Raise your counter and riding Mario Kart tracks with friends on TV is one thing, but with Nintendo, you can now take laps in an RC car in your home with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. The remote-controlled car game connected to the Nintendo Switch, due out October 16, will transform the actual cardboard gates and your floor space into a Mario Kart game on the Switch using augmented reality. After an initial teaser video earlier this summer, we learned a lot more on Thursday about what the game will do and how it works.
Sounds crazy? It looks crazy. However, this isn't the first time Nintendo has connected the real world and gaming. Nintendo Labo included crazy interactive cardboard folding experiences (do you remember Labo?). Ring Fit Adventure turned the Switch into a training game. Lego Mario is a board scanner board game. The Nintendo Wii Vitality Sensor was ... well, we're not really talking about that. But Nintendo has never mixed RC cars and video games before, despite the fact that there was once an RC car video game and Nintendo once made RC cars.
In some ways, Mario Kart Live feels almost like a Mario Kart version of a Mario Maker Game as it comes down to creating your own courses. But it's also an RC car racing game that adds a surprising amount of augmented reality to mix video game effects into the on-switch display. It really looks like Mario Kart 8 but with your home as the background. It reminds me of AR games on phones and tablets charged with a moving racing car toy. It reminded me of when I played once Super Mario in a HoloLens. And it also seems to be a Nintendo development of earlier phone-based RC robot cars like Anki Overdrive or Spheros Lightning McQueen.
Will Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit be a hot Christmas present for kids? We haven't tested it yet, but we spoke to Nintendo remotely and saw a video demo of the racing action. Here's what we learned:
It won't go online. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is only offline locally.
The karts are paired directly to the Switch or Switch Lite via WiFi, which means the game is offline. There is no way to connect with online friends for challenges.
You get one kart per box and the software can be downloaded for free.
For $ 100, you can get a kart (Mario or Luigi), a charging cable, four cardboard gates, and two arrow markers. The game software can be downloaded for free. But every player needs a kart to play which means $ 100 more per player which is ... expensive. That's $ 400 for a four-way race, even if everyone already has their own switch (!).
You can play 1-4 players, but each player needs a kart ... and their own counter.
The game supports local races with up to four players on a real track, but here, too, every player needs a Mario or Luigi kart and their own switch to pair with. That's a lot of extra hardware, which means most people are only playing with one kart on a switch.
The kart is paired with the switch by scanning a QR code on the screen with the kart's camera.
Nintendo showed how the karts connect: an in-game QR code quickly couples the kart, but the kart can later be connected to another switch if necessary.
There are the modes Grand Prix, Time Trial and Custom Race as well as four different speeds (50cc, 100cc, 150cc and 200cc).
The main part of the game consists of either completing a three-cup challenge with changing effects and enemies per race, or competing in time trial laps against a personal ghost. The custom racing mode allows more precise customization of the rules.
You paint your own race tracks.
Mario Kart Live courses are all bespoke. You drive around with your kart and "paint" your course in your room in mixed reality by driving your kart onto the street and using all four gates as checkpoints.
The game uses only one setup course at a time and does not save any course setups.
You'll have to repaint your track every time you start Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. Grand Prix Cup events require you to set up and paint a different track to change the situation between races, or you can just drive the same race layout over and over again.
There are many, many mixed reality obstacles, power ups, and environmental influences.
The game paints over your room and records what the kart's camera sees in the fisheye lens. However, look at the cardboard gates and arrow markers to animate additional features. There are obstacles in the game and power-ups at the gates (blocks, piranha plants, magikoopa curses and more) depending on the course or adaptation.
Extras are unlocked as you play and offer some replay options and creative challenges, but it's not as detailed a creative toolset as Super Mario Maker. Even so, it looks like each track is getting all sorts of popup additions, including underwater effects, fire effects, and items that can be used to throw at other karts.
The physical kart will slow down or change course depending on the item effects.
If a red clam is thrown onto a kart, it will stop. A magical Koopa curse can suddenly cause mirror-image driving. When imaginary piranha plants grab the digital kart, they stop the real kart. Sometimes there is an evasive action, or maybe a chain chomp pulls the kart off course.
Nintendo recommends 10 x 12 feet of free space for your typical track setup and a maximum of 30 feet between your Switch and the kart.
That's a lot of space, but the track superstructure could (and should) weave through obstacles like chairs or tables at home. And Nintendo says the karts have a 30-foot range between the Switch and the kart, but that if the kart wanders too far, it is better to stay closer for the best results on longer distances.
The battery life is approx. 90 minutes with a charging time of 3-4 hours.
The karts will run for about an hour and a half, which seems to be standard for RC cars and the like. It takes a while to charge, however: the USB-C charger takes three to four hours to charge. Expect some breaks in play.
Nintendo does not recommend outdoor use or ramp jumping.
According to Nintendo, these karts are meant for indoor racing, with tires and a low-riding design that won't fit your yard (dirt and debris probably aren't good for the kart either). Carpets are apparently fine. And Nintendo has suggested that AR tracking for the racetracks could be compromised by things like the kart flying in the air, so ramp jumps might not work and even interrupt a race (the AR effects assume a flat plane). I'm curious what would happen though.
The game works with the Switch or Switch Lite, as well as in handheld or dock mode. But you can't play with just one Joy-Con.
Unsurprisingly, you can use Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit with any Switch. It's also pretty cool that you can dock your Switch to the TV and play games in a living room so the whole family can watch you play or take turns. However, the game requires both Joy-Cons (or the Pro controller) to function and cannot be controlled with just a single Joy-Con.
Next up: we just have to try and play it.
We haven't personally played the game so we have no further observations on what it actually feels like or how good it is. Hopefully that will happen soon, because October 16th is not far away.