Mar10 Day kicked off a little early this year (Get it? It’s March 10, but it’s alsoMarioDay), giving us a first peek into three newLEGOsets — The Bowser Express Train Set, King Boo’s Haunted Mansion Set, and the Battle With Roy At Peach’s Castle Set. While these all look like they’d make for just as much great family fun time projects as they would on a collector’s shelf, the biggest news of all came in an exceedingly short trailer at the end of the presentation: LEGOMario Kartis coming.
If the 3-2-1 countdown overlaid with classic Mario Kart race starting sounds weren’t enough of a teaser, the last 20 seconds of the presentation (which is viewable in its entirety below) was dedicated to promoting the upcoming release of LEGO Mario Kart in 2025.
The trailer is very brief, and it’s careful not to give us too much of an indication of exactly what LEGO Mario Kart is going to look like when it debuts next year. Instead, the screen stays almost entirely black, while a light in the background reveals the silhouetted contours of a familiar-looking kart, and a Lego-style Mario figurine (which matches the style of the figurines shown previously in the video) pops onto the screen for a few seconds, blinking at the camera.
A crossover with LEGO could provide a similarly fun experience that stretches the boundaries between video games and the physical world.
It’s honestly a great teaser strategy, showing fans just enough to get them hyped up while delaying the actual reveal, which should keep people talking until Nintendo inevitably gives us more of the information we’re hungry for. But in this particular instance, I think the partnership between Nintendo and LEGO may be a little bit too vague. Namely, after watching it, I’m still not sure if LEGO Mario Kart will be a video game, a series of building sets, or both.
Super Mario World Arcade Machine Is The Perfect Addition To Your Gaming Room
How to impress your friends 101 while also making them jealous with this Super Mario World 4-player arcade machine.
What Could LEGO Mario Kart Reveal?
Of course, if I had to choose between one or the other, I’d take the game, hands-down. Mario Kart has come a long way from what it was when I was a kid parked in front of my Super Nintendo. Not only can you choose your ride, but the series has seen plenty of peripherals tomake for a more immersive experience, from the classic steering wheel for the Wii to the series' most recent entry, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, which features actual, physical toy cars with cameras attached that zoom around your house, controlled by and displayed on the Switch (much to the dismay of cats everywhere).
Keeping that in mind,a crossover with LEGOcould provide a similarly fun experience that stretches the boundaries between video games and the physical world. But even if the two are kept completely separate, a simple Mario-themed racing game that lets you build and customize your karts (which doesn’t sound entirelydissimilar to 2023’s Lego2K Drive) could give a simple but appreciated new twist to some good-ol' nostalgia.
Just The Boost Mario Kart Needs?
But aside from Home Circuit, a mobile phone game, and an arcade game, Mario Kart hasn’t seen a real main-series entry since 2017, when Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released, and that game was really just a re-release of the 2014 game with all DLC included. That means we haven’t had a new, classic-style Mario Kart game in a full decade as of this coming May, and the last real release of such a game came on theWii U. Seems like LEGO could be giving Nintendo the opportunity to rectify that.
While I’m left perplexed over what the thing they’re teasing even is, I’ve still gotta admit, it’s a clever marketing move. Say it was supposed to just be a bunch of actual brick sets, but then a fervor starts rising in the fan community for a playable video game where you get to build customizable karts and bikes for Mario and his crew. That’s a pretty good indicator that you should do that, then!
For now, I’ll be watching and waiting all through Mar10 Day, and maybe a little more information will surface. But if it doesn’t, I’ll just sit patiently with my theories and my hopes for 2025.
Mario Kart 8
WHERE TO PLAY
