Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, halfway between the video game and the toy

• Nintendo.Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit brings racing (literally) to the living room

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Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is such an easy-to-explain product that it's surprising Nintendo didn't release it until a few weeks ago - a physical version of the popular racing game.

But at the same time, it is something so far-fetched that it seems incredible that the company has decided to take the step.

And they have given it in a Mario version and a Luigi version.

If you ask Goya,

;

if you ask Nintendo pianos and cardboard robots, Zelda games in which you have to blow the console or, in this case, a kart that runs on the screen and in our living room at the same time.

There is no more entertaining company when it is carried away by its delusions and naps of reason than the Japanese developer, even when the product is difficult to qualify.

With Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit we have a madness that would fall within the conservative and even logical: how is it possible that this has not been done before?

However, it is also necessary to put some order in this chaos and understand that this has

.

Each of these cars costs approximately

(it depends on the establishment; Nintendo does not set prices in Spain) and the game itself is free.

This should give us an idea that what matters in this case has rubber wheels, not virtual ones.

The kart has a plastic body that is about

and is not particularly heavy, although the metallic insides are noticeable.

The construction and finishes make it a no-brainer on a shelf full of amiibos.

The fuel tank is the competition of a USB-C input that is revealed by lifting a lid on the side and has autonomy for several tournaments without refueling.

Of course, going through the pits to load it takes a while.

The feeling when Luigi walks under the table and between the armchairs for the first time is impressive, almost giggly.

The first games continue with this feeling and starting to tweak and twist the circuits culminates the process.

Unfortunately, when we are at the top there is only one possible option: to go down.

Thus, after the initial excitement, it is increasingly difficult to find the motivation to put furniture aside, pick up slippers, hide the dog - it is not trivial: the tyranny that the kart has exceeds levels until now only reserved for the vacuum cleaner - and ride the circuit.

Pairing couldn't be simpler: press the power button, focus the kart's camera at a QR code that appears on the screen, and let the tech goblins work their magic.

A few seconds later the car will be rolling around the living room ... And only in the living room: Home Circuit cannot be used outdoors, so no racing in the park.

Setting up a circuit is as simple as placing all the doors and arrows (these are optional) wherever we want them to be on the virtual map.

Afterwards, the car itself will trace the route when going from one to another;

In other words, if we want the race to go under an armchair, we just have to take that path.

The doors must be in order, so the most complicated part of the process is knowing how to count to four.

The games themselves are entertaining, but much simpler than those of any Mario Kart, including the one on the NES.

Again, it depends on how this product is understood: if the grace is the kart -which, taking into account that it is what is sold, is its thing-, it does not matter;

if the joke is racing, the joke is not very good.

In terms of complication and design, the simplest circuit in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an astrophysics book compared to the Rubio booklet that is Home Circuit.

The multiplayer mode, for its part, can manage to surpass the emotion of any of the games.

You may not see the shells and bananas, but racing against a kart that takes a curve brushing your toes while its driver regrets not having cut them off is a level of competition unattainable online.

The downside, of course, is that you need two vehicles and two consoles.

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit joins the long list of Nintendo products that are more curious than entertainment.

As

, the pre-game process itself and the first few minutes are a sensation unmatched only on a par with peripherals like Guitar Hero.

Whether Mario and Luigi end up in the same closet in which the plastic guitar has been for five years will depend on whether we really have the living room and the necessary predisposition to take advantage of it.

Now, whoever is not looking for a complete set, but rather a curiosity with which to surprise children and visitors, will hit the nail on the head with this product.

As much as the kart has in the title and the box, this launch should not be seen as a new Mario Kart, because it is not, but more like a Scalextric in augmented reality.

As a game it is not perfect;

Like some new Nintendo craze, yeah.

Makes sense?

Maybe not, but at a time when Sony and Microsoft are doing their thing, crazy things like this are appreciated in which the least important thing is business or purchasing logic: it's fun, it's inexplicable and at the same time it has all the sense of the world.

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