Review – Mario Kart World

In what might be the coldest take of the summer, I’m here to remind you that Mario Kart 8 is nothing short of a landmark title for Nintendo. The number one seller across two consoles and widely hailed as the pinnacle of the series when it comes to sheer scale and quality, following this one up (even as it just passed its 11th birthday) was always going to be tough. Smartly, Nintendo didn’t quite try and beat itself at its own game with Mario Kart World. 

Instead, they saw an opportunity to reinvent the wheel to a certain extent while supporting the launch of the Switch 2 with something fans both diehard and casual would eat up like bags on bags of Dash Food. World delivers on its promises of a more open-ended MK experience that embraces pure charm across its expanded roster and map. Its tune-ups to the gameplay are minor yet complementary to its world and track design, and it’s generally held back from pure greatness by some questionable choices. Still, as an intro to a whole new console and the first all-new Mario Kart in a long time, it’s a great start with plenty of potential. 

By far the biggest shakeup here is the giant world map, with both Free Roam possibilities and new ways to race across their open roads. The highest praise goes to how well Nintendo was able to create a cohesive continent that serves the goals they had. Being able to drive across biomes and see other tracks on the horizon, like landmarks just begging to be explored, owes a lot to past exploratory adventures from the publisher. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this is Kart of the Wild though, because it absolutely isn’t. 

 

Map image source: Reddit

 

After several hours of finding P-Switches, ? Panels, and Peach Medallions I can’t say I really “care” about finding these secrets. The integration of missions, last seen in Mario Kart DS, into the world map is a nice touch but when all I’m getting are stickers it can feel insubstantial. There’s joy to be found in trying to get from A to B (to C to D to Z), particularly if you’re playing online with friends and chatting about your finds, but it’s not the most sustainable or encouraging approach to an open world. More than anything, it comes off as a neat extra and an open sandbox, like setting up one giant Hot Wheels track, rather than a living world to lose yourself in. 

To be fair, that was never exactly the sell for that mode. I just think it’s important to understand more of what Mario Kart World is going for while recognizing the shortfalls of Free Roam. I’ll circle back to that, but the massive map works particularly well in service of the all-new Knockout Tour. These rallies are now the epitome of online chaos for Switch 2 owners, and while their structure isn’t exactly revolutionary for racing games as a whole they are a new direction for MK. 

 

 

Going nonstop from a corner of the map in a gauntlet of gas pedal-stomping and full-on Item Box dependency is a whole lot of fun. In an ideal world you’d be able to gather up a couple dozen friends and do these in person (and I genuinely hope Nintendo event and tournament organizers do just that) because the sheer energy that goes through a room of try-hard kart racers is something to behold. 

Where luster is lost is when you take one of these on in single-player. Put plainly, World’s rubber banding is particularly pronounced. I’ve heard reports of a dynamic difficulty system at work, with some actively encouraging “playing poorly” to sneak wins out on the last lap. That’s fine for checking off completion boxes but it fundamentally feels antithetical to Mario Kart. I have fun drifting, jumping, grinding, and trying across every race. Getting punished for that by an AI that thinks a Blue Shell stealing my Knockout win after multiple sections of first place finishes is just deflating. I don’t want races to be runaways, but in trying to clear every cup the number of last second stolen wins completely out of my hands was exhausting. 

 

 

The same could be said for Grand Prix, though that comes with its own problems. While the first lap of these mini-tournaments is what any longtime Mario Kart fan would expect, it’s when you have to then drive to the next track that things get frustrating. Since these in-between routes count as “laps,” you end up only doing a once-through of each subsequent track. The few exceptions (shoutouts to Peach Beach and especially this game’s Rainbow Road) are highlights, but by and large Grand Prix felt off and somewhat diminished thanks to this questionably implemented “variety.”

And that variety isn’t exactly there to begin with. For all I praise the map for its scale and implementation of the tracks, the interconnecting routes are a whole lot of plain highways, rolling hills, and bridges. There are some fun touches, like portions that emulate tracks from Super Mario Kart directly, but I had pretty much zero drive to travel through an open desert. At least there’s a fast travel option, but when that’s the preferred way of getting around in a driving game that’s not exactly a great sign. 

I’ve been heaping on criticisms and complaints, and yet I can’t quite seem to put Mario Kart World down. Its track design is spectacular, with the likes of Whistlestop Station, Boo Cinema, the new treatment of Dino Dino Jungle featuring both great set pieces and opportunities to express your playstyle. Finding grind rails and trickable surfaces while integrating the new, chargeable jump is the real name of the game here. Once you master these new momentum keepers you’ll wonder how you ever raced without that freedom of movement before. 

 

 

That dedication extends to the main Mario cast as well. So many of them are a joy to behold, with tons of personality in their animations and some new vocal performances giving them plenty of life. The same goes for gathering up new costumes for them, taking a page from Mario Kart Tour. I’m hopeful more arrive as DLC (DK only having a few is pretty suspicious right before a fresh Bananza…), but even if that doesn’t become a reality, they’ve won me over with the Touring costumes in particular. 

Naturally, that takes us to the Cow in the room. The menagerie of Mario mooks making up the majority of the character select screen have a similar level of charm despite lacking wardrobes, and the inherent novelty of racing as Dolphin never won’t be fun to me. It does raise some eyebrows for who’s missing with respect to “main” characters (again, DLC has to be inevitable), but what’s more frustrating is how much of a chore it is to unlock them all. 

 

 

That brings me back to Free Roam. Why couldn’t characters be unlocked by finding all of a course’s Panels instead of a random and map based chance from the Kamek item? Or purchasable with all the coins covering the map? It’s baffling that they should be either a dedicated grind session of a who knows how long random occurrence, and yet here we are. 

So yes, I found more criticisms. But how about we end on a high note — literally. If there’s an element of Mario Kart World worth praising it has to be its soundtrack. Hours on hours of new Mario music arrangements. Not just MK standards with no applicable track, like Waluigi Pinball or Coconut Mall, but broader selections from further corners. I’m talking “File Select” from Super Mario 64, multiple tracks from Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Story, and even “Drifting Away” from Warioware, Inc. I lost track of all the times a song caught me off guard, and despite their variety they all share one important thing — sheer quality. 

That really is the summation of Mario Kart World. Quality. Quality visuals in its world and roster, quality gameplay thanks to new tricks on the familiar racing, and a quality soundtrack that needs to get on Nintendo Music ASAP. That’s why the odd choices and missteps are that much more impactful and why I hope updates and additions are on the way. It’s a competent and enjoyable launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2 and is sure to give friends something to play together for the coming months, but it has an uphill claim to becoming an all-time classic like its predecessor.  

 

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