Over the past few years, racing games have seen a noticeable spike in popularity. Forza and Gran Turismo are doing better than they ever have, Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot each got a new kart racer to call their own, and we’re even seeing some fun experiments with titles like Fast Fusion and the upcoming Kirby Air Riders. However, there’s no denying the eternal king when it comes to racing: Mario Kart.
You’d be hard pressed to find a gamer today who doesn’t have a Mario Kart lying around somewhere. Each title is a symbol of the system it was released on, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is among the top five best-selling video games to ever release (with a whopping 76 million units sold). However, it’s been over a decade since that game first came out, and it’s safe to say fans were ravenous for something new. Thankfully, Mario Kart World has arrived to capture our attention.
With its massive scope and gameplay overhauls, this is a Mario Kart unlike any before it. The open world is a novel inclusion, breathing new life into the series usual framework, and the additions that come with it are natural and fun. With the power of the Switch 2, scale and detail are pushed further than ever, and the rockin’ soundtrack is just as vast. There are ways in which the formula could use refinement, and some appeal was lost in the search for grandeur, but the core of the experience is worth it all the same. From start to finish, Mario Kart World is all gas and no breaks.
The base Mario Kart experience couldn’t be simpler. In groups eight or twelve, you drive three laps around a selection of tracks with as fast a time as you can manage. Reach the top spot in each race, and you’ll take home the gold; that’s the way it’s always been… until now. Mario Kart World marks the first major shift in the series gameplay since Mario Kart: Double Dash in 2003.
Everything revolves around the big new feature: an open world. Instead of many separate tracks in their own distinct areas, races now happen in a wide, interconnected map. Heading north from Moo Moo Meadows leads directly to Mario Circuit, and if you go west from there, Bowser’s Castle is visible atop it’s volcano. It’s all seamless and fits together well, resulting in a more cohesive setting than any entry before it.
The game now feels similar in tone to real life Formula 1: a global tour fit within the sport of racing. It feels less like you’re driving through curated areas made just for Mario Kart and more like you’re going through locations that could feasibly exist. The effect this creates is great, lending a sense of grandeur and cohesion that previous games rarely had.
It is worth noting that to make this work, track designs had to be scaled back from the rollercoasters of Mario Kart 8. You won’t be going upside down or underwater here, and the locales are comparatively tame to maintain a consistent visual identity. This is a fine tradeoff, especially given they must now accommodate a massive 24 players per race, but I can’t help feeling it’s a downgrade in some respects.
Of course, with 24 players comes the need for more characters than ever before. This presents an interesting challenge, considering even the Mario cast is only so vast. In the end, they came up with two solutions: 1. Dash Food, which can spawn on the track to both propel you forward and swap your character for one of their alternate costumes. If you swap into one you’ve never seen before, you then unlock it for use from that point on. 2. Kamek, an item which spawns a group of enemies on the road for racers to dodge. However, it can also transform nearby racers into those enemies, and if you become one you haven’t seen, you unlock them as a racer similar to costumes. In total, there are 127 options to choose from, a number roughly equal to every other game in the series combined.
A few other items have also been added, updated, or rebalanced for the new game. Alternate forms such as the Golden Shell, Ice Flower, and Coin Block are fun ways to mix up familiar favorites, and the Hammer provides an interesting new method of hindering opponents. The Mega Mushroom returns from Mario Kart Wii with just as much flair as you remember, being especially satisfying with so many players to stomp, as well as the Feather from the original Mario Kart to assist with the new trick system.
Tricking in Mario Kart World is vastly expanded from previous entries with the addition of grinding and wall running. Both are context-specific, with grinding requiring specifically placed rails and wall running either a ramp or enough space to perform a charge jump (forward-facing drift). They’re very fun to use and have some nice applications within the tracks, but strangely enough, they often don’t provide a meaningful advantage. In many cases, I’ll opt for a trickier path and be “rewarded” with a slower time or a slide down the places. It’s a strange design choice that ultimately harms the game, since you’re implicitly told to take the most boring path to succeed.
The available roster of 30 tracks is a mixed bag. The Route 66-inspired Mario Bros. Circuit is immediately iconic and the best starting track in the series, but the returning SNES Mario Circuit is painfully simple and generic. Fan favorites like Toad’s Factory and Airship Fortress are a joy to play with modern visuals, but new tracks like Dandelion Depths and Faraway Oasis are decidedly lacking in creativity. There are some very high highs with both the new and returning tracks, but equally mediocre lows to match.
This is especially clear when viewed through another major addition: inter-track racing. Instead of being taken from one course to another automatically, reaching each location is now a part of the fun. In the grand prix mode, you’ll start off with a standard three-lap race just as you would in the past. However, from there you’ll drive directly off the course and begin a race toward whatever track is next. It’s a fun gimmick that adds tons of variety, since the path you take is determined by the two tracks you’re moving between, and every track uniquely connects to all its surrounding tracks.
This does come with a few issues. The design of these inter-track sections is much more bland than the main areas, lacking the visual spectacle or engaging obstacles that make a Mario Kart track great. There is some attempt to spice things up with enemies and cars to dodge, but it can only do so much to hide the long, uninterrupted stretches of road. Considering these now take up the majority of each race (with the destination track only used for the final lap), the average quality level is significantly lower than previous games.
Thankfully, any issues with the track design are made up for by the two new modes they allow: Knockout Tour and Free Roam. Knockout Tour is a marathon trek across the entire world, crisscrossing between tracks while trying to avoid falling behind. With each course passed, the four racers at the bottom of the pack are eliminated from the game, meaning that focus is less on staying in first place and more on surviving from one checkpoint to the next. In the end, the victor is decided in an exhilarating final lap between the top four racers.
This mode is easily the best addition to the game, and some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Mario Kart online. The thrill of barely scraping by as you approach a checkpoint or rushing past with a well-timed item is palpable. My only real issue is with its limited selection. There are only eight “rallies” to match the eight main cups, and while they take roughly the same time as a grand prix, that’s only if you make it all the way to the end. Most of the time, you’ll be eliminated partway through by an unlucky hit or rough turn, and that means replaying the same eight starting tracks over and over again.
Considering that all courses already link up with each other and can be raced between by default, it’s hard to imagine why they couldn’t add more rallies. It would take far less work than creating a new track, and help with the fatigue of losing early significantly. In fact, an option to create custom rallies or randomly generate them online would be a huge feature for replayability. Hopefully, future updates or DLC can help improve the situation.
The other new mode, Free Roam, is exactly what it sounds like. The world is yours to explore, and with P-switch driving challenges, ?-block panels, and hidden Peach medallions, there’s plenty to do and see. A casual ride in-between races is a good change of pace, with the challenges providing some variety and hefty single player content. It’s also a nice touch that this is used as the online lobby system, though the P-Switch challenges are sadly locked in that instance.
Free Roam also gives a chance to admire the game’s beautiful presentation. Visually, this is the best that Mario Kart has ever looked, and a great showcase of the Switch 2’s capabilities. Doubling the player count to 24 racers couldn’t have been easy, especially while keeping a smooth 60fps and 1440p resolution. It lacks the sleek realism that Mario Kart 8 strove for, but I can’t blame Nintendo for trying something new after an entire decade. On its own terms, this more stylized look is great, with water and lighting effects being especially easy on the eyes.
Then there’s the soundtrack, which is somehow even better. Featuring over 200 fully orchestrated tunes, this not only covers the included courses or even the Mario Kart series, but the entire scope of the Mario franchise. Any time the action moves into the open world areas, a remix will be selected from a massive collection to play as you go, and they all thrive with the excellent musical direction of the game.
Taking inspiration from American rock and blues music, this is a sound distinct from all previous games. The emphasis on guitar and harmonica adds a twang that really gets you pumped for a cross-country rally, and when things get serious, it’s not afraid to pull out the orchestra that made Mario Kart 8’s soundtrack so fantastic. I would argue that with a few exceptions, the track themes don’t quite hit the same highs as that game, but when you include the countless remixes, it’s near impossible to complain.
However, there are a few related gripes that need mentioning. While the soundtrack may be excellent, the audio mixing is noticeably skewed towards non-music sounds like engine noise and item jingles. This is true both through a TV and the Switch 2’s speakers, and with no options to alter it, we’ve often had to strain just to appreciate the tunes. There’s also no in-game way to identify a remix’s source, meaning that unless you’re a longtime fan of the Mario franchise, you’ll have no idea what that great song is called or where it originated.
On the gameplay side, some modes feel somewhat underbaked. Battles are here as per tradition, but the arenas they take place are far too large, meaning that large chunks of time are spent with no one to aim at nearby.
With racing, there’s no option to use the standard three-lap format online (outside of the occasional random pull), and the offline option is unnecessarily obtuse. I understand wanting players to engage with the new modes, but to completely sideline the series core design is a tough pill to swallow. It makes it harder to get attached to these tracks individually, since under the prevailing ruleset, the majority of your time is spent away from them.
Most prominently, this is by far the most item-dependent Mario Kart in the series. A certain amount of unpredictability has always been a part of the fun in these games, but that balance has completely tipped with the newfound importance of speed items. Obstacles are constantly at play between the course and other players, meaning that spinning out is no longer a matter of if, but when. This means that if you don’t have a substantial lead or a mushroom to spare, the chance of getting “Mario Kart’d” (hit by three or more items in a row) is almost a guarantee.
It’s easy to fall from first place to 20th in a single bound, and just as easily flip back with a lucky item spin. No matter how skilled you are, it truly feels like that no longer matters. Without items, even the best players are helpless against those that have them.
These are certainly problems, but during a good online or local match, they’re easy to ignore. What I can’t ignore is the game’s greatest flaw: it’s price. This is the first modern AAA title to be priced at $80, and no matter how fun the game is, I simply can’t endorse it on that front. Mario Kart World is NOT worth $80, and I’d recommend anyone who wants it to consider the console bundle which includes it. It’s very sad, but the value simply isn’t there (pending any free content updates, of course). I can only hope that Nintendo’s decision doesn’t ruin the legacy of an otherwise great game.
Verdict
It’s hard not to feel spoiled reflecting on Mario Kart World. By all accounts, it’s an excellent title that takes bold risks and does a ton of things right. The visuals and audio are top-notch, the new gameplay additions are fun and frenetic, and it’s clear that a lot of effort went into making this a true evolution of the series. I wouldn’t blame anyone who considers it a masterpiece.
However, there are just enough problems here to keep that from being the case. The track and inter-track designs lack consistent quality, the game balance over relies on chaos and randomness, and there are many small issues that signal a lack of systemic polish. For those who avoid the bundle, it’s difficult to justify the $80 price tag.
In the end, while I don’t believe this reaches the same heights as its predecessor, I do appreciate what Mario Kart World brings to the table. This is still an exciting swerve for the Mario Kart series and a worthy title to launch the Switch 2. After over a decade of waiting, it really feels good to start a new race in a whole new world.
