The Mario Kart series is one of the most popular Nintendo franchise there is, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe nearing 20 million sales as of the time of this writing. As such, an eventual Mario Kart 9 is an absolute sure thing. Will it hit the Switch, or its successor? There's no telling. All we know is that it will be coming at some point.
It's going to need to change things up somehow, too. With a selection of new items, maybe? Today, we’ll be taking a look at ten different items from the Super Mario universe that could end up in the new title. Let’s jump into it.
10 Mini Mushroom
The Mini Mushroom that is often featured in the newer Mario platformers would be a great addition to the Mario Kart lineup. The Mini Mushroom could theoretically give the player a small speed boost and allow them to travel under the karts of other players, perhaps even access some sort of special shortcut only available while in mini form.
However, being so small would come with very large danger too, as if a regular-sized racer hits you, you'd presumably get flattened.
9 Cannon Box
A theoretical Cannon Box would function similarly to how it did in its origin game of Super Mario 3D World, with the ability to fire chargeable cannonballs at will. Perhaps it would only be able to fire three with the transition to a Mario Kart game.
Let’s make things wildly realistic and make the player completely blind while the Cannon Box is over their head, for no reason at all. We want realism in our Mario Kart games, after. That’s why the space princess is racing in go-karts with a squid.
8 Double Cherry
Ah, the Double Cherry. What would this do in Mario Kart 9, you ask? We haven’t quite gotten there yet. Wouldn’t it just be great for you to have two racers side by side completely unnecessarily?
Okay, we've got it. The clone would stick around for a limited amount of time, but during that time, maybe it would double all items you managed to collect? Look, we're not the game designers here, but make the Double Cherries do something cool in MK9, please.
7 Propeller Mushroom
The Propeller Mushroom would do exactly what it does in the platformers, and give you the ability to fly upward in a quick, short burst. This would allow you to hop over other players, get yourself out of pitfalls, and maybe get through a few shortcuts. You know, like the Feather, but more interesting.
The possibilities are really endless, and it could easily become one of the most important items in the game. Would the ability to fly probably break the game in quite a few different capacities? Yeah. Should it be done anyway? Absolutely it should.
6 Ice Flower
The Ice Flower would be able to do one of two things in Mario Kart 9. Possibility one would be to freeze other players for a short duration, which seems a bit overpowered. The other possibility would be to create ice patches on the track that would cause other players to slip out of control.
On an ice stage already? It creates an icicle barrier to get by. The Ice Flower is kind of trash in the platformers, so let it shine a bit here, please. It's doing its best.
5 Hammer
A trusty item of Mario’s throughout various adventures, a Mario Kart 9 hammer would work in a similar fashion to the Super Smash Bros. variant. When the hammer is activated, for a limited amount of time the item starts swinging away, and let’s just say you don’t want to get caught up in the mix.
The item would send you flying, and recovering and getting back on the track would take a bit of time. A lot of the items we’ve added on this list are pretty violent, huh? Well, don’t worry. The next entry is completely harmless.
4 Spike
Take out anyone that even thinks of opposing you with a giant spiked metal ball. Mercy was never an option. Functioning as an item in MK9, Spike would essentially summon a the Mario enemy that would do his weird weapon regurgitation thing that he does in the platformers, shooting out the weapons in front of you, likely 3-5.
Sure, you could be hit too, but avoid the balls and you could be able to slip past much of the competition. It'd be one heck of a sight, if nothing else.
3 Pal Pill
A one-off item in Super Paper Mario that literally no-one cares about, the Pal Pill summons a set of mini 8-bit characters to assist the player, or in Mario Kart 9’s case, the driver. They would likely not do any major damage, but instead act as a shield to absorb any oncoming shells or bananas.
Sure, not the best item in the game, but they’re really cute. Due to the sheer obscurity of this item, it would never actually make it into a new Mario Kart game, but it’s still fun to think about the what-ifs.
2 Wild Nine
We had the Lucky Seven, we had the Crazy Eight. Now, get ready for the Rambunctious Nine. The Shocking Nine item is simply an evolution of an item featured in both of the numbered installments of Mario Kart that would give players that are a bit behind nine items to use that would help them catch up.
While the Notorious Nine item might pushing it a bit too far on how many items the player can use at once, the Clamorous Nine item would be a fun addition to the current roster.
1 Metal Cap
The Metal Cap from Super Mario 64 would let the driver turn metal for a limited amount of time (Metal Mario turns into solid titanium, Pink Gold Peach becomes... Blood Diamond Peach or something).
During this time, the player might get a small speed boost, but the primary function of this item would be to make both your kart and racer incredibly weighty. This would allow you to bop anyone that comes into contact with you right off the stage. As you should. How dare they try to drive on the same road as you?