The social media team behind Garfield Kart: Furious Racing and Garfield Kart 2: All You Can Drift has taken aim at Nintendo's impending shutdown of Mario Kart Tour. In a post on X, the official Garfield Kart account asserted its own longevity, stating it "will not randomly kill your game license," directly contrasting with Nintendo's move to retire its mobile kart racer.
Mario Kart Tour is scheduled for service discontinuation on September 29, marking the end of Nintendo's seven-year venture into the mobile racing space. This shutdown follows a trend for many of Nintendo's mobile titles from that period, though exceptions such as Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Pikmin Bloom remain operational.
Despite Garfield Kart's smaller player base compared to the colossal popularity of Mario Kart, the two franchises share a tangential connection through their respective film adaptations. Chris Pratt, who voiced Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its upcoming sequel, also lent his voice to Garfield in the recent animated film. This shared casting is currently the closest the two IPs have come to a crossover, outside of a hypothetical addition of the lasagna-loving feline to a future Super Smash Bros. roster.
Meanwhile, Mario Kart remains a significant presence on consoles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is currently the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch, and it received a new update earlier this month that added two Knockout Tour routes, with plans for at least six more to be included in future content drops.