‘Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit’ Brings AR Kart-racing to Your Living Room Floor with Switch

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You simply never know with Nintendo. One year they’re bringing out a full VR Nintendo Labo kit for Switch, and the next they’ve mashed AR into a remote-controlled car for at-home Mario Kart races. One thing is for sure: Nintendo’s latest is bound to be this year’s holiday must-have for Switch owners.

With Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, you pilot your own little Mario or Luigi around the house. Using a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite to control the physical kart, you race through your own custom courses.

Nintendo says that players will be able to place gates to create a custom course layout and unlock a variety of course customizations as well as costumes for Mario or Luigi.

Users will also be able to play with up to four players in local multiplayer mode, provided they have their own Switch and Mario/Luigi kart that is.

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Information is still thin on the ground, although from the video we can infer that users will be able to play alone against AR koopalings. The little gates seem to act as AR visual markers, which likely helps the system draw the track’s ghostly boundaries. Although there probably won’t be any ramps or other physical obstacles to integrate like in real Mario Kart games, the special boxed appear to actually spin out, slow down, and speed up your little RC-Mario.

Both Mario and Luigi karts launch on October 16th, and are priced at $99 each. Nintendo says pre-order details are coming soon, although pre-orders should be available here when the time comes.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • xyzs

    So freakin cool !!!

  • Will

    “from the video we can infer that users will be able to play alone against AR koopalings”

    The video clearly shows people racing their cars against each other, on the same track. Also this will sell gangbusters. Might be time to buy some nintendo stock…

    • Hivemind9000

      “Users will also be able to play with up to four players in local multiplayer mode, provided they have their own Switch and Mario/Luigi kart that is.”

      • Will

        Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. As forensic analysis on my derpiness, I actually read the first part and was so annoyed at Nintendo for making such a silly decision that I then just clicked on the video to see if the AR at least worked well, only to find it indeed showed multiplayer and erroneously assume I had uncovered an error on the author’s part. The lesson as always: make sure you always read the whole article before commenting! Cheers!

  • Ad

    I hope this is a mass market product and not for collectors like the LEGO set. RIP the quest as this holidays XR fad.

    • Adrian Meredith

      long live quest 2

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        Zuckulus Quest

  • Amazing! Also a very original approach to AR… I love it!

    • Penn Apcs

      Yep, I love that technologies like AR are so new that there continue to be brand new ways to implement them that are truly surprising

  • Penn Apcs

    It’s funny to think that this could be similar to the way that remote people monitor our self-driving cars someday

  • Jim P

    Nintendo finally got new tech right. It’s a miracle. Good job.