Nintendo has issued an update for Mario Kart World’s online mode that makes it much harder to have standard three-lap races in public lobbies. In a move that I can’t quite wrap my head around, there is now no guaranteed way to get a traditional three-lap race online without resorting to a private game.
To fully explain the situation, Mario Kart World’s online mode functions very much the same as past Mario Kart titles: at the end of each race, everyone in the lobby votes on which course they’d like to race next. Due to World introducing a gigantic open-world map, there have been new courses colloquially dubbed “intermission” tracks that task players with driving from one course to the next. The community around Mario Kart isn’t too keen on these, and while they are great for Knockout Tour, most typically want to race in traditional three-lap courses when playing online.
Beforehand, this was possible by selecting “Random” at the end of the race. For whatever reason, World presents players with three choices that are intermission races and then the Random option, which would default to only three-lap courses. This guaranteed that no matter which level came up, you wouldn’t need to drive around the open-world much. Mario Kart World’s 1.1.2 update, however, “corrects” this behavior and now includes intermission courses in the Random option. This was discovered by OatmealDeal on social media, who datamined the latest patch.
In all honesty, that sounds like a tremendously bad idea. While I don’t personally dislike those intermission levels, most of them boil down to driving in a straight line for minutes on end. It’s certainly neat that there are 232 possible paths in the game, but when none of them are memorable and people are eager to play the traditional levels that do exist, this kind of update almost feels like Nintendo dictating how it wants people to play versus allowing them to do what they want. It’s sure to kneecap any potential that Mario Kart World has at becoming an early standout Switch 2 game.
More Mario Kart World
The next wave of Mario Kart World icons on Nintendo Switch Online is here
Nintendo announces the Mario Kart World Invitational for this October
Leave a Comment
Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
