Peachette

The Switch proved a success, and, almost as if trying to make up for the Wii U’s failure, nearly every major game released for the system found itself being ported over, often as a deluxe version with new features. Among these was New Super Mario Bros. U, that combined the elements of both the original version and New Super Luigi U, adding in a few new elements as well. The most prominent of these elements was the addition of Toadette as a playable character, complete with her own power-up that transformed her into a duplicate of Princess Peach.

Toadette’s new form, Peachette, quickly found instant popularity, albeit in a distinctly uncomfortable corner of the internet who thought to take the power-up and apply it to others in the series, most specifically Bowser. Reasons for popularity aside, Peachette would see reappearances in games like Mario Kart Tour and will surely reappear again in the future.

As a playable fighter, Peachette will be an echo fighter of Princess Peach, her moves pulling from all the same moves Peach herself pulled from. She will be lighter and faster, and a little weaker than Peach, owing to the plucky young Toad inside the royal form.

Likelihood rating: Could happen

King Bob-Omb

In 1996, things were changing for the video game industry. The secret to making fully 3D games had been uncovered, and every game company was jumping on the bandwagon. Nintendo released the Nintendo 64, a system that could handle the extra processing power, and with it came a full 3D Mario game called Super Mario 64. This time, Peach’s Castle itself had been taken over, its residents trapped inside paintings. In order to free them, Mario had to jump into the paintings himself, each one a portal to a brand-new world. The first of these was Bob-Omb Battlefield, a hectic warzone filled with Bob-Ombs, a mountain in the very center where the Bob-Omb’s ruler watched from on high.

This was King Bob-Omb, the magnanimous ruler of the Bob-Omb race and an ally of Bowser. Though he wouldn’t see much life outside of Super Mario 64 for some time, he often cropped up as small easter eggs or boss battles in the Mario Party games. He finally saw a resurgence in his popularity when he became playable in such games as Mario Kart Tour and Mario Golf: Super Rush.

As a playable fighter, he will play nearly identically to his Bob-Omb minions, acting as an echo fighter for them. Unlike them, however, he will be much heavier and slower, with much higher defense than his underlings. His moveset will mimic the Bob-Ombs, using cannons and explosions for most of his offensive capabilities.

Likelihood rating: Could happen

Mario Kart Tour

 MARIO KART TOUR

Disclaimer: this game is a mobile app that is regularly updated with new content. Everything written here will likely be outdated right around . . . tomorrow. Even in the time passed between my watching a walkthrough to take notes for this blog and actually writing the blog, new content has been added.

Mario Kart Tour is a mobile app created based on the Mario Kart series that brings the fun of Mario Kart right to your phone or tablet. It plays a little weird (as to be expected from the switch from console to mobile gaming) and its loaded with microtransactions, but as far as I can tell, its still pretty popular. It features multiple characters from across the Mario Kart series, plus a handful of newbies, and most of its stages are returning stages except for a handful mostly set in real world cities. Let's get right into it.

Our returning characters include most of the regular faces we've become accustomed to. We have Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Funky Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser and Bowser Jr., as well as Dry Bowser, Koopa, Shy Guy, Dry Bones, and Lakitu, all five babies featured previously, Birdo, King Boo, all seven Koopalings, Metal Mario and Pink Gold Peach, and the glorious return of a 16-bit Donkey Kong Jr., alongside many, many, many, MANY costume and color variants of all of these characters. Our brand new racers include Pauline fresh off her appearance in Odyssey, Peachette (our first time seeing her in this blog), Dixie Kong (finally), Nabbit, Hammer Bro and his Boomerang, Fire, and Ice variants, Monty Mole, and King Bob-Omb. Still no Kamek, huh? Even after all of this. I got Pauline, I'm trying not to be salty.

Our items include a butt ton of returning items, including several of the specialty items from Double Dash, like Bowser's Shell, Peach's Heart, Yoshi's and Birdo's giant eggs, and Donkey Kong's giant banana. The new items include the Ice Flower; the Bubble, which protects you from harm; the Banana Barrel that shoots a stream of bananas at opponents; the Mushroom Cannon, which shoots out a stream of mushrooms out in front of you; the Coin Box; the Dash Ring, which sets dashes along the track ahead of you; the Bob-Omb Cannon; and the Giga Bob-Omb (a really big one).

As mentioned before, most tracks in this game are returning tracks from previous games. Some are a little updated for the mobile game setup, but they are inherently the same track. Our new ones are mostly tracks that take you around real-world cities in a world tour kind of setup. We have New York Minute, Tokyo Blur, Paris Promenade, London Loop, Vancouver Velocity, Los Angeles Laps, and Merry Mountain (mostly a Christmas-themed level not based on a city). Most of these have a "2" level that takes you on a different route through the city.

Well, that's pretty much it. I'm sure there will be something new soon enough. If there is, just add it to whichever section of this blog it would go. Let's see what we've got:

Characters:

Mario Kart: Lock-on (basin or tire, fave), Shoot Forward (tornado or weather clouds), Drop Backward (oil or firecracker), Shoot Backward (pie), Melee (thunder stick), Status (shield), High Beam, Magic Hand, Jack-in-the-Box, ice flower, bubble, banana barrel, mushroom cannon, coin box, dash ring, bob-omb cannon, giga bob-omb.

Robo Mario: see all above, total gimmick rep. Might not even need to be echo.

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Toad

Yoshi

Donkey Kong

Wario

Bowser

Waluigi

Bowser Jr.

Rosalina

Daisy

Baby Mario

Baby Peach

Metal Mario

Lakitu

King Boo

Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man

Blinky

Mametchi

Don-chan

Toadette

Diddy Kong

Funky Kong

Dry Bowser

Koopa

Shy Guy

Dry Bones

Baby Luigi

Baby Peach

Baby Rosalina

Birdo

Koopalings

Pink Gold Peach

Donkey Kong Jr.

Pauline

Peachette

Dixie Kong

Nabbit

Hammer Bro

Monty Mole

King Bob-Omb

Stages:

Mario Highway

Mario Beach

DK Jungle

Bananan Ruins

Diamond City

Snow Panic

Pac-Mountain

Pac-Labyrinth

Bowser's Castle

Castle Walls

Rainbow Coaster

Rainbow Downhill

Yoshi Park 1

Yoshi Park 2

Stadium Arena

Waluigi Stadium

Peach Castle

Kingdom Way

Splash Circuit

Tropical Coast

Bon Dance Street

Omatsuri Circuit

Aerial Road

Sky Arena

Bowser's Factory

Bowser's Castle

Pac-Man Stadium

Namco Stadium

Bananan Labyrinth

DK Jungle

VR Track

New York Minute

Tokyo Blur

Paris Promenade

London Loop

Vancouver Velocity

Los Angeles Laps

Merry Mountain

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's go over the newest entry in the entire series, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.