Unofficial Mario Kart Is Still Going Strong
Despite Tokyo District Court ordering MariCar, the unofficial real-life Mario Kart, to pay $90,000 in damages to Nintendo and stop giving out Nintendo-themed cosplay, the company is still continuing to do so.
Tokyo District Court ordered Mari Mobility Dev., previously MariCar, to pay ¥10 million in compensation and stop using Nintendo-related outfit. The street go-cart company operates services in Japan, and Nintendo was complaining it was damaging its “Mario Kart” franchise.
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) September 27, 2018
Nintendo filed a lawsuit earlier last year for intellectual property violation. Not only that, but the popular go-karting attraction has caused problems in the community due to tourists crashing cars. In the first half of 2017 alone, police reported 12 MariCar accidents, ten of them involving foreign drivers. In one case, a person crashed into the wall of a police station.
But MariCar doesn’t seem to mind the trouble: they’re still running their service and even telling MariCar riders to keep wearing Mario, Luigi, and Bowser outfits. Nintendo has yet to respond, but it’s safe to assume they’re probably pretty pissed.
朝からマリカー走ってたわ。 pic.twitter.com/vkSuT1NBnf
— UG☆鳳凰 (@UG_phoenix) October 14, 2018
本日、銀座で爆走するマリカーを見て、「非上場で上場する気もない会社の開き直り」と「いわゆる無敵の人の犯罪」の相違性について考察していました。 pic.twitter.com/j9fWCalQBT
— ﾎﾞｳﾞ (@cornwallcapital) September 27, 2018
秋葉原のマリカーさん、敗訴後もふつうに走ってた pic.twitter.com/B4FVSp1SZ0
— ﾂﾙﾐﾛﾎﾞ (@kaztsu) September 29, 2018