Mario Kart is perhaps one of Nintendo's most famous party titles. With fast-paced racing among colorful tracks full of Super Mario references, the game can also be a rage inducing, friendship destroying nightmare at times, particularly because of one blue shell that can send a player from first place to dead last. Despite this, Mario Kart remains an incredibly popular franchise, with fans constantly looking for new maps, characters and full games to drop.

The last mainline entry in the Mario Kart series was Mario Kart 8, a game that proved the popularity of Nintendo's party racer franchise as it consistently beat its own annual sales records. Though initially releasing eight years ago in 2014 for the Wii U, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has since made its way to the Nintendo Switch, increasing its longevity as a game. However, after eight years fans are now expecting a new Mario Kart to be released sooner rather than later.

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The rumors surrounding a possible Mario Kart 9 reveal have begun to grow due to two primary factors. Firstly, the first Nintendo Direct of 2022 is approaching, where Nintendo often reveal upcoming titles and updates for existing games. While a Nintendo Direct could contain anything, a prominent leaker known as Zippo published a blog post indicating that the next Mario Kart could appear during the event.

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The leaker claims that somewhere in February is when the next Nintendo Direct presentation will be, and stated towards the end of the blog post that "if you made Super Bowl sized money bets on this new Mario Kart not being real, you're going to be out of a lot of money." This comment seems to be heavily inferring that a new Mario Kart is on the cards for a Nintendo Direct presentation, along with other titles such as Kirby And The Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, Advance Wars 1+2, the heavily rumored Xenoblade 3, and a new Fire Emblem game.

With so much time being between the release of Mario Kart 8 and the rumored reveal of Mario Kart 9, it is highly likely Nintendo will be making some big changes to the racing game. If the game is revealed, there are multiple ways in which Mario Kart 9 could improve and change upon the franchise formula. New vehicle types and items are just a few suggestions from fans on how the game could improve upon previous titles, that is even if Mario Kart 9 will be revealed soon.

Mario Kart 8 is available now on Nintendo Switch.

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Source: Zippo