Developer creates Mario Kart port for PS4 and PS5 but it's not downloadable yet

Amid Nintendo being all the hype these past few days, a developer who goes by "HoTsHoTz79" on X/Twitter just shared footage of an unofficial port of Mario Kart running on PS4 and PS5 (currently $499.99 on Amazon) consoles. The unique port isn't an official Nintendo game but rather a recompilation of an open-source Mario Kart game developed by programmer Ishaan Patel in Unity (C#), nearly 4 years ago.

The footage shows the game running on Sony's consoles, albeit with noticeable bugs and performance issues. According to HoTsHoTz79, the build is currently incomplete, and it's missing crucial gameplay elements such as item usage and proper drifting mechanics, alongside graphical glitches due to unsupported shaders and incorrect meshes.

Patel’s original Unity-based Mario Kart was a fan project that aimed to recreate Nintendo’s iconic racing experience. Although the visuals and gameplay strongly resemble Mario Kart 8, Patel does make it clear on his website that most assets, such as character and level models, belong to Nintendo, while all animations and programming are entirely original work.

HoTsHoTz79 further clarified that there's currently no downloadable version available, and it's uncertain whether the project will be completed due to competing priorities. Still, despite its buggy state and unclear future, this proof-of-concept doesn't fail to demonstrate the potential for fan-made Unity projects to run on PlayStation hardware.

While definitely exciting for fans, it’s highly unlikely that Nintendo would allow such a project to continue, considering their history of taking down even fan-created games that utilize official Nintendo assets.