Racing games come in so many forms that it can be hard to compare one to another. Burnout is nothing like Formula One. Team Sonic Racing and Need for Speed might both fall under the same umbrella but are vastly different games. All of that being said, when it comes to picking the most successful racing game franchise of all time, it’s almost impossible to look beyond Mario Kart.
A Challenger Emerges
Mario Kart has been dominating the racing game scene since the early 90s and with the release of Mario Kart Tour on iOS and Android, it shows no signs of slowing down. However, an old foe reared its head and returned from its slumber in 2019 — Crash Team Racing. A very similar kart racing game that hasn’t posed a threat to Mario Kart’s unchallenged throne since the late 1990s.
2019’s Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled was a remaster of the original game, with a few elements from its less successful sequels thrown in to bulk it out. It set itself apart from Mario Kart by introducing Grand Prix events. The month-long Grand Prix would present players with new challenges, and completing these would unlock new characters, karts, and other items.
It sounds like the perfect idea for Nintendo to steal, tweak, and apply to Mario Kart, except there’s one problem. Since Mario Kart games have been around for almost 30 years, the potential roster has been all but exhausted. Case and point, there are currently eleven different versions of Mario across Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo needs to come up with an idea that will allow them to expand Mario Kart’s roster in a major way, and we have just the idea…
Mario Kart x Crash Team Racing
A crossover game with Crash Team Racing. There’s no word just yet on a follow-up to the remaster, but considering the success of Nitro-Fueled it seems likely. A roster similar in size to Smash Bros. Ultimate that includes all of the characters from both franchises would be a hit with both Mario and Crash fans. Speaking of Smash, it would also be a way to massively expand Mario Kart’s roster without looking like Nintendo has done nothing more than steal the basis for the fighting franchise.
There would be one major sticking point, though — exclusivity. It’s incredibly unlikely Nintendo would allow Mario Kart x Crash Team Racing to be released on anything other than its own systems. CTR’s publishers might not like that idea on the surface, but if they were to look at the sales of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, they might change their minds. The game is the best-seller on Switch as it closes in on 23 million copies sold. As for Nitro-Fueled, at last count, it hadn’t even managed half of that despite its multi-platform advantage.
By all accounts, this would be a deal that’s mutually beneficial for both parties. Mario Kart gets a massively expanded roster while CTR potentially doubles its sales. There’s plenty of time for the first iteration of this crossover to be released on Switch too. The console is only three years old so chances are we won’t be getting any new hardware from Nintendo for a while. It’s unlikely it will ever happen, but a Mario Kart x CTR crossover game could have the potential to be the best-selling Nintendo game of all time.
