If you’ve ever wanted to live out your Mario Kart fantasy it’s about to get harder.
Until now tourists in Japan have been able to book guided tours of cities through a company called MariCar. The company’s tours involve riding through the city streets on 50cc go-karts. It also offer things like a photoshoot and a boat tour, all for a pretty reasonable $140 considering the unique experience.
The biggest draw for MariCar is arguably the costumes though. For an additional $50 you can buy a costume to wear while you ride around. These include selections from Winnie the Pooh, the Minions, and of course various Nintendo characters. You can even complete the look by buying a fake mustache to imitate everyone’s favorite ex-plumber.
Chances are you’ve probably stumbled upon something called “Real Life Mario Kart” on YouTube. In those videos, you can see people riding around in go-karts while looking like Nintendo characters. It always looks fairly entertaining, and celebrity riders including F1 world champion Jenson Button have taken these trips. Button chose to dress up as Princess Peach for his tour, which is still far less disturbing than Bowsette.
However, last year Nintendo took exception to costumes featuring its characters. It filed a lawsuit against MariCar, claiming the company was violating its intellectual property rights. Nintendo claimed that MariCar’s name stood for Mario Kart — and it’s easy to see how it came to that conclusion, although Japan’s Patent Office disagreed with that in 2017.
The courts have since come down in Nintendo’s favor. Going forward MariCar will need to cease selling or renting Nintendo costumes. It will also need to fork over ten million yen ($89,000) in damages.
The timing of the litigation is interesting. In 2020, Universal Studios Japan will open a licensed Super Nintendo World. There’s all sorts of Nintendo-themed rides and attractions, including — surprise, surprise — a Mario Kart track.
Currently, the MariCar website is still up and you can still book tours. There’s still images of riders in Nintendo costumes as well. This means the company could go on to fight the decision. MariCar has issued a release regarding the ruling which, according to a very rough translation, states it’s currently reviewing the decision.
Hopefully, the two parties can find a way to work out an agreement. If they don’t, at least we know that a properly licensed Mario Kart experience is just around the corner.
