Nintendo explains why it’s not called Mario Kart 9

Nintendo’s latest entry in its “ask the developer” interview series has some fun new details about the Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. Among the many things discussed is an explanation for why the game isn’t called Mario Kart 9, despite being a sequel to the best-selling Mario Kart 8 — and it has to do with the game’s approach to open-world design.

“If the idea had just been to add more courses, then I think we would’ve called it Mario Kart 9,“ explained producer Kosuke Yabuki. “But, that wasn’t our approach this time. We wanted to take the series to the next level. So, we decided to drop the numbering this time and go with a completely new title, Mario Kart World. So, we’d already added “MARIO KART WORLD” to the concept art from the early stages of development.“

The development team also discussed the game’s origins on the original Switch. Many of the key aspects of World — including its interconnected map and increasing the number of players per race from 12 to 24 — were in place early on, but they apparently proved to be a challenge on the previous hardware.

“When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” programming director Kenta Sato  said. “We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation.” Yabuki added that when the idea of moving the game to the Switch 2 came up, “It was truly a ray of hope.”

There’s a lot more to dig into in the four-part Q&A, including the fact that there will be 200 tracks to listen to and how important food is to the game from a worldbuilding perspective. So you should definitely check out the full thing. My favorite detail, though, is how a character named Cow made it onto the roster of racers. As art director Masaaki Ishikawa explains it “Cow is actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series.“

After looking at this concept art, I can’t help but agree: