Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit might not necessarily be the future of the Mario Kart series, but it's shaping up to be a fun detour which mixes real-world RC cars with AR visuals displayed via your Switch's screen.
The game's trailer does an excellent job of communicating just how cool a concept this is, but there's one thing it doesn't make clear: Mario Kart Live will allow up to four players to race on the same track.
In the trailer, only two karts are shown in action – which is understandable as only Mario and Luigi variants will be available, at least initially. However, as you'll know if you read Gavin's excellent piece on the game's prospects, four players can get involved as long as they each have their own kart and Switch. That means getting four people together is going to be rather expensive, but if you have four friends who all own the game and the kart, it's less of an issue.
So why has Nintendo not shown this in its marketing for the game? Well, it could be that it wants to avoid showing duplicate karts in action, which, if we're concerned about canon and all that, would be impossible. Perhaps the plan is to release other karts in the future which are driven by other characters?
Where you aware that Mario Kart Live is a four-player game? Vote in the poll below to let us know. If you still haven't pre-ordered this one, be sure to check out our handy guide.
Comments (58)
That's £400 I didn't know what to do with, sorted. Thanks
So, there will be at least 4 different karts ?
1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Yoshi
4. Peach ???
I really hope they add the RC car racers like Yoshi or Peach and not just Toads all over again. Tired of hearing their screams every five seconds playing different titles.
That cannot be cheap.
Not sure if I necessarily KNEW that, but I fully assumed as much.
No, but then again, it can support as many players as it wants, given that it likely won't support the fact that my house is carpeted.
Or that my cat will go to WORK on those karts the second they start moving.
Wow. Not a lot of people know that.
Do they have to have four karts at £100 each and four Switches, at £200 each? And four game cards?
@zool It's a free download, so you don't need the game card. But you do need the kart, so it's moot anyway I guess?
This is a super expensive luxury. I'd like to mess around with the tech for a few hours, but I'm not the target for this. I can't see many parents paying for this when they can get Mario Kart 8 for less and it's probably a much better game.
Multiple switches, multiple copies and toy cars needed. Realistically, a few hundred kids will actually get to play this with a friend and the amount of kids who will get to play 4 player will be minute. They should have put two toy karts in the pack for £120(ish) and allowed the game to be played on a TV two player at least imo.
It's a great idea though, I would have loved setting up courses and racing them with a friend when I was a nipper.
They literally showed four people playing with two Marios and two Luigis in the trailer, so yes, I knew it...
@Damo
I wish Nintendo release the physical copy of this game too as Nintendo can remove their eshop games anytime without warning.
$60 for physical copy and it will be mine forever.
I knew. I also knew straight away I would not be spending 400 euro's on that.
I think this is going to be a massive flop, I cant see parents buying this for their kids at all, just way too expensive
Really looking forward to getting my hands on this next month. And it's gonna be great fun at Christmas with neices and nephews and the dog all getting involved.
I'm lucky enough to have a relatively big uncarpeted area in the house to set this up on permanently.
This should be awesome, but unless you have 2+ switches in the house, it will be far too expensive (and even then it will be £200+ anyway).
It's not like you're gonna have people over to play this any time soon, unless you want to play a really expensive version
@Anti-Matter Probably more like
1. Mario
2. Luigi
3. Yoshi
4. Metal Mario
Just like the Monopoly game.
To be honest once I'd realised 2 player would be £200 I didn't give any thought to it supporting more than that!
No...but did YOU know no one can afford to buy a house anymore with enough room to accommodate this hobby?
And with the amount of civilized people being heartily welcomed to our(lol) countries, even less chance of ever owning such a house?
I guess you didn't, huh?
@ukaskew Also you will need a Switch or Switch Lite for each player.
A nice feature that'll almost certainly never be used outside of the game dev studio due to the high cost of admission.
@Old-Red Loads of kids have Switches, loads of kids with have this. I'm sure loads will take their karts round to their friends house and do 4 player.
This isn't aimed at adults trying to get their mates round to check out their sweet new 4 players Mario Kart game they blew over a grand on.
I will pick up one of these as it looks like it will be a laugh. It's £89 at ShopTo and that doesn't feel like the worst value given the fact that you get a wifi controlled kart with HD camera and low latency streaming tech built in. Wish Yoshi was available though.
I see four player here being most likely to happen where people take their Switch and kart round to someone else's house. Worldwide it may not have therefore been the best time to launch this game...
I honestly had no idea.
Finding a big enough space to build a four-player track is going to be the real challenge here.
They have to be:
Waluigi,
Waluigi,
Waluigi,
and Waluigi!
@Totakekeke I guess you can play it outside on a sunny day. Switch is portable after all)
@Big_Fudge You might be right, but all my friends and family who are parents wouldn't even consider paying £100 for something like this. It's massively overpriced for a small toy remote control car with a cheap camera in it. As I said, I don't think it's a bad idea and I might be wrong, but I think it's asking a lot to get four switches and four karts together.
$100 for each kart
$200 for a switch lite
$300 for a regular switch
Lookin at about $1200/ $1600 bucks for 4 player
@Old-Red Honestly I think a lot of parents will be climbing over each to get this for their kids this Christmas. They'll be in high demand and short supply.
As if I have that many friends, come on Nintendo!
If you can swap out Mario and Luigi's variants, just use their baby forms. Canon crisis averted.
From what I can tell, each game needs a separate switch. So it would actually cost a mere 1600$, or 1200$ for switch lites.
I get that it's cool being able to design your own track 'n' all, but I bet the game itself will get boring after a very short time as it's basically going to be a poor man's Mario Kart. - And by poor I mean content-wise, the meat of the actual gameplay. Obviously not cost-related
The lack of a game card is a deal breaker for me. I'm not spending hundreds of dollars on physical toys that will someday be rendered useless once the Switch eShop is terminated. Likewise, I refused to invest in Starlink because the cheap bass turds at Ubisoft were too stingy to give us the whole game on cartridge, but expected collectors to spend hundreds of dollars on toys and accessories. To hell with that.
Imagine if Wii Fit only included a download code. Now there'd be millions upon millions of potentially useless balance boards. That's what will inevitably happen to a lot of these karts someday. So much for mnimising waste.
Isn't it technically a single-player game that supports local network multiplayer with up to 4 consoles?
With cats this just isn't going to be feasible haha
@WiteWulf I dunno... I'm sure a lot of Switch owners will buy at least one kart, and if you have three Switch-owning friends, then you've got a race.
@Madder128 Could actually be more challenging!
Even for two players a home would need two Switches and two carts. We only have one Switch, so to play with my kid I'll need to dig up $500 somewhere...
I might have gotten this 4-5 years ago. Or maybe at launch bc my step son might have enjoyed it. But he is too old now and this is just too expensive for something that will collect dust in a few months, if not weeks
I pre-ordered an Xbox series x yesterday with the money I could have blown on this...
I suppose I never really thought about it, but it makes sense that 4 would be allowed. I would have expected at the very least 2!
It’s a shame for Nintendo that most of the techie people who work in offices are working from home for the foreseeable future. This is perfect for a large open office with a conference room that has a large monitor on the wall.
Knowing Nintendo, any additional character that isn't Mario or Luigi of this toys will probably be limited release, and they'll probably release a bunch of different characters despite the small supply they will bother to make, just for the cash grab.
And it can all be yours for the low, low price of $400. There should have been a third option in the poll above: "It really doesn't matter".
Hadn’t even thought about it
@gcunit $400 plus $800 minimum.
Each person needs a switch I think.
@Anti-Matter your aware that the battery my be F in the kart long before the eshop is? Not sure how easly user replaceable it it.
Since I don't live in a mansion the amount of players is a moot point
If they release King Boo as a racer than i may defiantly purchase him to race against Mario.
or for all we know Nintendo may get creative and release one of Luigi wearing the Poltergust 3000. just imagine a RC racer made to look like it is being powered by a vacuum...lol or maybe one of where Mario has F.L.U.D.D with him. it may be interesting to see an RC racer being powered by a "smart" water pump...lol
@Anti-Matter Bowser came before Yoshi. I would prefer him!
I really want Dry Bones and I don’t think he’d ever get a car.
As much as I admire Nintendo's creativity with this, I can't imagine it selling well at all. Table tops karts would've been much better and more accessible, but perhaps the technology isn't quite there yet.
I already have 3 Nintendo RC cars (Mario, Yoshi, Bowser) but damn do I want these too haha Part of me is kinda bummed we arent just getting a new Mario Kart game though. I adore MK8 but its basically a decade old at this point, I'd even take some DLC. New tracks, anything at all.
I would love a Dry Bones Kart!!
If you can just control the Kart in a "free style/range" mode that would be awesome too.
(Bring on the Cat Magnet Karts!!)
give me link ,samus and f-zero cars
Look if you have the floor space for a game like this chances are you can spend a few hundred dollars/pounds on this game. At least I am sure that is what Nintendo is hoping for.
I think Nintendo realistically knows most families will buy one kart for their kid this Christmas (if at all). And the thing will be to take this to your friends house and race your buddies kart.
Very few households will own two switches and then purchase two karts to play.
@Silly_G Assuming they added a game kart, in a month you will be downloading DLC for this game to make continue to make it work anyway. The eShop isn't going away.
My big problem with the multiplayer in Mario Kart Live is that it doesn't support splitscreen.
I'd be willing to buy multiple Karts, but i won't buy additional Switches.
Tap here to load 58 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...