If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Nintendo sues company that let you race Mario Karts in real life

They'll be Lakitu escape jail.

Nintendo is suing a Japanese company that let you street race go-karts while dressed as Mario.

Lawyers for Nintendo allege the company is guilty of intellectual property infringement. It's easy to see why.

Marika Co. let members of the public hire go-karts decorated to look like the vehicles from Mario Kart while dressed as Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad.

Nintendo announced its lawsuit in a press release earlier today:

"In this lawsuit, against the defendant company which provides rental services for public road carts, we have declared the mark 'Marika', which is an abbreviation of 'Mario Kart' widely known as the series of racing games that we manufacture and sell.

"In addition, when the defendant company rents a public road cart to that customer, they lend a costume of a famous character such as our 'Mario', etc., and the image and the video of the costume are displayed.

"They use it for publicity and sales without obtaining our permission, and we insist that such an act falls under unfair competition and copyright infringement acts against us."

At the time of publication, the official Marika website is offline. There's no word yet if the lawsuit will make it across the finish line.