Mario is arguably the most recognizable video game character of all time. The little man with his blue overalls and red hat is a mainstream celebrity at this point, and his standard outfit is a Halloween favorite the world over. But, sometimes, he likes to dress up. Mario, and Mario's pals, have all manner of costumes available to them in Mario Kart Tour. Some are a whole lot of fun, and some are... not.
Mario’s underappreciated twin brother Luigi really thought he had something going with his Lederhosen outfit. It’s attention grabbing, at least. His usual kelly green coloring pops against the tan of the hose. Luigi just wanted to celebrate Oktoberfest, but he’s trying just a touch too hard. The hat is a little too "m’lady" and that sausage's color is odd. The Weiner Kart is legitimately good, though. It’s okay, maybe he’ll get it right next time.
Or not. Poor Luigi also has a terrible Penguin outfit in Mario Kart Tour, which can be found either while playing the game or on the Mario Wiki, which has accumulated images of every available driver and their many variations. In this outfit, Luigi is stuffed into an oversized penguin suit with green overalls over the top. The overalls are what makes this outfit extra strange. The penguins in Mario games don’t wear pants, so why would Luigi wear pants when he’s dressed as one? Is he dressed as a penguin who is then dressed as Luigi? The layers are infinite. Stranger still, the cat outfits in-game do not include pants either. The question of who needs pants and who doesn’t is an uncomfortable one in the Mario universe, and doubly so in Mario Kart Tour.
The Worst Outfits in Mario Kart Tour
Swimwear Rosalina is another swing and a miss from Mario Kart Tour. It should be called Beach Towel Rosalina, if anything. The issue isn’t that she’s wearing a cover-up, but that compared to Swimwear Mario this is a low-effort outfit. The flower in her hair are fun and the star motif is cute, but it really does just feel like a pallet swap from her normal dress - a dress that players can see in Super Mario 3D World when they unlock Rosalina. Swimwear Mario has fun accessories with flippers, an inflatable tube, and a snorkel-set. Swimwear Rosalina needs a little more of that.
The “Freerunning” variants for the Koopas are bad. They’re just bad. The "how do you do fellow kids" energy coming off them is very off-putting, and a backwards hat does not a good costume make - especially when that hat appears to be resting on the Koopa's eyes. That cannot be comfortable. These variants are probably the most obvious example of the low-effort focus on microtransactions that plagues Mario Kart Tour.
Bus Driver Waluigi does not know how to dress, either. He’s wearing a red and green plaid pattern on his pants and hat, with his signature purple on his tie. There’s power clashing, and then there’s being unfashionable. Besides the bad fashion sense, it’s also unclear what makes this a bus driving outfit. The thin suspenders give off much more of a "Wall Street" vibe than a bus driving one. Maybe this outfit was the reason he was nearly left out of the latest Nintendo Direct.
All of this isn’t to say that there are no good outfits in Mario Kart - far from it. There are some truly excellent outfits such as Hiker Wario, Party Time Toad, and Rose Paulina. Still, some of the worst costumes in the history of Mario are here on the roster for Mario Kart Tour.