Mario Kart 8's anti-gravity helped separate it from the racing crowd, but the way Mario Kart 9 could improve the game is by making it open world.
Mario Kart has been known for innovating the party racing genre in different ways, and its next installment - the rumored Mario Kart 9 - could feature an open world. While other racing games like Forza Horizon 5 have embraced world maps and integrated racetracks, Mario Kart has instead added underwater racing, anti-gravity, and flying mechanics to its gameplay. At the time of Mario Kart 8's release, these features were still new and fresh, but now people might be wondering where the franchise can innovate next.
It's not an easy task to think of ways that Mario Kart can reinvent the genre, and a lot of speculation has been directed towards a possible Smash Bros.-inspired crossover roster in Mario Kart 9. Barring that, however, new driving mechanics might be hard to create. It might make sense for Mario Kart 9 to embrace the improvements that other games have made and bring open-world racing design to the series, as its something that Nintendo hasn't done yet with the franchise. The cartoony art style and hilarious hectic racing would be a new theme for the open-world genre and Nintendo could undoubtedly find a new spin on the format.
With Sonic Frontiers and Pokémon Legends: Arceus both going open-world, it's become somewhat of a joke that every game property has to go open-world like Breath of the Wild in order to be successful. However, Mario Kart could learn from its contemporaries and string together an open world with personality. With so many different level themes and opportunities to design new tracks for Mario Kart 9, it would benefit greatly from having a connected level hub. The franchise has forged enough of its own identity that going open-world won't make it blander but instead open up opportunities for fun track designs and a fully fleshed-out single-player and multiplayer experience.
Forza Horizon is the most obvious comparison for racing games with an open world. Players not only drive their cars across the map to go from race to race but also upgrade cars, start a career, and explore different cities. Since Mario Kart already has unlockables, a kart customization feature, and many different locales, it would make sense for Nintendo to interconnect these with a world map that has NPCs and a focus on exploration. Integration of a map similar to other open-world racing games like Forza Horizon and even Nintendo's own Wii Sports-centered Wuhu Island may make the act of selecting courses more enjoyable and provide a better-rounded experience.
Mario Golf: Super Rush is actually a great candidate for comparison as it's the first game in the series to use one single map for each course rather than have each hole be a separate, self-contained challenge. This has allowed course design to become larger and feel more connected to the world of the game. Similarly, Mario Kart could use an open world map to create tracks that mesh together into one. Multiple tracks with similar themes that twist around each other could contrast longer, more linear maps.
Granted, if the imagination of stages like Music Park and Switch's Rainbow Road were to influence Mario Kart 9's track design, it might be hard to create a unified world that includes every possible track theme. However, given Mario's track record of sports games with different biomes, it would be great to see a new game try to create a hub world that ties all the different tracks together. A larger world with wide landscapes housing smaller courses might help sell the scope of the game and make driving in Mario Kart enjoyable in a calmer environment.
An arcade racer might not seem like the type of game that would benefit from an open world, but Nintendo has an opportunity to design an entire world around it - Mario Kart's more cartoony nature means that there's plenty of room to design crazy twists and cool racing lines on a world map. There's a lot of storytelling that can be done simply by designing a detailed open-world and Nintendo has proven that can in the BOTW-like Bowser's Fury and Super Mario Odyssey. Designing a distinct difference between stadium maps and courses built into the natural terrain of the Mushroom Kingdom could radically change the flow of a Mario Kart game, where instead of focusing only on hectic races the game could also create atmospheric scenic routes for players to discover.
Single-player experiences in Mario Kart have always been limited, but the best single player experience was in Mario Kart DS. Mission mode remixed the included tracks and had players complete tasks like breaking boxes and defeating bosses. An open-world Mario Kart could integrate missions back into the game by making them side-quests. These courses provide extra challenges and Mario Kart always benefits from smaller side modes being available alongside a large number of Mario Kart courses and races.
This also wouldn't interfere with the multiplayer aspects of gameplay. In reality, having an open world might help Mario Kart justify more modes and ways to battle with friends. Team races have never been a prevalent form of competition in Mario Kart, but with a dedicated friends list and a world to explore with them, a clan or club system like what's coming to Super Mario Strikers: Battle League could make the game more fun to play. Open-world games also often focus on events and tournaments, which could open possibilities for better online multiplayer.
There's more that Mario Kart could do to innovate, like bringing back Double Dash's partner mechanic and creating a Mario Kart 9 roster with enough Nintendo characters to rival Smash. However, creating a full campaign mode and world map, even for multiplayer, would most likely bring more renewed interest to the franchise than simply adding more tracks or characters. It's somewhat disappointing that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Pass will only include older tracks. If Nintendo is working on Mario Kart 9 in the meantime, it would benefit from reworking the structure of the franchise and finding a way to bring drift-heavy arcade racing to the modern era of game design. There's so much potential given Mario Kart's already stellar track design, so not creating a larger world out of it would be a missed opportunity. Exploring an entire world made out of areas that look like Shy Guy Falls and Neo Bowser City would sell Mario Kart 9 in a heartbeat.
