It’s been eleven years since the last fully ‘new’ release of a Mario Kart game, so with Mario Kart World set as the flagship title alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, it had a lot to live up to. Players have become well-acquainted with Mario Kart 8 since its release on the Wii U, followed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch. And instead of just doing more of the same, Nintendo has chosen to shake things up a bit with Mario Kart World.
From the outset of Mario Kart World, things are different: there are now 24 players, double the number of players players are used to, and the way core game modes like Grand Prix work has been changed. There are also so many new ways to ‘race’ that social media has quickly filled up with players barely touching the ground anymore. You can grind, wall-ride and combo-drift your way to victory. And there’s a brand-new game mode here that showcases the connected world of Mario Kart World in a knockout.
Let’s start with the map changes and the way races now work, which is the most significant change, even if it’s not the most flashy. As per the title, the tracks are all connected in one big world, which you can even roam around in freely, but I’ll touch on that shortly. In the Grand Prix mode, you’re not racing three laps around a track; instead, you’re racing across one track to the next. The finish line of one track becomes the starting line for the next one. You can still set up classic 3-lap races if you’d like in ‘VS Mode,’ but earning the trophies on 50c, 100c, or 150c Grand Prixs is all in this mode now. It’s also exciting to break from the traditional lap-based racing format. There are still checkpoint gates, and with a handy map, you can see how much further the race has to go until the finish line. But it’s seeing how the landscape changes as you cross it that has had me constantly excited in each race. One of my favourites is how ‘Leaf Cup,’ takes you from the bright and friendly locations of ‘Cheep Cheep Falls’ and ‘Dandelion Depths,’ which features long sections where you’ll be racing on the water as your Kart transform to the environment, and then you’ll be suddenly making your way around a corner seeing piles of leaves building up on the road, the lights begin to dim and you’re in the spooky environment of ‘Boo Cinema,’ which then takes you through to the dangerous and lava-filled world of ‘Dry Bones Burnout.’
The new mode, ‘Knockout Tour,’ elevates the connected tracks and world-tour aspect to new heights, becoming Mario Kart World Tour’s standout mode and quickly becoming the one I wanted to play the most. In this mode, all 24 racers start on the track and race across an interconnected track that usually takes you from one side of the map to the other. However, at the checkpoint gates, the bottom four players will be eliminated from the race, leaving only four players, after which a winner is crowned at the finish line. This mode was a highlight when I went hands-on at the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Melbourne Experience’ prior to the console release, and it even featured someone offering some esports commentary the whole day on racers. And the mode continues now, even in my own home, to be the loudest and most competitive. It can also be the most frustrating, as this is Mario Kart, and you can easily go from winning a race to the back of the pack and then getting knocked out of the race entirely, which is probably why Nintendo chose to change some key things to help players stay in the race.
In previous Mario Kart games, players were given control of placing items like Green Shells behind their Kart to place them into defensive positions, but you’d then have to commit to either hanging there to protect or having to send it flying backward. In Mario Kart World, the game now automatically places items behind you. This can lead to some intensely clutch defences where you pick up a Green Shell or a Banana, right as a Red Shell was going to hit you and be saved by nothing but luck. It also opens up some more strategic options, especially when you’re in the lead, and especially when you’re in the lead in Knockout Tour. You’ll notice the game gives you fewer Speed or Offensive items and instead mostly gives you Bananas and Green Shells instead, as it encourages you to use these to defend yourself, not by firing them blindly backwards into space, but instead sticking them on your rear to protect it.
If you’re trying to protect against Blue Shells, there’s some tech to that, too, which leads to some of the grinding and wall-riding abilities. You can now hold down the drift button and forward and release to trigger and jump into the air, which, when timed perfectly, will protect you from a Blue Shell in first. You can also jump onto rails or walls and grind up and over sections of the track, unlocking all sorts of new shortcuts fans twenty years ago couldn’t have dreamed of being seen in a Mario Kart game. Beware, however, that grinding and wall-riding are definitely higher-level techniques and are not as easy as just flinging yourself towards a wall. Getting onto a wall is one thing, staying on it another, and even transitioning off a wall or a rail into the track again is hard to do properly.
Fortunately, there’s a great place to practise: the free roam mode. Here, you can race around Mario Kart World in whichever direction you choose and also look for P-Switch challenges to complete. What you will find is that there isn’t a lot to do in the open world, which is fine because I do think this option is mostly about allowing players to practice karts and techniques in whatever way they see fit. Fling yourself at walls around Peach Castle for hours if you’d like. The open world is also a great way for younger players to enjoy the game. They can pick their favourite Mario Kart character and do whatever they want, explore to their heart’s content and not worry about having to actually race. There are also fifty characters in Mario Kart World now, with half of them having a bunch of extra costume variants to unlock, so there are plenty of options to whom you’d like ot race around any of the modes, but in particular, free roam, is a great time to explore the games photo mode.
As was the story with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe before it, it’s the Online Mode where most will end up spending their time. Whether it’s with friends or randoms, it’s a great time as you can race across the Grand Prix and Knockout Tour modes, though it’s very annoying and weird to use the Nintendo Switch 2’s new Game Chat function to set up rooms to play with other friends. You have to disband one to add someone else, and there are several oddities that I hope can be removed in the coming months.
Mario Kart World is also a stunning display of the new power of the Nintendo Switch 2 and why, although it looks very similar at a surface glance, the Nintendo Switch 2 is a much more powerful console. The character models are crisper than ever. The 24-player maps, featuring NPC characters and more action on the tracks, utilise HDR to highlight sunsets and sunrises, further showcasing the console’s new capabilities and bringing Mario Kart as a series into the modern age.
What’s most exciting about Mario Kart World is that it provides a solid foundation for a game that, based on the history of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, is likely to receive numerous new tracks and characters over the coming years.
(Review code provided to Explosion Network.
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