Mario Kart World offers neat twists on the classic Mario Kart formula, but its open-world ambitions are somewhat let down by some classic Nintendo quirkiness.
I find the idea of a new Mario Kart being the showpiece of a new console launch rather odd, if I’m being honest. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the series and have pumped thousands of hours into it over the decades (apart from Double Dash – spit.emoji), but I’ve always seen Mario Kart as the game you have to play with friends or to time trial if you’re at a loose end. It’s a game everyone can enjoy and hop into, which is why it’s a juggernaut, but for me it’s not game to launch a console with unless it’s paired with something meatier. On Switch 2 Mario Kart World has to be the snack and the main meal.
Mario Kart World reviewDeveloper: NintendoPublisher: NintendoPlatform: Switch 2Availability: Released 5th June on Switch 2
When you load up Mario Kart World you’d be forgiven for thinking that very little has changed since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. A set of familiar options sit in front of you – dig deeper and more will be revealed, but there’s no obvious sign of this open world we’ve seen in trailers and been pointed to by the game’s title. There are in fact various ways to get into the open to explore the Free Roam world on offer, including pressing the + (plus) button when on the main menu, but it’s not shouted about like I expected it to be – which is odd given how it really ties all of Mario Kart World together.
Before discussing my rather discombobulated feelings on the Free Roam mode, let’s first look at the more classic Mario Kart content in World – albeit now presented in a very different way. For eons (or about 33 years if you want to be less dramatic) Mario Kart has offered a Grand Prix mode. This, the core offering in most of the series’ entries, presented a quartet of tracks that you competed on against COM players (bots in modern language), with the player with the most points (earned through placement in each race) taking home the trophy and winning that cup. Simple. Mario Kart World does this… but also it doesn’t.
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In Mario Kart World, Grand Prix could just have easily been labeled Road Trip. Each cup is split into four ‘tracks’, but the key difference here is how one track leads into another. The first track plays out as you might expect, starting in the grid and then racing around a set number of laps. But then the ‘world’ of Mario Kart World kicks in. Race two begins at the physical end of race one, and part of this race is the journey to the second track along the roads in the game’s open world. It’s fair to say that there’s been a mixed reaction to this in the Mario Kart community, but I am a big fan. You end up at the actual second track, which you whiz around, before then moving on to the third track in exactly the same fashion.