Mario Kart VR is something that resonates with every fan of Nintendo’s endearing go-kart racer, and delivers the invigorating first-person zooming that we’ve all wanted to experience.
Imagine flying at speeds throughout your favorite tracks, shooting shells at Bowser or Princess Peach, cutting those tight corners and bends with skillful grace. All while being able to view the entire world around you simply by moving your head.
Mario Kart VR is the perfect solution for the Oculus Rift and taps into a very simple–but very real–joy that most gamers hold dear, and perfectly encapsulates an entire era of nostalgic gaming along the way.
Mario Kart VR features a handy series of viewscreens that allow racers to see behind them; a must-have for those tough turns and potential wipeouts.
The game is being developed as a pet project of Wilsonator, an amateur indie dev who’s been crafting Mario Kart VR for the Oculus Rift VR headset.
It’s being built in Unity, and the newly released demo footage (see above) runs on Oculus DK2.
Wilsonator plans to tweak and refine the game, but no dates on a demo release have been set. The dev also says that new maps are incoming, but for now the basic mechanics–menus, physics, lighting etc–trump the “fancier stuff”.
Hopefully Nintendo won’t step in and shut the project down. Mario Kart VR is nothing short of magic, and rather than pull the plug on it, Nintendo should take some notes.
