By Jon Scarr
Nintendo has published a new U.S. patent application that gets surprisingly specific about weather in a racing game. Instead of treating rain and snow as background effects, the system divides a larger connected world into regions, changes conditions around racers, and can even alter how slippery the road becomes.
US20260249188A1 was published on August 27, 2026 and claims priority to a Japanese application filed on February 21, 2025. It never names Mario Kart World, but the similarities to Nintendo's own descriptions of the Nintendo Switch 2 game are specific enough to be notable.
Mario Kart World takes place across one interconnected world with courses linked by roads. Nintendo has also talked openly about changing weather, rain, snow, and weather shifts that can happen during a race. The patent digs much deeper into how ideas like those can work behind the scenes.
Nintendo's Weather System Works Region by Region
The basic idea is pretty easy to understand once you get past the patent language. Nintendo divides a larger racing field into separate regions, and each one can have its own weather conditions.
One example uses neighbouring hexagonal areas. Those regions can track whether conditions are clear, rainy, or snowy, along with how much rain or snow is falling.
That becomes more interesting once a race starts. Weather can change in regions based on where racers are located, rather than changing the entire world at once. In multiplayer, that weather information can also be shared between systems so everyone is racing through the same conditions.
Courses don't need to fill the entire world either. The patent describes individual racing courses occupying portions of the larger connected field, which is one of the details that makes the Mario Kart World comparison more interesting.
Rain Changes Grip and Can Help Keep the Race Closer
Nintendo isn't treating rain as something that's there just to look good. When the rainfall process is active, the ground can become more slippery and change how the road behaves.
Then there's the stranger part.
One example describes an “item X” that can interfere with racers farther ahead while also changing the weather around the race. The racer in first place can receive a larger affected weather area than everyone behind them.
There's a reason for that. A larger area makes it harder for the leader to quickly drive out of the changed weather, which Nintendo says can help stop the gap at the front from getting too large.
Weather effectively becomes part of race balance.
The item isn't the only way conditions can change. Other events can alter regional weather too, so Nintendo's broader idea isn't tied to one specific power-up or race situation.
The Mario Kart World Connection Goes Beyond Rain
This is where the filing gets particularly interesting.
Nintendo describes Mario Kart World as one large interconnected world, with races moving along roads between courses. Grand Prix uses those connected courses, while Knockout Tour can carry a race across different parts of the world.
Nintendo has also confirmed that Mario Kart World changes its time and weather around gameplay rather than following a real-world clock. Rain and snow are part of that system. In its Ask the Developer series, Nintendo even discussed the Lightning power-up being followed by a sudden weather change.
That doesn't mean the patent's “item X” is Lightning. Nintendo also hasn't confirmed that Mario Kart World uses hexagonal weather regions, the same slippery-road system, or the larger weather area around whoever is leading.
But the overlap goes well beyond both simply having rain.
Nintendo has publicly built Mario Kart World around connected roads, changing weather, rain, snow, and weather shifts during races. This patent gives us a much more technical look at how Nintendo has also approached those ideas, with weather tied to location, road conditions, multiplayer synchronization, and even the distance between the leader and the rest of the race.
It doesn't tell us Nintendo is adding something new to Mario Kart World. What it does show is that Nintendo has thought about weather as part of the racing itself, not just something happening in the background.
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