Packs 1 and 3 will cost $5, while Packs 2 and 4 will cost $10. You will be able to buy a $25 bundle of all four packs that includes the bonus pack. Each pack will include new characters and car parts and the $10 packs will include 8 new courses apiece.
