Today sees the arrival of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit on the Nintendo Switch. Obviously, it's similar but also different from any other Mario Kart game ever released. Instead of taking control of a virtual kart, this time around you're operating a remote control car.
Obviously, one big factor with this game is that it requires a living area with a fair bit of space in order to play it properly. This may or may not be a setback depending on your own space. There could also be other factors to take into account like pets or maybe your floors are covered in carpet.
As usual, we want to know if you'll be picking up Nintendo's latest release on day one, or perhaps if you're still trying to decide if it's the right game for you or not. Vote in our poll and leave a comment down below.
If you want to learn more about this new Mario Kart game - be sure to check out our review in progress. You can also find out where to purchase this release from in our handy Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit guide.
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Comments 90
It’s too premium for me so I’ll be passing. As a child I would have loved this as one who collected hot wheels and loved race cars with controllers, but goodness this is way more than one of those by a mile.
@Sean161 two sets. Nice. I ordered Luigi for now. To test it out. Hoping someone i know picks one up too for some multi player action.
I work with kindergarten through 4th graders. We will be playing this sometime next week. 👍👍
None of the answers to the second question really apply to me. I don't have enough space but I wouldn't be interested even if I did.
My wallet said no.
It looks fun but might get it later; would love to play this with my daughter though.
I an interested but I can’t I have 5 dogs and 3 cats they will hunt It down haha
Not really an option in my house unfortunately, but I hope everyone who does get it has fun, please let us know!
Not for me, but its still pretty cool. I would've loved this is a kid. Kinda like Ring Fit, I like how Nintendo is thinking outside the box with this. 👍
I think that the second question needs another option, like "Space is not relevant, as I'm just not interested in it." At the moment, the only "no" option makes it sound like it is only a "no" due to space.
I don't even want colored joycons.
easily enough room for it, but just had the worlds thickest carpet fitted. They should have released this as a collaboration with Anki and used their Overdrive tracks.
I don't get the appeal of this at all.
If you want to race virtually, play Mario Kart.
If you want a remote controlled toy car, get the Mario Kart toys that have been available for decades now.
My cats would probably love this.
Picking up Mario and Luigi sets today. We have four Switch systems but I can't see buying four of these although four players would be cool.
It's too much of a toy for me, I don't really have the people to play with (single player would get boring really fast, I suppose) and I live in a small apartment.
So this is a "not for me" answer. But not every game needs to be targeting me.
Price is a huge factor. I'd rather invest in a HOTAS stick or steering wheel for pc gaming. Second is replayabity. I don't play my MK8 enough as it is and I fear the novelty will wear off of this. However, if Nintendo released something robotic or drone - then it would have greater playability.
This is just such a great idea. Some years ago I was very interested in augmented reality, and despite not being a Pokémon fan, I did see the mobile game as sort of the first killer app for it. So I'd run out immediately and get this piece of kit if I had space for it. But the adult and responsible thing to do would probably be to get rid of all my furniture first 😉
@Ooyah the second question is not about if you're interested. For instance I answered not interested in the first and plenty of space in the second
If you got a cartridge in the box I would give it a go then re-sell. But as it is a download code I don't have that option.
I can’t escape the feeling that the novelty will wear off quickly, and building tracks makes it too time-consuming, compared with playing actual Mario Kart, which is a fair bit cheaper.
There will be no power sliding so it wouldn't feel much like Mario kart to me. More just a stiff racer type of feel.
I'd rather buy a solid DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. Not interested in this at all. Why would I want to see my messy room on the Switch screen? I doubt we'll see the toy while the race goes on. What is the point of this? :-?
Maybe if I find it on sale, but this isn't interesting enough for a day one purchase for me. I hope the people who did buy it have fun though!
@Balta666 I think they mean the "I don't have enough space and that's why I'm not purchasing it" answer in the second question. This one seems to imply that you would have purchased it if you had enough room. I for one don't really have enough space without remodelling the rooms, but I would not have been interested in this even with enough space.
Maybe if I had kids or I was one. Solid pass.
As the "home" part in the title may indicate, I'm not. Unless you picture me running these cars around university halls and corridors (an admittedly tempting thought for a split second, but we have way too much pedestrian traffic here).😆
just home from picking it up in town getting ready for two excited kids start making a mess sorry race track of the living room
I'm waiting for both of mine to arrive in the mail sometime next week.
@doctorhino
Go on.
I would if I have a son to use as a excuse
I'm curious to see if you can make one long course with multiple sets of flags.
I wonder if this to work in the garden? I don’t have room indoors
Nah will skipp this one. Nice gadget, but i want mario kart 9 lol.
I have 2 cats in my house. That means i am not getting it
If it gets cheap enough, maybe for collector's purposes, but otherwise no. Too expensive for me, and more importantly, I have no space to use these.
Doesn't really interest me at any price, especially not at almost £100
If I was a kid, I might have wanted it.
@dazzleshell the app is free on the eShop. So you can use that one and not your code.
Well, I've ordered - late I know - from Nintendo, so let's see when they get it out to me. Looks like it'll be hard to get hold of for a while.
it will sell well but I will wait till a sale one day. It is almost a novelty item and game that I doubt I will play for hours (especially in solo mode).
The negatives for me mean it is a hard pass for now.
Those who ordered it, good luck and enjoy as I am sure it will be lots of fun.
And to my complete lack of surprise, Nintendo (UK) online shop have just emailed to say there'll be a delay sending these out. Looks like it's sold out everywhere.
Way, way, way too expensive. But I'd love to get one and will be tempted if they ever go on sale.
@doctorhino Damo says it does have power sliding.
I’ve been planning to, but now that the day is here I’m gonna pass because I know I won’t have any time to really play it.
@MajorTom I respectfully disagree as with my answers I am saying the reason for not buying has nothing to do with the lack of space
@Balta666 For the last option they could best have just kept it with "I don't have enough space" instead of adding "and that's why I'm not purchasing it" to it.
Unfortunately I think it's a short-lived wonder. Christmas Day loads of houses will have Mario racing around their floors. By January the cardboard will look worse for wear and the cars will have retired to the bottom of the toy cupboard.
Nintendo will make a nice profit. And this time next year it will be a last year fad.
@Gerald says indoors only and think it needs the wifi to send data to switch as well
Well we set it up played it my 5 and 7 year old loved it to bits. usual nintendo polish in setting it all up. The gates are big and you need a good amount space. But kids loved it to bits. But its for kids and big kids. The races feel like MK and are fun the tech is amazing. But remember its a toy for kids. and something fun to play as a big kid with your kids. and my two kids already planning their lego builds for the course this afternoon. Expensive but i can see the cost in the Rc Car.
@MajorTom that I totally agree with
@anguspuss sounds great! Glad it's as fun as the videos make it look. One thing I've not seen anywhere is if you can make raised courses with ramps etc, logically I can't see why not although maybe it messes up the camera? Has anyone tried that?
@DoctorShrunk ill suggest kids to try that this afternoon and let you know
I am picking this up for my kids (and me, lol) as a Christmas present. Hopefully I’ll be able to find one easily around the holidays.
Meh where's mario kart 9.
Or mario kart vr on lots of platforms.
I've got the room, and the price doesn't bother me. I was talking about it with my son tho, and we'd both just prefer a new entry in the main series. This is neat, and if they do more with it, I'll probably jump in. As is, I'm cool unless it drops in price like labo. Then my cats and dogs will hate me.
Too expensive, not that much body and uhm too expensive
The price is too high. The idea you can't buy more karts without buying a full pack is crazy.
But you are really only buying the car, the rest of the pack is just a bit of cardboard isn't it?
@DoctorShrunk If its anything like that then give it 20years or so and it'll cost crazy money like boxed N64 games.
Got one Mario, one Luigi coming on Monday. The kiddo is stoked! (Umm, okay, so am I, lol.)
And, luckily, I was able to cancel my pre-order from Germany once I confirmed purchasing stateside was possible early this morning, so I saved $40 bucks and we won't have to wait 2-3 weeks to play.
I bought it today, works great except the switch wifi which for some reason starting having trouble
Got it already turned up erlyer though probably not going to get to play it till next year... As dont have space for it atm would need to go somewhere elce to play it
Its costs 260 USD today on Amazon EU
Wtf with the resellers. I wanted to buy it today
It’s extremely expensive and I see nothing compelling about it. I have zero interest.
To me this just seems like yet another version of the Amiibo, Infinity, Skylander Toys to life thing. Fun at first and money draining, but will ultimately end up in the back of a cupboard.
Was on the fence about it, but I had the money and felt myself heading towards GAME to buy one, almost entirely on instinct. It's a nice little thing, and getting a toy's eye view of your home is really fun, but with all the technical issues, I don't think it has a lot of appeal for serious gamers. My connection's been spotty when both my Switch and the kart are near my other consoles, and there's almost always some AR glitching, but the novelty of the device is enough for me to enjoy it.
If you aren’t getting this, are you even a fan? Just ordered two Mario’s. Hunting for a Luigi. Christmas shopping is done.
@Yanina
Good to know. Thanks.
My house is full of carpet and stairs.
@DoctorShrunk well with 50cc mario proves white men cant jum put it up to 100cc and he can go up ramps. Fact kids spent over hour building the track then chaos ensued as they crashed into everything. lol
@anguspuss ha ha sounds good fun though, I look forward to getting creative in my layouts. Good old Nintendo have just sent me the dispatch confirmation! Woo hoo!
$100 can get me 10 months of PC Game Pass, or 8 more Gigs of DDr4 3600, or a PS5 Pulse headset, or a 500 Gig 5,000MB/s NVMe
If to play at home, this is not winning the $100 hardware battle.
I have a bunch of Hot Wheels race tracks in the closet for when the little ones come over. More of a tradition in my fam.
Knowing how the expert educated opinions on this site work, I expect the opposite of what the polls show.
@Agramonte I can picture all the little kiddies at Xmas going "mummy daddy can I get some extra RAM, a 2TB SSD and an RTX 3080 for Xmas?"
I seriously doubt this is aimed at people like you.
It looks cool, but I can't see myself buying it.
I have too much carpet only the basement and kitchen are viable spots to run on.
It’s not really the amount of space it takes up that worries me, but the price. It’s a price worth paying for some, but I’m not even a Mario Kart fan, so I don’t know yet.
Here's the deal kids when they see this they will want this regardless of what the big kids like to think for little kids. All those hot wheels can't match the thrill of driving simulation and seeing your driving. So stop thinking you know what kids are thinking cause scientifically big kids like Nintendo knows what little kids wants. And hot wheels are not hot anymore.
@WiltonRoots Little kiddies would have a 67 GT500 Hot Wheels and a Seasonal HESS Truck under the Christmas (Just like I did)
And still have enough left for my stick of Ram. Everyone happy 😀
But yeah, any Switch game that can only be played at home - is not really aimed at me.
@SwitchForce my 5 and 7 year old played it this morning then this afternoon spent over an hour making the race track with lego spectator stands crowds etc. then had great fun when they wrecked half the track trying to race.
@nhSnork Awww but you would be the life of the Uni!
@Agramonte it is strange there’s nothing in the polls to say “I’m not the target market”, a strange omission as currently the poll can make people look like they’re dead against it.
@gcunit how exactly do you make an rc car power slide? Even just moving the back wheel as well I can't imagine it would be controllable.
@Anguspuss now that is the target audience. If it was an older person they would complain about the controls and having to rebuild everything (like me)
No I won't be buying this.
And it has nothing to do with space, to be honest even the price isn't that much of a factor.
This looks like 2-3 hours of fun at most before the novelty quickly dies and it gets packed away to gather dust.
Even if this was £10 I wouldn't bother with it.
@Yanina just curious, what is your avatar? I have been trying to figure it out for awhile but I can’t quite place it. It looks super familiar though.
EDIT: Found it. Anna Karina in Band of Outsiders
I'm kind of with the "this will be the best gift evar" on Christmas day, then abandoned shortly after. Though the parts would be stored and cherished.
But then aren't pretty much all floors in us residences just wll to wall carpet?
@NEStalgia my upstairs, yes, but my first floor is hardwood. Still not getting this though. Overpriced. Most modern houses these days built similarly. But the 70’s....which was a decade before my time, mind you...
It sounds like a lot of fun if you have someone to play and build tracks with.
But as a singleplayer experience it feels more like a gimmick that I would play for an afternoon and never touch again.
@Sourcecode Yes!
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