Mario Kart World Review – Marquee Launch Game Worth

Nintendo seems to be slow to react to the evergreen condition of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a humble switch port for Wii U games that surpasses all expectations by becoming one of its most successful platforms. Mario Kart World is a banner game launched by Switch 2, which comes with its expectations, and of course it will be one of the most relevant games of the system throughout its lifespan. The challenge is to make a new type of game, which is perfect for taking on these expectations. This will go to distance because it incorporates skilled mechanical tuning, lovely aesthetics, and general design ideas built around pleasant surprises.

The greatest outstanding feature of Mario Kart's world (which revolves around its name, identity, and many mechanisms) is the world itself. In the history of the series, the competition was not played as an independent track, but as part of a large continuous map. Iconic locations such as Bowser's Castle or Moo Moo Meadows are physical locations that connect to each other through a series of highways and trails. The Grand Prix Cup is the superficial story sport of Mario Kart games, like the routes in this world, like real street competitions blocking a particular route.

But, in this case, the race itself is more vibrant than ever before. Since the release of the last Mario Kart, Nintendo has started to license its property for theme park attractions, and it’s hard not to notice a roller coaster-like approach. Like a well-designed ride, you are always facing surprises and obstacles that make things visually fun and mechanically exciting. The matches along Savannah will feature zebra herds, while the desert area is surprised by the Easter-is-like Tokotoko enemies of Super Mario land, while another track may pounce you into the air or let you navigate the choppy waters. It's a treat for long-term Nintendo fans, especially since the wealth referenced is much deeper than before.

It's a double deal for character selection. Mario Kart World, after adventures with inclusions like Link and Isabella in Mario Kart World, sticks tightly into Mario's range and then increases its range exponentially. You have regular series like Mario, Bowser, and Toad, as well as random pulls like Swoop the Bat, Para-biddybud, insects and Frog-like coin Coffer. Of course there is also awesome, which is already a breakthrough star in game promotions, and she seems to have attracted players as her.

Most importantly, Mario's core characters have various costume changes to unlock. Pick up the Toad's lunch with a fired “dash snack” lunch, and he might wear a racing helmet with the iconic mushroom head model, or wear a presto-chango as a train engineer. Aside from the various surprises on the track and a massively expanded lineup, impressive outfits are just another way in the Mario Kart world designed to keep surprise you.

The way to unlock characters and costumes may be a bit piece together, and the Mario Kart community seems intentionally opaque to how it works. You might buy the same outfit through DASH snacks several times in a row and then find a new character or outfit when someone uses Magikoopa items. I'm sure the finished rush to get a full lineup of all the relevant costumes, which might find it frustrating or an effort to unlock the exact rhyme and reason, but I'd rather play as I wish. It's aimed at long-term games, hoping to look random, slowly knock them out, and I'd love to let it do that. A collection that is not very involved is stickers, which you can get by completing various in-game challenges. Those are the go-to customizations of the Mario Kart World, which isn't as powerful as the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's ​​hybrid racing creations, especially since you can only equip one at a time.

I was very disappointed that most of the expanded roster could not change their outfits. It makes the creature characters feel like they are in the B-tier, and in fact, there are more costumes to unlock when I know if I pick someone from the core actors. I wish I had been racing more, but if I did, I would miss me. However, through the same, this unlocking system does encourage me to play a role I usually don't. I've never been a fan of heavier characters, but I'm actually spending time playing Wario or Bowser because I want to unlock all of their fashion fools.

All of this is particularly appealing because the Mario Kart World looks gorgeous and is a power-enhanced feature of the Switch 2. Nintendo is so good in the artistic direction that even older games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) have an entertaining and animated look, but still doesn't feel dated. But the Mario Kart community shows what Nintendo can do with visual talent and tricks to increase horsepower, and the results are amazing. This is a living cartoon with cute little touches like facial expressions that you will never see unless you venture into photo mode.

The whole world is connected together means the courses are bleeding to each other, which I found mainly to be interesting, only occasionally distracting. Sometimes, when you go from one track to another in the middle of a Grand Prix, the stage starts with a completely different visual style. It's a neat way to see the transition, but when the course has its own visual language and identity, I sometimes miss out on a different visual language and identity than anything else.

Rainbow Road is the final conclusion of the Grand Prix sport, and it is the only example of an independent course that is disconnected from the world, and because of it, it is different from others. Mario Kart offers many different rainbow paths, but this is probably my new favorite ever. It was a huge victory – a visual feast, a romping celebration of the game's attractions and sounds to date, and a diversity of the race itself and a long marathon.

Naturally, it wouldn't be a new Mario Kart without giving you new tools and skills. The series is always good at having low skills and high skills ceilings. Anyone can pick up the game of Mario Kart, but real kart professionals can never show off. There are new items to master feathers and hammers, as well as old favorites. MKW makes subtle changes by automatically dragging certain items, such as green shells, rather than having you drag the command, both of which make newer players track less and increase the risk of losing items if you target blue shells or lightning.

However, the biggest new skill to master is the fee jump. Essentially, it provides veterans with a new tool to use in a straight line, just like charging with an electric slide when turning. Jumping is smaller than a ramp or feather, but if you have the right time and big enough to avoid attacks or jump over obstacles. It also works well with the new developmental system that allows you to grind on tracks and cruise on walls, which can also increase speed. The off-road side also sometimes means you get into the water, which automatically transitions to the water vehicle and handles it with choppy wave machines, which gives me great memories of wave racing.

Crucially, Nintendo took this new set of mechanics and polishing levels and applied it to the fusion of modes and gameplay methods that offer more karting methods than the series’ long history. You can still play Grand Prix, VS and time trials as usual, and the newly revised combat mode is no longer like it does after the fact. The arena of battle is as familiar as usual in the map, but serves as a closed loop to force confrontation. It's a more aggressive play style, stunts like Quick-180 rewards premium games.

Then there is the newly added highlight – Knockout Tour. The existence of a continuous world means you can draw long distance routes throughout the process, which is the basis for the knockout journey. The new mode takes advantage of the larger 24 player count by gradually lowering players in each checkpoint, which creates some natural tension as you keep struggling to the next round. It feels like the ideal middle ground for a meeting – not as trivial as a quick race, rather than a Grand Prix time commitment.

The Knockout Tour is a particularly good showcase for increasing the number of players in online multiplayer games. While I found the 24 players in a single player aspect a little insignificant – the last dozen racers were behind far enough, it didn't matter – the experience of a full player online was a completely different experience. It makes classic kart racing a chaotic party game. Even if the track size and item distribution seem to be adjusted to fit a larger player count, with others sure to hit the shoulders frequently, it seems to be bumping through design.

The increase in online players does mean you can sit and wait for a full match for a while. It's great that the game allows you to roam freely while waiting for the pairing to be completed, but the waiting time is inconsistent. Sometimes it is lively and fast. Other times, I was roaming for a few minutes, waiting for a full hall. So far, it’s been much longer to find regular games than the knockout journey, but your mileage may vary. It's nice, though, once matched with other players to play, and you still voted for the next game with them instead of needing to search again.

Speaking of free roaming, you can do this at any time through the main menu, not just the lobby waiting room. Nintendo seems to have envisioned this as a way to meet and cruise with friends, but the open world aspect feels sparse. Free roaming mode can do something like driving into an 18-wheeler motorcycle and taking over it in a short time. There are also some P-switch challenges that allow you to complete tasks quickly, such as reaching a height vantage point or avoiding falling boulders reaching the target line. These are a nice transfer, but completing their prizes (and even more stickers) feels pretty unstable.

However, there is almost nothing else. Mario Kart World is a huge and expansive sequel that playfully expands and iterates the qualities that make Mario Kart 8 Deluxe so lasting. It's a very fun and meaningful kart racing experience, easy to understand, and there are enough mechanical differences to reward veteran kart racing drivers, all as great as the Switch 2 showcase. It would be shocking if the game doesn't enjoy the long-term success of its predecessors, as it's the best in the series and a worthy big ticket champion for launching a new Nintendo console.