Here's How Much Room You'll Need To Play Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

Mario Kart remains one of the most popular franchises at Nintendo. In fact, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch quickly became the fastest-selling game in the series and is currently the company's overall bestseller, with almost 27 million units sold as of June 2020. The game itself remains true to its core formula: Mario and friends race around a track and throw things at one another. However, Nintendo is nevertheless mixing things up a bit with its newest Mario Kart release, expected to launch on October 16. 

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit leverages a location gamers have been seeing quite a lot of during the COVID-19 pandemic: their homes. The upcoming title makes it possible to design a custom course that integrates the game with real life. You can use objects from your house to add challenge to the races and then watch the game "transform your home into the Mario Kart world," as the website says – complete with jungles, snowscapes and Piranha plants.

It sounds like good, clean, creative fun. Perhaps you're already considering how to incorporate your coffee table, couch cushions, and the cat condo into the ultimate Mario Kart challenge. But exactly how much room will you need to jury-rig the perfect track, anyway?

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit comes with an actual remote-control car (driven by Mario or Luigi), four cardboard gates, and two arrow signboards. According to an overview trailer released by Nintendo on Oct. 1, all you have to do to create your course is assemble the gates, put them up, and drive Mario through them in numerical order. "The path you take becomes the course," the video notes. 

The result is what developer Velan Studios calls "mixed reality": Video footage of your room is overlaid with the race course's theme, and action in the game affects the remote control car's actions. Nintendo suggests in the video that it's recommended to have at least 10 by 12 feet of space but says the course can work whether your home is large or small. It also advises, via a support FAQ, that you create your track indoors on a flat surface and keep the RC car within 15 feet of the Switch system. Nintendo told The Verge that the remote control car will even work on carpet, although a higher thickness might slow it down. 

The obstacles you come up against are determined depending on which of the 24 Grand Prix courses you choose. These include "Cheep Cheep Reef," "Boo Fortress," and "Ember Island." The game supports up to four local players and will cost $99.99 per set.