Launch titles can make or break a console’s out-the-gate sales and impressions. Despite the Nintendo Switch’s massive success, the Japanese company knew that the successor to the home-hybrid console needed to launch with a heavy hitter. Why not go with the next game in a franchise synonymous with co-op gaming, all-ages fun, and video games as an experience? Mario Kart World has the seemingly impossible task of following up the long life cycle and success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so how does it live up to its predecessor? Here’s our review of Mario Kart World on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Mario Kart World is, unsurprisingly, a different take on the kart racer franchise. In reality, it’s still the same premise. Mario and his friends race each other on courses full of Nintendo easter eggs, wild items, and tons of fun. World essentially makes two massive changes to the gameplay experience. Firstly, the amount of racers is boosted from 12 to 24, making it a much more hectic (yet satisfying) experience trying to out position yourself against 23 opponents. Secondly, each course is a larger map piece that can be traversed as one big open world, as best explored in the new Free Roam and Knockout Mode game options.

Knockout Mode is a new battle royale-style experience where you’re racing across multiple courses consecutively to attempt to make various checkpoints and avoid elimination. It’s the freshest and most fun that Mario Kart has felt in decades, not to bemoan Grand Prix mode, which is still available in its traditional format as well. Knockout Mode feels like a higher stakes experience, and a challenging one at that with the racer needing to finish each checkpoint in first place to earn the 3-star trophy at the end. It’s a great way to feature the connectivity of the courses, and I do really enjoy the feeling of a longer race as opposed to the broken-up separate course experience of the Grand Prix.

Free Roam mode allows you to see Mario Kart World without needing to race. Similar to a Forza Horizon experience, players move around the map and uncover different P-Switch objectives that challenge the player to timed activities. It’s a lot of fun to uncover these, but there’s no way to track if you’ve completed every challenge or not, meaning there’s little in terms of noted progression to guide you. Furthermore, the relaxed driving is fun, but much of the world has little going on in it, hopefully leaving more room for patches and updates to fill this world up with more things to do and see.

The biggest highlight of Mario Kart World, however, isn’t the wonderful Knockout Mode or the adventurous Free Roam. Driving and traversing courses in Mario Kart World feels beter than ever thanks to major changes to the game’s mechanics. Firstly, drifting has long been the best way to get ahead, challenging players to master how they approach turns and utilize their little boosts to gain advantage. Opening up the mechanics to include wall-riding and jumps onto rails and other objects for grinding helps this game to feel new, inventive, and most importantly, different from the highly-decorated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

My first two hours with the game left me feeling a bit disheartened. I saw many online say they similarly felt like this wasn’t some massive improvement on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and I agreed. Over time, however, I realized this wasn’t a game I could play as if it were 8 Deluxe. The strategy to positioning yourself on the course for opportunities to make up time are completely different this time around thanks to wall rides and grinds. 24 racers also means you’re finding yourself with less space to move freely at any given time in a race. One of the biggest pitfalls Nintendo could have found itself in here with World was sameness, and they traverse this by reworking how you race.

There’s a learning curve, and I definitely think this game will be harder to master even if it still maintains its beginner-friendly controls for those first playing the game. As time has gone on in my first 35 hours playing, I’ve come to love what’s different about this game. Much like revisiting Double Dash for the GameCube, I believe I’ll still play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from time to time. I just feel like the challenge for any series that’s gone on this long is reinventing the wheel, which many would argue is an impossible task. I think the changes in Mario Kart World are significant enough that the wheel is reinvented purposefully to make it feel like its own experience and not the 8 Deluxe sequel.

One last thing before we talk about the game’s roster and the title’s $80 price tag. The music in Mario Kart World is astounding. If you’re someone who usually plays games on mute to listen to music or podcasts, please try the game with its incredible remixed themes and exciting sounds. This is a huge part of the game’s impression on me, even if it’s not a reason someone will all of a sudden decide to buy the game if they weren’t already interested. There’s so many songs in this game I feel I haven’t even heard yet, and I’m dying to see when we’ll get the soundtrack added to the Nintendo Music App.

We are missing Link and other characters from the 8 Deluxe DLC in Mario Kart World that I hope eventually come back. With 24 drivers in each race, there’s really no excuse to not include more Nintendo IP characters. Instead, we’re given outfits for racers, but not all of them. More confusingly, we’re offered characters like Biddybud or Coin Coffer that I’m not sure anyone was asking for. Hopefully, there’s more content for Free Roam and more racers on the way to not have the roster feel so filler-bloated. Still, the core experience is strong enough that this is a minor annoyance and not a major issue.

We can’t really wrap up our discussion here without talking about the $80 USD price tag. It is impossible to point to the great improvements and additions here and claim Nintendo is right to charge $80. I technically paid $50 by bundling the game with my Switch 2, but those who don’t go this route will likely feel frustrated at the arbitrary price increase. Will future updates and DLC be free? Probably not. With how much this game will likely be played by diehard fans of the franchise, the cost-to-value return isn’t the issue. It’s that there’s no argument where the extra $10 feels warranted other than greed. I won’t fight anyone saying this is enough to make them not want the game.

That said, for me, the $50 bundled price and the knowledge I’ll get a lot of mileage out of this game was enough to give me confidence in the purchase. Now, having played the game quite a bit in the Switch 2’s first days after launch, I am confirmed in my decision and love so much of what Mario Kart World has to offer. I hope there’s more moments of joy I’ll uncover in Free Roam, and I am eager to play more online races now that I’ve gotten more familiar with the changes to mechanics. This will be a staple of the console, like nearly every Mario Kart entry before it, and it’s a fantastic launch title that any Nintendo fan should aim to have in their Switch 2 library.

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Mario Kart World

$79.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Grinding and wall riding offer many more opportunities to strategize
• The soundtrack is astounding
• Knockout Mode and Free Roam are great additions
• Great launch title

Cons

• Roster is bloated with insignificant characters
• Price tag might deter some players who aren't Mario Kart fanatics