Nintendo puts the brakes on real-life Mario Kart
Nintendo has dropped the blue shell of the law on a Mario Kart-style go-kart attraction in Tokyo, Japan.
The basic experience costs $9,000 yen per customer (around £60 / $90) and puts you in a fleet of go-karts, dressed in onesies modelled after the racing game's iconic cast of characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and the like.
Nintendo is seeking damages to the tune of 10 million yen (£6,000 / $9,000) for the infringement on their intellectual property. Tokyo District Court ruled this week in Nintendo's favor, though the exact amount that the small-scale MariCar is expected to pay is still unconfirmed.
MariCar's website has yet to acknowledge the ruling, though you can see the sort of experience on offer in the video below.
Race to the finish
Mario Kart is one of Nintendo's most iconic franchises, having first appeared on the SNES in 1992 with Super Mario Kart, and enjoyed bestselling success all the way up to 2018, with the arrival of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch. That's been alongside growth in the arcade space and even in Mario Kart VR.
Nintendo is famously protective of its IP, which are often prone to infringement because of their cultural prominence and highly active fan culture.
We saw a number of ROM and emulator sites for old Nintendo games run into trouble earlier this year, in the run up to the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online service, which came with its own retro classics bundled in with the subscription.
