Society

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

Jun 08 (soranews24.com) - It goes without saying that a lot of people and businesses are struggling out there these days, but even among all that, itâ€™s hard not to hear of Street Kartâ€˜s recent fortunes and wince at least a little bit extra at their particular set of circumstances.

Anyone whoâ€™s been to Tokyo in the past half decade or read about their lengthy legal battle with Nintendo, will probably know Street Kart better by their former name MariCar, which was later changed to Mari Mobility Development due to MariCarâ€™s similarity with the popular Japanese nickname for the game Mario Kart.

That plus their service allowing customers to drive around Tokyo in go-karts dressed as popular Mario Kart characters (Nintendo costumes are no longer available), drew the unwanted attention of Nintendoâ€™s lawyers. The ensuing three-year legal battle resulted in back-to-back court losses for Street Kart who were ordered to pay Nintendo 50 million yen (US$456,000) at the end of January.

If that wasnâ€™t bad enough, this would also coincide with the cusp of global tourismâ€™s unprecedented COVID-19 drought, and since Street Kartâ€™s clientele was almost exclusively from abroad, the combined impact of these financial blows had to be severe.

So since the end of April, the company launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them weather this storm. Letâ€™s check in and see how close they are to their 2 million yen ($18,000) goalâ€¦

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