During Gamesindustry.biz’s recent panel of various video game industry analysts, it was revealed that the next installment in the Mario Kart series is reportedly in development.
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As part of its annual panel, the group of analysts looked forward to 2022 and predicted what might happen. According to Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games, Mario Kart 9 is in development for Switch.
“I am aware Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still selling very well on the Nintendo Switch, but Mario Kart 9 is in active development (and comes with a new twist) and Nintendo could tease it this year,” said Toto. “On mobile, Nintendo has been very silent since Mario Kart Tour‘s launch in 2019, but I think 2022 is when we will see an established IP arriving on smart devices again.”
Not only is the mention of the new game being in development noteworthy, but Toto’s hint that Mario Kart 9 features “a new twist” is one that fans will also likely be speculating about. Nintendo has a long history of adding different twists and gameplay mechanics to the Mario Kart franchise, with the most well-known being Mario Kart: Double-Dash‘s dual-character karts. Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8 added anti-gravity mechanics that allowed courses to defy gravity.
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Toto’s secondary prediction for Nintendo was that it would introduce another mobile game, noting that it had been some time since Mario Kart Tour launched in 2019. While Toto didn’t theorize on which Nintendo property would get the mobile game treatment, the company does have a ton of incredible franchises to choose from.
