With the hype surrounding Mario Kart 8’s imminent release, many people have been asking why Nintendo hasn’t released an all-star version, akin to Smash Bros with loads of other Nintendo characters joining in on the fun. It would sell copies, get more people buying the Wii U and get people talking, so these people think. Well, I am here to tell you why that idea is silly and how crossovers in general are a very tricky business and only work for some mediums and franchises.

Let’s get the matter of a Nintendo crossover kart racer out of the way. There are many reasons why not only this game would not work but why it makes no sense at all to make one. First off, Nintendo already has the most successful kart racer of all time, it does not need another! What could be added to this all-star racer which is at all different to Mario Kart? Most of the racers present in Mario Kart are from multiple Nintendo franchises anyway (Wario, Yoshi, DK etc) and adding characters like Link and Marth to the mix would not work at all. Can you see Link driving a kart? I can’t. Moreover, characters like Captain Falcon and Kirby already have their own racing games, with F-Zero being a title in greater need of a new instalment than another kart racer, especially as F-Zero is widely regarded as the best futuristic racing game out there. Sorry Wipeout fans, but it just is.

How would adding other Nintendo characters to the Mario Kart formula change the game at all? Besides a different skybox on some tracks and maybe the possibility of Link throwing a boomerang at an enemy during a race (boomerangs are in Mario Kart 8 anyway), this game would just be Mario Kart with Pink Gold Peach being reskinned as Zelda. While I have many problems with the Mario Kart roster anyway (we don’t need 67 baby characters, thank you), adding other franchise characters like Link just exacerbates the problem of adding filler characters, rather than fixing it. This gets to the core of why crossover games are so tricky to get right. The reason Smash Bros works is that not only did Nintendo lack their own fighting game (Killer Instinct was only published by Nintendo, Rare owns the franchise) and it made sense for them to use famous fighters rather than create new ones, using existing characters with premade moves and fighting styles fits better into a fighter. Characters like Samus and Kirby already have a diverse set of moves and skills which can be easily translated into a fighting game in the form of special moves and so on, while transferring these special skills into a racing game is incredibly difficult, besides giving each racer their unique racing machine.

While Sonic and All Stars was a fun racer, it did nothing interesting with the cavalcade of characters at its disposal.

Take Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed as an example. The only real thing which made each character different besides their character model, was the addition of All Star items, which had special effects depending on the character like Vyse from Skies of Arcadia having his car turn into a pirate ship or Sonic going Super Sonic. Besides that, the crossover only really made sense because there aren’t enough characters from one Sega franchise to round out a whole racing game and the game did not really make use of the individual skills of each franchise they used in game. That’s why fighting game crossovers like Marvel vs Capcom work, as you can use the unique skills and elements of each character to make their movement, animations and moveset distinct. Kart racers on the other hand, do not give as much scope for customisation and character originality, with each racer fundamentally driving the same way even if they can pick different vehicles.

Nintendo has a perfectly serviceable, incredibly popular kart racer which sets the standard for that genre. There is no need for them to make another one, just because Ganondorf can replace Birdo on the starting line. Nintendo needs to focus their efforts on new IPs and renovating old franchises in need of a dramatic overhaul, rather than making a throwaway Mario Kart clone which would add nothing to the driving experience at all besides Link driving an ATV.