Formerly Mario-themed go-kart rental service opens crowdfunding to save lots of their business

It's understandable that a lot of folks and companies are struggling out there these days, but even among all that, it’s hard never to hear of Street Kart‘s recent fortunes and wince at least a bit extra at their unique set of circumstances.

Anyone who’s been to Tokyo during the past half decade or read about their lengthy legal struggle with Nintendo, will most likely know Street Kart better by their former name MariCar, that was later changed to Mari Mobility Development because of MariCar’s similarity with the popular Japanese nickname for the game Mario Kart.

That plus their service allowing customers to operate a vehicle around Tokyo in go-karts dressed as popular Mario Kart characters (Nintendo costumes are no longer available), drew the unwanted attention of Nintendo’s lawyers. The ensuing three-year legal battle led to back-to-back court losses for Street Kart who were ordered to pay Nintendo 50 million yen by the end of January.

If that wasn’t bad enough, this might also coincide with the cusp of global tourism’s unprecedented COVID-19 drought, and since Street Kart’s clientele was almost exclusively from abroad, the combined impact of the financial blows needed to be severe.

So since the end of April, the business launched a crowdfunding campaign to greatly help them weather this storm. Let’s check in and observe how close they are with their 2 million yen goal.

Any difficulty . as of this writing, over a month because the crowdfunding launched, they received 1,000 yen from two people.

The problem appears obvious, however. In losing their original name, it is becoming really hard to keep an eye on them, and even if someone found this crowdfunding by chance, they could easily assume this is yet another company trying to capitalize on MariCar’s popularity.

Then there’s the actual fact that the crowdfunding has been done on japan platform Campfire. This might not sound so odd until you read what a sampling of rather unsympathetic Japanese comments online had to state about the company’s situation.

“It’s the inevitable end to anyone who crosses paths with Nintendo’s legal department.”

“All of the Nintendo stuff aside, it’s noisy and dangerous, so we’re probably better off without it, unless they can address these problems.”

“I believe trying to crowdfund from Japanese persons is their problem.”

“Hahahaha.”

“No-one wants them to keep doing what they’re doing.”

“I believe at best Japanese persons are indifferent to the service, they should try Indiegogo or something that will reach foreigners.”

“They leeched off Nintendo’s popularity.”

“If they let me throw a banana peel or turtle shell, I’ll activate.”

“Even if the crowdfunding works, I don’t know if it’ll be enough. We won’t see tourists for years.”

It does seem odd a business that seems to largely target customers from overseas is currently appealing largely to Japanese persons for support. Perhaps later they’ll try something with a far more global reach like Kickstarter.

Either way, if you’re among the many fans of the particular brand of costumed urban go-karting, and want to do it again later on, then go ahead and put your money where your Mario was and pitch directly into Street Kart’s crowdfunding linked below. This may be your last chance.