Mario Kart 9 rumoured to include Pikmin, Starfox, and ARMS

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Isabelle — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Mario Kart 9 will apparently feature Pikmin, Starfox, and ARMS racers according to a leaker.

As spotted by The Gamer, Nintendo leaker Zippo - who previously correctly predicted that Diddy Kong Racing was coming to Nintendo Switch Online and more - has claimed in a recent blog post that a new Mario Kart game is in the works and that Nintendo is "planning to celebrate it in a big way." Perhaps most excitingly though, Zippo also claims that Pikmin, Starfox, and ARMS will be making their way into the next game as racers.

According to the leaker: "This new game will feature more guest characters and tracks than the previous Mario Kart game," with the aforementioned Nintendo IPs being the only ones mentioned so far. Zippo also says: "Alternate costumes will also be featured in some way, as well as expanded single-player content, of some kind."

This rumor becomes slightly more plausible when you remember that not even two weeks ago it was also suggested that Mario Kart 9 is reportedly in active development and "comes with a twist". What this twist is hasn’t been revealed yet. However, what the analyst who made the claim did say was that Nintendo "could tease" the next entry in the Mario Kart series before the end of 2022.

Considering this year will mark 30 years since Mario and his pals first tore up the race track, as well as Nintendo’s clear liking for celebrating its best franchises’ anniversaries, it really isn’t too much of a stretch to believe that some kind of Mario Kart celebrations will take place this year. Whether or not we will get a new Mario Kart game, however, is still uncertain.

Just can’t wait for a new Mario Kart game? Find out what Nintendo officially has planned for this year with our upcoming Switch games list.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.