Mario Kart 9 rumored once again alongside reported Nintendo Direct later this month

The existence of Mario Kart 9 has been rumored once again.

Yesterday, reputable Nintendo-related leaker Zippo published a blog post claiming new details of the company's forthcoming plans for the next few months. At the bottom of the blog post, they pretty clearly assert that the rumored Mario Kart 9 is in fact real, but don't provide any additional details on the next game in the racing series.

Elsewhere however, the leaker claims that there'll be a brand new Nintendo Direct presentation arriving at some point later this month in February. The leaker claims that it's "safe to assume" a short list of games will be there, including Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Advance Wars 1+2 Remaster, Xenoblade 3, and a brand new Fire Emblem game.

Zippo's track record includes, most notably, accurately predicting that Diddy Kong Racing would be joining Nintendo Switch Online's roster ahead of time. Last month in January, the leaker claimed that the unannounced Mario Kart 9 could feature characters from the Pikmin, ARMS, and Starfox games, seemingly pointing to an all-star Nintendo roster for the new game.

Mario Kart 9 was first rumored to be in development last month. At the time, a senior analyst claimed the racing game was in the works, and would "come with a twist," seemingly pointing to a big changeup for the series at large. While nothing has been confirmed or denied by Nintendo right now, this isn't to say the game definitely isn't in development.

Check out our upcoming Switch games guide for a full look at everything on the horizon for Nintendo's console.