When it comes to Mario Kart Tour, one of the best aspects is seeing which unexpected Mario characters make their playable debut. We’ve had Pauline made playable at the start, prior to her becoming a spinoff mainstay in games like Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf Super Rush. We’ve seen King Bob-omb, Nabbit and Chargin’ Chuck flesh out the enemy roster, with all three going from random mooks to fully playable drivers in Tour.
And now it seems like we’ll have another interesting representative too. Namely, Poochy from Yoshi’s Island!
Yep, Yoshi’s loyal pooch has been spotted in the latest screenshot from Mario Kart Tour, which shows part of the Yoshi’s Island track that’s being added in the next update. Here’s the original post if you haven’t seen it for yourself:
Here's a sneak peek of what's to come in #MarioKartTour! You might get the sense that some fun races are about to start on this colorful island lit up bright by a calming sun. pic.twitter.com/q7OUow33Kg
— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) March 30, 2023
It’s a tad hard to see, but that’s definitely Poochy riding a kart near the pipe and arrow sign to the bottom right.
And his presence here is exciting news for sure. For one thing, it proves that Mario Kart Tour drivers don’t necessarily have to be from the mainline Mario series.
Oh sure, Poochy is arguably already part of said series in a minor series. He appears in Super Mario Odyssey in the form of hint art and a cameo, and he also makes a cameo in the Yoshi’s Island track in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe too.
Poochy appeared in Mario Odyssey’s hint photos like this one
But he’s a Yoshi character first and foremost, and his major appearances have all been in that series. So to see him here in Tour is very exciting indeed.
Since it theoretically opens up the way to even more unlikely spinoff reps in future. Perhaps more Donkey Kong Country characters could make an appearance, including those without previous appearances in Mario spinoffs. Maybe a Wario Land or WarioWare character could make an appearance, along with a track based on one of those series.
Or hell, perhaps if hell freezes over and we get really lucky, someone from the Mario RPGs could make the jump to the main series again. After all, it worked for Goomboss, right?
It also proves that entirely new characters aren’t necessarily a thing of the past where Tour is concerned either.
And that makes us very happy indeed. After all, do you know when the last fully original driver was added here?
July 2022. When Petey Piranha finally made his Tour debut alongside Piranha Plant Cove.
Petey Piranha was the last ‘original’ character added to Tour before Poochy
That’s ridiculous if you ask us, and made us wonder how Nintendo seemingly ran of ideas so quickly with this one. So hey, perhaps we’ll get some more exciting debuts going forward, rather than say, Pink Gold Koopa (Freerunning) or whatever other random palette swap they think of this time.
Either way, it seems Poochy is coming to Tour, and the trend of palette swaps being the only things added has finally been stopped. So what do you think? Are you excited about this? What other spinoff characters do you want to see in the Mario Kart series going forward?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!
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