It’s finally here!

After 11 years since the last original Mario Kart game, the wildly popular series has received a brand new entry in the form of a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. Advertising a wide open world in which all 32 courses are connected, tons of new characters, and graphics that take advantage of new hardware, there’s a lot this game has to live up to. Was it worth the wait?

Gameplay

If somehow you’re not already aware, Mario Kart is a racing series in which characters from the Mario franchise speed towards the finish line in a chaotic frenzy where items such as banana peels, koopa-shells, and mushrooms are used to slow the other players down (or give yourself a speed boost). It’s a staple party game throughout much of the world, but is also played competitively.

This time around, while much of the core mechanics remain the same, the developers made a few more changes than usual in an attempt to make Mario Kart World “the dawn of a new generation for the series”. Starting with the Grand Prix mode, it has traditionally been the case that four courses exist separately from each other, and you would drive 3 laps on each for every race. There’s still four courses per cup, but this time, you only play 3 laps on the first course. After that, a new race begins in which you spend 2 laps driving to the next course, before doing 1 final lap once you arrive at said course. That is then repeated for the rest of the courses in the cup.

There is also the brand-new Knockout Tour mode, in which you drive continuously across several different courses in 6 different laps. At the end of each lap, the bottom four racers are KO’d, and the rest keep on driving. I’ve found this to be a good deal of fun, especially online, and I think it makes much better use of the open world than Grand Prix does. It’s exhilarating when you are about to be knocked out but pass someone at the last second to steal their spot.

Because you spend a lot of time in this game traveling between courses (and driving straight while doing so), the developers added a handful of new driving mechanics to try and keep things interesting. Although you can still perform a drift by holding the ZR button while turning, you can now perform a charge jump by holding the same button without turning. This puts you high in the air, and depending where you land, can be used to ride on walls and grind on rails. It’s an awesome new addition to have, and we’ve already seen some pros make great use of it to pull off some crazy stunts. 

All these elements come together in the Free Roam mode, in which you can adventure anywhere you want across the whole island, to (almost) any track and the places in between. There are literally hundreds of collectibles and challenges to find throughout the map, and are designed to help you master the mechanics and discover the many alternate routes within the game. Unfortunately, the rewards you get for adventuring like this are pretty lackluster (just stickers for your car) and two of the collectibles (Peach Coins & P-Switches) are tracked by number only, so there is no way of finding where you might still be missing some on the map. This omission is baffling, and Nintendo better include a proper record system in a future update. 

My Big Issue

There are some bigger problems with Mario Kart World beyond the nitpicks, unfortunately. Despite the developers’ best efforts, I just can’t say that driving between courses is all that engaging.

It’s cool in Free Roam, of course. And I think it works great for Knockout Tour. But I think the Grand Prix mode should have been the traditional 3 laps on four courses. When you’re not on an actual race course, you’re usually just driving in a straight line, and oftentimes you’ll find yourself doing so for long periods of time. Occasionally there will be walls and rails to ride, but frequently the fastest path is straight forward. The visuals in these sections usually aren’t super interesting either, and in my experience it makes for forgettable races (a rarity in Mario Kart).

Fortunately, you can play single tracks in the local versus mode, but online the situation is more dire. There is no way to consistently play 3 laps of a single course online. The closest you can get is the “Race” mode, which places you somewhere on the map and usually has you driving to adjacent courses in races between other players, pretty much like Grand Prix mode. 

While you get to vote on which course to play next, most of the time you only get to vote for 3 adjacent courses, with the exception of voting for a random course. The random option will always give you a far-away course, meaning that you get to play on it for all 3 laps. At the time of writing, the game has been out for less than a week and I am already seeing a large number of players exclusively select the “random” option because so few people want to play the in-between sections.

It remains to be seen just how big of an issue this really is, but I’m already finding myself kind of missing the old formula. Here’s hoping this problem is also addressed in some future update. 

Graphics 

The graphics in Mario Kart World are definitely the least divisive aspect of this game. Absolutely everything in this game looks amazing, from the menus to the environments and characters. In my Super Mario Bros. Wonder review, I mentioned how that game looked like the renders you see in advertisements (such as box art for the game) and I would say that the same is true here. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe already looked amazing, but they somehow managed to top it. Environments are detailed and colorful, and certain elements such as the water and sky look absolutely incredible. 

As for performance, you can see super far ahead of you, and the resolution stays high at all times. I don’t think the game has stuttered even once, and I rarely notice any pop-in. Overall Mario Kart World does a fantastic job at showcasing the power of the Switch 2, albeit at the cost of eating up battery (don’t expect to get much more than 2 hours when playing handheld mode).

Music 

Since this game has a bigger emphasis on the open-world, the music has somewhat been moved “into the background” for this game. It seems a bit quieter, and while there are still individual music tracks for each course, they have composed hundreds of additional tracks that play in the sections between courses or during Free Roam. These tend to be remixes of music from other Mario games, both from the Mario Kart series but also the mainline entries. They did a pretty good job choosing which tracks to include – it’s absolutely delightful to hear a remix of the file select theme from Super Mario 64 play as you drive around. 

Faith Perspective

While Mario Kart tends to be light on spiritual content, there’s a lot to be said for how well it brings people together. In fact, I suspect that the consistently incredible sales numbers the series has seen over the past three decades is in part thanks to its ability to satisfy a fundamental human need.

For my entire life, Mario Kart has been a consistent source of fellowship for me and many others I know. From kindergarten into adulthood, I have regularly been playing Mario Kart at friend’s houses, with family members at trips or reunions, with kids I’m babysitting, and even at school. Whenever we invited new people over to our college dorm, we consistently relied on this kart-racing game to break the ice, lighten the mood, and help our guests have a good time.

It’s something everyone can enjoy – even the youngest children or least experienced gamers can pick up a controller and have fun racing. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pope Leo XIV played a game or two while visiting his brothers and their families, because most families I know have at least one Mario Kart game in the house. So, if you’re struggling to meet new people or foster fellowship with others, consider pulling out a copy of Mario Kart. It doesn’t have to be this game specifically, and you’ll need to do more if everything is to go smoothly, but it’s certainly helpful.

About Catoons