There are many Mario Kart tracks. But one of them, Piranha Plant Pipeline, is only available in Nintendo’s mobile phone game Mario Kart Tour. However, it’s only ever made playable for a limited time. This makes it arguably the rarest and hardest-to-play Mario Kart track in the franchise. And this rare track is available right now.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition on Switch launched in 2017 with an extensive archive of tracks from past games. And thanks to the Booster Course Pass DLC, that library of older tracks only grew bigger. Many of MK8 Deluxe Edition’s new tracks were pulled directly from Mario Kart Tour, a 2019 mobile version of Nintendo’s popular racing series. But for some reason, Piranha Plant Pipeline never made the leap to Switch. It also isn’t included in Mario Kart World on Switch 2. And because Mario Kart Tour rotates tracks in and out, actually playing Piranha Plant Pipeline is tricky. But the track is back and playable for the next few days.
As spotted by IGN, on July 9, Nintendo announced that the Piranha Plant Pipeline track was available again in Mario Kart Tour. The track will be playable as part of the Pipe Tour, which goes from today until July 22. This is reportedly only the third time since 2019 that the rare track has returned. So if you want to play this thing, don’t wait too long.
When Nintendo first teased the rare track’s return on July 4, the comments were filled with people begging Nintendo to bring Piranha Plant Pipeline to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition or even Mario Kart World on Switch 2. There were also some people claiming the track isn’t very good, and people shouldn’t care about it. Maybe that’s true, I’ve not played this particular Mario Kart course. But even if it is true, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s really weird Nintendo has decided that this one track from Mario Kart Tour should be a rare commodity. Even stranger, the track’s music is featured in Mario Kart World on Switch 2.
It’s all very odd. What’s going on, Nintendo? I’ve emailed the company for answers and will update this post if I get any. The truth is out there, folks.
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