After over a decade of waiting, a new Mario Kart has finally been released. Fans have anticipated it for a long time, but does it live up to the hype? Or does it fall just short of the metaphorical finish line? That is the question we seek to answer today, and ultimately give you our overall thoughts on the game.
The Good
To start, the game plays exceptionally well. It runs smoothly, the controls are fluent and responsive, and ultimately, I really have no complaints. It’s honestly crazy to see a Mario Kart game look this good and run this well. If nothing else, Mario Kart World does a great job of showing the power of the Switch 2.
World’s track design is also great. Every track feels distinct from the others, which is good. No track in this game really feels the same. Even older, retro tracks have been redesigned, helping them fit in with the rest of the courses. The cool thing about all these tracks is that they’re interconnected, which is a great way to develop the world of Mario Kart. On top of all of this, the tracks look beautiful thanks to the game’s improved graphics. Rainbow Road especially stands out with its stunning visuals, arguably making it one of the best Rainbow Roads in the series.
The roster of characters is also a step up. While we are missing series staples such as Diddy Kong and Petey Piranha, most of the core cast are here. Along with the core cast, characters like King Boo, Pauline, and Birdo are here from the get-go, which is nice. There’s also a bunch of NPC characters like Wiggler, Goomba, and the best character in the game, the Pianta. These characters are a great addition to the cast and really add some diversity to the roster. Who could’ve ever guessed that the Cow would be playable? It’s a step up from the filler that we had in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.Â
On top of the base roster of characters, the game also gives the main racers a variety of different costumes, reminiscent of those found in Mario Kart Tour. Each character has a varying number of outfits, and while quite a few characters have fewer than a desirable number of costumes, it’s neat that they included them at all. The unlock method for them is also fairly straightforward, although it can be a bit tedious to complete. That said, I’m glad that something from Tour could be integrated into the main Mario Kart series.
The game’s online is fun. It runs pretty well, I haven’t had any lag or disconnections yet, and overall, it runs just as well as 8 Deluxe did. It’s the bare minimum of what I expect from the game, but I’m happy that it can do the bare minimum.
Mario Kart World also has some pretty great music. I think other games in the series, like 8 Deluxe and DS have better soundtracks, but overall the music in the game is good. It has a lot of remixes of songs from previous games, which is pretty cool. The songs also play in Free Roam, which enhances its atmosphere. Some of the new songs will have to grow on me, but until then, I’ll continue to enjoy Rainbow Road’s amazing new theme.
There’s quite a bit of content in this game. Besides the standard Grand Prix and Time Trials, there’s, of course, the new Free Roam mode, Battle Mode, and the brand new Knockout Tour. Some of these modes are better than others, but beyond just the modes, you can play online, locally, and even wirelessly. There’s also plenty to unlock and collect, mainly in Free Roam, which will keep players busy for a while.
The best addition to Mario Kart World is the previously mentioned Knockout Tour. This might be one of the best modes in the entire series. You race across five pre-picked tracks, which are organized into eight different cups. Then, you race along all the tracks in six continuous laps, trying to stay above a certain rank. This goes all the way down to the final four, who compete to win the whole race. It is quite a fun and intense mode, and the 24 racers really add to the chaos. While I didn’t care much for the increase in racers for modes like Grand Prix, you can see where having so many players shines. Online, Knockout Tour is even crazier, and it’s honestly the one thing (besides the exclusive characters) that might keep me coming back to the game.
The Bad
Unfortunately, I have quite a lot of things to complain about with this game. The first issue is really a personal one. I’m not a big fan of World’s new mechanics, specifically the wall riding. Rail grinding is just fine, but I hate trying to drive on walls. It makes me sincerely miss the good old days of anti-gravity. What I truly miss, however, is the ability to drive underwater. I initially didn’t care all that much, truth be told, but after being subjected to riding on water in Mario Kart World, I’ve begun to realize just how good I had it.
I’m also not a big fan of the intermissions. They are definitely a neat concept and make the Grand Prixs in this game feel more unique compared to previous entries in the series. That said…I much prefer the three-lap format. I find the intermissions to be quite boring and ultimately not as fun as just playing the classic three-lap track. I don’t mind that it’s here, I just wish that there was a way that we could turn it off in Grand Prix and have online lobbies without intermission tracks.
On to my more serious gripes: I’m disappointed in the number of tracks. While I did praise the game for the amount of content it had, this is an area where it’s lacking. There are only 30 unique tracks in the game, divided into eight cups (two of the courses have two layouts). Compared to most Mario Karts, this is pretty standard. Compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, however, it’s a pathetic number. By the end of the game’s run, 8 Deluxe had a total of 96 unique tracks. Over triple what World has. Of course, this includes the DLC, so if we take that out of the equation, 8 Deluxe still has 48 base game tracks, nearly 20 more than World. I’m usually not a stickler about these kinds of things, but when you price a game so high, I expect it to at least match the quality and quantity of what the previous game had to offer, and World simply doesn’t do that here.
The character select screen is atrocious, probably one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen. It feels so disorganized; none of the characters really have their place. While I like the addition of the costumes, they completely clutter the character select, making it extremely tedious to find the character you’re looking for. There is a sort option that makes this process a little less painful, though it’s still painful nonetheless. I wish that they had made a little pop-up for the costumes when selecting your character, like they did in 8 Deluxe. This would’ve cleaned up the character select immensely and made it a much simpler process to select your character and what outfit you wanted them to wear.
Speaking of poor decisions relating to the roster of characters, the unlocks in this game are trash. I don’t mind the costume unlocks. They can be tedious, but they aren’t too bad. The standard character unlocks are also pretty straightforward, nothing to complain about there. It’s the unlock method for the NPC drivers that I hate. The only way to unlock the NPC drivers is a double gacha system. Basically, there is an item that you can get from the item box that summons Kamek (who, no, is not playable). Kamek will turn all drivers in front of the player into a random NPC driver. So you not only need to be lucky enough for another racer to get Kamek, but you need to be in front of them. To top it all off, the character you get is random and can be a character you already have. Some characters are also exclusive to certain regions, making them even harder to get. This method of unlocking is so needlessly random and difficult that it makes me not even want to bother with it in the first place. It is by far the worst unlock method in the entire series.
Free Roam is… very mediocre. As Mario Kart World’s main selling point, I was hoping that Free Roam would have a substantial amount of content all across its open world. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to do in Free Roam. There are tons of ?-Block panels to find, a bunch of peach coins to collect, and then, of course, there are the P-Switch challenges. This is the closest we have ever come to getting Mission Mode back from DS. Even with all of this, though, none of it feels… substantial. You can, of course, still play Free Roam to explore tracks, collect costumes, and test out any shortcuts you might find, but it all feels so hollow. I find myself getting bored with the mode after 5 or 10 minutes. For being the game’s big selling point, it really doesn’t amount to much. It is a neat idea, and I’m sure there will be quite a few players who will get hours of fun out of this mode. For me and many others, however, this mode leaves a lot to be desired.
Battle Mode sucks, it’s so bad. It really harkens back to the good old days of Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U with its measly two battle modes. The only returning modes are Balloon Battle and Coin Runners, and that is atrocious. 8 Deluxe had five different battle modes, five of them! On top of the two modes found in World, there were also Bob-omb Blast, Shine Thief, and Renegade Roundup. These added modes, combined with the new and improved battle tracks, made 8 Deluxe’s battle mode the best in the series. So to see World’s Battle Mode be nerfed as much as it has is infuriating. On the subject of battle tracks, Mario Kart World has some of the worst in the series. Now, these tracks aren’t as bad as Mario Kart 8’s, but they aren’t much better. They are, at the very least, closed off, which is good. That being said, they are still too big and open to truly be battle tracks. The entire Battle Mode feels like an afterthought, and it really makes me wonder why they included it in the first place. They could’ve made another new mode, like Knockout Tour, to replace Battle Mode. Instead, they just keep Battle Mode as a husk of its former self, and it’s just really sad to see.
This game’s biggest sin, however, is its price. I don’t know who at Nintendo thought it would be a good idea to charge $80 for Mario Kart of all games, but it was a very, VERY poor decision. There is no universe where this game is worth $80; hell, I find it difficult to say that it’s worth $70. There is a lot of content in this game, but at the same time, this game takes numerous steps back from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which makes it hard to justify spending more than 8 Deluxe has ever cost on a game that is ultimately a step back for the series. If Nintendo goes back and fixes the Battle Mode or makes Free Roam worth playing, then maybe one day I’ll change my tune. Until then, though, this might be one of, if not the most overpriced Nintendo game of all time.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I have mixed feelings about Mario Kart World. I’ve enjoyed my time with the game, but there are several major issues that I just can’t ignore. The terrible character select screen, the lackluster Free Roam and battle modes, and the small number of tracks leave a lot to be desired. That said, the better graphics, the character roster, and the vast content in the game are a step in the right direction. Even with those positives, I still can’t in good conscience fully recommend this game.
If you bought the Switch 2 bundle that included the game, or if you miraculously find the game on sale, it may be a worthwhile purchase that you can have hours of fun with. Under no circumstances, however, should anyone buy this at the full $80 price tag; it’s just not worth the money. So, unless you find the game at a discount, I would steer clear of Mario Kart World.
Race into action in Mario Kart World, available now on Nintendo Switch 2.
The Review
Mario Kart World
Good
