Update [Fri 31st Mar, 2023 09:45 BST]: Poochy has been officially confirmed as a brand new racer in Mario Kart Tour.

In a new trailer promoting the Yoshi Tour, we got to see Yoshi's faithful pop companion in action on the new Yoshi's Island course and Yoshi Desert from the GBA game Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Poochy is potentially in contention to come to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, then? Maybe. Maybe not. Read our original story for all of the speculation...


Original Article [Thu 30th Mar, 2023 09:45 BST]: Mario Kart Tour has revealed that Yoshi's Island — the brand new course that was added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in Wave 4 of the Booster Course Pass — is coming to mobile racing game. But something else has caught people's eye.

In the image of the new track, right behind the pipe, you can barely make out a racer in a kart. Zoom in, however, and you get a slightly better, if blurry, look at who that might be. And lo and behold, it's Poochy driving a kart.

Fans are understandably getting excited about this — many of the additions in Tour are often alternate costumes for characters. But Poochy would be brand new, and it would also be his Mario Kart debut. Joining with Yoshi's island just makes sense for the pooch, as he made his debut in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

Of course, there's a flip side to this: if this really is playable Poochy, will he be coming to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? We already know that five more characters are being added through the Booster Course Pass and that Birdo was introduced with Wave 4 alongside Yoshi's Island. We'd love to see Poochy become playable.

The one thing we do know about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's empty roster spots is that they will be filled by "returning characters", which probably means Nintendo will be digging through the Mario Kart archives. Does that mean new characters added to Tour, too? We'll have to wait and see.

Do you think Poochy is barking his way to Mario Kart Tour? Would you like to see him take to the races in MK8D? let us know.

[source twitter.com]