Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Kart racing is one of Mario’s oldest and most successful ventures, older even than partying. With Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 ported onto the Switch as the uber-popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart World is the first truly new entry in the series in over a decade, and a critical launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Mario Kart World doesn’t reinvent the classic arcade racing, focusing almost entirely on introducing an open world of interconnected courses — for better and for worse.
Read on for our review of Mario Kart World!
On the Open Road
Right from the main menu, players can hit the plus button to jump into the new Free Roam mode, seamlessly jumping into the background driving. For the the first time in the series, players can freely drive around a large open world that features all 30 courses, interconnected by highways, bridges, rivers, and mountains.
Free Roam is single player only, and lies somewhere between a quaint novelty and an exciting endeavor.
The world is richly alive, with lots of traffic, jumps, ramps, and collectibles. Racers can find hard-to-reach ? Panels and Peach Medallions scattered around the world. P Switches can also be found and activated to begin mini-game challenges, such as quickly collecting blue coins, making a tricky jump, weaving through a cow stampede, or racing a train.
Free Roam provides a great opportunity to practice courses, as well as the new Charge Jump, which allows players to jump onto walls or rails with a little boost, in addition to the familiar drifts.
One of my favorite all-time racing games is Burnout Paradise (2008), which also utilized a free roaming open world. Yet Mario Kart World doesn’t quite utilize the integrated ideas from that nearly 20-year old game.
In Burnout Paradise, for example, you could dynamically begin races by stopping and revving the engine at certain checkpoints, but in World you have to back out to the main menu. Unlocking new vehicles required catching them while racing around, but in World you simply gather enough coins. And for some reason, unlocking new character skins is tied to new food item pickups that can be found everywhere.
Plus, the rewards for grabbing collectibles and completing P Switch challenges are frankly lame. Players unlock a collection of stickers, which act as minuscule emblems on your kart, as well as displayed next to your name during online matches. Nintendo’s stubborn refusal to implement account-wide achievements continues to vex me.
Overall, Free Roam is fun if a little under-cooked, and isn’t replacing the main competitive modes any time soon.
Fast and Furious
Mario Kart World features three primary competitive modes: Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, and Battle. Players can also race custom matches with local players using VS Race, while Battle Mode is the familiar return of Balloon Battle and Coin Runners, with small-ish arenas.
Grand Prix is the staple of the series, featuring a gauntlet of four courses with the familiar three engine classes (which basically act as the difficulty mode). A boggling 24 racers (up to four local players), doubling the previous Mario Kart, are pitted together with one major twist. After the first course, players race to the next one, and so on.
While the open world is impressive and well-designed, I disliked forcing players to drive between courses during Grand Prix. Plus, it shortens the amount of laps taken on the subsequent courses. Grand Prix should just teleport players to the next course and play the laps like normal, for those preferring a more traditional Mario Kart experience. Especially because we already have Knockout Tour!
Knockout Tour is the all-new mode, and consists of eight potential rallies with 24 racers. In each rally, players race from one course to the next, over six total courses, never doing the same lap twice. After each course, the bottom places are eliminated, forcing players to stay ahead of the curve.
It’s a tense, exciting mode with no breaks whatsoever, and does an excellent job showing off the interconnected world.
Online multiplayer is equally enjoyable, and up to two local players can venture online for massive, chaotic races. Grand Prix is replaced by Race, where players race individual courses and vote on the next nearby course, while Knockout Tour (and Battle Mode) plays the same. Both modes are highly competitive with the increased number of racers, with a hilarious amount of items, from shells to hammers to boomerangs flying around at all times, and players maintain a separate score for each mode.
The Rating
Mario Kart World is rated E for Everyone with Mild Fantasy Violence. It’s easily the most accessible game in the series, with specific settings designed for younger and newer gamers. Auto-Accelerate and Auto-Item settings circumvent the need to press buttons, and Smart Steering prevents players from driving too far off the track. Combined with the powerful catch-up items such as Lightning and Bullet Bill, and even my five year old is able to play and have fun.
The Takeaway
The new open world makes Mario Kart World feel like the biggest game to date, though it actually has fewer courses than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Doubling the racers adds to the chaotic fun, topped with an incredibly robust soundtrack that remixes classic tunes with catchy Jazz. Mario Kart remains one of the most family friendly and couch co-op-friendly game series, and it’s particularly well-suited for younger gamers thanks to the accessibility controls and the popular Mario IP.
Despite the shine quickly wearing off the highly anticipated Free Roam mode, Mario Kart World is a must-have title for any Switch 2 owner and family gamer.
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